5/20/24 - The Mo Egger Show

People want David Bell fired and I don't understand why, The Cincinnati athlete who is best at their job plus Guess the Foot!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
In fifteen thirty. Hey, what'sup good atternoon? I'm mowegger. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank youso much for listening. I hope you
had a great weekend. I hopeyour week is off to an awesome start.
You got a lot to get totoday, a lot including a Colin

(00:22):
Cowherd take on Joe Burrow that Iguess was just brought to my attention this
weekend. I disagree with the take, but I understand where he's coming from.
That a little bit later on,also in asen I T. Higgins
trade suggestion and the Cincinnati athlete whoright now is the best at doing their

(00:43):
job. FC Cincinnati with a winover the weekend that's now six straight for
the Orange and Blue will spend sometime on that as well. Show preview
video is available on x thanks toour friends at Emery Federal Credit Union.
Emery Federal Credit Union is your creditunion with heart and has been since nineteen
thirty nine. That's eighty five years. Learn more at EMORYFCU dot org.

(01:06):
What a miserable road trip for theReds. There's no other way to put
it, purely miserable. Felt likeit lasted about three and a half weeks.
Frankly, it doesn't feel like theyactually won three games three and seven,
three straight losses, a road tripthat included two more guys getting hurt

(01:27):
and having to go on the injuredlist, three walkoff losses including yesterday's,
four one run losses including yesterday's,and more wasted starting pitching. Hunter Green
was good yesterday. We're gonna spendsome time one Hunter today in just a
bit. The Reds are now nineteenand twenty eight. Now, I know

(01:49):
we've done this since the beginning ofthe season, the NonStop comparisons to that
iconic eighty two and eighty team fromlast year. I'll do it again if
you have to. The Reds rightnow are one game behind where the Reds
of twenty twenty three were through fortyseven games. Last year's team was twenty
and twenty seven. This year's teamis nineteen and twenty eight. It was

(02:12):
right around now that last year's teamstarted to kick things in the gear.
Remember last season, they went toWrigley Field swept the Chicago Cubs on Memorial
Day weekend. They went on arun after their first forty seven games,
where they won twenty nine of theirnext forty one They won twenty nine to

(02:34):
twelve over their next forty one games, starting with game number forty eight for
the Reds this year, game numberforty eight is tomorrow. Do we think
this year's team is going to dothat as currently constructed, It's hard to
believe that. The answer is yes. This team has all sorts of issues,
mainly offensive issues. Again, thestarting pitching has been fine. It

(02:58):
hasn't been great. It's been fine. This team is wasting fine starting pitching.
It's wasting starting pitching. Had lastyear's team gotten this year's starting pitching,
it's probably a playoff team if youthink about it. Nobody is immune
to the criticism. Will Benson's turnedinto a pumpkin. Spencer Steer had a

(03:21):
great at bat in the seventh inningyesterday. He's kind of turned into a
pumpkin. Jamer Candelario has been aflop as a free agent signing Jonathan India.
We keep clinging to well, hewas Rookie of the Year in twenty
twenty one. Not even close tothat so far in twenty twenty four.
Elie Dela Cruz was atrocious yesterday Froma productivity standpoint. He's certainly dropped pretty

(03:45):
significantly here. Really, the onlyguy that is hitting is Tyler Stevenson.
Nobody else is This is a clubthat right now is running out there the
likes of Mike Ford and Stuart Fairchildand Santiago Espinal. Let's be honest.
Is there a good team in MajorLeague Baseball? Is there a good team?

(04:08):
A good team, meaning contending team, team that's kind of shot of
playing in October? Any of thoseteams giving any of those three dudes significant
playing time. The Reds aren't onlygiving Mike Ford's significant playing time. They've
got him batting third. Think ofthe players who have betted third for the
Cincinnati Reds. We're talking MVPs,we're talking all stars, we're talking Hall

(04:33):
of famers. Mike Ford is thelatest three battery. He's the latest in
that long line of Red's legends who'sbatting third. Mike Ford is batting third.
That's not a criticism of David Bell. It's kind of a reflection of
the team, the roster, anda nineteen and twenty eight start. So

(04:57):
here's what I want to know today. Excuse me. Five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty another frustratingweekend in Los Angeles. Let's be honest,
the math is starting to get really, really hard. They're nine hunder
if you want them to just getto last season's win total. Last season,

(05:18):
the Reds won eighty two games.It was not good enough to win
the division. It was not goodenough to qualify them for the postseason eighty
two and eighty if you're using lastyear as the standard, okay to do
that. Let's see. Let's dothe math here. They have what one
hundred and fifteen games remaining? Onehundred and fifteen games? They have nineteen

(05:41):
wins. They have to win sixtythree sixty three of the remaining one hundred
and fifteen games. I'm doing thison the fly. What's one fifteen minus
sixty three, one fifteen minus sixtythree. Let's see take I'm doing this
in my forty eight. Man,you're a lot more optimistic than I am,

(06:08):
given how this team is currently constructed. If you believe this team is
capable of playing the sort of ballthe rest of the way, that's going
to get into eighty two wins,much less something that they would have to
get to to get to the postseason, like minimum eighty five, maybe even
more. How does this change?But here's my question. At the end

(06:30):
of the season. At the endof last year, I think all of
us felt like, boy, thefuture is bright. This thing's going in
the right direction. The Reds havea nice collection of young players. They
gotta get a lot of guys thatlook like they could be a part of
the solution moving forward. And evenif there was some disappointment last year with

(06:50):
how things played out with the startingrotation, you still sort of felt like
they've got a lot of really goodyoung arms. Some of them have yet
to pitch in the big leagues,some of whom have pitched in the big
leagues this year and have pitched quitewell. Andrew Abbott has been fine.
Hunter Green has been more than fine. Another start where he at least gets
you into the seventh. I wouldn'thave brought him back out for the seventh.

(07:12):
Yesterday hit ninety eight pitches, kindof a warm day, a lot
of high leverage pitches that he hadthrown good lineup. I wouldn't have brought
him back out for the seventh.But the decision to have him pitched in
the seventh inning to not come backto bite the Reds. But at the
end of the season last year kindof felt like we all believed, Boy,
things are going in the right direction. The arrow is pointed up,

(07:33):
and even if the Reds don't winbig in twenty twenty four, brighter days
are coming, and they're coming prettysoon. And because the core of the
team is so young, if theyend up getting to the postseason and advancing
in the postseason, it doesn't haveto be a one off, because maybe
they could build something with all theyoung guys they have and the payroll flexibility

(07:56):
they have, maybe they could buildsomething that is kind of amable. Well,
forty seven games later, they're nineunder five hundred. They've had a
ton of injuries. The injury situationis inescapable. It's like the New York
Knicks and the Indiana Pacers a billioninjuries. Those injuries are a reason.

(08:18):
They're not an excuse. They havea lot of guys who haven't performed.
They have growing disaffection being aimed atthe manager. There's a sense, like
a legitimate one, but a sensethat for all the work that Nick Krawl
did and operating under Phil Castellini's mandateto shed payroll and start building a collection

(08:41):
of young dudes that have big leaguefutures. I think there's a genuine sense
that this president of Baseball Operations ismaybe not the most equipped to get this
franchise to the next level. Season'snot over. But if what we have
seen so far this year ends upbeing a version of what we're looking at

(09:09):
at the end of the season,a losing record, another year of not
making the playoffs, another year obviouslyof not advancing in the postseason. If
this is what we're looking at atthe end of this season, are we
still going to say the same thingsabout how the arrow is pointed upward and
the future is bright, and theplan's going to have a payoff and this

(09:31):
is going in the right direction.Are we going to say the same things
at the end of this season thatwe did at the end of last year,
or if you want to make itabout the here and now, if
you believe at the end of lastseason that yeah, it's disappointing that they
didn't make the playoffs, but youknow what, boy, the future is
awfully bright. This is going inthe right direction. Do you feel different

(09:56):
today than you did at the endof September in twenty twenty three. Do
you feel like what we have seenthis season should change your mind about how
you feel about the overall direction ofthe club. Five one, three,
seven, four, nine, fifteenthirty and eight six six, seven zero
two, three, seven, sevensix are our phone numbers? Or do

(10:20):
you go look where they are thisseason not totally unexpected. They've got a
lot of young players, and wherethey are right now this season we shouldn't
hold against this franchise and determining howgood they might be moving forward because of
all the injuries, the suspension toNoelve Marte, all the players that aren't

(10:41):
available, and them having to useMike Ford as a number three hitter.
Have you changed her mind if youthought, boy, the foundation is there,
the future is bright, this isgoing in the right direction. If
you felt that way throughout last summer, throughout the offseason, and as twenty

(11:01):
twenty four began a month and ahalf ago, have you seen enough to
make you change your mind? I'llgive you my answer to that question when
we come back. Lines are open. Five one, three, seven,
four, nine, fifteen thirty.We'll have a poll question. I had
somebody say to me yesterday, boy, it feels like David Bell might be
let go in the off day thathas not happened, Reds and Padres tomorrow

(11:22):
night. My guess is it's notgoing to happen. I'm also at four
h five. This is why youcan't go a decade without being relevant.
What you are feeling, what youare hearing, what you are seeing people

(11:43):
say and write about. The Redsain't about twenty twenty four. It's about
well, the overwhelming majority of thelast thirty years. We've got some Bengals.
A Colin cow heard take on JoeBurrow that I didn't see till this
weekend. I'm gonna play it foryou nonetheless coming up at four to twenty
this afternoon, because I don't agreewith him, but sometimes you could hear

(12:05):
an opinion and not really agree withit, but you at least get where
the person's coming from, because theymake some fair points. We're gonna do
that with Joe and with Colin comingup in the four o'clock hour at moegar
on X. Thanks to our friendsat Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building
healthy, smart, vibrant communities forall. Good to Delta Dental dot com.

(12:28):
If you want David Bell to befired, I want you to put
yourself in the shoes of Nick Crawland Phil Castellini. Next ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati twenty fourafter three on Moegar. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Just posted pole questionon x thanks to our friends at United

(12:50):
Heartland Insurance. Save more money withUnited Heartland Insurance offices in Hamilton, Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky. Check out uhiadot com. It's about David Bell.
It's a very simple question. Youknow, sometimes we complicate these, like
Friday we asked a question about eightydollars pants because of that Scottie Scheffler incident.

(13:11):
Today it's a simple one. Withchanging managers improve the Reds chances of
turning the season around. Vote nowat Moeger. We'll get to the results
in just a bit. By theway, we've got to talk about Cincinnati's
best athlete and it's not who youthink it is. That coming up in
just about ten minutes. So itfelt to me like in the aftermath of

(13:33):
yesterday's loss in Los Angeles, whereagain the Reds don't hit. I mean,
that's that's why they lose. That'swhy you look at all these games
on the road trip. This team'snot losing a lot of ten to nine
slugfests, not losing a whole lotof games where they boy, they battle,
and they the lead goes back andforth. They're losing three to two,

(13:56):
they're losing four nothing, They're losingtwo to one. They're losing because
the team's offense is dreadful, belowleague average across the board. Now,
the offensive issues are amplified by thefact that a lot of guys that we
thought were going to be on thisteam this year, or at least hope
we'll be on this team this year, are not available. No Matt McLain,

(14:16):
no Noelve Marte, no TJ.Friedel down the line. It does
feel like what happened in Los Angelesthis weekend has stirred those who think it's
time to move on from David Bellinto a bit of a frenzy. Like
I legitimately thought maybe I missed something. I got texts yesterday from two friends

(14:39):
of mine after the game after theyget walked off in the tenth asking who's
gonna be the Reds manager on Tuesday? Or how hot is David Bell's seat?
I don't know. Here's what Ido know, They gave him a
three year contract extension last summer,and so maybe you thought that was dumb,

(15:03):
maybe you thought that was the rightmove. I didn't really have a
problem with it. I'm not surethat I would have done three years,
But okay, fine, David Belldid a good job with last year's team,
had one hand tied behind his backbecause of the inexperience, ineffectiveness and
injuries to the pitching staff. Butfine, he gets a contract extension,
no real issue with it. Maybeyou disagreed with it, but it's done.

(15:26):
It's in the past. Imagine thatyour Nick Krawl, the president of
Baseball Operations, David Bell, doesn'tget a contract extension if you're legitimately authorized
to have the powers that the presidentof Baseball Operations has. David Bell doesn't
get that contract extension unless you signoff on it. So your Nick Krawl

(15:52):
didn't just sign off on it.You negotiated it, you proposed it,
you insisted on it getting done.Not in September October, but back it
was July of last year. Yourealize how dumb you're going to look if
forty seven games into the first seasonof his new three year deal after dealing

(16:14):
with all the injuries, including moreon this road trip, you kick him
to the curb. I mean,just like imagine going to the Castellini's.
All right, So I wanted thisnew contract for our manager done, but
now I want to move on lessthan a year later. And so what
we're going to have to do ispay him for the rest of this season,

(16:36):
and pay him for next year,and pay him for the year after
that. I think two things wouldthen happen. Number One, you'd have
to explain, well, what changed, Like, That's what I would want
to know if the RDS moved onfrom David Bell, Like, really,
what changed? You thought he wasthe guy moving forward enough so that he
gave him three years and now we'renot even halfway through the first year of

(17:02):
the new contract, right the extendedpart of his contract. We're not even
through the first year and we're alreadygonna move on. What that would do
maybe more than anything for me ifI'm a Castellini, is okay, Nick,
Well, since the manager that youwanted to keep, you wanted to

(17:23):
extend, got his deal, andnow we have to move on from him,
and you want us to pay himto not work the onus now shifts
to you. I also really justwonder. I know there are folks for
whom David Bell could do no right. I'm not gonna say that I think
he's the world's greatest manager. Ithink he's a pretty decent skipper. I

(17:44):
don't think the Reds have ever everreally underachieved with him as the team's manager.
When they've been okay, they wereexpected to be okay, And when
they've been awful, the expectation wasthat they would be awful. And then
there was last year where they've kindof overachieved. But given who they don't
have, given the overall state ofthe club, a roster that has Mike

(18:07):
Ford batting third, which is notentirely David Bell's decision, I really have
a hard time believing that a managerialchange would suddenly trigger dramatically better results.
The dramatically better results may come downthe road when they start to get healthier.
That's not gonna be because of themanager. But man, more than

(18:29):
anything, if your nick crawl andyou decided last July, yeah, you
know what, this manager's good enough. We're gonna give him a three year
extension. And now you come toyour bosses and say actually no. Ten
months later, let's move on.Doesn't that suddenly shift the onus to you?
Five point three seven nine fifteen thirtyUh a ridiculous T Higgins trade suggestion.

(18:53):
Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirties port
said lines are a service of KelseyChevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to yoursfor life kelseyshev dot Com Off day for
the Reds. The homestand starts tomorrow, first of nine against the Padres.

(19:17):
First of a nine game homestand they'renot playing a nine game series against the
Padres. They're playing a three gameseries against the Padres. Starts tomorrow night.
Andrew Abbott, who was terrific inhis last start on Wednesday against Arizona,
We'll get the ball against Joe Musgrovesix forty tomorrow evening on seven hundred
WLW. Lucho Acosta named to theMLS Team of the Match day for his

(19:40):
role in a pretty complete performance byFC Cincinnati and their victory over Saint Louis
three to one. He had threegoal contributions the first three plus goal contribution
game for an FC Cincinnati player inMLS play, since Brenner and Acosta both
had three on September the tenth,twenty twenty two. Good good win six

(20:06):
in a row for FC Cincinnati.They had a very busy week and they
get two wins in the aftermath ofthe emotional game in Columbus last weekend.
Lucho Acosta like, chances are well, you could say this about any sport
that I talk about. I'm upfrontabout this. The sport that I we
spend time on that I am theleast comfortable talking about is soccer, And

(20:32):
maybe one day I'll get over that. I'm here to admit I didn't really
watch or follow a lot of soccerprior to twenty sixteen. But I think
you could be even more of anewbie than me, watch about a half
of an FC Cincinnati game and arriveat the conclusion that Lucho Acosta is special.

(20:55):
Legitimately, that's not the most outthere take. I think he is
the best athlete at Cincinnati, theathlete in Cincinnati who's best at what they
do. Now you're gonna go,wait a minute, what about Burrow.
Burrow's awesome love Joe Burrow. LoveJoe Burrow. I don't know, man,
there's anybody in Cincinnati sports right nowwhose performances are more bankable than Luco

(21:18):
Acosta. That obviously includes any Redsplayer as well. Good good win for
FC Cincinnati. By the way,we had two very good interviews on this
show, both from the folks atApple TV. We had our buddy Danny
Higgobotham from an MLS season pass onApple TV. He joined us before the
Atlanta match and then before the SaintLouis tilt. Devin Kerr from Apple TV

(21:42):
joined us on Friday. If youmiss those, and we talked in great
detail about Luco. Both interviews,they're available on the iHeartRadio app or on
the podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirtydot com. Podcast of our show,
a service of Long Next Sports GrillLong Come often. Also this I saw

(22:06):
this on X during the break.Uh. Justin Jefferson hasn't signed his contract
extension, but he was not spottedat the team's training facility today for the
start of organized team activities. Thisaccording to ESPN's Adam Schefter, which means
we are likely to get a wholenew round of Justin Jefferson's sightings in Cincinnati.

(22:33):
Is he at the Kenwood Town Center? Is he at Rookwood Commons?
Is he hanging out of the skylineChile, Cincinnati, Twitter slash x do
your thing speaking of wide receivers.So I'm looking today ESPN dot Com.
The real meaningful part not meaningful,but the real like I don't know,

(22:53):
transaction filled part of the off seasonis behind us. We've had the draft,
We've had the bulk of free agency. Teams can still sign guys.
Tyler Boyd just signed with the Titansafter the draft. There are still players
out there. I think it wouldmake sense for the Bengals to go find
another defensive tackle because they could usesome debt at that position. They did
draft a couple of guys, butthey essentially swapped out DJ Reider for Sheldon

(23:18):
Rankins. They could use some debtthere. There are some still free agents
who are still out there. XavianHoward is still onside. Justin Simmons,
the safety is still unsigned. There'sa handful of cornerbacks. Stefan Gilmore is
still unsigned. Ryan Tannehill, forwhat it's worth, is still unsigned.
Adri Jackson is still unsigned. LASCampbell is still out there, Michael Thomas
is still out there, the Janikand Gackway is still out there. Edge

(23:42):
Rusher and I know they're talking inCleveland about maybe adding him to the mix.
ESPN dot com does a piece outliningthe best fits for the remaining unsigned
NFL free agents, and then theydo a bonus category one trade candidate to
watch. Chances are you know whothey listed. It's T Higgins. Best

(24:11):
team fit. Now, this istrue, best team fit Los Angeles Chargers.
I make very few guarantees in life, but I'll do it in this
instance. There is a better chancethat I play for the LA Chargers this

(24:32):
year than T Higgins being traded tothe LA Chargers this year. They're not
trading them. I mean, asas much as we're kind of in the
silly season, and you know,this is when people who cover the NFL
kind of get desperate to create content. There's not a whole lot of stuff
going on, not a lot ofhard news, and so T's gonna be
talked about a lot, justin Jefferson'sgoing to be talked about a lot.

(24:55):
Maybe Trey Hendriton again, even thoughI think he did a pretty good job
last week extinguishing whatever was out thereregarding his silly trade request. T Higgins
is going to be written about.Whenever there is a player who has requested
a trade or there's some amount ofuncertainty regarding that player's future in any one
city, someone, someone will alwaysdecide to use that to I don't know,

(25:18):
create conversation, come up with apiece fill time whatever. T Higgins
is not being traded, But couldyou even for a second imagine trading him
to the Chargers again, If I'ma Chargers fan, hell yeah, sign
me up for T Higgins. I'vegot Lad McConkie, great route runner,

(25:42):
I've got DJ Chark, and nowi have Justin Herbert throwing to T Higgins.
If you're the Bengals, you're notin the business of elevating good teams
to contender status, especially teams youplay on your schedule. Can you imagine

(26:03):
that you trade him to the Chargers, you significantly enhance their chances of being
a bona fide contender. And bythe way, I'm all for the Chargers
being better because it gives the Chiefssome legitimate competition in the AFC West.
But like at some point they're gonnafigure it out with Justin Herbert at some
point, Jim Harball's gonna figure itout with Justin Herbert. Why do I

(26:26):
want to accelerate that timeline by tradinga top line player to a team that
we play, that's on our schedule, that might legitimately be a bonafide wide
receiver target away from entering the conversationthat if I run the Bengals, my
team is in By the way,this is almost moot to talk about because

(26:48):
they're not trading him. Tea isall but said I'm gonna play in Cincinnati
this year. I'm gonna make twentyone and didn't say this, but he's
gonna make twenty one million dollars.He's anticipating playing for the Bengals this year.
Nobody who follows this team thinks atrade is in the offing. It's
something that they would consider. Theywant to win the Super Bowl with t
Higgins. But just imagine for asecond finding out that they traded him to

(27:14):
a team that they play that wouldnow take just by his mere presence on
the team, a significant step forwardin terms of their contention timeline. Why
do I want to we accelerate thattimeline. So I make very few guarantees.
Here's one that I'll go ahead andcomfortably make. They're not trading t

(27:38):
Higgins. That's not the guarantee.The guarantee is they're not trading him to
the Chargers. I can all butguarantee they're not going to trade him at
all. They're not going to tradehim to the Chargers. A quarter to
four on ESPN fifteen thirty, weare five days away, five days away

(28:00):
from one of the biggest days ofthe year. That and people like me
are getting our wish. I'll explainnext ESPN fifteen thirty, travel back into
the NBA. Look, man,go ahead, tarn, go ahead.
What do you want to say.I'm sorry, I have no dog,
no dog in fight. That wastough. Look, man, I am

(28:25):
a reasons guy, not an excusesguy. The Knicks were snake bit in
the postseason. They took advantage ofthe fact that in the Philadelphia series,
Joel Embiid was not himself. TheKnicks were without four dudes who were healthy
at the start of the postseason.Then Jalen Brunsam got hurt during the game.
Plus they didn't have Julius Randall,and so It's very easy to wonder
what if. It's very easy toattribute them losing in the second round as

(28:49):
a two seed in a game sevenat home to all the guys they didn't
have. I don't believe in doingthat. The Indiana Pacers were awesome yesterday.
Awesome. Uh. First of all, that's a really well coached team
offensively. Secondly, they were justdeeper, they were just healthier. They

(29:11):
also had the perfect game plan.That's a really fun team to watch.
Now, I'm a ud grand soI love Obi Toppin. I'm rooting for
the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finalsbecause of Obie Toppin. In a Game
seven at Madison Square Garden, theyshot seventy four percent in the first half.
They forced the issue from a tempoperspective against an opponent that didn't have

(29:34):
enough healthy guys to play at thatpace. I give all the credit in
the world to that Indiana team.I sent it up for Game one,
by the way, for what it'sworth, on Sincy three sixty, I
thought Indiana was gonna win the series. Now you know it hurts. They
were up two oh the Knicks whereit was three to two. They came
this close to winning Game three togo up three to zero, and frankly,

(29:55):
I just I felt like once theydidn't win game six, game seven
was not inevitable, but I didn'tfeel very good about it. I know
there are Pacers fans in our audience. That team's really fun to watch.
They were better, they had moreguys, they had a great game plan.
I hope they give Boston a greatseries. I also felt like if

(30:17):
if you watched the ESPN slash ABCpregame show before the game yesterday, it
was an embarrassment. I grew upa hardcore Knicks fan. I don't talk
about him on this show because nobodycares, but if you happen to watch
that pregame show yesterday, you wouldnot have even known the Pacers were playing.
That was an embarrassment. They spentmore time on and I think Steven

(30:42):
A. Smith is a wonderful televisionperformer who watching that game needed to hear
his PEP talk to the Knicks.They didn't even talk about the Pacers.
They weren't. Afterthought, I saythis as a NIXT guy, so I
thought that show was an embarrassment.I'm very well to say it. I
hope Indiana plays great against Boston.I'm not sure they can beat them four

(31:03):
times. But you're gonna find alot of folks to root for the same
team that I do. Who willnot root for Indiana. I'm rooting for
Obi toppin CJ. McConnell's an absolutepest. Siakam and Miles Turner, we're
both awesome. In that series,Indiana was the better team. Yes,
they were healthier, but they werethe better team, and they had a
great, I mean legitimately great gameplan yesterday. You combine that with the

(31:26):
shooting, Like the shooting performance inthe first half of that game by the
Indiana Pacers was incredible. I've ina Game seven a team playing on the
road, I've never seen anything likethat. Then you know you have what
you had in the second game,which is the defending champions on their floor,
are up twenty in a Game sevenin the second half, and they

(31:48):
lose to a Minnesota team that didn'tget a great performance by Anthony Edwards equally
remarkable, if not more so.But yeah, I know we have Pacers
fans on our audience. They wouldwhatever credit you want them to get,
I will give it to them becausethey were they were terrific in that they
were the better team in the series. They were the better team in Game
one, which they lost, theyweren't the better team in Game two,

(32:12):
and they got throttled in Game five. They were a better team in the
series, so they deserve to win. And I think you're doing that team
a disservice of all you talk aboutare the New York injuries injury shape every
season in every sport. This onewas no different. So and then from
my perspective, I had a blastwatch and that Nick team this year was
awesome. I know nobody cares,but I do know we have Pacers fans

(32:36):
in our audience, So congratulations,and I hope that team plays great against
the Boston Celtics, you know lostin yesterday's Red's loss was well, how
well Hunter Green pitched. We'll dothat coming up at four h five.
By the way, one of thebiggest days of the year is coming Friday.

(32:59):
You know what I'm talking about,Right four to thirty three Friday afternoon,
we are announcing the winner of thisyear's Mow your Lawn contest. That's
right. Thanks to Baxslatractor and RiverbendMusic Center, you still have time to
sign up. We're gonna give awaya brand new lawnmower and tickets to every

(33:20):
Riverbend show in twenty twenty four,and I'll deliver the prizes to your house.
And I always offer to cut thegrass of our winners if they provide
adequate refreshment. We're announcing the winneron Friday for thirty three, but you've
got to sign up or you're notgonna win. Good to ESPN fifteen thirty

(33:42):
dot com. Check out the contestpage. I've got a link on all
my social media channels. You cango straight to my blog if you want
as well. ESPN fifteen thirty dotcom Thanks to a baxslatractor and Riverbend Music
Center, the Hunter Green thing reallyquick if you are like me, and
for the most part, I hopeyou or not. Remember back earlier in
the season when I had the verycontroversial take of it would be cool if

(34:09):
Hunter Green would pitch deeper into games. Remember that, I mean, it
was kind of controversial. It nevermade sense to me why people push back
against that statement, but I gota lot of pushback. It would be
cool if Hunter Green would pitch deeperinto games. And if he's pitching deeper

(34:30):
into games than chances are he's pitchingpretty well, and if he's pitching well,
then the team has a better chanceof winning, and it's not going
to be his relyant on the bullpen. Hunter Green yesterday might not have had
his best stuff. We had SamLeke here on the show on Friday,
obviously former Reds pitcher Bally Sports,and we talked about the light bulb coming

(34:50):
on with Hunter Green. You canfind that conversation on the iHeartRadio app.
It does feel like he is doinga better job of just understanding how to
pitch and get hitters out in waysthat don't simply involve blowing the ball past
everybody. Now, this is thefocal point of yesterday's game, had they
win it. They don't unfortunately,and again I'm not sure I would have

(35:14):
brought him out for the seventh yesterday. But over his last four starts,
I'm sorry, over his last sixstarts, he has gotten through the seventh.
Three times he got into the seventhyesterday, and twice he got through
five. Those are very big stepsin the right direction. And by the

(35:35):
way, in those outings where he'sgiven up seven runs, we're not talking
about him just taking one for theteam after giving up seven runs. He
had one of those earlier in theseason against Milwaukee in front of us.
It's not that unlike Ellie de laCruz, who had a miserable game yesterday.
But it's not that unlike Ellie dela Cruz, where amid all the
frustration of them losing a lot ofgames, you could still watch these guys

(35:55):
grow into their roles, and Ithink you're seeing a maturation. I think
you're seeing just an overall improvement byHunter Green that you know, we kind
of made a big deal about.He was entering the the second fifty.
He had his first fifty big leaguestarts. Now he's in the second fifty.
Let's see how much better those secondfifty are. It's obviously very early

(36:17):
in the process, but so farthe results have been very encouraging, and
so folks like me, if you'relike me, we're getting what we wanted
Hunter Green pitching deeper into games.Uh, we have folks waiting. We'll
get to you next five point threeseven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight

(36:38):
sixty six seven oh two three sevenseven six four o'clock ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports station. This is Sports Up. I'm Doug Brown. After the first
day in NBA history to feature tworoad teams winning Game seven, the Conference
Finals take the floor starting tomorrow.In the the Celtics will host the Pacers.

(37:01):
ESPN's Michael Wilbon. I hope thatwe see the Pacers team that plays
like they're dealing with house money,free and easy. We got nothing to
lose. We're here at least aseason two early or earlier than forecasts,
and just let it rip. Idon't know if the Pacers are capable of
that, but it would be funto see them approach it that way.

(37:22):
Mike Wilbon. Every game the restof the way in the NBA Playoffs is
right here on ESPN Radio. OurMark Schlebah reports Scotty Scheffler's arraignment is pushed
back to June third. It wasoriginally set for tomorrow. Scheffler faces multiple
charges. He was arrested Friday,just before the second round of the PGA
Championship. Even though they lost eightof their last nine games last season,

(37:45):
the Colorado Buffaloes sell out their footballseason tickets for the second year in a
row. The Buffs go back tothe Big twelve after thirteen years in the
Pac twelve. Feeling great starts witha great shave, and great shaves start
with barbasol shaving. That's Barbisol shavingcream, an American classic for over one
hundred years. Close Shave America,Close Shaved Barbisol. Cincinnati Sports Station,

(38:16):
ESPN fifteen thirty. What's up?It's six minutes after four o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Boegger.By the way, we uh, last
week we gave away Hooty and theBlowfish tickets, right and then we did
that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday we played dumb trivia games. Friday

(38:39):
we tried to play a game ofGuess the Foot, which was an abject
disaster. The game did not producea winner. So I'm trying to figure
out if if we're gonna play,are we going to continue to play Guess
the Foot? Or if I don'tknow, Tarren forty minutes without a winner

(39:04):
on Friday, I'm still a littlebit up in the air. Maybe I
don't know. I'm not here tomorrow, so uh, we kind of need
to give away these tickets to today. We'll see five, one, three,
seven, four nine, fifteen thirtyand eight sixty six, seven oh
two three seven seven six. Thereare a lot of reasons why you cannot
be terrible. We'll get to that. And I heard a Joe Burrow take

(39:28):
that I don't agree with, butthat I do understand. That coming up
in just about fifteen minutes. Uh, first, you know what we ought
to do. Take a phone callor two. We'll do that with Greg,
Greg and Evendell. You're on ESPNfifteen thirty. Thank you for your
patients. No, it's a GregPenny Camp. I introduced myself a couple

(39:52):
of weeks ago. My daughter andboyfriend. We met you over at one
of your shows quite a long timeago, and I came works. Yeah,
that's what it was. I talkedto my daughter and says, yeah,
it was game work. Where's yourmemory? Where's dad? Where's your
memory going? I said, it'sgone anyway. And I told you I

(40:13):
was very serious about this. Ilistened to the show all the time,
and seriously, you are my sportsauthority. Now here's what I want to
get into. Yesterday. Yesterday's gameI did not I watched little of it,
maybe the last couple of wenys becauseI'm going back between the golf and

(40:34):
your next and I just want youto know I was rooting for the next
I was for sure. But here'sthe thing, Mikey would I guess this
is his pick on Mike four day, but seriously, Mike Ford batting thirds
and starting against the left handed pitcherwas absolutely ridiculous. When Tyler Stevenson is

(40:58):
sitting on the bench to what theseventeen and then then when I look at
look at the staff this morning,Uh, Tyler, I want a walk
ahead? Uh Ford goes over five, and you know, I just think
to myself, we have not Okay. The other thing you said about how

(41:19):
do you feel from last year tothis year, Well, I'm still feeling
about the same. I'm talking itoff to injuries, the Marte situation,
but one when we got our besthitter on the bench. I don't care
what the reason is. There shouldhave been no reason. He did he
didn't. He did it off day, he could off day the d agent

(41:42):
he's off today. I'm talking aboutStevenson, But to me, that is
a reflection on a manager. Andand you know, I was talking to
a friend of mine that lives inFlorida and he saw the game yesterday.
He said to me, we're we'rethe residet. This guy's back third.
I said, you mean Mike Ford. I said they we had him once,

(42:02):
we cut him. I said,two weeks ago he wasn't good enough
to be on anything, and nowhe's gotten third for US. Okay,
So, but I felt there wasno reason that Belle did not have Tyler
Stevenson in the I got a statin uh Ford's last twenty one at bats.

(42:22):
He's had two hits. Stevenson's ninefor seventeen and that's including yesterday.
So to me and I do reallyhave a still good feeling. I'm talking,
like I said, jogging off theinjuries, the Marte situation. But
when I see on a game yesterdaywe got Mike Ford on the roster,

(42:46):
I'm scaring to me, scaring mewhat the hell we got coming up as
far as hitters or what do wehave available? Is what I'm saying.
Yeah, you know, it doesn'tmesh. The quote I think was from
Amelia Gone after the game yesterday wherehe talked about having to play with urgency
and so obviously you don't want tomake too big of a deal about any

(43:08):
one game in May. At thesame time, you've had this road trip
where you've gone three and six.I think everybody would feel pretty good if
you know what, they went toDodger Stadium and got a four game split.
They're off on Monday. Now you'regonna come home and you know from
from from how it started, youknow, and and with all the injuries

(43:30):
they've had, Tyler Stevenson has beenyour best hitter recently. He was terrific
on the trip. He didn't havea hit on Saturday, but still you
could have used him as the DH. You could have taken advantage of the
off day and you would have hadconsecutive days where he doesn't catch. If
you are nine over five hundred,fine sitdem. If you're on the back

(43:52):
end of what has been a successfulroad trip, fine sydem. In a
game like that yesterday, it wasn'tlike he was unavailable. He came into
the game and pinchhit. He endedup getting behind the plate for a few
innings. He was in the gamelong enough to get a couple of plate
appearances. I don't know how youdon't use him as your DH yesterday in

(44:13):
that game, given how well hehas swung the bat, given the fact
that he was available, and giventhe fact that you you can't talk about
playing with urgency and having urgency andthen sid arguably your best offensive player right
now on the day before and offday, I could not agree more with
you, Greg, ok, Iusue one other thing, sure, on

(44:37):
the deal with Hunter Green. Soyou know I heard you talking about that
while I was waiting for you.I couldn't agree with you more about you
know, way back when, becauseI heard you talking about him going deeper
into the game. Okay, tome, if he's going deeper into the
game, doesn't that mean that's asign he's got better command of his pitches.

(44:59):
Yeah, and he's not. He'snot taken ninety to one hundred pitches.
I mean there's a couple of timeshe's right around one hundred pitches in
the fourth inning early you know,early fifth inning, right. So to
me, to me, that's Ireally think it's cool. I actually think
it's great. Anyway. Yeah,No, it's been Greg. Thank you
for the phone call in the nicewords. I hope you call again.

(45:21):
Uh, the I appreciate it.The Hunter Green thing, you know,
for me, it wasn't it wasn'tjust about quantity and wanting him to pitch
more innings. It was about himbeing good enough and efficient enough to be
able to pitch more innings. Andhe's done that. I guess he completely

(45:42):
finished product by no stretch of theimagination. But he gave you six and
a third yesterday against the terrific team. His his last five starts, he's
been he's been terrific. I meanrelative to what a lot of folks were
saying about him, you know,just a few weeks ago, his era.

(46:05):
I know, it's just era.It's only one metric, it's a
it's a flawed one. But isthree twenty two? I find have said
to you back in February, onehundred greens era going into Memorial Day weekend,
to be three twenty two? Throughhis first ten starts, you would
have said absolutely. And then justover his last five games, and two
of them, like with with Hunterand with a lot of pitchers, how

(46:27):
good is your good? How badis your bad? So in his last
six starts, he's had two ofthem where he didn't get past the fifth
inning, and neither one was heterrible, and neither one was he a
disaster, And the other four he'sgotten through six and three of them he
were he got to the seventh andin three of them he he got through
seven uh ERA of two sixty oneduring that span, opposing batting average one

(46:52):
ninety seven. He has given uptwo homers in thirty eight innings. Those
are by every meta great great results. Unfortunately the team has lost four of
those games, but it ain't becauseof Hunter Greens. So at the very
least there has been some improvement.It has to continue. But just watching

(47:15):
him these last six starts, hedoes look like a guy who has figured
things out. By the way thestrikeouts have been kind of downplayed. The
two starts prior to this six gamerun, he struck out nine and six
innings in eight and four innings.Yesterday he did have eight, but he's
downplayed the strikeouts a little bit.He has kept the ball in the ballpark.
The control isn't quite what it needsto be, but there's better command,

(47:38):
there's better efficiency. There have beenbetter results. Unfortunately the team is
still not winning his starts. Idon't understand how playing Stevenson yesterday, every
decision you make as a manager,every decision you make in life, you
apply context. So the context ofthat game yesterday, even if you acknowledge

(48:00):
you don't want to make a bigdeal out of any one baseball game played
in the month of May. Look, man, this is starting to spiral
out of control. We went onThursday, lose on Friday, lose on
Saturday. Let's get out of LAwith a split. We have an off
day coming up on Monday. Thenwe begin a long homestand Tyler Stevenson has

(48:22):
recently been awful or awesome. Nowhe had a hitless night on Saturday.
Urgency is something you either act withor you talk about. The Reds talk
about it. You're not playing thatgame with urgency with Tyler Stevenson on the
bench. Now, if the Redsare fully healthy, or if they have

(48:43):
other guys who are swinging the batwell, or if they have somebody to
be the DH who's not Mike Fordagainst a lefty, fine, rest them
play the long game. When you'reeight under five hundred and you're just trying
to get out of LA with aseries split, and nobody else is hitting
except for Tyler Stevenson and the NationalLeague now has the DH, how do

(49:07):
you not start him? Is thatsolely a David Bell thing. No,
does David Bell have a say init? Yes, seventeen minutes after four
o'clock. Five one, three,seven, four nine, fifteen thirty and
eight sixty six, seven oh two, three, seven, seven six are
our phone numbers. A Joe Burrowtake that I don't agree with, but
I do understand. Next you,this is Dave Lapplock, and you're listening

(49:30):
to the Home of the Bengals ESPNfifteen thirty. Brendman and Jones on Baseball
is just about twenty five minutes awayon ESPN fifteen thirty. We're broadcasting from
the ESPN fifteen thirty studios, poweredby Greater Cincinnati's roofing and exterior restoration experts
Madewell Restoration dot com. Your homedeserves to be made well. So this

(49:53):
came out I guess last Tuesday.I U I didn't see this or hear
this. Last week it was onThe Herd with Colin cow Heard, where
so Jared Goff gets his contract extensionand pay raise from the Detroit Lions.
And I guess Colin cow Herd reallylikes Jared Goff. Jared Goff's good quarterback,

(50:15):
Jared quarterback, Jared quarterback, JaredGoff has been a Super Bowl quarterback
and obviously instrumental to the franchise resurgencethat's happened in Detroit with the Lions.
And so he gets a contract,gets a pay raise, gets an extension.
Good for him. So Colin anduh, and who's who's the guy

(50:36):
that he's on the air with.Who's a little buddy? I have no
idea who that guy is. Heused to be on with Joy Taylor and
p Prior to that, it wasChristine Leahey, I knew who they were.
I don't know who this guy is, which is fine whatever. So
he's he's doing a segment Jason,Yeah, Jason McIntyre. That's right,

(51:00):
he founded the Big Lead. JasonMcIntyre. Yes. Anyway, So Colin
Cowherd and his buddy Jason McIntyre,they do a segment on Jared Goff.
For some reason, Colin is dressedlike an airline pilot. I'm not really
sure what that's all about. Andhe basically picks between Jared Golf and then

(51:20):
a whole bunch of different quarterbacks.So Lamar Jackson and Jordan Love is on
there, Justin Herbert. Here's thesegment where they bring up Jared Goff and
Joe Burrow, and who Colin wouldprefer. Go ahead, take golf or
take off, Jared Goff or JoeBurrow. This is the hardest one.

(51:43):
Burrow is better. Burrow has fourstraight year with injuries. Goff never gets
hurt. I'd go golf, andI love Burrow, But aren't you concerned
about Burrow's injuries? On n't thelast time he had a good September.
But you can even go back togolf. I know I'm getting a little
erratic for a pilot, you cango back. I want to be stately.

(52:04):
I want to be like Sully Sullenberger, like the plane goes a little
sideways. I can, ladies andgentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
I can land it. But likeyou're getting to a point with Joe Burrow
is the injuries are now part ofit, like you have to bake it
in. This is I mean,people always bang on Lamar Jackson for being
heard. Well, okay, thenJoe Burrow gets hurt. So if you're

(52:25):
asking me today who I would takethis moment very close? It's golf,
and again I know Burrow's better.I'm not denying that I'm not in any
way more mobile. I think hesays go to third down quarterback as the
league has But all things considered,I'm really worried about Burrow's help. Right,

(52:49):
running out of time? All right, there's a Colin Cowherd and Jason
McIntyre on the Herd with Colin cowHerd. So I guess this was last
Tuesday or Wednesday. Bengals kind oftook it and ran with it late last
week and over the weekend. Sometimes, you know, sometimes there is an
opinion that I don't agree with,but that I could at least understand.

(53:15):
I say this about decision making allthe time. I might not agree with
the decision that you have made,but if I could understand the thinking that
went behind it, fine, right. That's kind of how I feel about
sports opinion. Sometimes I might notagree, but I could understand the thinking
that went into it. For somebodywho is kind of known as a little
bit of a hot take artist,Colin Cowherd, has an opinion that I

(53:37):
don't agree with. I don't agreewith that. If you said you could
build your your team or your franchisearound Jared Goffer Joe Burrow, I'm taking
Joe Burrow. I'm taking Joe Burrowahead of all but maybe a handful of
other quarterbacks in the NFL. ButI could understand if given a choice between

(54:00):
Joe and someone else, Joe's injuryhistory giving you pause and to me,
of all the different storylines that we'regoing to sift through as training camp gets
closer, as the season gets closer, this is the most interesting and important
one. Can Joe Burrow get throughtraining camp healthy? Can he get through

(54:25):
the preseason healthy? Can he getthrough the regular season healthy? Separate issues,
but all add up to him beingable to do something that quite frankly,
he hasn't been able to do.Look, the reality is we love
Joe Burrow. There's nothing to notlike. He is restored so many cool

(54:47):
things to this franchise. He isthe number one reason why the Bengals have
been relevant. Even last year,as rough as things got, when Joe
started to play well, the teamwent on a little bit of a run.
Least we're in a position for JakeBrowning to give them a chance to
make the postseason last year. TheJoe Burrow effect is immense. But the

(55:08):
reality is he's played four seasons andwe have spent a ton of time talking
about things that have affected him physically. He's had two season ending injuries.
He's had an appendectomy, he hada bulky knee toward the end of the
Super Bowl, he had the calfissue. He's never played behind a very

(55:29):
good offensive line. I don't thinkthat take. I don't agree with it,
but I don't think bringing up JoeBurrow's injury history is unfair. It's
the central storyline to maybe the entiretwenty twenty four Cincinnati Bengals season. Can
he get healthy, which so far, so good. Can he stay healthy?

(55:51):
Can he avoid any sort of weirdfreak thing like having to have an
appendectomy during training camp? Can heavoid the weird news of stuff like a
calf injury? And then can heavoid the football type injuries that you suffer
when you take hits like a bustedwrist, like a busted knee and do
it behind an offensive line that,let's face it, the ceiling for that

(56:14):
offensive line is probably not extraordinarily high. I saw that clip over the weekend
and I went, Okay, I'dprobably still take Joe Burrow, just because
I feel like the upside is higher. I'm always willing to invest in someone's
upside, but I can understand therebeing some hesitancy and maybe he should unfairly

(56:36):
or maybe he shouldn't unfairly wear theinjury history label or the injury prone label.
I should say, maybe we shouldn'thold that against him in judging whether
you would rather have him versus someother quarterback. But how many more physical
issues does he have to deal withbefore you legitimately, legitimately start becoming concerned

(57:00):
about the cumulative effect of all ofhis injuries. Maybe we're not there,
but we're closer to being there withhim than we are with a guy like
a Jared Goff. A lot ofpeople are going to value somebody who has
been durable, who's been able tostay healthy, who doesn't have the just
build up of different injuries that's therefor Joe, it might be unfair.

(57:22):
Look Mike Trout right now, MikeTrout is one of the best five baseball
players I've ever watched. If theCincinnati Reads today acquired Mike Trout, what
I would wonder is how many gamesis he going to miss? Different sports,
different circumstances, But still, howmany games is he going to miss?
In the NBA. If I wasacquiring Joel Nbid, what I would

(57:45):
want to know is how many gamesis he going to miss? And if
I'm assessing quarterbacks, I can't helpbut bring their injury history into the conversation
with Joe. That injury history issignificant. So folks on social media lost
their mind over Colin Cowherd's take,and like I get it, whenever he

(58:06):
says anything, you know, remotelycritical, people just lose their minds.
To me, that's the sign ofsomebody who moves the meter. I don't
agree with that. I don't agreewith the opinion, but you can't say
it's unfair to bring up his injuryhistory and at least have it give some
pause to whoever's making the decision aboutJoe versus someone else. I'll take Joe

(58:27):
Burrow ahead of Jared Goff, butif you would prefer Jared Goff because of
Joe's injury history, I get it, might not agree. I understand the
thinking. Twenty seven from five fivepoint three seven four nine fifteen thirty.
You could tell me if there's anythingwrong with that premise five point three seven
four nine fifteen thirty and eight sixsix seven ZHO two three seven seven six.

(58:50):
Uh, we have a poll questionthe results, I'm a little bit
surprised. I'm a little bit surprised. We'll discuss next on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station, ESPN fifteen thirtySports Onlines. A service of Kelsey Chevrolet
Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteecredit approval from their family to yours for

(59:15):
life kelseyshev dot Com. Reds areoff. They started three game series tomorrow
against the LA Dodgers. A GABPAndrew Abbott is going to get the ball
against Luke Musgrove six forty tomorrow eveningon seven hundred WLW Luchow a constantine to
MLS Team of the Match day.Basically it uh poll questions A service of

(59:37):
United Heartland Insurance. Go to uhins dot com. Save more money on
your residential personal business insurance needs uhins dot com. So very simple one
today. Would the Reds if theylet David Bell go? Would changing manage

(01:00:00):
improve their chances of turning the seasonaround sixty seven point three percent of you
say no vote now at Moeggar onx A sixty seven point three. I
wonder this whenever a season goes poorly, there's there's always we want blood,

(01:00:22):
right, we want someone's head ona stick. We want a scapegoat.
Somebody's gonna pay, somebody's gonna beblamed. I hear this all the time.
If a season goes sideways, wellwho do you blame first? And
you know, I don't love theblame game. I don't love the scapegoat
game. Uh to me, youknow when a when a season goes sideways,

(01:00:43):
there's never any one person who's atfault. There's never any one thing
for the Reds. Injuries are aninescapable truth. They you could use them
as a reasoner, you could usethem as an excuse. You want to
talk about the season and it's fullcontext, you've got to talk about the
injuries. Matt McClain not being healthyis a killer. We lump Noelve Marte

(01:01:07):
with the injuries. Obviously not hurtthe suspension, but still like we lump
him in all the unavailable guys.Those are among the reasons why this has
gone sideways. Now they have tohave some dudes that we thought would and
frankly still could be a big partof what this team is going to be

(01:01:27):
this year that have not performed.Spencer Steer, aside from the first couple
of weeks, has not been verygood. Jamer Candelario has not been very
good. Jonathan India's numbers are notvery good. Will Benson not very good.
There's a lot of them. Idon't know. I don't know that

(01:01:51):
there's another manager that the Reds couldhave used in that capacity this season that
would have achieved, that would haveachieved significantly better results than David Bell has
been able to achieve. Like,I don't, I don't know. I
don't, I don't. I don'tknow who that is or what that would
look like. And so if ifthe idea is fire the manager because I'm

(01:02:16):
pissed off and somebody's gonna pay forit, Okay, firing the manager might
make you feel good, sortainly,give us something to talk about, might
make you feel like, well,somebody had to pay. Would it really
make the team any better? Andlike I'm I'm sort of ambivalent when it

(01:02:38):
comes to firing the manager. Ithink their importance to winning and losing is
a little bit overstated. I don'tthink David has done a bad job since
he's been the manager here. Icertainly believe this team as underachieved, at
least to a small degree. Ihave had issues with things like lineup construction

(01:03:00):
and player usage. I think youcan have issues with every manager. Just
I remember when the Reds lost tothe Giants in twenty twelve, Right,
they get beat, they blow thetwo zero lead. Folks wanted Dusty's head
on a stick and didn't get it. They did the next year when they
lost to the Pirates in the wildcardgame. And you know, I remember

(01:03:20):
when that happened, doing shows andkind of making the point like all right,
you know, after you after youenjoy the blood lost, and you
enjoy getting somebody had to pay forthe Reds falling short of what we all
thought this team could accomplish. Let'sdiscuss what the team could do this offseason,
with what the front office could dowith the team this offseason to improve
their fortunes for the new manager.And it felt to me like what they

(01:03:44):
did that offseason was they satisfied everybody'sdesire to see somebody pay for not making
it making a deep playoff run,and then wipe their hands and took the
rest of the offseason off. Andso then what happened the following year the
new manager was set up to fail. It could be interesting if they hired
a new manager who was here whenthe team got healthier. It would be

(01:04:09):
I think kind of funny to listento people talk about how much better the
new guy is than the do theylet go? But if you want to
make a change, do it becauseyou genuinely feel like the team is stagnating
under the current manager, or theplayers quote need a new voice, or

(01:04:30):
because there are strategic elements that DavidBell is just simply not handling correctly.
Do it because you feel like it'sgenuinely going to make a difference. Don't
do it because somebody's gonna pay orsomebody has to be blamed. Do it
to be constructive. I'm all forupgrades at every position, whether it's on

(01:04:53):
the roster, in the dugout,in the front office. If you can
find somebody who is among the bestin the world what they do to fill
in any capacity, I'm here forit. But is the idea to let
David Bell go and then do abona fide managerial search, or is it
let David Bell go and who careswho the replacement is? Or is it

(01:05:15):
let David Bell go and then installyour your favorite red growing up, Like
when I when I hear or readpeople that go nuts over the manager being
on the hot seat and David Bell'sgot to pay. What's the motivation here?
Is it to punish him for theteam underperforming? Is it to ensure
that somebody pays for the team underperforming, or is it to legitimately go on

(01:05:38):
a true search to go find someonewho can make a positive impact on the
short term and is clearly better longterm. And I just don't get the
sense that that's the motivation that alot of people have when they talk about
moving on from David Bell. Ithink it's more from a place of just
wanting someone to pay and take theheat for what has not gone well than

(01:06:02):
it is to find somebody legitimately findsomebody Like not the first time I've I've
talked about this, like I'm interestedin searches, but David Bell, say
what you want about the search andwhat it yielded. But Dick Williams at
the time went on a true managerialsearch. So now here we are,
it's been We're in David's sixth season, and the talk of moving on from

(01:06:25):
him is amplifying with each subsequent loss, and they're losing a ton of games,
and so I get it, Butis it fire him, get through
the season, do a real search, or is it fire him and just
install somebody whose name is familiar toyou or who is your favorite player growing
up. I think it's more ofthat. Your phone calls are coming up

(01:06:46):
at five point three, seven fournine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six
seven h two three seven seven sixreds are a nine under five hundred.
There's a really tough, familiar feelto this that we'll get to coming up
at five oh five on ESPN fifteenthirty, Cincinnati Sports station, right here
in little David Bell in the fiveo'clock hour, and I got the real

(01:07:13):
problem of going nineteen and twenty eight. I'm gonna tie it into the Bengals
and the FC Cincinnati, but firstBrennan and Jones on Baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen
thirty. Traffic from the uc HealthTraffic Center. U SEE Health was the
region's first comprehensive stroke center and aleader in rapid life saving treatment. Learn

(01:07:36):
more at ucehealth dot com. Watchfor an accident seventy one North after Ridge
Avenue South you're slow from Smith Edward. There's an accident on Westwood Northern Boulevard
westbound between Cutter Avenue and Baltimore Avenue. And there's it disabled on the five
sixty two westbound off ramp to MontgomeryRoad. I'm John Crawford with traffic.
This report is sponsor ESPN fifteen thirty. Oh there we go. What's up?

(01:08:00):
Kidefrnanda Muwegger. This is ESPN fifteenthirty. Thank you so much for
joining us. I hope you hadan awesome weekend. I hope your Monday
is going well. It's hot out. I like you when it's hot out.
We're getting like hot days in Maybecause I like those summer days when
it's like one hundred and fifteen degreesout. So I hope this poortends,

(01:08:24):
if you will a nice hot,steamy baking summer when it's hot out,
nothing's better than a nice cold Micheloa Ultri. It's the mid culture five
o'clock happy hour. Thanks to ourfriends at mic Ultra. We thank them.
I could go for one right now, uh really quickly here, really
quickly. We gave away Hoody andthe Blowfish tickets last week. Every day

(01:08:48):
we gave away a pair of ticketson Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, we tried. We endedup playing the worst game of Guess
the Foot. Ever, it wasmade bad in heart due to the fact
that I, for reasons that arenot worth getting into, I did the
show for my house and so itwasn't quite the streamline, smooth running machine

(01:09:12):
that Guess the Foot usually is.But the reality is we didn't give away
the tickets on Friday, and sowe have to give away the tickets today.
So I'm sorry. I don't wantto play Guest the Foot today.
We have sports talk radio topics thatwe have to address, but we also
are required to give away these Hootyand the Blowfish tickets. Now, you
know, you couldn't tell them.I could not sell them. I wanted

(01:09:36):
to take them and put them onthe open market and go to a broker,
go to stub hub or seat geekor something and sell them. And
I could not do that. Idid not do that, And so we
have the tickets to a giveaway togo see Hooty and the Blowfish on June
seventh, which is coming up.This is not my choice. It's not

(01:09:57):
my choice. Uh, Lucho Acosta'sawesome FC since and FC Cincinnati, Man,
you know what, there are playerson the team who were not here
last year. It feels like theydo such a great job of integrating the
pieces to what is already a verywell run organization. They win their sixth
straight despite the clankiness of how theseason started in some injury issues and a

(01:10:24):
guy getting his jaw broken because hedecided to get into a fight with a
professional boxer. This team looks thepart. They look the part they did
last year. They survive a verygrueling week, they atone for what was
one of their worst games they hadlast year against Saint Louis, with a
road win or a home win onSaturday. You know, I said this

(01:10:45):
in the first hour of the show. I am as a sports talk radio
host. I'm very comfortable talking aboutbaseball strategies and football strategies, basketball strategies
and comparing players and talking about whatmakes one maybe better than the other.

(01:11:05):
It doesn't mean that I get itright every time, but I'm comfortable in
those discussions. I'm less comfortable whenit comes to FC Cincinnati until I watch
Lujo Acosta. A guy watched onSaturday night, And like I mean,
it doesn't take It doesn't take alot of expertise to go, Hey,
that guy right there is just betterthan everybody else. I like talking with

(01:11:28):
national announcers about Lucho Acosta. Willdo that more later on this week.
I was hoping we did our showon Friday in the aftermath of what was
a really fun game. On Thursday, the Reds beat the Dodgers seven to
two. And if you're like me, and for the most part, I
hope you're not, you're thinking,God, you know what, get one
of the next three and a fourand six road trip is by no stretch

(01:11:54):
great, But you can take asplit a Dodger stadium, give yourself a
small, tiny measure of momentum comingback home. And instead they lose three
straight games. The primary culprit theoffense. A frustrating game yesterday, Hunter
Green did his job. The offensedid what the offense does, which is

(01:12:18):
they don't produce any runs. Sothis team is now nine games under five
hundred. It has been a monthsince they have won a series. And
you could talk all you want abouthow the schedule is going to get easier.
Ain't gonna get easier this week manPadre's home, Dodgers home. They
still have a bunch of games againstteams in the Central. They are digging

(01:12:38):
themselves quite a hole. This teamthis season is why you can't go a
decade being irrelevant. It's why youcan't go long stretches of time being abjectly
non competitive. You can't. TheCincinnati Bengals this past season had a disappointing

(01:13:01):
year right nine and eight, frustratinga lot that went into it. There
was one major, major reason whythe Bengals didn't make the playoffs this year
because Joe Burrow got hurt. It'sbecause Joe Burrow didn't start the season healthy,
and then he got healthy and thensuddenly busted his wrist and he was
done for the year. There wereother circumstances. Bengals didn't have a very

(01:13:25):
good defense. Uh. We couldtalk about their preparation for the season,
compromising their chances of getting through thosefirst couple of weeks against AFC North opponents
while they still had Joe Burrow.But the main reason why this team this
past season was on the outside lookingin once the playoffs began was Joe Burrow

(01:13:45):
suffered injuries and so nine and eighthappened, and when it did, I
think most of us just kind ofshrugged our shoulders. You know what missed
opportunity was Joe would have been healthy. Figure out a way to get him
through the offseason, get him healthy. Hopefully he can finally go through a
training camp period without any sort ofmedical issue, without any sort of health

(01:14:10):
issue, and if he's back withthe team in twenty twenty four, you
know what, take our chances.Football and baseball are different sports. A
quarterback can have a larger impact onthe season and in a game than any
one baseball player. But still,right, most of us looked at last
season as hey, you know,it's one of those years that just kind
of happens. Unfortunately, some playersdidn't play as well as we would have

(01:14:35):
hoped. More than anything, Joewasn't around. And so you know what,
run it back with Joe. Runit back. Make some changes that
just come with time and contracts expiringin the NFL, But you know what,
let's run it back. No reasonto reinvent the wheel or go look
at the coaching staff. Just getJoe healthy. The Rets this season are

(01:14:59):
where they are in large part becauseof injury. And again, I'm a
reasons guy. I'm not an excusesguy. One of the reasons why the
Reds are nine under five hundred isa lot of key guys are not available
injuries and suspension. And yet Idon't feel like many folks are looking at

(01:15:23):
this just kind of shrugging their shoulders, going, well, yep, yep.
God, they were ahead of schedulelast year and it just kind of
caught up to them. No,the response to the season sounds a lot
like it did two years ago.I'm reading in the Inquiry this weekend about
how the ballparks are gonna be emptybecause you know, the team people don't

(01:15:44):
really go to games in April andMay. Now schools are getting out and
we're turning our attention to summer,and the Reds are very best on the
fringes of contention. And I lookat what people say on social media and
I listen to people who call thisshow. It really doesn't seem to be
a very big up, you know, just one of those years sort of
elements because the Reds don't have theequity to cash in Bengals did last year.

(01:16:14):
And again it's Joe Burrow getting hurtand so Joe is just different.
He plays a different position. ButI feel like the recent success of the
Bengals caused a lot of people tojust kind of shrug their shoulders last year
and go, hey, you know, they were kind of bound for a
season like this and they didn't haveJoe, and you know what, there
was some transition on the defense thatwas almost inevitable, and regression was to

(01:16:36):
be expected. But you know what, Joe's going to come back. And
as long as he's back, andas long as they can keep him healthier,
get him healthy, this team's goingto be. Okay. They cashed
in some equity last year. TheReds can't. This is why you can't
do what the Reds did in thetwenty tens and just put your fan base

(01:16:57):
through year after a year, aftera year of not winning. Franchises have
bad years, Teams have bad years. Some teams are just snake bitten.
But with this one, it feelslike there's there's less of an inclination by

(01:17:17):
most to give them a pass becauseof the stuff that has gone wrong,
the stuff that they can't control thisyear, because of all the seasons leading
up to this one where they've beensometimes terrible. This is why you can't
be bad every single year, becauseyou don't have the equity to cash in

(01:17:38):
when you are now somewhat understandably notso good. Bengals had it last year.
They could cash it in. Hey, look man, we'll get Burrow
back next season. We're gonna befine. Trusts and I think most kind
of not and along anybody doing thatwith the Reds, anybody doing that with
the police for patients. Uh sixteenminutes after five o'clock five one, three,

(01:18:02):
seven, four nine, fifteen thirtyat eight six six, seven oh
two three seven, seven six.We spend a lot of time on Thursday
and Friday of last week looking atthe schedule, breaking down the Bengals schedule.
And they have a stretch in Decemberwhere they're gonna play four games in
nineteen days. They have a stretchwhere they're gonna play three games in eleven

(01:18:25):
days. This is happening all throughoutthe league. I think there's one reason
why I'm gonna be conspiracy guy,which I typically am not. I'm gonna
be conspiracy guy and tell you whyyou should be too. Next on ESPN
fifteen thirty. This is ESPN fifteenthirty tomorrow on the show. I am
not here, got Chad Brenda willbe filling in, and uh, I'll

(01:18:49):
be back on Wednesday, the rareTuesday day off. Go ahead, Mike,
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Ihope the show has been to your
liking today. How are you outstandingas usual? Mo? You know,
I just get a little crabby usold men do that from time to time.
Your experience, Hey, who cameup with the guests the foot deal

(01:19:14):
me? I think pretty soon you'llbe getting a call from Lauren Michael.
It's Saturday night and they can dosomething with that. Uh yeah, you
know, sometimes guess the foot worksand sometimes not. Friday would be an
example of not. I think it'shard, Mo, I think it's really

(01:19:39):
hard. I mean anyway, Iget a kick out of it that I
never have a guess who I thinkis worthwhile A guest that I have worth
well was even calling you, Well, I think it. I think it
failed on Friday through no one's faultof my own. I was in a
situation where I did not broadcast fromour studio. I was on Friday,

(01:20:00):
and that makes it difficult to dosomething like that, which I should have
realized. So for anybody who listenedto that thinking God, this is awful,
I agree. I take responsibility.That was one on me. But
we still have to give away thetickets this hour. Mike, Yeah you
do so am I allowed to callback? Maybe? Uh, if you

(01:20:21):
can get in line and get throughas we play, you are welcome the
try. Well, it doesn't makeany sense because I'm out here on the
coast, so I was if Iwant them, I was going to get
to my one of my sisters.But uh, yeah, let to let
from people that are near Try.That would be more a force. Right.
Hey, you know we're talking aboutDavid Bell and stuff all the time.

(01:20:44):
I used to think managers meant abig deal, not so much from
in baseball, from an EXSOS thing, but more from maybe a motivational standpoint
or a call mean influence, somethinglike that. But I heard an air
a while back with Bruce Bochie andhe said, you know, he said,
I manager who get way too muchcredit. He said, we make

(01:21:06):
a decision from time to time whichmay affect the outcome of the game,
but by and large, my jobis managing people and helping morale and dugout
yeah. I mean, look,I think they I think they matter.
But I'm not the first person tobring this up. Look at the salary

(01:21:30):
of major league managers compared to headcoaches and other sports. They're they're fractional.
Now that I think that's going tochange a little bit because of the
money that Craig Counsel got with theChicago Cups. But it wasn't all that
long ago, and I can lookthis up. It wasn't all that long
ago that the majority of big leaguemanagers were making less than a million dollars

(01:21:51):
a year. Now, compare thatto NFL head coaches. Compare that to
NBA head coaches. Certainly compare thatto college football head coaches. By the
way, in a given season,the major league manager is going to manage
in more games than coaches in anyof those sports. I think what managers
have made would tell you they're notas important as a coach might be in

(01:22:15):
another sport. That's not to saythat they can't have a positive or negative
impact on the team. Certainly,the decisions they make within a game could
go a long way toward determining whichteam wins that game. I do think
there's something about setting a tone andcommunicating and you know what, like with
the Rads last year being in chargeof the team amid all these shuffling in

(01:22:38):
of guys who started the season inCincinnati and then they get bounced, and
the influx of young kids who cameup from Louisville. I think there's something
about managing that that requires a specificskill. I think there's something about the
team last year that played very looseand had fun but wasn't overly silly.
I think the manager can have asay in that. But if the Reds

(01:23:02):
this season were going to have asuccessful year, it was never going to
be because David Bell did a greatjob and squeezed as much as he could
out of that team. And ifthe Reds were gonna fall short of expectations
this season, for my money,was never gonna be because David Bell did
a bad job with it. I'mnot here to tell you that. I

(01:23:25):
think he's doing a great job withthis team, but he has been handicapped
since before the season started by nothaving a whole bunch of dudes that I'm
sure he thought were going to bea big part of his team. It's
also really hard to win while youhave a lot of guys who are in
developmental mode. It's really hard towin while you have less than reliable starting
pitching. Now, to be fair, starting pitching recently has been quite good.

(01:23:46):
I just if they moved on fromhim and hired another manager, I
would feel exactly the same about thedirection of the Reds and their chances in
twenty twenty four as I do withDavid Bell being the man manager. Yeah,
you know, to stay on baseball. You know what amazed me because
I went to all the games thisweekend, but I there were at least

(01:24:12):
yesterday especially, there were at leasta thousand people with Cincinnati Reds gar It
was pretty cool. I ended up, you know, kind of fraternizing with
some of them up at the refreshmentstand or whatever. But I was I
was pleasantly surprised by the turnout forfor reps Man. And you know,
some guys said, well, theywon't get because they draw good all the

(01:24:34):
time. But he said, well, they probably won't do that good because
the Reds. Well that was wrong. They had that place packed every damn
night. Well, a lot offolks in Los Angeles, Mike wanted to
see Jacob hurdabies get his first bigleague hit. You're on that dude like
white on Rice brother Ja. Bythe way, he got too, because

(01:24:57):
he got to hit yesterday as well. So that was two big league yets
got both the Dodgers Stadium. Andthere's a lot of people who this is
why you should have the card Stockticket and not the scan thing like the
on the app, because if Isaw Jacob Hurdabiese's first big league hit,
I want that memento. I wantthat piece of memorability that I could give

(01:25:19):
to my daughter. Maybe she givesit tomorrow, my grandkid. One day,
it gets passed through generations. Maybeyou sell it and pay off a
loan, or you sell it andpay for college. That's the sort of
thing that I wish I had thecard Stock ticket. You're there for Jacob
Hurdabiese's first ever big league hit.Now all you have is the QR code

(01:25:41):
if you took a screenshot of yourMLB Ballpark ticket. And by the way,
Mike Ford to make an analogy betweenMike Board and Tony Gwinn. Now,
Mike hits a little better against websand he does it right. He's
about one seventy three. Well,Tony was the same way. He hit
pretty much equal right and left hander's. The only difference is he hit what

(01:26:03):
five or six batting championships. Butyeah, I thought that was I know,
I know, Mike, thank youvery much. I know when I
watched Mike Ford, that's the firstname that comes to mind. Tony Gwinn,
Tony Grinn. Tony Gwinn's rolling inhis grave right now, Wait a
minute, really, somebody just comparedme to Mike Ford. All right,

(01:26:26):
I just sent out the link fivepoint three seven four nine fifteen thirty.
Uh, we have to end thisonce and for all. Hoody and the
Blowfish tickets up for grabs right now. It's the same foot as Friday.
We just haven't had anybody guess whoseit is. I forbid we need a
new foot. I don't know.Guess the foot on Friday was awful Friday,

(01:26:54):
and that is no one's fault butmy own. We should not play
a guest that one might argue weshouldn't play guests the foot at all,
but we certainly should not play itwhen I can't do the show from the
studio. That was entirely my fault. Out of contractual obligation. We have
to give away these tickets, Soif you want to play, it's very
simple. Look at the link.It's ESPN fifteen thirty dot com slash mo.

(01:27:16):
I would advise you to go tomy ex feed and get the link
there and then maybe scroll through someof the tweets. That and one more
NFL scheduling thought coming up on ESPNfifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Dates. It's
ESPN fifteen thirty The Michaelobolt for fiveo'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(01:27:38):
On moeger By the Way, ourPerformance of the Weekend. Luccho Acosta MLS
Team of the Match date for MatchDay fifteen. He has been on nine
of the fifteen MLS Team of theMatchdad recognitions the most of any player in
the league. The reigning MVP hada part in all three goals for FC

(01:27:59):
Cincinnati and their one win over SaintLouis UH. The Orange and Blue has
won six consecutive matches. Lucho Acostathe Performance of the Weekend thanks to blue
Cheo dot Com. Go to bluechoo dot com, use promo code mom
O at check out and you'll getyour first month free blue choo dot Com
promo code. M all right,tarn do we think we're gonna have a

(01:28:19):
winner here? Do we think we'regonna do this? Are you feeling good?
I'm actually not feeling good. Ohman, okay, uh all right,
get the sounder, yeah, goahead, all right, nobody's guessed
it yet, so it's time foryou to try again to guess the foot.

(01:28:44):
This is not what I want todo now. I mean part of
it is I'm back to back intoa corner here, because boy, it's
it's It's not like there's been anyhard hitting reds topic that has taken over
the show, right, So it'sour last pair of who in the Blowfish
tickets we were supposed to give themaway on Friday, we tried Guess the
Foot. The entire show was anunmitigated Actually, the first two hours and

(01:29:09):
twenty minutes of it I thought wasreally, really good. We had some
great guests, and then the lastforty minutes it just it fell apart,
and I spent my entire weekend stewingover it. So I didn't want to
come back and play I Guess theFoot, But we have an obligation to
you and to the folks at riverbendto give away these tickets to go see
Hoody and the Blowfish on June theseventh. So we put the picture on

(01:29:31):
the website. It's still there,ESPN fifteen thirty, dot com, slash
mo. I've tweeted out the linkto guess the foot on x at moegar
and hopefully we get a winner here. Do I have to go through the
litany of hints that we tried togive the audience on Friday Taran sure as

(01:29:51):
player was a teammate we got.We got a lot of guests, We
got a lot of guesses. Ishould say we got a lot lot of
guesses of players who played with thisguy. So we had Sean Casey,
we had Pokey Rees, we hadKen Griffey Junior, and we had I
think Michael Tucker. Been a whilesince I had a Michael Tucker reference on

(01:30:12):
this show. We had a JasonLaRue. All those players played with the
guy who whose foot this is?Are you ready? Tarn? I'm ready?
Okay, let's do this. Uh, Vito, can you give us
a guess? Hang on, Ido that again? Put that, Vito,

(01:30:33):
can you guess whose foot it is? It's not Wan Caster, but
thank you so much. I dobelieve this guy was a teammate of of
Wan Castro. I'm doing my besthere. I'm doing it is better with
me in studio. I can atleast see the names on the screen.
All right, now, go ahead, Frank, can you tell us whose

(01:30:53):
foot it is? I think it'sMike Sturgiopolis? Is it Mike Sturgi?
No, it is not Mike.Uh Sergiopolis. This might be the last
time we ever do this. Wasthat real? Is that a real player?
I have no remote idea. Thismight be the last. You are

(01:31:15):
listening to a reluctant host. Uh, Sophie, do you have a guess?
Is it is it? Dante Bichett? This guy did play with Dante
Bischett, though, Joe, doyou have a guess? Joe? He
had no guess? Herbie, Herbie? Do you do you have a guess?

(01:31:40):
Is it is it? Dion Sanders? No, but this guy did
play with Dion Sanders five one,three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty and eight sixty six, sevenoh two three seven seven six, Sam,
I'm even like I I I rarelyrarely look at my phone during the
show, but I got I gotan the one of those guess the foot

(01:32:01):
huh texts? Texts? All right, let's see John, go ahead,
do you want to guess the foot? Yeah? What the heck? How
about Mike Cameron? Is a MikeCameron? Mike Cameron? Mike, do
you have a guess? Is itAaron Boone? This guy was teammates with

(01:32:25):
Aaron Boone? Though, Jim,do you have a guess? Yeah?
Jim, Do you have a guess? Jimmy? Who William Open? This
guy was not, at least withthe Reds. Was not a teammate with
William o'penia. I think we've atleast narrowed it down to the fact that

(01:32:45):
this guy did play for the Reds. I might not have played his entire
career with the Reds, but hedid play for the Reds. Good to
ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Thisis the same guess the foot game is
Friday when we had no winner andit was an unmitigated abjective disaster. We
are getting a lot of web trafficfor this. Tarran go ahead, This

(01:33:05):
point is just funny. Michael,go ahead, Do you have a guess?
Yeah? Is it Danny Grave?This guy was teammates with with with
Danny Graves. I'm not here tomorrow. I'm off tomorrow if we do not

(01:33:27):
give away the tickets. I don'tknow what our contingency plans are. Chad
Brenda's Chad Brendle's gonna have to playguess the foot. He doesn't want to
do that. I'm at least gettingthe credit for the web traffic that goes
to my website and a social mediafeed. But the Chad's not gonna get
any of that. I will fivepoint three seven four nine fifteen thirty and

(01:33:49):
eight sixty six seven oh two threeseven seven six terrn do you want me
to put there? You have?Pat? We have a whole new line
of people calling in. They wantto go see Hoody and the Blowfish.
Do you do you have a guess? Pay sure show? That'd be Virginia,

(01:34:10):
Pat. I understood none of that. Could could you say it again?
Pat? That'd be great? Patmay have gotten it right, I

(01:34:33):
don't. I hope Pat's okay?Did you understand any of that? I
didn't? All right? Uh?Ross? Do you wanna want to give
us a guess? Yeah? Alex, do we have an alex o'choa?
You? Ross putting an end ofthis misery. Yes, alex o'choa,

(01:34:56):
who played for the Reds in twothousand. They acquired him in the winter
of two thousand, got him ina trade from the Milwaukee Brewers, and
then people were pretty excited about thisand then stopped caring because a month later
they traded for Ken Griffey Junior.And then alex o'chou was awesome with the
Reds in two thousand, led theteam in ops plus came back in two
thousand and one the team was terrible. They lost ninety six games, and

(01:35:19):
so they traded him I think,to the Rockies in July of two thousand
and one. So his stay asa Red was brief, but he was
productive. And yes, that's whosefoot it is. Thank you Ross for
playing Guess maybe the final ever editionof Guess the Foot. I don't know,

(01:35:41):
at least for twenty twenty four.At least for twenty twenty four.
We may have to, but wewere told on Thursday, because last week
when we gave away all the tickets, we were told, hey, play
Guess the Foot. We like Guessthe Foot because we did trivia, we
did games where I actually have todo some work. I came up with
Austin trivia questions, and then multiplecallers said, actually, guess the foot.

(01:36:01):
We miss guess the foot, bringback guess the foot. We played
guests the Foot. And then onFriday, it's miserable, Like I just
I had the worst weekend of alltime because all I did was like,
just think about how bad the lastforty minutes of Friday show were, and
then we finally have a winner.So Ross, thank you. You're gonna
go see Hooty and the Blowfish.I'll see at the show. I think

(01:36:26):
I still have an extra ticket.We'll see at the show on the seventh
of June. Riverband Music Center.It's gonna be a blast. We'll see
it there. We are now outof Hooty and the Blowfish tickets, and
our game is over, and ourgame is over for today and maybe forever.
It is fourteen away from six o'clock. You know what the NFL is

(01:36:46):
doing to the Bengals. They're doingto a lot of different teams. And
there's a reason why. I'll tellyou what it is next on ESPN fifteenth,
ten minutes away from six o'clock.This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Mollegger
Chad, it's in for me tomorrow. I told you that before. By
the way, our poll question resultsthanks to a United Heartland insurance on x

(01:37:08):
uagions dot com, save more money, personal insurance, business insurance, auto
insurance, you name it. They'regonna help you out. Would changing managers
improve the reds chances of turning theseason? Around sixty seven and a half
percent of you say no. I'mI'm a little bit surprised. I don't.
I don't really, I don't reallydisagree. Look, they need their

(01:37:30):
players who are on the team nowto play better, and they need the
players who are not playing right nowto come back quickly. And well,
Marte can't do that, McLain.They're still saying August at best. I
don't know, man. This isthe thing about where they are right now,
is they're really like another just dreadfulweek away from this kind of getting
away from them. I mean,legitimately, you know they're they're a game

(01:37:57):
off. There are game worse throughforty seven games. And they were last
year. Uh now you can say, well, he last year they came
back and they were in the hunt, they were in first place, and
they were where they were they wenttwenty two, and I'm sorry. They
went twenty nine and twelve in theirnext forty one games, which took them
to right before the All Star break. If you think this team has twenty

(01:38:23):
nine wins in forty one games inthem, okay, get me there,
I don't know, man. Lastyear reinforcements started to come. This is
the reason I'm using this as areference point is because this right now,
this is when they started to turnthings around. Remember last year Memorial Day
weekend, they go to Wrigley Fieldbeat the Cubs three straight. That kind

(01:38:44):
of kind of to a degree,got things jump started. Not maybe to
the degree things would get going inJune, but that really is when it
kind of started. It's got tostart here soon, man, it does.
You've got to play and manage withurgency, which is why you can't
put Tyler Stevens and on the benchyesterday. You can keep voting on that
at moeger So last week we dida lot of on the on the schedule

(01:39:08):
release and one of the big takeawayswas, gee, man, there's a
lot of games cloistered into a reallytight amount of time. In December,
they play They actually play three gamesin eleven days if you're doing this correctly.
But between December ninth and December nineteenththey play three times. They play

(01:39:32):
four times in nineteen days in December. They also have a stretch in about
eleven days where they play three times, and then that's in October to November,
and then in the middle one gamein twenty three days. The NFL
is doing this nine times in twentytwenty four. The previous five seasons combined,

(01:39:57):
they did it zero times, threegames in eleven days. Nine times.
Didn't happen last year. It didn'thappen. The year before, it
didn't happen. The year before thatdidn't happen. A year before that didn't
han't happened a year before that.Why do you think that is? I'm

(01:40:21):
not a conspiratory oall guy, Weall understand. Roger Goodell has said,
we won an eighteen game schedule.Now, the current CBA doesn't expire for
seven years, so in order toimplement the eighteenth game and tap into the
revenue that will come with it,they need the players to come to the

(01:40:41):
negotiating table. The players could veryeasily say like, dude, we've got
a CBA. We're good. OurCBA is locked in. How do you
get them to want to come tothe table. You enforce poor working conditions.
Now, let me be honest aboutthis. I'm looking forward to the
Bengals playing three games in a loteleven days. I'm looking forward to the
Bengals having four games in nineteen days. I'm a sports talk radio host.

(01:41:05):
A lot of games in a tightamount of time makes my job in life
very very easy. Let's be honest, as fans don't care we care about
player safety. We don't care thatmuch. I want the content. But
what you do to get the employeesto come to the negotiating table is you

(01:41:29):
make their working conditions worse. Theonly way the NFL can get the eighteenth
game is if the union signs offon it. So in order to get
them to sign off on it,you have to get them to want to
talk about the current CBA. Theway you do that is within the parameters
of the current CBA is you makethe working conditions so bad that now they

(01:41:51):
want it changed, where we can'tdo three games in eleven days. The
NFL would gladly give up having teamsplay three games in eleven days if they
could get the eighteenth game. That'swhat this is. That's again, it's
really just kind of connecting the dots. So the commissioner says, we won

(01:42:12):
an eighteenth game. He has madeno bones about it. He has been
very transparent. So cool. Soyou have a thing here that hasn't been
used. And part of it isit's amplified by the fact that they're going
to play games on a Wednesday,which is is Christmas this year. But
still, what do you And bythe way the NFL stands up until the
end of last year was we're notgonna play games on Christmas if it falls

(01:42:33):
on a Wednesday. That changed.Hey, the Christmas Day games last year
were enormous ratings successes. Number two, Wait a minute, We'll play more
games on Christmas, which the playersprobably don't love. We're gonna have more
stretches where teams are playing three gamesand eleven days or three games and ten
days. We're gonna take a teamlike the Bengals. We're gonna have him

(01:42:57):
played twice on Thursday, which isgonna put a lot of games in a
tight amount of days. We're gonnamake the working conditions not as good.
The players aren't gonna like it,and what we could say is, well,
the CBA allows for it. Sonow the players say we don't want
to do this, Okay, theNFL says, cool, come to the
negotiating table, and we will getrid of teams ever having to play three

(01:43:18):
games in eleven days if we canget our eighteenth game. This is why
we're gonna have an eighteenth game.Mark to tate May twenty of twenty twenty
four. We will have an eighteenthgame by twenty twenty six. And this
is not a complaint either. Thereare pros and cons to expanding the NFL

(01:43:40):
schedule. If if I have towatch one less preseason game, that's not
terrible. We are gonna have theeighteenth game by twenty twenty six. This
is what the NFL is doing.Let's make the working conditions not as good
so the players want to negotiate,and when they do, we'll get in
to open up. The seed willjam in that eighteenth game, and teams

(01:44:02):
will no longer play three games ineleven days. I just connected the dots
for you. I'm probably not thefirst, but still we have to go
again. I'm off tomorrow, chedBreundle's here. I return on Wednesday.
Have an awesome next couple of days. Thanks to Tarum Bland for producing,
and thanks to you for listening.Michaelo Ultra Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty

(01:44:25):
Cincinnati Sports Station