1/17/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

1/17/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One thousand dollars. What word grand grand grand grand it

(00:06):
now and right now you might win some money. Hey,
really quick, I'm a eger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you for listening. I hope your weekend has started,
and I hope it's off to a great start, and
thanks for spending part of your afternoon with us. But
really quick. During the break there there was a commercial

(00:28):
and I guess they're trying to get people to fight
newmacccle pneumonia. I don't know what new macacle pneumonia is.
Newma Coacle's kind of a fun word to say. I
don't know how to spell it. I'm lucky that I've
never had pneumonia, and so I've never had Newma cocle pneumonia.
I don't take pneumonia lightly. And whatever remedies, whether they're

(00:49):
vaccines that are preventative or things you take after the
fact after you get newmacccle pneumonia, I'm here for. But
this is just me speaking, and I would imagine I
could speak on behalf of a large chunk of the audience.
I don't know that the spokesperson for whatever they're trying

(01:10):
to sell to fight Newma cockle pneumonia. I don't know
that the spokesperson that's really going to be most effective
for that here is Joe Montana. I'll be honest with you.
Whatever Joe Montana is selling, I want nothing to do with. Like,
that's not the guy on the radio station in Lexington.

(01:31):
Do they have Christian Laytner? Does? Does he do the
spot for the NEWMA cockle pneumonia treatment? Is it Christian
Laytner down there? Do they have Jim Harball voicing that
spot in Columbus? I don't know that Joe Montana is
the guy who should be driving that. But We're thrilled

(01:51):
to have their business, and I'm all in on fighting
NUMA cockle pneumonia. But Joe Montana is not the guy there.
It just you know, in New York, would you have
Reggie Miller? I can keep going. Maybe not Joe Montana.
Perhaps that's not the guy here. Other places, sure, I'm

(02:12):
sure in northern California or in Kansas City, perhaps because
he played for the Chiefs, or in South Bend other
parts of this football mad country. Yes, in Cincinnati, I
don't know that anybody wants to buy a product or
a service endorsed by Joe Montana. Maybe it's just me.
Thank you. We have a lot to get to today.

(02:35):
By the way, did somebody did somebody do a talkback
on SINCY three sixty and they're worried about me? That's nice?
How come a lot of folks who seem to want
to know about me? They ask those guys. It's like, hey,
I'm here after those guys every day.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
You don't have your own show.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's like, I don't have my own show with phone
lines and email addresses and Twitter handles, and I got
one of them blue Sky accounts, but I haven't updated
it in weeks. Like I'm not that hard to get
a hold of. You don't have to ask those ask me.
I'm here in the flesh. This is a live show.
This is not recorded, at least not the part you're

(03:16):
listening to right now. We'll get to the weekend in
college basketball. It's a loaded college hoop slate the best
NFL weekend of the year. Four divisional games, each of
which are pretty interesting for different reasons, which we will
talk about. Joey Vado got a tattoo, Alex Rodriguez and
a tweet and so much more. On top of all

(03:37):
of that, let's start with this. ESPN dot Com has
graded all thirty Major League Baseball teams through this stage
of the offseason, which they're calling the mid offseason report Card.
We can debate whether we're really mid offseason or laid
off season, but mid offseason. Let's go with that. Graded

(03:58):
every team. David Shawnfeld's the writer, gave the Reds a
C minus. This is the off season greed. This is
based on what they've done in the off season. And
here's what's written about the Reds. Here's the blurb. Are
you reading to summarize? The Reds ranked twenty fifth in
the majors in combined ops from left field slash right field.

(04:22):
They ranked twenty ninth in ops at first pace. They
ranked twenty ninth in ops at DH. So they traded
four a second baseman, even though they have Matt McClain
coming back after sitting out all of twenty twenty four,
they'll probably try to shove Locks into an outfield corner
and hope for the best. Trading away a good reliever
in Fernando Cruz for a backup catcher who can't hit

(04:43):
in the Travino deal was a bad move. They also
probably didn't expect Martinez to accept the twenty one million
dollar qualifying offer. He's a useful swing man, but that's
a hefty price for a small market team. The Brady
Singer Jonathan India challenge trade makes sense, but it feels
as if the Reds are just spinning their wheels instead
of moving forward. There are free agents who could help,

(05:04):
but Cincinnati lacks the owner willing to go the extra dollar.
That's from ESPN dot Com. Now, I'll challenge a couple
of things here. The Gavin Lux acquisition I liked because
you need depth, like this team's depth got tested and
it failed. You need death. If Gavin Lux ends up

(05:26):
being kind of a swing guy playing a few different positions, okay.
If he ends up coming off the bench, okay. But
as much as we all do really like Matt McClain,
I'm not sure how reliable Matt McClain is. I'm not
sure I could tell you definitively that I love the
idea of Matt McClain playing one hundred and fifty five games,

(05:47):
and yes, he's gonna hit for the same level of
production that he had two years ago. I'm putting this
very clumsy of course, but like Matt McClain might play
one hundred and fifty games, he might play forty games.
He might have good numbers, he might not have good
I don't know. He's a young player who's not played
a full big league season and he missed all of

(06:08):
last year. Like what we've seen from Matt McClain, we
really like, we just haven't seen enough of him, I
think to really feel great about him. And so I
don't have any issue with adding insurance in case Matt
McClain is not healthy, because he's never healthy, And I
don't have any issue with building depth and having a
guy who can play a bunch of different positions like awesome,

(06:28):
I'm here for it. So I like the Gavin lux
move and Fernando Cruz. You know, for like six weeks
all we heard about was he had this awesome, unhittable pitch.
I kind of felt like he turned into a pumpkin
in the second half of the season. They needed a
backup catcher. They got a backup catcher who is a
younger version of the backup catcher they had. Did they

(06:48):
overpay maybe a little bit, Yeah, sure, But I don't
have a major issue with that. So if I'm nitpicking,
I'll challenge some of the stuff written in the blurb,
but as a general rule to me at least, and
you could tell me if you disagree. C minus feels
like a pretty good grade, you wouldn't give him an A.
And again, this is off season. What they've done this

(07:09):
off season, Now, some really important things could be happening
this off season that have nothing to do with how
you grade a team, like guys getting healthier. That's most important.
Guys getting healthier, and maybe guys working hard in the
off season, that sort of thing. But in terms of
what the front office has done, I think it's hard
to give them an A. I think it's hard to

(07:30):
give him a B. I would also stop well short
of giving him a failing grade or a D. C
two C minus feels to me like it. It clocks
it pretty good. But I think that the last part
here where David writes about how the Reds are just
spinning their wheels instead of moving forward, I think that

(07:50):
encapsulates it as well as as anything like it. It
feels like they are just kind of there, for lack
of a better way of putting it, spinning their wheels,
not really moving forward. And then there's the shot at ownership,

(08:11):
which you may hate, you may be nodding along with.
But here's the unfortunate reality for this team. That's their
brand until it changes. That's their brand. Sometimes your brand
is one that you don't deserve. The Bengals are still
called cheap, and I don't think they're cheap. I do
not for a second think they're cheap. But you will

(08:32):
find people who call them cheap. That's your brand. The
Reds brand is, unfortunately for a lot of folks inside
and outside of Cincinnati, not willing to do what it
takes financially to achieve what we want them to achieve.
That's part of their brand. Bigger part of their brand

(08:54):
for me is this, and this is why this offseason
is frustrating to be a Reds fan, spending a lot
of time being told to wait, just wait. I've been
told by some god, oh, you're really pessimistic about the Reds.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I'm not pessimistic at all. I like the nucleus of
young players they have. I think there's a ton of
upside for a lot of these guys. I think there's
a lot of upside for the starting pitching My frustration
is rooted in the fact that I actually believe they

(09:32):
have something worth building around and worth trying to win with.
They've had off seasons in the past where they didn't
do much of anything, and I didn't care, because what
were you gonna do during the off season to really
push this team forward, give it a better chance to win.
I'd get yelled at, you know, in twenty God, pick
your year, right, twenty sixteen or twenty eighteen or whatever

(09:54):
year that the Reds were supposed to be bad, and
you would look at what they did in the off season,
and I would go like, yeah, fine, whatever, Like, what
are they gonna do this off season and make you
feel any better about their chances. There's no one or
two trades they can make that's gonna make this team
go from God, they're gonna be awful to man, they're
gonna be really good. My frustration is based on the
fact that I actually think they've got a group of

(10:16):
guys who are worth building around and worth giving a
chance to, and yet it doesn't feel like so far
this off season the front office has given them much
of a chance. And the underlying message when that is
the case is just got to wait. We had a
call yesterday. We've had a good week of calls this
week on this show, and it was somebody kind of

(10:39):
outlining you know there, and I wish I had a
guy's name, but outlining what they thought the plan could be.
And he referenced, you know, well, you know hey, and
I'm paraphrasing here, whatever you can go and get at
the trade deadline. It's like we're doing that already, like
opening days two and a half months away and we're
already talking about who they may go get at the deadline.

(11:01):
Understandably so to a degree, because I think we believe
like they're gonna need something at the deadline. But how
about instead of waiting till July thirty first, which, let's
face it, in recent years, has yielded very underwhelming results,
how about go get that guy now? And there was
just a reluctance to go do that. And I might

(11:21):
be in the minority, maybe I'm in the majority, but
to me, that's it's frustrating. It's frustrating watching a nucleus
that has a lot of upside, where the standard to
make the playoffs has never been lower in a winnable division,
not be given a boost by the front office plugging

(11:43):
quite obvious holes twenty ninth and ops at DH twenty
ninth and ops at first base twenty fifth in the
majors in combined ops from left and right field. Now,
players staying healthy and returning and performing well could rectify
some of those things. You mean to tell me this
team right now couldn't use some offensive help from outside.

(12:05):
And yet the underlying message when you bring that up
is just gonna have to wait, like I'm tired of waiting,
and I feel like you are too. An off season
like this, to me is completely kosher when one or
two moves really isn't going to move the needle. Not

(12:28):
that one or two moves is gonna take this team
from a below average offensive team to an elite offensive team,
but I do believe could make the difference, perhaps between
being a non playoff team and a playoff team. I'm
not pessimistic. I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated because I'm optimistic about

(12:48):
their core. The core needs help. The corp is not
being given help this offseason. You can tell me if
you're with me or if you think I'm off my rocker.
I'm not sitting in a rocking chair, though it's more
of a spinning office chair. Five point three seven four
nine fifteen thirty is our phone number. Show a preview
video posted before we go in the air on x

(13:10):
at Moeger. Check that out. Thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union,
your credit union with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Go
to EMORYFCU dot org. I went to Emory Federal Credit
Union on my way to work today to do some
banking business. And what I like about Emory A lot
of different reasons, A lot of different things I like
about Emory Federal Credit Union. People are really nice, It's

(13:33):
very easy to do business. There no issue at all.
Uh Meghan, the young lady who handled my financial transactions
always very pleasant. But more than anything, they have a
refrigerator with soft drinks. I call them soft drinks complimentary,
So if your financial institution doesn't have complimentary soft drinks.
EMORYFCU dot org. Nineteen minutes after three o'clock. We got

(13:58):
a lot of ground to cover today, did you see.
I don't know why I'm compelled to spend time on this.
I will anyway. A rod sent a tweet last night
Alex Rodriguez and as of two fifty five today, it
has not been deleted. I don't know how this tweet
gets sent. I don't know how this tweet doesn't get
pulled down I deleted. I don't get it. We'll spend

(14:22):
some time on that. Joey Vado got a tattoo. The
NFL season is gonna get longer here soon, which I like.
But dot dot dot we'll tell you what the dot
dot dot is. And a big weekend of college basketball
locally with the Bearcats at Holmes, Xavier on the road
and Kentucky playing and what I think is the game
of the weekend. We are going to cover all of
that and more between now and six on ESPN fifteen thirty,

(14:45):
Cincinnati Sports Station. This is ESPN fifteen to thirty. We'll
throw some poll questions on x in just a bit
at oh Eggar thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Anything you
may have missed on this show, including Chad Brendle yesterday

(15:06):
reacting to the Bearcat victory and looking ahead to tomorrow's
game against Arizona State, go get that now if you
missed it, or go get it later. If you missed it,
in fact, go get it later. Listen to this show
now and then at six o'clock start listening to old stuff,
and your weekend is set. Chad and I yesterday on
the Bearcats, and earlier this week Rick Brooring on the Musketeers,

(15:27):
some good stuff from Terry Nelson, Paul Daner Junior, and
so much more. Excuse me on the iHeartRadio app. Also
listen to any of that stuff on my page at
ESPN fifteen thirty dot com, where I used to blog. Yeah,
there might actually be some old blogs still on there.
Who knows? Who knows? Podcasts of the show a service

(15:47):
of Long Neck's Sports Grill, an awesome place to watch
all the college hoops and NFL action this weekend. Wilder,
Hebron and rich Wood. At this time yesterday spent a
few minutes talking about the passing of Bob Yuker, an
iconic broadcaster I think, a really iconic figure in baseball
history and American culture, the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers

(16:10):
for over five decades, perhaps the most widely quoted character
in Major League as the broadcaster. Harry Doyle. Harry Doyle, right,
mister Belvedere beer commercials, Tonight Show appearances, beloved figure, beloved figure,

(16:31):
and you know it kind of hit me hard because
I'm a little bit of a nerd, not a little bit,
uh And you know, I watch or listen to a
lot of local baseball broadcaster in the summertime, and Bob
Uker is one of the best. And you know, I
grew up in an era where you could you really
identified Major League teams, maybe not primarily by their radio voice,

(16:55):
but oftentimes by their radio voice. And you could say
to a lot of people across a number of years,
if you mentioned a certain city, it was easy to
identify who the radio voice was. And I did this yesterday.
You know, Jack Buck and Saint Louis and Ernie Harwell
in Detroit and Marty Brenneman in Cincinnati, and Bob Yuker

(17:16):
was one of those people. And I got a kick
yesterday out of listening to and watching a lot of
tributes and montages and remembrances of Bob Buker and some
awesome and funny stories that were told. And you know,
even late last night was on YouTube watching Bob Yuker
on The Tonight Show from the seventies and back in

(17:36):
an era where people weren't as easily offended and actually
enjoyed laughing. It was. It was a lot of fun,
a lot of fun to watch that stuff. So everybody
has sent their tribute, including Alex Rodriguez. Now, next week
we're going to get the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
We're going to find out who's joining the Dave Parker
and Dick Allen in the class of twenty and twenty five.

(17:59):
And that's that's always a really interesting time. And a
Rod's not going to make it. But if I had
a vote, and I don't obviously, but if I had
a vote, I would vote for Alex Rodriguez. And that's
a different discussion. So a Rod, who's, you know, big
media figure, see him doing games on Fox, and I

(18:20):
think genuinely has a deep, deep affection for the game
of baseball, tweeted about Bob Buker last night and he wrote,
heartbroken to lose Bob Buker, an iconic voice of baseball.
He brought joy not only to Cleveland, but to baseball
fans everywhere and as kind of catchphrases like get up,

(18:41):
get up, get out of here, gone will never be forgotten.
Rip Bob. Now, while Bob Buker did portray the announcer
of the Cleveland Indians in Major League One and Major
League two. He was actually the voice of the Milwaukee
Rulers for fifty four years. He was not the voice

(19:06):
of the Cleveland Indians. He is not the voice of
the Cleveland Guardians either. That tweet was sent twenty three
hours ago. It's still up. This begs two questions. Number One,
does did Alex Rodriguez think that because Bob Buker played
in a movie that was shot in Milwaukee? By the way,

(19:28):
does he think that because Bob Uker played in a
movie the Voice of the Indians, that he was the
voice of the Indians? Number two? How is this tweet
still up? Does he not have anybody in his life
who's like, Hey, ro, dude, buddy Milwaukee. I don't know,

(19:50):
but I'm amused by it. I'm not offended by any stretch.
I just I it's remarkable to me. I'm like, a
Rod's gonna have like people working for maybe somebody's sending
tweets on his behalf, and no one in his circles
like dude, a Rod, let's or hey, social media person
for a Rod. Let's go ahead and pull that down.

(20:12):
Because while Bob Buker was the voice of the Indians
in a movie. And I'm sure that movie has brought
a lot of joy to people in Cleveland. He actually
probably brought a lot more joy to people in a
different city. So maybe we should aim the tweet at
those folks. I don't know. And again, it doesn't make
a rod a bad guy or anything like that, But

(20:35):
I do wonder does he think, because he portrayed the
play by play guy in the movie, that he was
the voice of the Indians. And as no one said
to Alex and by the way, there's a part of
me it's like, man, if I'm Alex Rodriguez, well why
am I even on social media? Like what is Alex
Rodriguez gained by being on social media? But if you're
gonna be on it and you're gonna send a tribute
to somebody and you want it to be heartfelt, perhaps

(20:58):
mention the city that he is most closely identified with.
And nothing against the movie Major League, which is awesome.
Major League two kind of stunk, but Major League is awesome.
He's more identified with Milwaukee. Twenty nine away from four o'clock,
your phone calls are coming up at five point three seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. I was reading today about Roger
Goodell's latest, latest statement or latest quote about an eighteen

(21:22):
game season. We're going to spend a few minutes on that.
And yeah, man, I broke the glass yesterday and I'm
not picking up the pieces. I'm not cleaning up the glass.
I'll explain why next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime power train protection and
guarantee credit approval from their family to yours for life

(21:43):
kelseychev dot Com. The Bengals defensive coordinator search continues. That's
all I got for you. Joey Vado got a tattoo
of what kind of looks like Cincinnati pat Noonan's not
happy about players not showing up for preseason training, Luciano

(22:06):
Acosta and Yuyakubo, among others, along with Luca Oregano. The
Orange and Blue echine closer to the start of the
preseason College basketball this weekend, and it's a pretty good slate.
Starts the night actually Indiana battling Ohio State, and then
tomorrow on ESPN fifteen to thirty, we've got a good

(22:26):
one between Kentucky and Alabama. That game tips off at
noon pregame coverage at ten thirty. Xavier's on the road
against Marquette, a team that the Musketeers lost to. Here
if you remember that game, they stormed all the way
back and got a tough whistle at the end. Tip

(22:46):
off tomorrow at Milwaukee at two o'clock on fifty five KRC.
You see his home for Arizona State. I think that
I could be dead wrong about this, but off the
top of my head, I think the Bearcats last played
the Sun Devils in the second game of the ninety
seven ninety eight season and lost. If my memory serves

(23:07):
me correct, which sometimes it does not. If you watch,
you know, we make social media videos for you know,
promote the show on social media, and I put one
out there today that I corrected myself on it because
my memory yesterday was bad. But if my memory is
good today, you see, hasn't played Arizona State since the

(23:27):
second game of the ninety seven ninety eight season, and
they lost that game. And I remember being there and
there was no one in the gym. That team was
not supposed to be very good, ended up being a
two seed. Tomorrow's game tims off at two on a
seven hundred Wow. Also tomorrow rivalry game NKU versus Wright State.
Norse have lost three straight. Miami undefeated and Mac played

(23:51):
takes on Kent State. Also tonight, the Cyclones play Maine Downtown.
It is Hockey Net Bank night, little piggybank that looks
like a hockey goal. It's kind of cool. It is
twenty away from four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. I
broke the glass yesterday. We joked about this during football season,

(24:13):
where you know, it felt like for the Bengals every
game after Game one was a must win. And you
know you can only have so many must win games, right.
We did it all football season long, like, well, this
is a must win. Well then they lost, so okay,
they didn't win, so season over, No, next week's a
must win. And we did it all year long. It

(24:35):
sounds weird to hear someone say that a college basketball
game in the middle of January is a must win.
I think for the Bearcats, tomorrow and Tuesday are must
win games because they're at home. Now. Look, you might
have confidence that the Bearcats can can be you know,
road warriors and go seven to three in the Big
Twelve on the road and maybe they can, and I
certainly hope they do, but it really feels like if

(24:59):
they're going to get the tournament, if they're gonna get
this thing back on track, it's gonna come on the
strength of being good at home, good at home, and
okay on the road. Now, they can't go one at
nine on the road because chances are they're not gonna
win each of their eight remaining home games. But to me,
that's why this team wasn't even in the conversation last

(25:21):
year because their four and five home record. Tomorrow, they're
favored by eight and a half points as I look
at it today, eight and a half points against an
Arizona State team that has lost three straight games. You
have to win that one, and then you got to
come back on Tuesday and you have to beat Texas Tech. Now,
the good news is the Bearcats really don't have a
bad loss, but they don't have a Q one win

(25:44):
the Dayton game, which we thought was gonna be a
Q one win. Like Dayton can't beat anybody right now.
So the cool thing about this league is you might
not have any bad losses, but you do have to
take advantage of opportunities to get good wins, and you
got to win your home games, and so you see
as these next two at home, and if they do,
you know, game on. Not that everything's fixed, not that

(26:06):
everything's rectified, not that they're a shoe in to make
the tournament. But yeah, Tony and I were talking about
this during quick Hits. He brought up bracketology. To me,
bracketology is fun, like I've badly missed it these last
few years, the Bearcats really not being much of a
factor in mid February and late February, because that's one

(26:27):
of the fun things about the whole process, right seeing
where different bracket projection artists so to speak, have them
and looking at some of the hypothetical matchups, and you know,
it's not worth taking that seriously, but you know, we
do often use those things as a guide. Some are
more well known than others, some are more accurate than others.
And there are people who do it kind of just

(26:50):
for themselves, and there are people who have carved out
a living doing it, like Joelenardi. Bracketmatrix dot com is
a website that has kind of an aggregate of every
person the halfway decent reputation who projects a bracket I
haven't looked, haven't cared to look because the way they're playing,

(27:11):
and this includes their win. And I'm making this about
the Bearcats, but you can apply this to Xavier if
you want to. I don't think any Musketeer fan has
looked at bracketology with any amount of seriousness as it
relates to the Musketeers in quite a while. If they
don't get the basketball part fixed, it's not going to matter.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
The basketball part for Xavier is a little bit different
because they did dig themselves such a hole, and that
digging started in non conference play. The digging started in
conference play for the Bearcats. Both teams do have the
benefit of time. Both teams do have opportunities for good wins.
Xavier's get a chance tomorrow for a great win, and
then another chance next week for a great win on

(27:48):
the road against Saint John's. And if they can conquer
those teams, and if the Bearcats can start to stack
some wins, you know, all right, let's do it. Let's
talk about what their seed ceiling might be and take
a peek at what a guy like a Joelnardi or
a Jerry Palm or Nky Brackett Gey or any one
of these people who does brackets. Let's see where they

(28:09):
have them. But they got to get the basketball stuff
fixed first, in time and to the point that they
can either beat good teams. And XU has one two
straight and pulled out that game against Villanova. But are
they gonna get twenty eight in the second half from
Ryan Conwell every game? Can he carry them against better
teams than Villanova? We'll see, and can the Bearcats? And

(28:32):
again I make it about these next two. Can they
do what they haven't really been able to do since
joining the Big Twelve, which is win conference games at
home four and seven since the start of conference play
last year. That obviously includes the two games this year.
So I think for UC these are must win games
because if you are going to put a premium on

(28:52):
winning at home, and if you're going to point out
that they have to be better than they were at
home last year, that does not involve starting zero to
four or one and three. Get these next two and
then all right, First of all, let's see what they
have done on the floor to win these next two.
Let's see if the offense functions better. Let's see if
they get better shots. Let's see if Simas Lukasias can

(29:14):
build upon what he did in Boulder the other night.
Let's see if they can turn teams over a little bit.
Let's see if there are a few more things they
can rely on offensively. Let's see if they can figure
out a good offensive role for disease bandego. Like there's
there's lots of stuff they've got to get fixed. Can
the free throw shooting we saw against Colorado continue tomorrow
and continue now as they get into the real heart

(29:35):
of the Big twelve schedule? And and so if they
win these next two games, I will assume we like
a lot of the answers to the questions that I
just asked. And if we do that, then game on.
And I'll allow myself, and if you're a Bearcat fan,
maybe you will too, to take a look at some
of the very very very preliminary bracket projections, just to

(29:56):
see if they're on they're in the bracket, if they're
at first four, in last four out, that sort of thing.
Until that happens, nothing's been less relevant to me. I
legitimately this year have not looked. I don't look at
those things in November and December because they're kind of pointless.
But even now, I just I'm more interested in, like

(30:18):
what happens on the floor, and when you're one and
four in the league and you don't have a Q
one win yet, where somebody has you in their pretend
bracket two months before selection Sunday, which in the grand
scheme of things is not that relevant, has even less importance.
Win games, win your home games, Get these next two,

(30:42):
and then we'll go from there. Tip Off tomorrow at
fifth third is at two o'clock, fourteen away from four.
Your phone calls are coming up. I'm gonna spend a
few minutes on the NFL Roder. Goodell is talking more,
and this is going to happen. It has felt like
an inevitability since they went to seventeen games, but he's

(31:05):
talked more about an eighteenth game, which I'm one thousand
percent on board with for two reasons. But it's gonna
test something. It's gonna test something that you could argue
the Bengals haven't been great at that's coming up, And
do you want to know what college basketball players are paid?
We'll get to Paul questions and your phone calls coming

(31:26):
up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
Nation Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Don't let injuries slow
you down. The uc Health orthopedics and sports medicine experts
can help keep you moving. Schedule a same day appointment
at UCHealth dot com. On Clifton Avenue, it is an
accident at Calhoun Street, Turfway. Rode another accident, this one
at the Donaldson and on went and rode an accident

(31:57):
at Sharon Road. He's found two seventy five traffic slow
from seventy one to Loveland. Madeira wrote a three minute delay.
I'm at he's not like with traffic.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
This report Well Nicks and Timberwolves tonight and homecoming for
guys like Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo, though I think
Dante is dealing with an injury.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
And Jimmy Butler versus pat Riley continues.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
And Jimmy Butler versus pat Riley continues, and I'm I'm
I'm on Jimmy's side because I root against pat Riley.
So you know, Jimmy Butler's a kind of a noted malcontent,
but I like watching him play, and and and anybody,
anybody who's on the opposite side of pat Riley. I
root for So Jimmy, go get yours.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Just because of his time with the Knicks.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yes, okay, because and look, he was a great coach
with the Knicks, took him to the NBA Finals. The
way he left was like, do what you gotta do. Man.
I don't get mad when free agents leave. I don't
get I don't get mad. You know when players changed
the fine whatever. You have the right to choose where
you work. Somebody wants you as somebody offers you conditions
that you've better do it. But I do not get mad.

(33:03):
But the way pat Riley did it faxing his resignation
and holier than thou way that he talked, I just
I'm not a pat Riley, a great coach, iconic basketball figure,
awesome hair, unbelievable basketball life, one of the most influential
figures in the history of American pro sports. Not a

(33:23):
pat Riley guy, not not a pet Rise. So go
Jimmy Butler, go get yours. So there you go. You
ask a question, what's going on in the NBI. I
gave you and Nixon Wolves tonight. Devincenzo is not gonna
play by the way, I'm told here if if I
don't mind, to mention the playoff games this weekend or
on seven hundred WLW, the two games tomorrow and the

(33:44):
two games on Sunday, and it's gonna be a really
fun interesting playoff weekend. And we'll talk about the games
in further detail here in just a bit. This has
made the rounds and is going to happen one day.
But Roger Goodell reiterated the possibility that the NFL could
expand its regular season eighteen games. He was on Bloomberg TVs.

(34:08):
The David Rubinstein Show Peer to Peer Conversations, which I
had never heard of until this morning. He says, adding
an eighteenth game is a quote logical next step for
the league, and we've talked about this before, but he
explained the framework would be, you know, we used to
have sixteen regular season games, four preseason games, and we
have since gone from that to now seventeen regular season

(34:32):
games and three preseason games. And what they want to
do is eighteen regular season, two preseason. NFLPA would have
to sign off on this. Current CBA doesn't expire till
twenty thirty, but there are hopes that they could figure
out a way to get this done. Now, obviously there's
good questions about the players going to sign off on this,
You're going to work another game for the same amount
of money, that sort of stuff. This is going to

(34:53):
happen one day, and I'm here for it because, like
the preseason still feels too long, and it was isn't
that long ago we were doing four games and I know,
you know, folks, and back in the day we'll talk
about how they used to have seven or I'm sorry
six and then in some cases seven. I'm fine with
the eighteen and two split. But you know, the more,

(35:13):
the more meaningful games you add, the more games that
matter you add. Well, logic dictates the more injuries teams
are going to have, more guys are gonna get hurt,
and the longer your season is and the more games
you play, the more your depth is going to be tested.
And I think to a degree, we've seen that here

(35:34):
with the seventeen game schedule, And so I want this
to happen because an eighteen and two split to me,
is perfect. Sign me up for it. And it's ridiculous
that they have right now a schedule that has an
odd number of games per team. But the longer your
season goes, the more your death is going to be tested,

(35:56):
the more your organization is going to be tested. The
better equipped you're gonna have to beat it withstand injury.
Will the Bengals be able to pass those tests when
we get to an eighteenth game? Should be asking that
in every NFL city, four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(36:19):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this
nationwide keyword on our website.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Money.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
That's money. Enter it now. I hit the wrong button.
What's up? Good afternoon. Oh We've been doing We've been
doing this show almost eighteen years, and I'm still sometimes
not hitting the right button to turn the microphone on.
What's up? Mu legg or ESPN fifteen thirty. By the way,
and that top of the hour update, that is some

(36:46):
great news. Dick vi Tale is going to be back
behind the microphone for the first time and they said
nearly two years. He's gonna call a duke and wake
Forest on the twenty fifth. That's next weekend, next Saturday.
That is awesome. Now, if you're a human being, that's
great news because it means a guy is beating cancer,

(37:07):
and which is you know, obviously all of us have
been impacted by that. We're talking about an eighty five
year old man here who has had multiple battles with cancer.
If you're a human being, obviously you're a thrill that
Dick is doing well and well enough to resume working.
That is great. I will admit I have the softest

(37:27):
of soft spots in my heart for Dick Vitel. As
a college basketball fan. There is nobody in the history
of that sport who has done more to promote it
or popularize it. And like I, you know, obviously there's
his great affection for Duke, which drives people nuts, and
an unending line of people who have been Dick Vital impersonators,

(37:50):
which that gets lame every March. I have the softest
of soft spots in my heart for Dick Vital that like,
I hope you calls games until he's one hundred and
twenty years old. That is awesome. So I actually did
not know that until I heard it in the update
there at four o'clock. That that makes me happy. That

(38:11):
makes me happy. Lots of stuff makes me happy. That
is on the list of good news that makes me happy.
Speaking of college basketball. I got a couple of pole
questions on X right now at Moeger thanks to our
friends and yours at United Heartland Insurance United Heartland Insurance.
If you own a business and you've got like a

(38:32):
fleet of vehicles, let unit at Heartland Insurance ensure them.
You're gonna save a lot of money. Go to uhis
dot com. The first question is about the Reds and
their mid off season grade of C minus. I got
three choices for you. It should be higher, it should
be lower, or it's about right. Vote now the other one.

(38:55):
Jason Williams of The Inquirer does a good job of answering.
I don't know if he gets emails or snail mail
or tweets whatever, but he will on a fairly regular
basis write pieces in response to what he hears from
from readers.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
And I like that.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
So the piece I saw this this morning the headline
why Cincinnati Bearcats and Ohio State Buckeye player salaries will
remain private? And he got a question from a reader
who wrote, since University of Cincinnati is a public institution,
can the amount the players are getting paid be disclosed?
Most of us who are new to this nil thing
would like to know. And Jason goes on to answer

(39:38):
the question, and there's go read it yourself if you
want Jason's answer. I think it's an interesting thing. And
so the second question I have is do you want
to know how much college basketball and football players are
being paid? And obviously you could extend this to Olympic
sports or women's basketball, volleyball stuff, but those are the

(40:01):
two revenue drivers. Nothing against the growing popularity of the
women's game or a volleyball, but those are still the
two main drivers. College football and we'll just say basketball,
but you know, let's face it, men's college basketball is still,
you know, an enormous revenue source for a lot of schools. Nonetheless,
do you want to know how much players are being paid?

(40:23):
Vote now at Muegger, I do not. I do not,
And my reasoning is this, this is not realistic at all.
But I have often wondered what sports would be like

(40:44):
and what sports discourse would be like if we didn't
know what these guys meane. And I'm talking about professional
sports now. I do understand in an era where you
have the salary cap and you have decisions that are
made based on finances, you kind of have to know

(41:05):
these things, like as we talk about the Bengals in
twenty twenty five and what they're going to do in
free agency, what they may do with t Higgins, what
they may do with Trey Hendrickson, what they do with
Jamar Chase. It helps to have a working knowledge of
what the salary cap is, how it works, what these

(41:27):
players make, and how much money is left, and then
you know what the cost of a really good player
in every position is, Like if you're going to talk
about roster constructions specifically in salary cap leagues, you kind
of have to know these things. So I get that,
But I go back to watching Joey Vado in twenty thirteen,

(41:51):
less so twenty fourteen because he got hurt, wasn't very good.
But for a large chunk of his career right he
was putting up hillacious numbers, great numbers, numbers that I
think will put him in Cooperstown one day, really really
good numbers. And yet you would hear from people criticisms
of the numbers because well, he's not living up to

(42:16):
the money. And I asked so many times and I
never got an answer, like, well, what does living up
to the money look like? Like, what level of production
would you look at and go, you know what, that's
a twenty five million dollar a year player. I don't
know what that is. I don't know what that was.
I never got my answer. I never will. But the
point being for me is I feel like I feel

(42:40):
like knowing what these guys make, which has been basically
public information for decades. I can't recall in my life
as a sports fan where we didn't know what baseball
players were being paid. I remember when I was a
kid and I used to devour the USA Today Sports section,
and every year during spring training, they would list on

(43:02):
one page every team's payroll, every team, and I remember
like as a kid, going like, wow, look at those
dollar figures. Man, it'd be cool to be a pro
baseball player. That'd be awesome. And then I kind of
forgot about it. But anyway, like what these players make,

(43:22):
we've known. It's been public knowledge for a very, very,
very long time. But I think it's become such a
big part of sports discourse and a big part of
how we talk about players and how we talk about
performance that it's kind of thrown out of whack. How
we look at statistics, how we look at player performance

(43:43):
like I look at those seasons, and Joey Vada was
just one of many examples. I look at those seasons.
If I go to his Baseball Reference page, I can go,
man in twenty seventeen, that dude had an MVP season
and he came this close. He barely lost out to
John Carl Stanton. I don't look at those numbers and
go they're good numbers for a guy making twenty five

(44:05):
million dollars. I look at them and go, they're good numbers.
We're getting ready next week for Hall of Fame voting
ballots to be released, and I love, especially in baseball.
I love good Hall of Fame arguments and debates, and
this is one of my favorite times a year because
all the really good baseball writers release their ballots and

(44:27):
then right why they voted for or didn't vote for
who they didn't vote for. Those are great columns. I
love that. I love the fact that there's so much
more transparency because the writers want to explain to their readers,
want to explain to the audience and fans the rationale
for their ballot. I don't always agree, but I love
the fact that they give us explanations I'm not sure
it should be mandatory, but I love the fact that

(44:50):
a lot of writers tell us who they voted for
and why's and that's great. But like, I'll look at
like some of those numbers, we're going to have Dave
Parker and Dick Allen go in this year, right, I
look at Dave Parker's numbers, and I'll make his Hall
of Fame case. I don't look at them to the
lens of what he made. I look at those numbers
to the lens of how good they were, how much

(45:10):
they helped his team, and what they were in relation
to other players who played the same position, other players
who were on the leaderboard for certain statistical categories, not
how much money he made. So if it was up
to me, I'd love to come up with a way
in pro sports for us to just talk about players
without knowing what they make, because I feel like it's like,

(45:33):
you hit forty home runs in a season. That is awesome.
It's not less awesome because, well, you're being paid fifty
million dollars a year. Hitting forty home runs in a
season is awesome. I know this isn't realistic. I understand
if you're putting a team together. If you're negotiating with
a player, if you're going to sign a player, you
know there's the money that you're talking about maybe giving

(45:57):
that player, or the roster spot you're thinking about assigning
to that player is based on what you're getting for
what you pay for. At the same time, I think
it's less fun as a fan to talk about performance
and athletes through that filter, through that lens, So I

(46:18):
don't want to do it with college players now. I
hope these men and women are cashing in. I want
everybody to get paid. I want, including myself, I want
everybody to get paid. I love the fact that these
men and women are getting paid what they're getting paid.

(46:41):
Don't care. I certainly do understand for athletes at a
public institution, when we get to the point of revenue sharing,
there are going to be some who want to know, Okay,
where's the public's money going toward. I understand that. But
like as a UC bass bafan, I don't look at

(47:01):
Siemas Lukocius differently. If his numbers are what they are
and he's making two million dollars, then I would If
his numbers are what they are and he's making forty
thousand dollars. I legitimately have no idea. I've never really
found it that interesting. I'm probably the minority, but I

(47:25):
still would love to have I still would love to
have this part of sports where we could just judge
players by how they play, did they win, how are
they statistically compared to their peers and not? Are they
living up to the contract? Are they living up to
the money? I think the fact that we do that

(47:47):
and we have to do it again. I do it
as much as anybody. It's a little bit less fun.
It's a little bit less fun to constantly look at
a player's performance through this prism of are they living
up to the contract? Are they giving their team value
given what they're being paid? And by the way, this
is coming with Joe Burrow because his salary is only

(48:10):
going to skyrocket. It's coming with Joe Burrow where you're
gonna have somebody who looks at the numbers and go,
it's still not good enough because of what he's getting paid.
And I'll admit to you that I don't love looking
at athletes that way, and I don't love talking about
sports that way, though I have to, and you almost

(48:31):
can't avoid it. So no, I'm okay, and I'm sure
we're gonna get to a point where we do know.
And I know there's a lot now. You know, agents
like to throw out there what their client is getting paid,
and so there's always going to be even now athletes
in college and it's made public even if they don't

(48:53):
confirm it what they're getting paid. But I'm more than okay, Like,
for the most part, I have no idea what the
UC guys are getting with this behavior guys are getting.
I'm glad they're doing well. I am as in favor
of college basketball and football players getting paid as I
have ever been, and I wrote a term paper on
this topic when I was nineteen years old, so I've
been all in on this for quite a while. But

(49:17):
I'm okay not knowing what the dollar amounts are because
I think what we do it's it's not quite as fun,
and you know me, I'm the fun guy. So vote
now at Mullegger. By the way, the early voting we
got a couple hundred votes. It's pretty much fifty to
fifty and welcome to chime in on that at five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen to thirty uh, speaking of Jelly Vodo, we got

(49:40):
a tattoo. I have a I have a small take
on a I don't have a take as much on
the tattoo, which is kind of Cincinnati. It's like Cincinnati
if I got a bunch of new buildings. But he
got a tattoo, which is awesome. But I have a
thought on the tattoo. And we'll take some phone calls

(50:05):
as well on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's
is by the way, eight Rods tweet is still up.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty and oh, I gotta work
in an announcement. Are you ready? Stand by? The Reds

(50:26):
Caravan is going to stop at the Roberts Center in
Wilmington on Wednesday, January twenty second. That's five days away.
The Roberts Center in Wilmington, home of Ralph's American Grill.
The event starts at six thirty. It's free, which is key.
It's open to the public, and they're going to have
such players and celebrities like Brent Souter and Andrew Abbott.

(50:47):
Marty Brendan is going to be there. Phil Castellini is
going to be there. Corky Miller is going to be
there on this piece of paper, Corky is misspelled. Corkey
Miller will be there, no E and his name and
mister Red Legs will also be in attendance. This is Wednesday,
Wednesday on UH at six thirty at the Robert Center

(51:10):
in Wilmington, free and open to the public. So there
you go. Might trek up there is that Next Wednesday.
I might leave here. I can be on Wilmington in
thirty minutes and check out the caravan at the Robert Center.
I might do that and have a burger at Ralph's
American Grill while I am at it.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
A burger sounds phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Right, A burger sounds amazing right now, I'm not gonna
lie to you. I am starving. I have never been hungrier.
I have not eaten much this week for reasons that
are wholly unimportant. And a burger sounds amazing, amazing, whether
it's from Ralph's American Grill or anywhere else. All Right,

(51:52):
I've been saying for a while, we're going to take
some phone calls, and maybe I should do that now. Hi, Jeff,
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's going on?

Speaker 3 (52:01):
Happy Friday?

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Mo, you got plenty of places within walking distance to
get something nimble on.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
I know that for a fact.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
I do, except I'm not allowed to leave right now.
That would be I get it an abandonment of my duties.
And so all I can do for the next hour
and thirty eight minutes is pine for the burger that
I'm going to eat shortly after six o'clock.

Speaker 6 (52:19):
Didn't I see some ads recently? Skyline is now in
one of those delivery services door Dash. Okay, okay, yeah,
pay fifteen dollars service charge for five dollars worth.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Of food, right I would pay almost anything to eat
Skyline chilling right now.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
Oh, I didn't mean to bring that up then, So yes,
even I, a hardcore Maryland supporter, can overlook the duchy
v part of Dick f cow and which wish him
only the best.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
It's appropriate that he's doing a duke game. It's appropriate
that he's doing a duke game. Maybe they could bring
back Coach K, who's no longer coach K. He's mister
K on the sideline, so so Dick can talk about it.
But nonetheless I look forward to seeing him on a
broadcast next weekend.

Speaker 6 (53:04):
Yeah, but not at Cameron. I can't believe they didn't
send him into Cameron, but that that's good for him.
He has raised so much money for cancer and everything.
He deserves everything.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
It's interesting. Years ago we got Dick vi Tell on
the show and I don't remember. Lindsey Patterson was producing
at the time, and she got Dick gone to talk
college basketball, and his only request was if we could
mention his gala. And his gala raises money for children's

(53:33):
cancer research. And obviously nobody in our audience was going
to go to the gala, but he all he asked
was send people to the website donate bidden By. It
was really important to him, and you know, he's he's
raised a lot of money and helped a lot of people.
And again thrilled that he's going to be back behind
the microphone.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
Yeah, the one game I went to at Cameron, he
was staying at the Maryland Team hotel and he rolled
into the bar after the game was over and it
was very very interesting scene. Definitely, that's kudos to him. Hey,
a big day for you between the talkbacks and Paul
and Jay bringing up your alter ego name on Twitter
today and that's a good day for you, right, Togar?

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Yeah, yeah, I did not. I was I was busy.
Uh what happened during talkbacks that I missed?

Speaker 6 (54:21):
I had no idea I missed it, whatever whatever came.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
So Tony told me somebody expressed concern because I've been
down on myself, and my response to that was I've
been down on myself for almost forty years, So that
that's that's nothing new. That's that's not exclusive to today.
But yes, to Eger, and to Eger follows me now,
so I might have to follow back.

Speaker 6 (54:45):
Hey, we all hit those potholes every now and then.
So am I the only one who thinks that Hamlin
County versus the Bengals is like Iraq versus I ran?
And there's nobody to root for in this stupidity.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yes, no, you're not the only one, because I'm with you.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
I I.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Do not care. I do not care. It's funny because
I followed. I was in college during the first stadium
go round, and I was a freshman at UD when
they voted the initial sales tax to build Paul Brown
Stadium and what became Great American Ballpark, And the vote

(55:22):
happened shortly after the Browns moved, and I do remember.
I remember Mike Brown flirting with Baltimore in nineteen ninety three.
And as much as you know apologies for the Bengals
will try to pretend that didn't happen, it did. I
remember it. And I followed that very closely. And I
followed very closely the fight to put a great American
ballpark downtown or at Broadway Commons. And I followed those

(55:44):
things with great interest. I could not care less. Now now,
if you tell me something might happen and the team
might move, then suddenly I care beyond that. Yeah, I
have no real interest in the stadium being renovated. I
have no real interest in who pays. Just maybe I'm
an irresponsible taxpayer, irresponsible voter. I do not care. I

(56:06):
do and I specifically do not care about the wrangling,
the back and forth, the legal maneuvers, the name calling,
the politicking. I have been dreading this period of time
for such a long time because we know it's coming,
and I'm gonna do my best to tune it out
and we're not going to talk about it on the show.

Speaker 6 (56:23):
Yeah, I think the two things that pop into my mind.
If I'm not mistaken didn't the Bengals hire the guy
from county, from the county who negotiated at least right
after it got done, or something like that.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
But Bob Beals went on to work for the Bengals
for a very long time.

Speaker 6 (56:38):
And I think we're gonna find out exactly how much
of the Brown family networth is completely ill liquid and
tied up in the value of the Bengals until the
team gets sold. This is what's interesting to me. Between
s grow deposits with the league that eat up cash
and things between them and the county that could eat

(56:58):
up consumable liquid cash, exactly how much liquidity do they
have in that family at this point in time is
more of a business question than anything else.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
But it's fascinating to me.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
They're doing better than me. No, yeah, but.

Speaker 6 (57:18):
Yeah, they're doing better than everybody. But I think people like, oh,
the team is worth four billion, I'm like, maybe not
very much of that is liquid though, until somebody comes
in and offers them four billion dollars for.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
The team, correct. The thing is as much as I'm
sure there are a long list one not a long list,
but are there people that would love to buy into
the NFL and buy the Bengals. Sure, they're not for sale.
I mean I can't. I cannot think of many franchises
that are are less likely to be sold in my
lifetime than the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 6 (57:51):
Yeah, you could not offer that family a big enough
premium to go move down to the Caribbean.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
That'sure. No, no, no. But I'm with you in terms
of the fight between the county and the team. It
is started and it's going to go on for a while.
And I gotta be honest, I have a really hard
time working up any interest in diving into it or
taking a side. I want the Bengals to win a

(58:16):
Super Bowl and that's all I really care about.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Yeah, well, I'm with you on that one. Have a
great weekend. Good luck. Do you see tomorrow? And you
guys are putting the emphasis on.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
These two games, so good luck to win. Got to
win the two home games, Jeff, Thank you very much.
It's funny when when I first started doing this show,
which was two thousand and seven, I don't remember specifically
what was going on. Obviously, Paul Brown Stadium had been
had been built for you know, seven or eight years,

(58:44):
and Great American Ballpark was up and running, and I remember,
I remember there was something something about the stadium dead
or stuff. I like, I've done hundreds of bad radio segments.
I tried to do a segment about that, and midway
through I realized, I do not care about this. I mean,

(59:07):
it's rare that we do a segment on anything I
don't care about, very rare. It does happen, but you know,
for the most part, if I'm talking about it, it's
it's from the standpoint of really giving a crap and
understanding that my audience does as well. And I like,
I could not care less. I mean, even the renderings

(59:27):
that came out was that during the summer, the renderings
of what Paul Brown Stadium would look like. I did
have a take on that. Number one, it was, Okay,
that's probably not what it's going to look like. It's
like when somebody comes in and you're talking about, like
renovating your kitchen. It looks absurd and you're like, well,
that's really cool. We can't if we're not paying for that,
and you settle for something else. And then my second
thought was that looks like something that's going to price

(59:49):
out a lot of people. So I just I do
not care. I never I've never been less interested in
a in a story, and I I don't know that.
I don't know that talking about them now, if the
Bengals were to do what they did in the nineties,
and they did do this and either drop hints or

(01:00:12):
make it abundantly clear like we could bolt, then it's
a little bit different because then you're impacting people emotionally,
and it's what people care most about. The ins and
outs of what happens with the stadium next and what
the next lease looks like is so painfully boring to
most people, I believe, And it's more of a politics

(01:00:34):
thing than a football thing. And as we were with
a source of pride on this show, this is a
politics free zone. I actually had about a year ago
a politician asked if they could come on. I remember that,
remember that, Oh I found that talk back? Do you
found the talk back?

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
And hang on a second. So a politician asked if
they could come on, and we said, we do not
have politicians on. We do not do politics. This is
one of the few safe havens to get away from
that sort of stuff. And I play the talk back
for We're Late, but play the talk back for me.

Speaker 7 (01:01:11):
Hey, Tony Hay Austin, it's God. I really do you
think you need to have a talk with Mo? That
really got For the past week, all I hear is
how his show is terrible, how he is a disastrous,
messed and disorganized through only two people listen.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
To a show.

Speaker 7 (01:01:29):
Well, if he really feels this way, I think you
need to have a talk. I think he's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Oh I listen to him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Did that gentleman say he's God?

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
That's what it sounds like.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Now, that's pretty awesome that God listens to ESPN fifteen
thirty and is taking time out of what I would
imagine is a very busy day. If you're God, there's
probably not a ton of downtime. There's a lot going
on right now. But that I would tell God, like,
appreciate you listen. There's some stuff we could use her
fixing right now, but appreciate you listening. And thanks. I'm good,

(01:02:08):
I'm good, everything's all right. I am a harsh critic
of myself. I am a painfully disorganized person. Like there's
I I possess a lot of good characteristics, being organized
is not one of them. And and it's it's one
of my just main faults. Yeah, I'll leave the rest

(01:02:30):
of that alone. It is twenty seven away from by
the way, I mean they we don't do the talkbacks.
That's that's Tony and Austin's domain. But check on me
by calling our show twenty seven and thank you for
the nice words. God much much appreciated. I'm glad, glad,
I'm in good graces with God. It's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Amen, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Yeah, that's pretty That's a good sign for me. That's
that's that boats that bodes well for where I want
to end up when I'm gone, right. That's if God
is thinks the show is good, he must think I
possessed the kind of qualities. That's I'm going to be
on his side of things when whenever, whenever it's my time.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Uh, that's a great segment. One. It's twenty six away
from five o'clock. Sports headlines are coming up, Thank God
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. Don't let injuries
slow you down. The UC Health orthopedics and sports medicine
experts can help keep you moving schedule a same day
appointment at UCHealth dot com. Southbound seventy five approaching Town Street.
The right lane blocked off from an accident on eastbound
two seventy five. It's an accident off onto the left shoulder.

(01:03:48):
That after Montgomery Road. A three vehicle accident on Kilby Road.
This one over at Suspension Bridge Road. I'm at Eazeleik
with Traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Service chevro La pome of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to yours for life chelseaschev
dot com. You know, I like I like that Pat Noon,
and he's the f C Cincinnati coach friend of the show. So, uh,

(01:04:18):
Pat Noon, And they they did their first f C
Cincinnati did their first media availability of twenty twenty five.
And uh, they're they're doing, you know, preseason training. They're
they're getting ready for the season which starts here in
a month or so. And Lucho Acosta hasn't been there.
And Luca Orzano, who I guess is coming to Cincinnati

(01:04:38):
for his his pre camp physical. Uh, he's been a
no show. And you Yakubo has been a no show.
And we see we see players. They don't show up
for camp or for practice all the time, and it
always puts the coach in a pretty tough position. But
the coach is always very politically correct, and yeah, I
do what they gonna We're gonna focus on the guys.

(01:04:59):
I like Pat Noonan's I actually do this sucks now
that's not his actual quote, but he said it's a
setback because of how we have to start our season
and they play league, play in the Champions Cup obviously
to start the year. And you know, he says, it's
not the norm and our three years prior, I haven't
experienced guys not showing up, So it's disappointing. There's a

(01:05:21):
lot of guys here that would love different contracts, different situations,
but they showed up. Whether you like it or not,
you have an obligation to show up in that timeframe.
You hope to find solution on solutions on things you
might not see eye to eye on. For me, you
have a job and you show up for your job,
whether you like how things are going or not, and

(01:05:42):
respect teammates and coaches. That shows that, despite not being pleased,
you're going to be a good pro. And you may
disagree with that I actually do agree with it. I
love that. Would you disagree with it or not? I
love the candor, I love the honesty. Yeah, man, what sucks.
These guys aren't here and they're being paid and they

(01:06:03):
are pros and figure your stuff out from a business perspective,
But how about your obligation to your team? Like good
Pat noon It. I love Pat Noonan, and so somebody
tell him that good for Pat Noonan. Joey Vado got
a tattoo. College basketball tomorrow. It's a busy day locally.

(01:06:24):
You see his home for Arizona State tip off at
two on seven hundred WLW Xavier's at Marquette Road. Tilt
for the Musketeers, first of two straight two o'clock tomorrow
on fifty five KR. See Kentucky battles Alabama at noon
on ESPN fifteen thirty. MKU takes on Wright State at
two on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. Also, Travis Steel's team

(01:06:45):
tries to remain undefeated in MAC play as the Miami
RedHawks battle kent State, and tonight it's Ohio State squaring
off against Indiana Hockey. This evening, the Cyclones take on
Maine at home. It's hockey net Bank Night. If you
go to the game the night see the Clones play,

(01:07:07):
you get a picky bank that looks like a hockey goal.
It's kind of cool looking. NFL playoffs this weekend. Tomorrow,
AFC Divisional Tilts Kansas City Chiefs starters will play for
the first time since Christmas as they host the Houston Texans.
This game is interesting to me for a lot of
different reasons, mainly, as the season went on with the

(01:07:28):
Chiefs and they won games because they got a good
break or a lucky bounce or somebody made the right
play at precisely the right time, as they were often
playing unevenly, as they were often not covering large point spreads.
There were a lot of us who looked at the
Chiefs and said, the fatal flaw is going to catch
up to them. Their luck will run out. And then

(01:07:52):
at the end of the year they played better, played
well against the Pittsburgh Steelers in that game on Christmas,
they won by nineteen points. The game was in Pittsburgh.
Let's be honest, the Steelers were in the middle of
free fall and they haven't played anybody since. So there's
a couple of interesting dynamics here. I think one is
the rest factor. Are they going to be compromised by

(01:08:13):
the fact that nobody of consequence has played in three
and a half weeks. This is something we talked about
going into Kansas City's Week eighteen game, But also is
what many of us suspected going to come true, which
is they're winning by the skin of their teeth. They're
at times beating bad teams and they're not dominant. They're
getting just the right thing that goes their way at

(01:08:36):
precisely the right time, but it's not sustainable. Their luck
is going to run out. Are we going to see that?
Or are we going to see the team that last
year turned the engine on and played really well in
the playoffs without home field advantage. This year they do
have home field advantage, and the Texans going to this
game tomorrow kind of playing like Devil May Care. We

(01:08:58):
will see The night game tomorrow is Detroit and Washington.
I am rooting for the I'm rooting for the winner
of this game to make the Super Bowl because I
like Dan Campbell. I used to make fun of Dan Campbell,
but like that dude just seems really authentic, and the
players really seem to respond to him, but they've got

(01:09:20):
a billion guys hurt and a defense that all season
long wasn't very good. Washington escapes Tampa Bay with a
win last week. You talk about playing with house money,
a very dangerous quarterback, a very dangerous offense, a big
point spread. Nine and a half is huge. I am
taking those points because I don't trust Detroit's defense. But

(01:09:41):
I also feel like when your word Detroit is where
you were this close last year, and you're at home
and you've kind of been America's team all year long,
and you've got a lot of injuries, I wonder if
they do play kind of tight Sunday's games Rams and Eagles.
Remember now on Sun they don't do one o'clock and
four o'clock in the playoffs. It's three o'clock and six

(01:10:03):
thirty Rams and Eagles in Philadelphia. Looks like snow is
going to be an issue for that game and then
the game of the weekend Buffalo and Baltimore. Tammon said
this to me off air yesterday. Kind of feels like
people forgot these two teams did play and play in
a primetime game, and it was Week four and we
were all really looking forward to watching the Ravens and

(01:10:25):
Bills play against each other, and Baltimore housed him and
Josh Allen was not very good. You talk about like
two teams trying to exercise some recent postseason demons. The
Bills to get to the AFC Championship Game after losing
it home last year in the postseason and losing it
home the previous year in the postseason. Back in home

(01:10:45):
this year as home underdogs, Baltimore is laying a point
and a half and despite a thoroughly impressive performance against
the Steelers last week, let's be honest, Lamar Jackson postseason
history is needless to say, checkered. They are playing a

(01:11:07):
better team, but they're not playing a team that's got
a great defense. I can't wait for this on Sunday.
That is the nightcap on Sunday evening.

Speaker 4 (01:11:16):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. I actually
do have something that I can revolve around Joey Vado's tattoo.
We'll do that in the five o'clock hour and we'll
update our poll questions and hopefully hear from you on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:11:34):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
Don't let injuries slow you down. The UC Health orthopedics
and sports medicine experts can help keep you moving. Schedule
a same day appointment at UCHealth dot com. Westbound two
seventy five. It's an accident at seventy one. That's got
the right lane blocked off southbound seventy five A proaching
Town Street. The right lane block from an accident there

(01:12:03):
that's got traffic stop and go from Shepherd Lane up
to a twenty five minute delay. I that e'zalak with traffic.
This report is spun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
I don't think anybody is on the d L. I
don't believe so, because yeah, and that's also called the
injured list the IL now idiot, it's been that way
since twenty seventeen. But you know you do you radio
voiceover guy called the DLL if I don't care, right

(01:12:33):
ru night away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
We did the thing on X the pole question thanks
to United Heartland Insurance, and the one question is about
the Reds and their mid off season great Now, the
grade is a C. Mine is that that isn't reflective

(01:12:55):
of the team as a whole. It's reflective of what
the front office has done with the team. The majority
of you say a C minus is just about right.
By the way, I agree, C minus is just about
I cannot say it's been an f I haven't you know,
I haven't sat around and done nothing. But it's when
you when you look at the team's biggest issues from

(01:13:15):
last season, it's it's hard to feel like they've rectified
them using the methods you used during the offseason to
rectify issues like trades and free agency. It's it's hard
to it's hard to say they're going to be much
better offensively based on what and whom they've acquired. So
I think the grade is is completely and totally fair. Now,

(01:13:37):
I I share whatever frustrations you may be feeling about
the fact that they've kind of spun their tires this offseason,
especially as it relates to the offense and I guess
more specifically the the outfield. I certainly do believe that
if the Reds are substantially better in twenty twenty five,

(01:13:59):
it's going to be because of players who were with
the Reds or at least a part of the organization
in twenty twenty four, and like, to me, this is
you could have a lot of fun doing this. You
could have a lot of fun imagining what a full
season of Matt McClain looks like if not yet played
a full big league season. And you could have a
lot of fun imagining what a full season of Cees

(01:14:20):
would look like. And you could have a hell of
a lot of fun. I think thinking about what a
full season would look like for some of the starting
pitchers they have, but that those things are the root
of my it's frustration. It's frustration with and it's not
surprise I don't think most of us. I mean, when

(01:14:41):
the off season started, we started to instantly hear about
the impact of their TV situation on the player payroll,
so we were kind of bracing ourselves for an off
season that wasn't exactly loaded with activity. And the deals
they have made, the things they have done, I think
have been good. But the frustration for me lies with
believing that there are things worth adding to. You know,

(01:15:06):
I remember, I remember when the Reds got Remember remember
when Tommy fam was a Red which was like this
real crazy four month stretch where you know, Tommy was
like slapping people. Was Jock Peterson because of they had
a fantasy football fight and he was talking about like

(01:15:28):
he was going to break out martial arts moves on catchers,
and like, I thought, the Tommy fam era was incredibly entertaining,
and I lobbied for the Reds to acquire him at
the trade deadline last year. But I remember when the
Reds got him. It came at the end of this
stretch of time going into the twenty twenty two season

(01:15:49):
where they they kind of tore the club apart, and
you know, again maybe with good reason, but they they
moved on from Jesse Winker and are Uhaneo Suarez and yeah,
Sonny Gray and I mean hit the eject button on
the twenty twenty two season before it even started, and
you might not have liked it, but you kind of knew, Okay, well,
here's the direction they're going in. And then they added

(01:16:12):
Tommy fam and I remember going like, who cares. I
guess you got to get somebody to play this year.
But okay, it's a guy that everybody has heard of,
it's an established player, but you're adding to nothing. So
the impact of one guy when you add him to
nothing is going to be pretty negligible. Who cares? Who

(01:16:35):
cares when you're adding to nothing. There have been off
seasons the Reds have had where some will get upset
at the lack of activity, And my take will be,
what's there to be upset about in regards to lack
of activity? Be upset about the fact that if they
added someone from the outside, it would make no difference

(01:16:56):
because they don't have anything right now. They've done a
good job of promoting talents and at least stockpiling guys
who seem to have collectively and individually, I think more
individually right now, very bright big league futures. There is
something worth adding to. They haven't added to it. Like

(01:17:19):
it's almost a backhanded compliment to the team, like you've
got something worth adding to legitimately, something worth adding to,
they haven't added to it. And I know, as soon
as the season starts, if they get off to it,
and remember last year they got off to like their
best thirty game start in ten years or eleven years,

(01:17:40):
and there was some degree of optimism in the conversation,
Instantly pivots toward well what can they add of deadline? Well,
I mean, like it feels like now for a while,
adding upgrades from elsewhere is something that we just we
push off.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
It's like those people who don't want to do anything
at work in December, so they'll say stuff like, well,
let's push it off after the first of the year,
after the holidays, and then the holidays come and go,
and it's the first of the year, and it's like, well,
let's we've had some snow, so let's let's like it's
constantly being pushed back. I just saw some funny it's

(01:18:16):
constantly being pushed back. It feels like what we're dealing
with here with adding to the team constantly being pushed back.
Going back to the deadline in twenty twenty three at
malegar on X vote thanks to United Heartland Insurance go
to uh I NS dot com five one, three, seven,
four nine fifteen thirty. We'll get you in as well.

(01:18:37):
Joey Vado has a tattoo. I have a typical sports
talk radio response and the weekend ahead in college basketball
coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Team Mobile five G Home Internet keeps getting better.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Chance to win a thousand dollars enter this nationwide keyword
on our website for the Bills. That's Bills enter it now.
I heard that update. Jack del Rio, who used to
be the coach of the Jags, is gonna go coach
a team in Paris, the Paris Musketeers did They used

(01:19:11):
to be called the Bearcats too. It's a five after five.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. How you doing, I'm oegar.
Thank you for listening by now. Your weekend should be
off to an awesome start. I hope it is, and
hope you have a good, fun weekend. We've had a
good time today, haven't we. We'll update our poll questions.

(01:19:34):
We've kind of been all over the place. There's it's
a little bit of a light news day, a little
bit of a aside from Pat noon and getting mad
at guys who didn't come to practice, There's not a
ton of newsy sort of stuff going on. We're still
waiting to find out who the Bengals defensive coordinator is
going to be. It feels like in the NFL regular

(01:19:55):
season offseason has been underway for less than two weeks.
It feels like the whole cycle is moving very slowly.
And I look, there's hire the right guy. Don't hire
somebody just to hire somebody to cross it off and
get it done quickly. And you know, we'll see if
after the National Championship game on Monday night, if if
Al Golden becomes the Bengals defensive coordinator. It does feel

(01:20:17):
like it feels like the teams are interviewing Did I
see the Jets have interviewed eighteen people? The Jets of
the Bears one of those teams I saw, have interviewed
eighteen people. It feels like teams are doing with head
coaching positions, interviewing a lot more candidates, which can either
be good or bad, I guess, depending on your perspective.
But no news on the Bengals defensive coordinator or for

(01:20:40):
that matter, any of their other coaching vacancies. Will We'll
see if things change next week. We'll also see if
things intensify between the Dallas Cowboys and Dion Sanders. Now,
I think Deon Sanders in college football is awesome, and
I didn't like how he handled some of the criticism

(01:21:02):
that he got earlier this year, not taking questions from
certain reporters. I thought that was bush league. But for
the most part, I love Deon Sanders. The college football coach,
and it's interesting, like if you pay attention to that program,
and I'm the first to admit, relative to what they
have accomplished on the field, the coverage has at times

(01:21:23):
been excessive. I watched their bowl game against BYU, and
I saw folks complaining that they're barely even mentioning the
BYU team that is throttling them, and I thought that
was fair. It felt like a commercial for Colorado football
while they were losing a game pretty lopsided fashion. But
I think I think it's I think he runs a

(01:21:45):
really good program. It feels like he's got some real
old school sensibilities. It feels like it feels like he is,
as they say about the right things. Travis Hunter's the
greatest college hooble player I've ever seen, so, but more
than I love it for a lot of different reasons,
not the least of which is it feels like a

(01:22:08):
lot of people are running from college football. And I
said this about Bill Belichick taking the job at UNC.
I don't know how much it's going to work, but
I think in this age where a lot of people
are running from college football and running from college sports
because of the environment that we're in, and it's just
not for them, which is okay. I think it's cool
that you have Bill Belichick running into college football and

(01:22:29):
Deon Sanders having in recent years run into college football
and this year had had success and their team was
and I watched him against UC and Boulder and then
paid attention throughout the course of the season really well
coached for the most part, really fundamentally sound and fun
to watch. So I think Deon Sanders coaching college football
is fun. Deon Sanders, though, coaching in the NFL is

(01:22:52):
also interesting because you know, he is Deon Sanders. He
is one of the biggest sports personalities of my lifetime.
It's also an NFL Hall of Famer, and it was
a decent Major League Baseball player, Like this is an
iconic sports figure who's gone on to be a successful

(01:23:13):
college coach. Can he add successful NFL head coach to
that extraordinary resume. I don't know. I'd be interested in
finding out. That said, if you think the Dallas Cowboys
get talked about too much, especially if you watch the

(01:23:33):
Shouty shows where they scream at each other about sports
and love to yell at each other about the Cowboys,
if you think the Dallas Cowboys get talked about too much,
and you think Dion Sanders and Colorado gets talked about
too much. Let's marry the two. It'll be. And for
the most part, I don't watch the shouty shows. The

(01:23:57):
shouty shows to me just seem to not really celebrate
what makes sports fun.

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
And I.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
Get lots of sports content in other places, but the
shouty shows do have. And I'm talking about you know,
First Take and then all those shows on FS one
where they they rarely seem to be enjoying sports and
more like they come from a places of anger that
I don't understand. But you know those shows, they play
the hits and they'll talk about Lebron James all the time,

(01:24:24):
and they'll talk about the Cowboys all the time. And
when they do talk college football, it's usually been Colorado
and Deon Sanders. Imagine marrying the two. Deon Sanders with
the Cowboys. Just the speculation that he may end up
there has already kicked those shows in the hyper drive.
I'm sure I can't imagine what it would be like
him actually coaching the Dallas Cowboys. But as much as

(01:24:48):
I like Deon Sanders and college football, and I think
he's good for college football and it's interesting having him
run that program in college football. I think him like
he's he has been obviously a successful pro and college
football player. I think he was a successful Major League
baseball player. I think he has at two schools now

(01:25:08):
been a successful college football coach. Can you add successful
NFL head coach to it? I'd be very interested in
finding out. Eleven minutes after five o'clock, Joey Vado got
a tattoo. Joey Vado had a tattoo already, but he
got a new tattoo.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
And it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Is being written about. Quote pays homage to the city
of Cincinnati. It is being described in a piece in
Cincinnati dot com. Is a postcard ask Tech two and
it's been reposted by the Reds. Joey wrote in the
social media caption and owed to the city that I

(01:25:50):
love the Queen City and you can go find it
on Joey vados social media accounts and the Reds have
put it on theirs and it's Cincinnati now it does
it looks like a version of Cincinnati that I'm not
entirely familiar with, because it shows some buildings that don't exist.
But whatever, it's the thought that counts. It's the spirit

(01:26:11):
of the tattoo. Maybe he has an explanation, and I'm
sure we'll hear it one day. Why the tattoo looks
the way it does. But he wrote in the caption,
this tattoo features the distinct Cincinnati skyline and a map
of the city, and he adds that he chose there
are hearts on the tattoo. He put hearts on locations
that he cares deeply for, including GABP Freestore, Food Bank,

(01:26:36):
the Red's Youth Academy, Cincinnati Children's and he writes, Now,
no matter where life takes me, the city I leve
will always be with me, which is pretty nice. Good
for him.

Speaker 2 (01:26:47):
Our good friend shot it looks it looks like Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:50):
It does kind of look like Pittsburgh. I'll admit that
he got the tattoo in New York. Now. I don't
have any tattoos. I have no interest in getting any tattoos.
Not my thing. If it's your thing, fine to each
their own. But if I was gonna get the city
of Cincinnati as a tattoo, I might I might do

(01:27:12):
it in the city of Cincinnati. I might find a
Cincinnati tattoo artist to give me like my Cincinnati skyline tattoo.
I guess he got it done in New York. And
it does. There's like you could you could see like
the way the Ohio River's shaped, and you could see
some of the buildings. But it looks like a It

(01:27:32):
looks like if Cincinnati and Pittsburgh gave birth to a city.
That's the tattoo. And fine, it's it's cool looking. I'm
not sure it's completely accurate representation of the city, but whatever,
it's the thought that counts. It's all about the sentiment.
And the sentiment Joey says is you know, he loves Cincinnati,

(01:27:55):
and I think in turn, Cincinnati loves him, which is great.
But can you imagine what the relationship between Joe Evado
and Cincinnati would be like had his team won while

(01:28:18):
he was here? Like this is the sad part to me.
And I could apply this to a conversation about where
the Reds and Bengals are going to go moving forward, winning,
not winning, making the roster better, keeping tea whatever, But
this is and when Joe Evado was let go by

(01:28:38):
the Reds, which is you know basically what happened. And
then again when he retired, we are talking about somebody
that I for me selfishly but personally one of my
five all time favorite Reds hands down, one of my
five all time favorite Reds players, and I think primarily
because you know, and the second half is of his career.

(01:28:59):
First part of his career, it was like they finally
have a star. They finally have a homegrown star, right.
I remember talking about that in two thousand and nine
and twenty ten, like this franchise had not developed into many,
like legitimate stars, and then they did. And then I
you know, he came to be the best player on

(01:29:19):
a team that I loved, the twenty ten team, which
was I love that team to this day because it
was the first good team that I got a chance
to talk about professionally on a daily basis. And he
was the you know, the best player in a team
that got to the postseason, and you know, I hadn't
seen the Reds play in the postseason like anybody else
in fifteen years. And then there was just a way

(01:29:42):
that he would go about things that I thought was interesting.
And later in his career he came off as a
guy who just didn't take life that seriously, which I
really appreciate. And also there was kind of a Corey
dillonfield to him, where, boy, this team really stinks in
the second half of his career, but I could at
least watch Joey Vado do cool stuff. And so he
is one of my absolute favorite players. But when he

(01:30:04):
retired and when he left here, I talked a lot
about you know, I think Joey Vada is a Hall
of Famer, but he's the best REDS player who has
no real hard connection to team success. Now that doesn't
ignore the fact that they did win the division twice

(01:30:25):
while he was here. He was on a terrific team
in twenty twelve that just obviously couldn't close out the Giants,
And he was on a team in twenty thirteen that
won ninety games and played in a playoff game. And
he was on that team in twenty ten which won
the division and played the Phillies. And in twenty twenty
he was here when they made the playoffs as a
seventh seed in the drive through season. But compared to

(01:30:48):
other Reds grades, at least you know, all those other
guys who have their jersey numbers retired played in the
World Series, not all of them won. Or you know,
if you think of the guys who are most closely
associated with this franchise, you think of their role in

(01:31:10):
team success, whether it's the guys from the seventies or
players like Barry Larkin and Eric Davis, guys like that.
And Eric Davis obviously doesn't have his number retired. But
you think of the most beloved and cherished and celebrated
and revered figures, you think of their individual accomplishments, but
you connect them to the team winning. And with Joey,

(01:31:31):
you don't do that, and yet there is still this
relationship that is awesome and will last forever right between
Joey Vado and the city of Cincinnati. Could you imagine
how cool, how awesome it would be and how much
more he would be celebrated had the Reds won while
he was here. So you can't go back in time

(01:31:54):
and put Joey on better teams. What you can do
is sure that the next beloved Cincinnati sports figure Red's player,
Bengals player is mostly identified with team success. Part of
what makes Joey Vado unique is that he had some

(01:32:15):
awesome seasons on some just brutally bad clubs, and again
like he was the main reason to watch some of
those clubs. But it kills me to this day that
they wasted him, and that when you think of him,
one of the first things that comes to mind is

(01:32:36):
not what he did in a World Series or what
he did to help win a National League title. You
think of him. Existing on teams that lost ninety games
might not be the first thing you think of, but
the success was limited. So now moving forward, iconic players

(01:32:56):
who you hope the city becomes attached to and who
you hope grow an attachment to the city, ensure that
that relationship is even better because the team wins. Nineteen
minutes after five o'clock. I got a nasty email because
of my Paris Musketeers joke. Your life is good if

(01:33:19):
at nine minutes after five o'clock on a Friday afternoon,
the thing that makes you most mad is my Paris
Musketeers joke. Sensitive people ma at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com,
you know you do run into sensitive people. The Paris
Musketeers joke is a reference to that Tennessee middle school

(01:33:41):
that changed it's name to Musketeers because they changed their
name from Bearcats because they got into some legal war
with UC over the use of their their marks, so
to speak, and a lot of people pretended to be
big mad about that. Now they're the Musketeers, which awesome
for them. So it was just really not worth getting

(01:34:01):
mad about. You're not supposed to have to explain the jokes,
but for my man Isaac here, thanks for the email.
That's what this was about. Twenty minutes after five o'clock
five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty and eight
sixty six seven two three seven seven six on a

(01:34:21):
very light day, Tarren, I just got twelve minutes out
of Joey Vado's tattoo. I will you know that we
had the talk back before from God who was worried
that I'm I've been beating myself up a little bit
too much and perhaps finds me to be a little
bit too self deprecating. There aren't many people who can
do twelve minutes on Joey Vado's tattoo.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
I have to say that segment Hall of a one
put that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
Yeah, if I ever, if I ever am nominated for
a Marconi which Marconi Award winners nominate themselves, which is
stupid if I'm ever up for any sort of award,
but put that one on the reel. He mo goat
on a slow news day, twelve minutes out of Joey
Vado's Pittsburgh tattoo on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:35:04):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:35:09):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. Don't let injuries
slow you down. The UC Health orthopedics and sports medicine
experts can help keep you moving. Schedule a same day
appointment at UCHealth dot com. Westbound two seventy five at
seventy one, the right lane blocked off from an accident.
That's got traffic stop and go back from Montgomery Road

(01:35:30):
looking at a three minute delay. The off ramp to
southbound seventy one is also blocked off as a result
of that accident. I'm at Ezlek with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
Is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moegar. By the way, we
are here Monday, and we'll look ahead to the college
football Playoff National Championship game Buck Eyes v Irish, which
I think is going to be a pretty lopsided game
in favor of Scarletting Gray see five one three fifteen

(01:36:04):
thirty and uh eight sixty six seven two three seven
seven sixth I have babbled incessantly all afternoon long. I
think the right thing to do is to give somebody
else a chance. So let's see what Dave has David reading.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. How's it going, Hey, he's
going good.

Speaker 3 (01:36:21):
Mo enjoyed your show yesterday, listened to the whole thing,
and now getting chance to call. Yeah, you could do
it on Thursday, we were not. Yeah, I'm gonna touch
on two things you talked about yesterday. One of them. Uh,
I got to really laugh out of uh Chad Brendall
when you asked him about He's still considers you see,
having a good defense, and he's so I want to

(01:36:44):
tell you something though, he said, uh uh yeah, you
can play all defense, what the guys in pretty good
offense of the league they're in. That's what me and
my brother Scott always said. It's about you see his
troubles in the tournament. You play all the good defense
you want, but the teams you're playing against are pretty
good offense, so you can't put the ball in the hoop.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
Here in a little bit of trouble when you're when
you're playing defense against guys who have a chance to
play in the NBA, they're gonna score on you.

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
That's I always do this in the NCAA tournament, Like
I look at the teams that have NBA players and
it's like, all right, well, when are they going to
play one of them? And if you look at at
oftentimes it's been a guy in the NBA who's going
to play in the NBA who has kind of, you know,
been been the guy that you know ended their season.
And yeah, I mean, look, I do think you see

(01:37:34):
has a good defensive team, but there are going to
be times where that's not enough. It certainly wasn't against Kansas.
They held the Jayhawks to fifty four points and lost
by fourteen, didn't come close to winning. So, yeah, they're
good defensive. I think they're genuinely a good defensive team.
I'd like to see him score more off their defense,
but the ceiling is low if the offensive issues persist.

(01:37:55):
I don't think there's any denying that.

Speaker 3 (01:37:57):
Yeahs frustration. I just had a laugh that we felt.
It's a big weekend for basketball. Course, I'm a big
UC fan, Uh. Big for the Nors too. They got
right state. Uh my nephew, Shannon place for that. I
think you might remember him cam Minor.

Speaker 1 (01:38:14):
I've heard of him.

Speaker 3 (01:38:16):
You have heard of him.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
I heard of him. Was he any good?

Speaker 5 (01:38:19):
He was?

Speaker 3 (01:38:20):
He was decent the shootball a little.

Speaker 1 (01:38:22):
Bit, A little bit, yeah, but not you talk about
a guy who couldn't play defense, probably Shannon.

Speaker 3 (01:38:29):
That's my case on that one. Yeah, but that's a
big game. And how big would be for Zavi and
avel markt they could do it. Dave should have been
the first time. But what I want to talk to
you about was you talked about Bob Uger and uh
and uh you you were saying how you used to
listen to him. Uh, you, being sort of a nerd,
listened to the baseball broadcast. I'm older than you. I

(01:38:53):
I had a baseball card, believe it or not, a
lot of the kid and like most kids walking up
face of the earth, you know, uh, the parents one
the throw way to a baseball car that would be
millionaires right now. He that so I was always enthrall
with him. And they started being on the Johnny Carson Show,
and he was just he sort of reminds of you
a little bit with Wasn't that worthy to chrissy a

(01:39:15):
humor or whatever? I am? You always get tacking. I
kick out of you. How you do that with yourself?

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
Wait a minute, did did you? Did you just in
a public forum compare me to Bob you?

Speaker 3 (01:39:25):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
I think my career is over. It's never going to
be better than that.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
Because the way you get this, the way you know.
But he was funny how you put himself down stuff.
You sort to do that yourself. But two of the
funniest things my memory kind of said I seen on
Sports Center, but I remember before that I've seen that.
First thing was he always cracked me up, he said,
and they said he was on he was going to
die cards like a hundred times. I didn't realize that many.

(01:39:52):
I remember seeing him a lot, but a hundred times incredible.
But what I wanted to talk about was the one
the funny stories when he asked him what was highlight
of his career on Johnny did you said he once
seen a fan fall out of the top deck of the.

Speaker 1 (01:40:09):
Yeah, he goes, he goes, We're two highlights. One, I
saw a fan fall out of the upper deck in
Philadelphia and too I got out of a rundown against
the mess.

Speaker 3 (01:40:17):
That's the other one. I don't remember. I remember him
saying that one. But that's that's hilarious that he just Uh,
I was really broken hard. And when I see he
died yesterday, he's I remember if ninety is anything. On
Sports Center a few months ago, I was watching, Uh
he had something about Pete Roaden and him about that,
and it was just, uh, you know, he's just he
was just fantastic. And uh, I always like you said,

(01:40:37):
you you you tend to uh do that about Babel
always got a strange the kid always liked the backup
players for some reason. I must just peter my heart
did that. My two favorite all time Reds players are
probably guy you never guys, you never heard of sixty
the guy a backup verst base named Fred Whitfield, and
uh guy in the seventy named Joe Haig through a

(01:41:00):
two favorite. Wow, I only hit thing for you the NFL.
It's alway from their backups or whatever. But uh, I
guess because you was a backup catcher and and I
had two hundred ballants. Real quick, I want to ask
you one question do you think uh, now he's uh
in the uh Heaven's field of dreams? Do you think uh,

(01:41:21):
with his two hundred bayards, he'll be playing that game?
Or is he gonna have a Is he gonna have
a front row sheet? The broadcast a game behind the mic?

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
I would like to envision Vince Gully and Bob Buker
and Joe knuxall sharing a three man booth uh calling
calling a game in heaven. That that the the vision
of that makes me, UH makes me smile. You know,
Bob Buker was on the Tonight Show UH sixty two
times and and I mean think about it, the can
can you think about that? Here's a guy. He becomes

(01:41:53):
renowned for being on the Carson Show. He appears in movies,
he's on a on a sitcom that lasted, you know,
five or six years. He's doing all these commercials and
yet still he's calling. Maybe it wasn't one hundred and
sixty two, but he's basically the primary radio voice of
a major league baseball team. That that sort of thing
is remarkable to me. And I was watching late last

(01:42:17):
night his his Hall of Fame speech won the Ford
Seed Frick Award in two thousand and three, and I
don't think I had ever seen it, and if I had,
I had seen bits and pieces of it. So it
was It's one of the funniest things you'll ever watch.
And apparently was totally nonscripted, like he didn't write a speech.

(01:42:37):
He just went up there and does a twenty minute
comedy routine. Just awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:42:43):
And he said he said all the commercials and all
he did, he still couldn't wait to get back to
do the baseball and how much he loved baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
Yeah, and was a you know, I think everybody knows
Bob Buker. The personality was a good technical play by
play announcement. You know, uh three two game, bottom of
the ninth inning, two on, two out. He's not doing
stand up comedy. He's telling you what's happening, and he's
doing it as well as anybody as well as a

(01:43:11):
Marty Brennan or a Vincecully. Like I listened to Bob
Costas on MLB Network yesterday, talked about Bob Bucher and
he goes, you know, he what what What nobody realizes
that didn't listen to him is he was a terrific
technical play by player as good as anybody. And yes
he could weave in humor and storytelling when the game

(01:43:32):
got out of hand, but when the moment demanded it,
and when he had to rise to the occasion and
call the game and add some analysis, he was as
good as anybody. And uh that that that era, that
that personality people like that. That is a dying, dying
breed and and that that makes me sad.

Speaker 3 (01:43:52):
He's one of my heroes in the broadcads business, and
he just love seens you humor and had a great voice.
He did a great job in the nineties on Me
and Beast did.

Speaker 1 (01:44:01):
Yeah, he did NBC Baseball in the late nineties with
Bob Costas and Joe Morgan, and it was great because
Joe Morgan was really serious and technical and fine and
it was it was, and then Bob Yuker was the opposite.
So you had like this serious, kind of hardcore analysis
from Joe Morgan, who was a terrific broadcaster in his

(01:44:22):
own right, and then Bob Yucker would certainly add analysis,
but would would have a joke. And it actually worked
out with Bob Costas kind of the anchor guy, it
worked out really really well, and I remember those I
remember those broadcasts. Well, Dave, I got to run, man.
Thank you. I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:44:39):
Go.

Speaker 1 (01:44:40):
If you're bored this weekend. I mean there's an endless
array of stuff on YouTube Bob Uker and again if
you didn't, I mentioned this and put it on social media.
Marty's second to last game when Uker sat in with
with Marty and Tom was just awesome. Awesome. It is
twenty five from five o'clock. I'm oegar. This is ESPN

(01:45:03):
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:45:05):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the uc Health
Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:45:13):
Don't let injuries slow you down. The UC Health orthopedics
and sports medicine experts can help keep you moving. Schedule
a same day appointment at UCHealth dot com. The two
right lanes blocked off from an accident eastbound two seventy
five at I seventy five on the Ohio side Glendale
Milford Road. It's an accident over at Plainfield Road and

(01:45:35):
eastbound two seventy five after Loveland Madeira Road. Accident on
the right shoulder. I'm at eazelic with traffic this week.

Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
I'll do that. Sports headlines are a service of a
Kelsey chevalet, home of a lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee
credit approval from their family to yours life kelseyshow dot com.
Bat noonan's mad that some of his players aren't showing
up for practice. You got Kubo, Lucho, a Costa and

(01:46:06):
look at Oriota, look at Loriato. So there you go.
There there that that's a sports headline right there. Uh,
here's another sports headline. There's a bunch of college basketball
games this weekend. There's one in the area tonight, Ohio
State battling Indiana. That game in Columbus tomorrow. You see
his home for Arizona State. The sun Devils are like

(01:46:29):
the Bearcats, one and four in the league game at
two o'clock tomorrow afternoon on seven hundred WLW, Xavier is
on the road to take on Marquette. First back to
back road games for the Musketeers. XU is one two
straight Marquette coming off a narrow, thrilling win over to
Paul two o'clock tomorrow on the double Nickel fifty five

(01:46:50):
k r C. What what what show does that push
out of the way? Did Marilynd Harris still on fifty
five KR. S No, I don't know. Wow, what is
on fifty five carre see a two o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:47:04):
I'm not sure, but I'm not sure if Austin has
in formed she might not be with us anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:47:10):
Maryland, Marilyn Harris has passed. Now, see, you're gonna make
me look that up because I'm gonna feel I'm gonna
feel bad. This is coding your friend Austin so well,
Austin knows everything happening at the radio station I'm looking

(01:47:31):
at writing her LinkedIn page would suggest still still, I
don't know anyway, The Xavier game is on tomorrow on
fifty five KR see at two o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:47:39):
First, like Dave Ramsey or some might get pushed out of.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
For years and years and years and years from one
o'clock until four o'clock in the afternoon on fifty five
cars he was cooking with Maryland. I grew up listening
to that with my grandma on Saturday afternoon. If you
walked into her house, she was listening to cooking with Maryland.
A delightful woman. And I pray to God still with us.

(01:48:05):
I think if ed we would have heard, we would
have heard of her demise. Had something happened to Maryland.
I hope nothing has. I hope she's okay, but will
not be on tomorrow, and I don't think he's been
on for quite a while. But the Xavier game will
be Joe and Byron will be on and I think, actually,
as an homage to Maryland at the under twelve minute
media time out, will be exchanging their favorite pie recipes. Tomorrow,

(01:48:29):
it's Kentucky battling Alabama at noon. That means those gambling
shows in the morning with the guys like sound like
they're talking in the back of like a Brooklyn pizzeria,
those shows get bumped for UK basketball for Buzz Baker
and Cameron Mills and everybody tip off at noon tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, NKU battles Right State Norse of loss three

(01:48:49):
straight two o'clock on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. Also tomorrow,
Miami trying to remain undefeated in the MAC the RedHawks
taking on Kent State Hockey. Tonight downtown, the Cyclones take
on Maine. Have I mentioned its Hockey Bank Night at
the game? By the way, the Cyclones, if you go
to their website, they're like promo giveaways always look cool,

(01:49:14):
including the hockey bank. If I didn't have plans tonight,
I go down to watch some pucks and get a
hockey bank. The NFL playoffs will resume tomorrow. The Divisional
round Houston and Kansas City is the first game, four
point thirty tomorrow afternoon on a seven hundred WLW. And
then it's the nightcap, the Washington Commanders taking on the

(01:49:36):
Lions in Detroit. On Sunday, you get the Rams and
Eagles in Philadelphia where it looks like it's gonna snow.
And also the night game the best game of the weekend,
I think for most of us. Bill's Ravens Za Flowers
doubtful after injuring his knee in the regular season finale.
For that one, I neglected to mention. Tomorrow, the Dayton

(01:49:59):
Flyers will host the Loyola of Chicago Ramblers. Now, is
Sister Jean still with us? She's still a bit because
the coach isn't there anymore. He's at Oklahoma portermoser. Sister
Jean was, you know, the when Loyola made the Final four,
everybody got excited about hers.

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
She I believe she is still with you.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
She was like one hundred years old, so it's a
good question. I hope she's still with us, like miss
Harris on fifty five Carosee she is.

Speaker 2 (01:50:26):
Wow, one hundred and five Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:50:29):
Sister Jean is still with us. Yes, Austin just sent
me an eBay link to a Marilyn Harris Cooking School
cookbook that you could buy.

Speaker 2 (01:50:39):
For forty signed signed Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:50:45):
When I was just starting my radio career and I
would engineer remotes every almost every weekend, and I would
get assigned occasionally to a Cooking with Maryland remote and
we would do them from BIGS, remember BIGS, the grocery
chain BIGS. And we were at BIGS in what at

(01:51:06):
the time was the Forest Fair Mall, which I don't
think is anything right now. And so we're there at
BIGGS and Marylyn's doing her show and let's be painfully honest,
the content of which was not that interesting to me
until some advertiser brought over like a cart of wine bottles,

(01:51:27):
and I remember asking Marylyn, like, any shot we're going
to open up one. And I'm not a big wine drinker,
Any shot we're going to open up one of those,
and Godlover a corkscrew came out and suddenly within ten minutes,
like four of these bottles were open, and I had
a red Solo cup and that was a blast, probably
the last time I really like sought to drink wine.

Speaker 3 (01:51:48):
So I.

Speaker 1 (01:51:51):
That was my Maryland.

Speaker 2 (01:51:52):
Who do we have to talk to to let us
produce with engineer? These remotes?

Speaker 1 (01:51:55):
Well, we don't have them anymore. Wow, I mean somebody
has engine you when you go on remotes, Mike Mills,
have you stuck here in the studio?

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
I don't get none of it.

Speaker 1 (01:52:06):
Well, well we you know, we go to twin peaks
and beat ups and you should join us. So, yeah,
you join us for that. That'd be fun. We're gonna
have to call off and not make money. I don't
know how that works. I'm not I'm barely in charge
of myself. It is uh, I don't know. I want
to be like you make money and work, but not here.
You want to make money and you want to be
like me. Those are two diametrically opposite goals. It is

(01:52:29):
a quarter to six on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:52:32):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:52:40):
Don't let injuries slow you down. The UCE health orthopedics
and sports medicine experts can help keep you moving. Schedule
a same day appointment at UCHealth dot com. On eastbound
two seventy five at I seventy five, the Ohio side
right two lanes are blocked off from an accident on
Glendale Milford Road. An accident this one over at Plainfield Road.

(01:53:03):
He's found Norwood lateral right lane blocked from a crash
after Montgomery Road. I at Eazelac with traffic this report.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
It is a nine away from six. This is ESPN
fifteen to thirty pole questions on this show on x
R A service of a United Heartland insurance where they
will ensure your home, They'll ensure your life, I'll ensure
your car, They'll ensure your business, They'll ensure you uh
I NS dot com two of them. Today, ESPN has

(01:53:33):
given the Reds mid off season grade a C minus.
They've done this with every team. They didn't just either.
The folks at ESPN didn't say, you know what we're
gonna do today, We're gonna single out the Reds. They
gave mid off season grades to every team as even
nice I linked to the story on my question if
if you want at mogar C minus, is this a

(01:53:55):
grade that should be higher, should it be lower? Or
is it just about right? Sixty point eight percent of
you say, well, that's just about right, and uh, I
would agree. I would agree with that the other one.
And I did this as a response to what Jason
Williams wrote in The Inquirer answering a question about whether
or not we're ever gonna find out what college athletes
are being paid? Do you want to know? Do you

(01:54:17):
want to know? Do you want to know how much
college basketball and football players are being paid? This is
as close a vote as we have had in quite
a while. Uh, fifty point five percent of you say yes,
Forty nine point five percent of you say no. Count me.
I'ven't voted. I don't vote my own poet questions. I
don't not like I'm not gonna run away and avoid it,

(01:54:38):
like if somebody tells me, hey, here's what Brendan Sorosby
makes fine, But as a general rule, I'm I'm I'm good,
And it's not like if I know it's gonna make
me man, I just I don't. We do this in
pro sports all the time, and sometimes it really stinks,
like a guy will have a good game, will he

(01:54:59):
should he's making eighteen million dollars, like I don't know,
and it cool the guy just had a good game
or yeah, a player might be off to a slow
starter or have a bad game, and it becomes about
what they make. And I that's not the most fun
prism through which I think, at least to talk about sports,
and I don't. I can't imagine talking about a college

(01:55:22):
basketball player from that standpoint, like, well you had it
went one for eleven from the field, and even for
that kind of money, I'm good. We're gonna get to
a point, especially with public universities and revenue sharing where
excuse me, we know what they're getting paid. But uh,
I'm okay. Not I'm I'm good. I'm ignorance is bliss,

(01:55:45):
so to speak. And that's why I'm such a happy
and blissful person, because many have said I'm deeply, deeply ignorant.
So you could still vote all maybe until tomorrow afternoon.
It's twenty four hour pole question at moeger So there
you go. Thanks again to United Heartland Assurance. We're done.
I had another hour in me, but I guess that's

(01:56:06):
not going to happen this podcast. You can listen to
the podcast over and over and over and over again
if you want. We are doing a show on Monday.
We'll be here. Actually, I'm doing my show and Lances
Lances is only a half hour, so not exactly bending
over backwards, triple time, triple time. Yes, I'll be here Monday.
Looking forward to that. In the meantime, have an awesome weekend.

(01:56:29):
Anything you might have missed or want to relive, even
if you hate listen, go to the iHeartRadio app. Thanks
to our friends at Long Neck Sports Grill, have an
awesome weekend, Thank you for listening, Thanks to Tarrn, and
we'll talk to you Monday. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati sports station.