5/29/24 - The Mo Egger Show

Instant reaction from Reds v Cardinals, FC Cincy preview with Tommy G and some Bengals.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
All right, I'll do that.Good hapnud on my legger. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you forlistening. Hopefully you're having the greatest Wednesday
in the world. I don't evenknow what that means. We have a
lot of ground to cover. Inabout fifteen minutes, we're going to go
into the mountains of southern Kentucky,Northern Tennessee and chat with Dizzy Payton,

(00:24):
the baseball coach at Northern Kentucky University, as the Norris are en route to
Knoxville for the NCAA tournament. They'lltake on the top seed in the entire
Attorney Tennessee on Friday night after winningthe Horizon League Tournament to Disney. Is
gonna join us. Hopefully they're enroute, they're on the bus. They're

(00:45):
going through a stretch where if you'veever driven, if you've ever driven to
Knoxville, or if you ever havedriven to Lake Norris or places like that
southern Kentucky, it could be itcan be sort of hard to get serviced.
So hopefully we are good to go. Hopefully modern technology smiles on us
and we could have a good conversationwith Dizzey coming up in just about fifteen
minutes. Wes Miller talk today pressavailability for the head men's basketball coach at

(01:11):
the University of Cincinnati. A seasonof major expectations. At least, I
feel like the offseason has created somemajor expectations for obviously a season that is
still five months away, but nonetheless, the head coach of the Cats talk
just a short while ago. We'llhave some of that for you as the
afternoon unfolds. We will have foryou instant reaction to what's happening right now

(01:36):
at GABP, where on getaway Day, the Reds and Cardinals are in the
top of the seventh inning and AndrePalante has looked like Greg Maddox this afternoon.
The Reds have all but three hits. They are losing three nothing.
Cardinals are batting in the top ofthe seventh inning. Frankie Montas was okay

(01:56):
today, Alex Young is on thehill tonight or today in the top of
the seventh inning. This on theheels of a loss last night. It
looks like it's raining a GABP.But look at phase value. Two consecutive
losses is nothing worth losing your mindover. But you know, we got
excited about this team winning four straight, right, we got excited about this

(02:17):
weep of the Dodgers and beating theCardinals on Memorial Day and perhaps starting to
turn this thing around. And thefour straight wins are great, But you
can't win for then lose four.You can't take a step forward then a
step back. And I'm not necessarilysure that losing consecutive games constitutes a major

(02:38):
step back. But still, Ithink if you were like me, you
came out of Monday thinking, Okay, at the very least, take this
Cardinals series, and the Reds dostill have nine ounce to play with.
But the way things stand right now, that is not looking like the most
likely outcome. I will say whatwe said last week. There is a
documented history of on this show,us going on the air as the Reds

(03:01):
are playing, and if they're losing, they often have come back in one,
and if they're winning, they've oftenchoked away the game. And so
you know, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens this afternoon.
But Reds are losing to the Cardinalsright now. Free zip top of the
seventh inning on Getaway Day a GABP. Reds are off for a six game

(03:23):
road trip that starts in Chicago onFriday afternoon. More on that as the
game and the show unfold. I'vewatched and I've listened to a lot of
NFL related content, and I givethe people who are tasked with creating NFL

(03:46):
content in May and June, Igive them a big break. I give
them a pass because it's not easy. Right. The NFL is close to
a twelve month a year sport.Right. We say that all the time,
but the key word is close.Yes, teams are doing OTAs.
Yes, teams are getting ready fortraining camp. Yes, mandatory mini camps

(04:09):
are coming. Yes, teams arestill acquiring players. All that stuff is
still happening. But the interesting partof the offseason, the part of the
off season where there's actual stuff,has kind of come and gone. Right,
The major free agents have all signed, the draft has happened, the
schedule has come out, the hiringand firing cycle has come and gone.

(04:31):
There's not really a lot going on. And yet, if if you're Mike
Florio Pro Football Talk, the websiteand the TV show, and if you're
the producer or one of the hostson a show like NFL Live, or
if you're doing a show on theNFL network, your job doesn't stop.
You've got to do shows twelve monthsout of the year. You've got to

(04:53):
do shows even when there's not alot going on. I am sensitive to
this because there are times when wehave to do and there's not really a
ton going on. But if youdo an NFL related show, you can't
pivot to baseball, and you can'tpivot to the NBA. You can't pivot
to soccer or anything else. Yougotta do NFL stuff. And so when

(05:15):
it's it comes out that neither JamarChase or t Higgins are at OTA's,
let's be honest, you and Iboth know that's probably not that big of
a deal. It's not insignificant,but it's probably not that big of a
deal. Chances are Jamar Chase isgonna show up for training camp because if
he doesn't, the Bengals can startfinding him, and chances are he's gonna

(05:40):
play this season. And T Higginsis a little bit of a different story
because he's not yet under contract andso until he does, the Bengals can't
find him. But T Higgins hasno reason to sit games out. Jamar
Chase has no reason to sit gamesout, and so it's really only going
to be earth shattering news if wefind out that those guys are missing things

(06:00):
that they're contractually obligated to be at, which for Jamar would be mandatory mini
camp, training camp in the games, and for Tea right now would be
the games because again he's not currentlyunder contract. But those are big names.
Big names move the meter, andso when big names don't show up
for OTAs, it gets talked about, it gets made a big deal about.

(06:24):
This happens every single year. Ifyou and I each had a dollar
for every big name who hasn't cometo OTAs, we'd be able to go
out and have a really good time. There's a long list of players who
have not shown up for OTAs forone reason or another. And yet I

(06:47):
get it. If you host anNFL podcast, if you host an NFL
television show, if you work onthe serious XM's NFL show or NFL station,
there's only so much you could talkabout this time a year, and
so you try to. You tryto squeeze as much as you can out
of the T Higgins Jamar Chase situation, even if deep down inside you know,

(07:10):
there's not a lot of there there, and so what's gonna happen around
the country. People are gonna seecontroversy perhaps or uh a locker room shake
up or distractions everybody's favorite word,right, distractions. Things aren't great in
Cincinnati this offseason. That's actually,I don't think necessarily the case. But

(07:30):
you're gonna go out of town maybethis summer, gonna go on vacation,
and perhaps they're gonna run into strangersand telling me you're from Cincinnati. Are
gonna hear your Bengals gear something,and you're gonna strike strike up a conversation
and someone's gonna say God in theCincinnati man, kind of a rough offseason.
But you had the Trey Hendrickson thing, right, that dude wanted to
be traded and uh t Higgins hasasked for a trade and didn't show up

(07:53):
to OTA's And now Jamar Chase Man, what gives I'm here to help you.
Here to help you using a pieceby Bill Barnwell of ESPN dot com
where he went around the league.He did one piece for the NFC teams,
one piece for the AFC teams,and he handed out superlatives off season

(08:15):
superlatives by noting the work each completedand what each seemed to leave behind over
the last couple of months, andwhat all that could mean for the twenty
twenty four season. I'm reading asyou could probably tell Bill's work verbatim.
The Bengals team superlative superlatives are likeyou see him in the back of yearbooks
right high school. Most likely tosucceed, not me, best rested,

(08:39):
not me, most shy me.You know what superlatives are For the Bengals.
This superlative is important, and thisis the theme of the off season
team least likely to have its twentytwenty four season ruined by what ruined it
season in twenty twenty three. Iwant you to go ahead and read this.

(09:01):
It's available, Actually, it's onthe front page right now of ESPN
dot com. The Bengals came intothe off season with a clear mantra or
mantra fix what went wrong last season. Director of player personnel Duke Tobin and
coach Zach Taylor can't guarantee their solutions. We'll solve everything. But this is
another team in the AFC North witha logical plan for addressing its issues,

(09:24):
and Bill goes on to outline reallythe centerpiece of the Bengals off season,
which has been not discontent, notholdouts, not contractual issues with established players,
not trade requests. The central themeof the Bengals offseason from a nuts
and bolts perspective, from the perspectiveof trying to do better than the Bengals

(09:48):
did last year, has been theytook their weaknesses and addressed him. And
Bill goes on to outline what they'vedone in on the offensive line with signing
Trent Brown and drafting a Marius Mims, what they've done at safety in being
very aggressive and not just resting ontheir laurels with a guy like Dax Hill,

(10:13):
but bringing back Von Bell, bringingin Geno Stone an ascending player,
And he writes, how you knowwhen you can talk about the defensive line,
but the reality is the Bengals' biggestdefensive issue last season was the fact
that they got torched in the deepgame right a lot of explosive plays,
and so they were proactive in addressingthat area of the team. And well,

(10:35):
I don't necessarily view what happened toJoe Burrow last year as a symptom
of a very bad offensive line.It was kind of league average. Addressing
and finding a long term solution atright tackle on the offensive line, those
have been priorities this offseason. Plusthey did sign two defensive tackles in the
draft, or they did draft twodefensive tackles. I should say. So

(11:01):
you're gonna hear a lot when youtalk with people you go out of town
this summer. The Bengals come upand they're gonna bring up Jamar, and
they're gonna bring up Tea, andthey're gonna talk about not paying one and
maybe not paying either, And Iget it. Those get the headlines.
But the real theme of the offseason is the fact that the Bengals are
pretty damn aggressive in looking at lastyear's weaknesses and doing what the front office

(11:22):
can to make sure those things aren'tweaknesses this coming season. That's something to
be lauded. That's something to behappy about. That's something that's not going
to be talked about every time Jamarand Tea not showing up to OTA's becomes
a topic. Seventeen minutes after threeo'clock. I'm late in posting this because

(11:43):
I'm a disorganized mess, but we'llhave today's show preview video up on x
momentarily thanks to our friends at EmoryFederal Credit Union, your credit union with
heart since nineteen thirty nine. Goto EMORYFCU dot org. A lot of
ground to cover between now and sixo'clock. Well updatesh on the Reds get
instant reaction from a GABP Reds andCardinals right now in the bottom of the

(12:05):
seventh inning, Cincinnati trails three ZI. Meanwhile, the NKU baseball team is
headed to Knoxville to play in theDivision in the Division one NCAA Tournament for
the very first time. They takeon Tennessee on Friday evening. The head
coach of the Norse, Dizzy Payton, joins us next after eight o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on moegor. We have a George Bentley tickets to

(12:28):
give away as well. I thinkin the five o'clock hour. I'm not
sure how, but we'll figure itout. By the way, our phone
numbers are five, win, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen
thirty. The NKU baseball team onFriday night will compete in the NCAA Tournament
against Tennessee in Knoxville. This afterthe Norse won the Horizon League tournament up

(12:52):
at Wright State. The Nurse foundout their opponent on Monday, and they
are currently en route to Knoxville.Well, they'll play in the NCAA tournament
as a Division I program for thefirst time. Dizzy Payton is the head
coach at NKU, a Northern KentuckyUniversity lifer, and we're hoping we get
good seale service because they've been inthe mountains of southern Kentucky. I believe

(13:16):
they either have stopped or they mightbe there now. They're stopping off at
BUCkies before they make their way toKnoxville. Coach Peyton, are you there?
I'm here. Hopefully we can stayconnected this time. Well you sound
great. Have you made it toBUCkies? We just left. Everybody's all
geared up and got some snacks pulling, so we're ready to go. All

(13:39):
right, So you let an entirebusload of baseball players loose at BUCkies?
How long did you give them?Did you worry about any of them not
coming back? What did everybody get? Wow? So there's a lot going
on there. We came about fifteenminutes. I think we got everybody back
on the bus and we got everythingfrom BUCkies, the coolers, the canned

(14:01):
coolers, gummy bears, you nameit. I think somebody got a brisket
sandwich, so well across the map. All right, now, there are
gonna be people listening to this whohave never been to a Bucky's. How
would you describe it? I woulddescribe it like a gas station within a
flea market. That's very well put. All right, let's talk about your

(14:22):
program. You're underway to Knoxville Fridaynight, playing in the NCAA tournament.
Take me back to Monday. Youguys all convened. You knew you were
going to make it. You knewNorthern Kentucky University was going to pop up
on the screen. Yet, evenif you know that, that's still a
very cool moment. What was thatlike for you and your guys you've seen

(14:45):
the video at all. They werevery excited, and it's just a great
moment for our program, great momentfor our university, and a great moment
for our baseball family. But we'rejust excited to get to represent and display
our game of baseball, our brandof baseball all, you know, on
a national stage and such a bigstage. Yeah, you know, you're
you have a pitching background, andand certainly you have guys who got it

(15:07):
done for you this season on themap, but when you look at what
you guys can do offensively, it'sterrifying. How do you how do you?
I don't want you to give awayany secrets, but from a pitcher's
perspective, how do you expect peopleto work their way to that batting order?
Well? I hope they can't,to be honest with you, our
guys do a great job being toughin the box and and coach Deneman and

(15:28):
our offense doesn't absolutely great job ofand uh, you know, we we
like to think that we can doit for any any different fast, any
different angle, whether it's hitting thelong ball, pulling bags or playing some
small ball, you know, layingdown sack buns. So uh, we
like to try to be prepared forany stage, situation or opportunity that we're

(15:50):
you know, that we're faced withand we feel that we are this year
and again it's just very excited todisplay our brand baseball. You've you've been
a part of his program in thisuniversity for a long time as a head
coach. You got this thing builtand turn around in a relatively short amount
of time walk us through how youdid that. You know, the only

(16:12):
thing I feel like I can takecredit for surround myself with good people.
You know, the first guy Ihired on was coach Steve Deniman. He's
he's seen players to meet college forquite a few years. He had some
background and managing a team, andhe's one of my best friends. So
you know, I've known Steve fortwenty year and then surrounded myself with you

(16:34):
know, it's any good people aspossible. I mean, we have a
great picking coach, Oliver coach aregreat. We have guys a volunteer.
We have like Bob Running who doesso much for our program and you know
he's retired school teacher, but hetakes care of all the off the field
stuff and lets us really focus on, uh, you know, the game
of baseball. And then you know, you got onto our roster with just

(16:56):
a bunch of misfit guys that youknow, people what passed on, didn't
recruit, whatever it may be.But we just you know, kind of
banned together and came up with ourbrand of baseball. And you know,
we just play our butts off andreally try to you know, make our
crowd does. Hey, Peyton iswith us, the head baseball coach at

(17:17):
Northern Kentucky University, the Norris gettingset to play Tennessee Friday night in the
NCAA Tournament. Obviously, first pitchon Friday is going to be at seven
o'clock. Walk us through once youget to Knoxville. What what the next
forty eight hours before first pitch aregoing to be? Like? I mean,
the next forty eight hours are goingto be mostly on preparation, rest
and recovery. You know, assoon as we get into Knoxville, we're

(17:40):
gonna check into the hotel, We'llhead over the light room, you know,
get our bodies moved a little bit, and we'll head out to dinner.
Then it'll be off to bed.Tomorrow afternoon, you know, we'll
do the same thing. We'll getsome some more work in, we'll head
over Tonxfield to practice, kind ofget the lay of the land, the
same thing, invest to recover,and then you know, Friday, we'll

(18:02):
have some scouting report meetings, teammeetings, coaches meetings, and then we'll
just get ready for Friday night andsee what the heck we can do.
This might be a stupid question.It's not the first time I've asked a
stupid question. But at the collegiatelevel, who puts together scouting reports?
Gotcha? I think it's probably differentwith each organization, but our offensive scouting

(18:23):
reports is done by Steve Lineman,and our pitching scouting reports are done by
Andrew Elliott, and then Hunter Loscampdoes a lot of our defensive positioning and
stuff like that. So it's it'sdefinitely a team effort. How do you
compile it? You just how manyTennessee games do you watch? Do you
talk with coaches of programs that haveplayed against your opponent? How does that

(18:47):
work? Well, we're in sucha you know, it's kind of an
information driven part of our lives.I guess if you will. I mean
ten years ago, when I wasa pitching coach, I was scouring through
ESPN Plus to try to find agame or two to watch of the hitters.
But now there's so much information outthere with Synergy, which Synergy has

(19:07):
any of that U or any anypicture that you want. So all the
informations out there and available too.And I can't even tell you how much
kind of the tabs or filters thatyou can go through. So it's really
you know, everybody has the sameability to have the information. It's just
like anything else. What you dowith that information is what's the most important

(19:29):
part is at this point, howdo you how do you balance ensuring that
your kids are prepared but not overloadedwith information when you're playing an opponent like
Tennessee. I think it's just knowingyour people, you know, and kind
of a good thing for us inour program is more and more focused on
what we're doing and how we playthe game than we are with any opponent
that we ever play. We justuse this pieces of pieces of information,

(19:52):
you know, game game of baseball. Although obviously it's very hard, but
it's also pretty simple if you letit be. And you know, we
just try to give him as muchinformation as we can, like you said,
without overloading. And but coach Tedimandoes a great job with that,
and coach Elliot does a great jobwith the pitchers in the balance of you
know what you just said by that, so I think we just try to

(20:15):
you know, know our people asbest as we can from the time we
screwed him until the time that theytheir career is down to the bus and
you know, maybe a certain guyneeds a lot of information and there's somebody
you know that may not need theinformation at all, and just try to
try to curtail our information to theto the player. Awesome stuff. I
appreciate the background. I appreciate youjoining us from the bus. Save travels,

(20:37):
get to Knoxville in one piece,enjoy the experience. Best of luck
this weekend. We're going to berooting for you, coach. Thanks so
much. All right, thanks forhaving us on MELL. Appreciate you.
Got it anytime. Dizzy Payton isthe baseball coach at NKU. They are
en route driving on the bus aswe speak. They just stopped at BUCkies.
The brisket sandwich is the real deal. Uh. They'll place seven o'clock

(21:00):
Friday night against Tennessee, the numberone overall seed in the tournament. The
Nurse the Nurse, the norse inthe Division one NCAA tournament for the very
first time. Congratulations to Coach Paytonand his players. Twenty eight away from
four o'clock. Five point three sevenfour nine, fifteen thirty is our phone

(21:22):
number. Sports headlines. I'll teathe Reds gotta run in the bottom of
the seventh inning. They have justgiven one back. It's a four to
one Saint Louis. Details on what'shappening at GABP and more next ESPN fifteen
to thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.Cincinnati Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey
Chevrolet, Home of lifetime powertrain protectionand guaranteed credit approval from their family,

(21:47):
the Yours for Life kelseyshev dot Com. Reds are trying to take this series
against the Cardinals, and the Cardinalstrying to take this series against the Reds.
Right now, bottom of the eighthinning, it's a four to two
Saint Louis. Reds have just scoredLa de la Cruz, scoring on a
Jamer Candelario hit in Saint Louis eraera error. It's like I have forgotten

(22:11):
how to talk today. So it'sfour to two Birds, Reds with the
tying run at the plate. They'rein the bottom of the eighth inning at
GABP. Reds looking for a secondconsecutive series win, which would give them
a six and three homestand six andthree homestand sounds a lot better than a
five and four home stand. Morefrom GABP as the game unfolds, Frankie

(22:37):
montas six innings of three run baseballfor Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the Florence Yawls
are in action, Yes they are. Florence Y'awls have an impossible to read
schedule. They're taking on the LakeErie Crushers right now, and because my
computer is frozen, I cannot tellyou what the score of that game is.

(23:00):
I am wholly unprepared to give youthe Florence Y'alls update. M C
Cincinnati is on the pitch tonight,looking for an eighth consecutive win before heading
into the International break. Their victoryover Toronto on Saturday is one of the
most hectic, action filled, craziestroller coaster soccer games I have ever watched

(23:25):
a four to three road victory.Three more points seven consecutive wins. They
score in the ninety third minute.Tonight, they're at home against Nashville.
And to provide some context, soin the early years of Major League Soccer,
they didn't have ties. They hadshootouts, So some of the records

(23:47):
for longest winning streaks and Major Leaguesoccer history are slightly skewed because again we
didn't have ties. So the recordfor the longest winning streak in the history
of Major League Soccer. Actually,the two longest winning streaks belonged to the
LA Galaxy, who won fifteen gamesin a row from November, I'm sorry,
from September of ninety seven through Mayof ninety eight, and they also

(24:07):
won twelve games in a row duringthe nineteen ninety six season. Now,
within that winning streak were games thatthey won in a shootout, and then
same for the Chicago Fire who woneleven straight games in nineteen ninety eight and
DC United, which won eleven straightgames in nineteen ninety nine. And again
those are awesome streaks, but withinthose streaks were victories that came in shootouts

(24:29):
because they didn't have ties this centuryand MLS took on its current form where
they allow ties and tie games afterregulation don't go to shootout. Obviously the
exception would be in the postseason,but in this century there have only been
there's only been one winning streak inMajor League Soccer longer than seven games.

(24:52):
The Seattle Sounders won nine consecutive gamesin the twenty eighteen season. There are
three teams that have won seven consecutivegames, Sporting KC in twenty twelve,
Los Angeles FC two years ago andFC Cincinnati this year, which has won
seven consecutive games, and so theyhave a chance, by getting three more
points tonight, to be sitting onthe second longest winning streak in the era

(25:18):
of the non shootout or of thetie in Major League Soccer seven thirty ten
nights game pregame coverage at seven pmright here on ESPN fifteen thirty. It
has been if you compare last seasonto this year, which is what we
are wont to do, probably moreoften than we should be. Last year,
FC Cincinnati was a machine, andso there were inevitable comparisons when the

(25:41):
season started back in February forever agostarted February the twenty fifth to the team
that FC Cincinnati put on the fieldlast year. And I think compared to
how we talked about this team lastseason, the first couple of months felt
a little janky, felt like abit of a roller coaster, between injuries
and the aerin Boopenz' situation and themrequiring some players and just some uneven performances.

(26:07):
And yet they have a chance togo into the international break where they're
not going to play for basically twoand a half weeks. They have a
chance to go in with at leasta point in eight consecutive games, if
they could at the very least geta draw tonight, perhaps an eight game
winning streak, and they're still sittingthere, a game out of the top

(26:30):
spot in the Eastern Conference behind InnerMiami CF, which I'll be honest with
you, back in early March,I'm not sure anybody would have predicted so
a chance to maybe not necessarily makehistory, but put themselves in pretty select
company tonight. That came on Saturday, which I watched sort of at the
same time as the Reds game onSaturday night. That's one of the most

(26:52):
fun soccer games I've ever watched.Just the nature of it. Toronto,
I think is really good. FCCCincinnati is terrific back and forth, and
just felt like this the sort ofgame involving two teams that are going to
have a lot to say about whocomes out on top of the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, as we monitor the Redsgame, there's gonna be a lot

(27:15):
of excitement for UC basketball this comingseason. On occasion area college basketball coaches
will hold media availabilities during the offseason. Wes Miller had won today, we'll
hear from the head coach of theBearcats next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station. Not TJ. Friedel He'sback, but the ahead of DFA,

(27:37):
Mike Ford. The Reds are I'msorry, Are you okay? I'm struggling
with and you can tell the Redsare too, sort of a dark cloud
hanging over the ballpark and really hangingover this show. Plus I feel like
garbage. Taren you are? Youare. I don't love to complain.
You know that about me? Youare? You are working with somebody who

(27:59):
is playing her Today. I cannotwait to go to bed. My wife
had like a are sinus infections contagious? She had a killer sinus infection for
like a week, and I thinkI've gotten it. We'll see. Wes
Miller talked today the head coach ofthe Bearcats, you see, by every

(28:21):
account, is having a good offseason. Namely, I think they have kept
most of the players that if youwere a fan, that you would want
them to keep most. That doesn'tmean that you wouldn't want a Victor lockin
here or a Sage Tolentino, whatever, But you know the guys who got
the bulk of the playing time andperformed better as the season unfolded. In

(28:44):
the Big Twelve, those guys allstayed Gisel, James Dade, Thomas,
Dan Skilling, Simos Lucocius, andthey've They've had what feels like a pretty
productive period in the transfer portal,perhaps highlighted by the acquisition of Dylan Mitchell
from Texas and so Wes today talkedabout that addition to his program. Dylan's

(29:04):
different because he's already done it ata really high level. He's had significant
roles for two NCAA tournament teams,one team that made it deeper on his
freshman year. I think they wonthe Big Twelve Conference tournament his freshman year.
I mean, he's he's McDonald's allAmerican. I think a lot of

(29:25):
it's pretty self explanatory, but he'sso versatile on both ends, Like he
can do so many things, guardso many different positions. I think he
really fits our style of play,the things that we value. And I
think it's a really really cool situationbecause you know, the summer, like
getting them here now so we canstart our work next week. If he

(29:48):
can just take a couple more stepsand have a great summer, I mean
He's already a really good player.I think there's a lot of room there
to grow and this will be abig summer and offseason form and I think,
you know, this will be agood environment for him to do that.
What stood out to me, andwe talked about this with our buddy
Chad Brendle last week, what stoodout to me was the seventy six percent

(30:11):
finish rate at the rim for DylanMitchell last season at Texas. Versatility is
a word that has been used alot and talking about this roster. Here's
Wes on that topic. I'm reallyproud of the job that our staff did,
you know, not you know,it's always fun to talk about the

(30:33):
new faces first, but to youknow, for us, like to retain
the guys that we did, itwas a priority to retain these guys.
I'm really proud like those all theguys that came back there. From day
one, it was I want tobe back at Cincinnati. You know,

(30:55):
certainly there's conversations and the whole dynamicof retention has changed a lot in the
last couple of years across college basketball, but from day one, those guys
were very clear, like I wantto be here. I love what we're
doing. I love going to schoolhere, I love this community, and
so to me, I'm really proudof the retention first, and then I

(31:17):
thought we did a really nice jobof adding not just good players, but
the right players and the right piecesaround that kind of nucleus that we retained.
So as you look at our rosterand totality, and again, I
mean Dylan's commitments recent, right,So that was kind of the last piece.
I mean, you look in thetotality of the roster for the first

(31:37):
time that versatility number one. Justman, the length is something I've talked
about since I got here. Wewant to have great length and great athleticism.
And you look across the board nowand there's a ton of length in
athleticism. You mentioned the word versatile, there's a ton of lineup versatility.

(32:01):
I think we're going to be ableto play even faster. I think we
can get way more aggressive defensively.I think we can continue to grow as
a rebounding team. And certainly likejust the different offensive options that we're going
to have. It's exciting. I'dsay all that because the hard parts to

(32:22):
get it, the hard part.It feels like in the spring is to
get it together. But really,like that's one step of about ten steps,
right, I mean, the realwork starts now. But you do
got to try to get to thispoint and feel like you have a really
competitive roster with not just talent,but the right kind of guys that fit,
you know, our values, thatfit our culture, that fit our

(32:44):
style of play. I do thinkwe've done that with this roster. Again,
that's just step one. Like,there's no reason to celebrate, but
to this point, I'm proud ofwhat's been created and a lot of people,
most notably are returning players in ourstaff to serve the credit for that.
There's Wes Miller from earlier today.More of that coming up a little

(33:06):
bit later on. Plus, you'regonna hear a national commentator say that what
the Bengals are dealing with in relationto Jamar Chase and t Higgins, Yes,
it is a big deal. I'mnot sure I entirely agree. We'll
spend some time on that, andof course the latest on the Reds,
who are playing the Cardinals right nowat Great American Ballpark. You can send
me a tweet on x thanks toour friends at Delta Dental at Moegar.

(33:30):
It's three minutes away from four o'clockon ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
This report. This is Dave Lapphoand you're listening to the Home of the
Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty. Allright, what's up? Good at Brenda
Moleger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for listening today.

(33:51):
Hopefully you're having an awesome afternoon.Brendaman and Jones on baseball. We
think it's going to be on baseballcoming up in just about forty five minutes,
and we've got a Red, aformer Bengal, and an MVP to
talk about with their injuries the maintopic of discussion coming up in just about
thirty minutes. Let me do this. The Reds are playing in the ninth

(34:15):
inning. They trailed the Cardinals fiveto two, batting bottom nine at GABP.
We will have reaction from the ballpark, yours and the main particulars,
obviously including David Bell. I hateto do this. I've done this on
a couple of different occasions. Iguess every game is mathematically of equal importance.

(34:38):
Doesn't today's game feel kind of big? You now you swept the Dodgers,
You're not you know, you winfour straight games, they're probably mathematically
very unlikely to go on a twelvegame winning streak like they did last season.
But woodn't losing this series to theCardinals, at least emotionally, feel

(35:01):
like some of the work that wasdone against the Dodgers would have been undone.
Whereas if you win this one,it's a second consecutive series win.
It is an uber productive homestand andyou know, maybe you go to Chicago
this weekend with a measure of momentum. We will update you as the rest
of the ball game unfolds. AtGABP. We've got the Bengals subject of

(35:27):
national commentary that we have to spendsome time on Jamar Chase and t Higgins
specifically. But first we'll chat withour friend who sent me a pencil sketch.
I got it today. It's ofme with a very fat face broadcasting
from the Super Bowl. Mike,You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you,
moll. I was hoping you enjoyedyour gift, because I know that

(35:53):
experience meant it was probably, youknow, rather important to you, and
I just thought it was a funtopic, and I thought my buddy did
I didn't think he did a realgood job on the representation of your face.
But what is the What is thename of the person who did this
pencil sketch? Because I want toshare it on social media, but I
want to make sure I'm giving propercredit. Okay, his name is Ted,

(36:16):
last name is Hendrick h E ND R I c ks Ted Hendricks.
Yes, you want his phone number? No, well, I don't
want you to give it out onthe radio. No, I don't want
you to do that. Yeah,I don't know. You're right. I
don't know what his email is becauseI hardly ever email. And he's just

(36:37):
getting over tonsile cancer. Oh man. Yeah, he's been going through some
crap. But he's lived in pleasantBridge for about thirty five years. Little
house over, their same wife andtake their house off and their happy little
camper's got a beautiful backyard with thewater garden. Ted lives here in town.
You said, Yeah, he's livedhere all his life. He's traveled

(36:59):
around a lot. To the younghippie, you know, he's been around.
But he was a pretty big timecommercial artist here in town. Like
I said, Cincinnati Ballet and Icould tell pencil sketches his specialty. No,
no, no, not, Actuallythat's not what he does. Typically.
He's done them for me in thepast, but he typically does bigger

(37:22):
projects like giant backdrops and has abig studio down on Twelfth Street downtown or
used to. And where did yousay that Ted lives in pleasant Ridge?
Very good? Right off Montgomery Road. Sure, well, I want to
give I want to give proper creditto Ted because this is this is some

(37:42):
very good work. I do likethe fact that he put me in flip
flops, even though I don't reallywear flip flops. Yeah, that part.
I didn't think of a footwear whenhe was asking me the details.
I told him, probably to youshirt. Definitely a UC hat that doesn't
really delineate the you see hat.But I always put Barney's Beanery on the
T shirt. Well, that's appropriatebecause Barney's Beanery was the the Bengals hangout,

(38:07):
the Bengals fan hangout during that weekleading up to the Super Bowl in
Los Angeles. So I'm very flattered. I'm gonna hang it up here in
the studio and it'll it'll be withus forever. Yeah, I cheaped out
I didn't frame it for you,but I thought you might like to pick
your own frame. They're not thatexpensive. That's the thing that's you know,
that's what I appreciate. You geta great piece of art, you
do want to frame it yourself,right, It's it's nice to be able

(38:29):
to add your own flare maybe andhave it matched the other things on your
wall. So I do appreciate thethoughtfulness there. Okay, And did the
Reds pull it out? But thenhelter skelter. That's okay, Mike.
They are batting in the bottom ofthe ninth inning, trailing by two.
Oh crap, how do you sweepthe Dodgers and then have the tough time?

(38:50):
I'll tell you baseball is. That'swhat That's why we love baseball.
Right now, it's a goofy,goofy sport. The Reds go a month
and a half, a month anda half half without winning a series.
The Dodgers come to town and theysweep them, and now they're a out
a way from losing another series toa Cardinals team. To be fair,
the Cardinals came into this series redhot, but the Reds have a winning

(39:12):
record this season against both the Philliesand Dodgers, and then you know,
a losing record against everybody else.Not every single team obviously, but a
losing record against everybody else. Ithas by the way, Mike just gone
final a gab p Elie de laCruz grounding out representing the winning run,
grounds out to shortstop, and theredsidents five to three. But yeah,

(39:34):
the the it it does sort ofnip the momentum in the butt, if
you will. Yeah, it does. It does, because it does,
and it does to the team,I'm sure. So I got two quick
questions. If you had to pickthe Cardinals or the Reds to make the
playoffs, who would you do?Well. I think I'd picked the Cardinals.
I mean, I don't I don'tlove Yeah, I don't. I

(39:55):
don't love their team, but they'rea little bit more whole. They're a
little bit more experienced. You know, Nolan Aronado has cooled significantly, but
they still have guys in the middleof the order that I feel like you
can count on. They've got someguys at the top of the rotation I
feel like you can count on.I'll be honest with you, I don't
think either team is gonna make thepostseason. But if I had to pick

(40:15):
one of the two, I guessI would say Saint Louis all right,
and then in the final I didn'tget to hear if you already did it
or not the you pick tomorrow nightwith the Lands. I like Minnesota.
I think this series is gonna goto seven games. This this feels like
it's far from over. It feltto me like last night Dallas let them

(40:36):
off the hook just a little bit, and I don't think they've got the
transcendent ant game that they're gonna getat some point during this series. You
know, mathematically, obviously it's hardto pick against the team that's up three
to one. But Minnesota is gonnaget Game five and Game seven and they're
building. So this, this seriesto me feels like it's a long way
from over. I can get tosee it. Last night, But did

(41:00):
did Kyrie and Luca did their usualbit? Or were they both off a
little bit? Uh? Luca wasfor the most part outstanding. Kyrie was
quiet. I don't know, Idon't necessarily believe that he played poorly,
but he had a quiet game.No Loca was Luca was? Luca was

(41:22):
what twenty twenty eight, fifteen andten. Kyrie was Kyrie was quiet as
Luca might be the best player inthe league. Am I right? Uh,
there's there's a validity to that argument. Yeah. On offense, yes,
there's validity to that argument. LikeI got a run man, Okay,
thank you pal, all right,thank you for the artwork. All
right, Redlu's five to three tothe Saint Louis Cardinals. We'll get to

(41:45):
it next on ESPN fifteen thirty,Cincinnati Sports Station alright, eighteen and for
four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Im Oeger the Red LUs five three
to the Saint Louis Cardinals this afternoon, bumma yesterday, at this time,
we were basking in the glow ofa four game winning streak, serious sweep

(42:07):
of the Dodgers and went over theCardinals on Memorial Day. And not that
any of that is completely undone,but you know it's the four game streak
was awesome and a step in theright direction. And it was certainly noteworthy
that they that they took a paddle, if you will, to the LA
Dodgers. But at some point Isaid this on yesterday's show, I don't

(42:31):
need you to win twelve straight gameslike you did last June. I don't
need you to win ten straight games, but you do need a long stretch
where they win an insanely higher numberof games than they lose. For lack
of a better way of putting it, and I just put it at twenty
games, right like, legitimately forme, if you want me to take

(42:54):
if you want to be taken seriously, if you want your your chances of
winning to be taken seriously, you'vegot to get to five hundred, right.
I mean, this team, theywere ten under going into the weekend,
and so I just made it kindof a nice round number. Let's
go games fifty one through seventy.Let's win fifteen out of twenty. And

(43:15):
if you do that, then they'reback to five hundred, thirty five and
thirty five. And all right,let's go from there. Let's see where
they are at that point of relationto first place. Let's see where they
are in relation to the last wildcard. Let's see where they are from a
health perspective. There'll be ten gamesaway from having Noelve. Martin tayback,
by the way, for what it'sworth, TJ. Friedol did come back
today. That's certainly a very goodand positive development. And that's not to

(43:38):
say that if you're I don't know, thirty four and thirty six through seventy
games, that you still can't makea run, But I mean, at
some point you do have to kickthings into gear. And the consecutive losses
to the Cardinals on the heels ofthe four game winning streak make it a
little bit more difficult for that fourgame winning streak to turn into a three

(44:00):
to four week run where they reallyjump into this thing. It does feel
like, at least to a degree, the momentum that was acquired this weekend
has has has kind of been reversed, if you will. Whatever they lost,
they've got to start winning again.They're twenty four and thirty two.

(44:20):
Today's game this was about from anoffensive perspective, We'll get to Frankie Montas.
The Reds lineup made Andre Polante looklike Greg Maddix this afternoon, a
guy who you know, coming inhad pitched a bunch in relief, had

(44:45):
put up in an era of sixpoint thirty. Coming into today's game today,
he was terrific. And that mightbe in large part because of the
Reds helping him look terrific. ButAndre Polante went six innings, gave a
three hits, three walks, didnot allow a run, struck out for
held the Reds at bay. FrankieMontas was all right ish. Matt Carpenter,

(45:08):
who's I think fifty nine years old, started the scoring for Saint Louis
with a home run in the thirdinning. Cardinals got two more in the
fourth. Reds were scoreless through sixth. They got a run in the seventh
on a Jonathan India single that NolanGorman hit a home run in the eighth.
Red's got one back in the eighthwith a jam Or Candelario double.

(45:29):
Ladella Cruz scored on an Arabi DylanCarlson, and then the Cardinals scored twice
in the top of the ninth inning, and that on I'm sorry. He
scored once in the top of theninth inning on a basis loaded walk with
Buck Farmer on the mound, Redsdidn't get a couple of guys on base.
They scored a run on a TylerStevenson fly ball. Technically it goes

(45:50):
down as a sacrifice fly when you'redown five to two and you have runners
on the corners. The idea isto not make it out but still scored
a run on a sacrifice fly.They did get the winning run to the
plate in the bottom of the ninthinning, in the person of Elie de
la Cruz, and unfortunately he groundedinto a fourth out to end the ball
game five to three. The finalscore Reds lose to the Cardinal. Cincinnati

(46:12):
is now twenty four and thirty twoon the season, the homestand a winning
one because of the sweep of theDodgers. But boy, it just felt
like six and three was going tobe a bigger deal than going five and
four, And after they did whatthey did to the Dodgers, and after
they won on Monday, I thinkyou were being reasonable if you thought,

(46:32):
all right, let's at least getthis series and then go from there.
Red's run of playing a bunch ofteams in the National League Central continues this
weekend with a series that starts onFriday afternoon against the Cubs Cincinnati. They're
playing a bunch of games over thecourse of the next month against teams from
the division. Cincinnati is now eightgames at a first place. Chicago,

(46:53):
who's playing Milwaukee this week, isthree and a half at a first place
in second place in the NL Central. So the Reds louse consecutive games.
You are welcome to share your thoughtsat five win, three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty and eight six six sevenoh two three seven seven six,
And I think today, and maybeto a degree yesterday, it's great that

(47:15):
they have gotten DJ Friedel back.But I was thinking about this during the
break. We were asked by ourbuddy Mike, which team would you pick
if you had to pick one orthe other to make the postseason, Saint
Louis or the Reds. And I'llbe honest with you, I don't love
either choice to make the postseason.The Cardinals, for what it's worth,
with the win today, are backto five hundred, But I still do

(47:37):
believe they have some things you cancount on. And Paul Goldschmidt, by
his standards, is not having avery good season, and Nolan Aeronato,
by his lofty standards, is nothaving an excellent season. I do feel
like those players have the sort oftrack records that would suggest that they're capable
of getting hot, even if youdon't love the comparison, and I don't

(48:01):
with the Reds I certainly, andI said this yesterday, I think you
were being reasonable if you expected someof these guys who had been struggling during
that road trip where they went whatwas it, three and six, three
and seven, or some of theguys who had underperformed for most of the
first two months of the season,I think you were being reasonable if you

(48:22):
expected those guys to at some point, at some point begin to hit.
At the same time, it's likewe've said at various points with the starting
pitching, I'm still not sure froman offensive perspective, who we're supposed to
be able to count on, youknow. And again it kind of comes
back to something we talked about backwhen the season was just getting underway.

(48:43):
What the Reds are trying to dois really hard. They're trying to develop
players while at the same time tryingto win. Well. Not only are
they trying to develop players, they'retrying to win with guys who they did
not foresee being a part of theclub. In twenty twenty four, the
idea was not to have Nick Martiniand Mike Ford who's now no longer here,
and Jacob Hurdubies, who I dothink has given this team some pretty

(49:07):
good at Pats. The idea wasnot for those guys to be logging major
playing time, and yet they are. The idea was, though, for
players who have been a part ofthe everyday lineup this season to be performing
better than they have. And youcould excuse the fact that they haven't by
talking about their youth and inexperience andall of that is fine, But I'm

(49:30):
still trying to figure out on thisteam offensively, who are they supposed to
count on? Where are they supposedto hang their hats? And if you
love unending optimism, and for themost part, I do, and you
viewed what happened this past weekend againstthe Dodgers and on Monday against the Cardinals

(49:51):
as a sign that a turnaround wasin the offing. What are we supposed
to hang our hats on? Froman offensive perspect to have us be on
board with you. By the way, the starting pitching, even if you
don't think Frankie Montas was worth signingto a one year contract and i'm i'm
I can go either way on thetopic, he was decent enough today he

(50:15):
gave him a quality start. Theyhad a chance to win the ballgame because
of starting pitching. I even thoughtAndrew Abbott threw it pretty well last night.
I don't know why he was stillin the game as long as he
was, which is maybe a differentstory. The starting pitching continues to hold
up. The starting pitching, forthe most part, continues to be a
major asset and strength of this team. Can you count on it? Offensively?

(50:39):
After a brief explosion against the LaDodgers, they scored one run last
night. They were shut out forsix innings today by Andre Polante. They
scored three runs this afternoon. Fivepoint three seven four nine, fifteen thirty
and eight six six, seven ohtwo three, seven, seven six are
our phone numbers. We'll hear fromDavid Bell and others coming up here in

(51:00):
just a bit, plus Brenhiman andJones on baseball, and we are obligated,
I think, every day to spendat least a little time on Bengals
OTAs and specifically who's not there butfirst a former MVP, a current Red
and a former Bengal each part ofa discussion about certain injuries. We have
it every week with one of theexperts from Ortho Cincy. That chat is

(51:22):
coming up next on ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports Station play home of a lifetime
power train protection and guarantee credit approvalfrom their family to yours for life kelseyshev
dot Com Reds ludes to the Cardinalsfive to three Today at GABP. Cincinnati
held scoreless by Andre Polante for sixinnings. Frankie Montas win six, gave

(51:43):
up three runs. Cincinnati loses twostraight. They finished the homestand five and
four. They're off to Chicago tostart a three game series against the Cubs.
That will be a road trip toChicago and three in Colorado next week.
Florence yawl's lost Today airplay game forFlorence. They fall to Lake Erie
by a score of six four.FC Cincinnati Soccer Tonight, Orange and Blue

(52:05):
looking for it's eighth consecutive victory.They will host Nashville. That game starts
at seven point thirty at the SoccerStadium on the West end of Cincinnati.
Pregame coverage starts at seven pm.We do this on Wednesdays. We talk
injuries with one of the experts fromOrthos. Since the great thing about Orthos
sincey is you never need an appointmentand they have specialists and locations across the

(52:28):
tri State offering walk in orthopedic urgentcare during the week from nine am to
nine pm and on Saturdays from nineam to one pm at Edgewood and Anderson.
It is easier than an ER.It's much cheaper than ER. You
can learn more at orthosinc dot com. That's ortho ci ncy dot com.
Doctor John Fridge from ORTHOSINCI is withus uh. I want to ask you

(52:51):
about Billy Price's retirement, the formerBengal and we'll do a few minutes on
Emelia Pagan. But let's begin withan unfortunate injury if you're a fan of
baseball, and that is to rainingn L MVP Ronald Acunye, who tore
the ACL on his left knee onSunday. It's the same injury that he
suffered in his right knee three yearsago. What's interesting to me about this

(53:13):
is after the game, he's talkingwith reporters on Sunday and he said,
well, it doesn't feel very painful, and he said, quote, I
don't think it's that bad. Isthis sort of a common thing where you
know, someone might say it's notall that bad and then you find out
it's well, a type of injurythat's going to keep a guy like Ronald
Acunya out of action for quite awhile. Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty

(53:36):
interesting, especially since he's been throughit before. On the other side,
each injury is a little different.There can be some associate injuries with it.
With an ACL tier, you canget some bone bruises which are painful.
You can get other ligament tears thanManiscat's tears. So it's possible to
injury with a little different less ofthe earth. Also, I mean this
was shortly affre. He endured theknee before probably the swelling and everything else

(53:58):
set in. He may still havesome drenaline on board and it just wasn't
hurting him quite as much, andmaybe some of that psychological He wasn't quite
ready to admit that he was injuredyet. Is there a way to know
almost immediately if the ACL is tornversus if it's brained. Yeah, and
so usually you can physically examine thesepatients and it'll feel unstable if the ligament's

(54:22):
torn. Now, that can bea little difficult to do. While it's
painful, people tend to tense upand it also swells up, which can
make it difficult to examine, andso that the definitive way if we take
a look is with an MRI,which can tell us once and for all
if the ligaments poort or not.Walk me through the process here, surgery,
rehab, recovery, possible complications,and whether or not the beginning of

(54:45):
his twenty twenty five is in jeopardytwo. Yeah, of course, so
as we know lengthy process we sawwith Joe Burrow, We've seen it with
a lot of athletes over the years. Begins with a surgery. Usually we
like the surgery to happen relatively soit doesn't have to be immediate the next
day, but after a few weeks, once it gets the swelling and motion

(55:07):
improved, then it's probably an appropriatetime to operate. We go ahead and
do an ACL reconstruction, where usuallywe borrow attendant from another part of the
body and make it new ligament afterwardsfor the recoveries and tents and so especially
for a professional level athlete that hasall these resources available to them, it's
very likely he'll go to a rehabfacility work with doctors and physical therapists.

(55:30):
I think focus on that twenty fourto seven. Starting out less intentive working
on being his motion and then asthings for gress, getting his strength backed
and at about the three month markdoing more sports specific exercises. Earliest return
to play working at nine to twelvemonths. So in terms of his spring

(55:51):
season, this may affect it maynot quite be ready for the returnment.
Don't well the torn ACL and hisright knee in twenty twenty one and now
a torn ACL and his left kneehere in the early summer of twenty twenty
four. Is that just an unfortunatecoincidence or is this maybe the sign of

(56:12):
something deeper where someone like this ismore prone than others to injuries like this.
Absolutely, so, it's a prettywell known fact that people that get
ACL tears are at risk of retearingthe same side and even the higher risk
of the average person of tearing theother side. And so it's probably the
right combination of his own general anatomy, the sport he plays, the way

(56:36):
he moves that has just put himat higher risk of tearing at the ACL.
But you did well with recovering fromthe first one, so the hope
as he does with that's one aswell. Let's talk about a member of
the Cincinnati Reads Amelia pegana right handedpitcher who came out of a game dealing
with right triceps discomfort. He hassince been placed on the injured list.
The good news is he has alreadystarted throwing, which I guess would sugg

(57:00):
that his timeline is not going tobe as long as maybe we originally feared.
Let's go back and review, becauseI think a lot of people hear
triceps but don't necessarily know what itis or what it does. What is
the triceps and how does it workin relation to other muscles? Of course,
so triceps is the big muscle onthe back of your arm. It
helps to extend your elbow, soit's the main extender of your elbow or

(57:22):
essentially it straightens your arm. Soobviously it's a pretty key muscle for pitching
and throwing. Is pain in thetriceps sign of something that could be more
severe or is this simply treated aslooks it's isolated pain and it's dealt with
with rest and recovering, and you'regoing to be able to be back in
time pretty quickly. Usually difficult tosay. And so they've obviously done an

(57:47):
MRI on him already, and theydidn't really show anything like a ligament tear
or anything more severe. So Isuspect this is hopefully something minor that with
a little bit of rest and time, it's going to get better and let's
see him back in the game.I want to ask you about a former
Cincinnati Bengal. Folks remember Billy Pricefrom Ohio State, taken by the Bengals
in the first round of the twentyeighteen draft. He is retired, was

(58:12):
with the Arizona Cardinals. He's retiringbecause of blood clots. Now, that's
not the sort of thing you hearabout with professional athletes on a regular basis.
He had pulmonary embolism surgery, whichwe could talk about what that is,
and it was determined that he ranthe risk of internal bleeding while on

(58:32):
blood thinners. That you know,the risk was not worth the reward.
I guess let's talk about blood clots, what causes them and how are they
detected? Yeah, so, verycrazy thing to happen to him, but
these do happen. Blood clots essentiallyis your way at the body's way of

(58:52):
stopping bleeding. But sometimes it caninappropriately happen within your battles or within your
lungs. Like it did with him. How are they detected? So usually
we see that they're swelling a body, plus it can be difficulty breathing,
which can be really concerning. Inthe place of getting a clot in your
lungs. For detecting a plot inyour legs their arms, we usually use

(59:15):
an ultrasound to take a look atthe vessels and you can actually see a
block in the flow. And thenwhen it comes to the lungs, usually
a cat stand would diy in yourveins to in your arteries to see where
that block it iss. So youhear about blood blood dinners, I guess
with blood sinners he ran a certainrisk here. How are they involved with

(59:37):
this? Yeah? And so bloodthinners are primarily designed to thin out your
blood obviously, as the word implies, to prevent it from clotting. Again.
The biggest thing is once you alreadyhave a blood clot, you don't
want to get bigger. You don'twant it to cascade into more blood cloths.
And so that's why we place peopleon blood centers, usually for around

(59:58):
a period of three months, butcould be longer. The problem with that
is if you're playing a contact sportis that it but you're higher risk of
bleeding. Obviously, the things thatnormally when't cause you to bleed make caj
you to bleed. And so wesee there's impatient a lot you bump into
something, or even small touches ora pat on the back blues and that

(01:00:19):
obviously in a sport like football,the head on trauma, it think that's
something more serious, like a leadin your brain or elsewhere. So he
can't play professional football. Does heface other day to day restrictions as he
goes about his life post football.It's unclear right now because it's been that
hasn't been very long since his bloodcloth. Yeah, he's kind of have

(01:00:43):
some restrictions now depending on what riskfactors are at play. So people that
get blood cloth sometimes there's some thingsthat predispose him to it, like hereditary
factor is plotting disorders. Those peopleare high risk and they need to be
on blood pinners for a longer periodof time. But it's possible that he
is able to come off of whatthat is and that his activity restrictions will

(01:01:05):
not be as definite and hopefully youcan return to some level activities they go.
Great insight from doctor John Fridge fromOrthos since the orthopedics and sports medicine.
We say this every week. Thegreat think about the people at Orthos
Sincy as they have specialists in locationsacross the tri State including walk in orthopedic
urgent care during the week from ninea m. To nine pm and on

(01:01:28):
Saturdays nine eight to one p Edgewoodand Anderson. Took my daughter to the
Anderson location. It is easier andcheaper when she broke her foot. Easier
and cheaper then going to an er. When you have an urgent orthopedic injury,
just go to Orthosinc. Dot com. That's ortho ci Ncy dot com.
Reds fell to the Cardinals. Yeahtoday five to three the final score

(01:01:50):
at GABP. More on that andsomeone who says Jamar not coming to a
OTAs is a big deal. Thatin the five o'clock hour as well on
ESP on fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station, are You Singles? By a score
of five to three, Cincinnati finishesthe home stand at five and four.
They lose to to three to SaintLouis. Either're off tomorrow. They're in

(01:02:14):
Chicago on Friday night to play orFriday afternoon to play the Cubs. David
Bell. We got David Bell.Ready, here we go ding Dong Bell.
Not that he's at ding Dong Bell's. That's what Bells do. Although
it was after the day game lastweek that I went off on David Bell.
I had no issue with how DavidBell managed today. I didn't love

(01:02:34):
him bringing out Andrew Abbott for seventhinning last night, but whatever. Here's
David Bell chatting with reporters after today'sfive to three defeat at the hands of
the Cardinals. Sure. Yeah,I mean, it would have been great
to win this. It's been agood homestand and yeah, like you said,

(01:02:57):
we're coming off the Dodgers series,so they're all they're all big games.
I hope we know that. Soyeah, I mean we just m
move forward off day tomorrow. Uhwe can. We're gonna continue to play
big games and important games for formonths to come. Here Franky City had
a bandage day. Satisfied that yougot from them today? Yeah, I
mean sure, I I know Frankie, you know how he thinks and and

(01:03:22):
and I agree. I mean he'scapable of better, but will absolutely take
what he he did for us today. Six innings, three runs through a
lot of pitches, but uh,you know he's he's built for that and
gave us everything he had and gaveus an opportunity. Really at the end
n some some good at bats areaat the end, we came up on

(01:03:45):
one big hit short of it beinga completely different game if it's another game
where you go three gas four insfrom out a game. We had to
get the offense on the al team, specially rich start. Yeah, I
mean it. It's it. Itchanges things, you know. And and
to their credit, their their starterdid a really nice job with his fastball

(01:04:10):
as fastball, moving different m Mdifferent directions and able to command that.
That was how he did it todaywith his fastball. Getting off to the
to a start that way where you'renot scoring early. It does, I
mean it, Yeah, I meanit. It makes everybody have to bear
down there. And you know,like I said, at the end,

(01:04:31):
off their bullpen did have some goodat bats, got on base and came
up on one big hit short.Did we see how a season turned big?
Monday had a lot of the appoints. How or is this next month
of the sea. Yeah, Imean wa, we know that, you
know, we have we do havea long way to go. But of

(01:04:55):
course, with with where we are, you know, we're playing a lot
of in our division, which isimportant. So yeah, I mean,
we really need to continue to beconsistent and do what we know. We
know we're capable of what we needto do, and you know, the
wins are going to come. Thewins are gonna come, David bel says

(01:05:17):
after his team loses five three tothe Saint Louis Cardinals. TJ. Friedel
has been activated. It feels likethe d Elston or the i Elston was
not nearly as long as many ofus had feared. You'll hear from him,
You'll hear from Jake Frayley, You'llhear from me. We'll maybe hear
from you. Five one three sevenfour nine, fifteen thirty. But first
we'll hear from Marty and Tracy,because it's time for Breneman and Jones on

(01:05:41):
baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Trafficfrom the UC Health Traffic Center. The
University of Cincinnati Cancer Center is theregion's first and only provider of specialized primary
care services for cancer patients and survivors. Call five one three five five u
se CC. There's a ten minuteslow down on eastbound two seventy five between

(01:06:04):
Mastella Road and Montgomery Road, andyou'll hit a couple of minute delay on
westbound seventy four between Harrison Avenue andtwo seventy five Omnicole with traffic. All
right, here we go. YesHi, I'm Aleggar. This is UH
ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon,Thank you for listening. I'm glad that

(01:06:27):
you're here. Our our phone numbersare five point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty. UH the uh the Radsplay the game and loss. By the
way, don't forget tonight we haveFC Cincinnati Soccer. The Orange and Blue
are home tonight. I kind oftook responsibility. I said this on the
show yesterday that, uh, Iwent to the game last night. I

(01:06:48):
could not go to any of thegames over the weekend, unfortunately, and
so if they lost to break thefour game losing streak, it, you
know, it would be my fault. And I don't really believe that,
but there are people who leaving suchthings. And then tonight FC Cincinnati.
The good news is I'm not gonnago, so I would love to go.
Here's what's gonna happen in my life, not that anybody cares, not

(01:07:11):
that you care. We're gonna getoff here at six o'clock. I'm gonna
be in my car at six ohone, and within the next half hour
I will have taken so much Nikewill that I might might not wake up
until Friday, so I cannot.I will not be the reason the winning
streak comes to an n tonight,but they do look to extend their winning
streak to eight. We didn't makeenough of their performance on Saturday night in

(01:07:33):
Toronto, which was an extraordinarily entertainingfour three road victory for the Orange and
Blue, and again they are lookingfor an eighth consecutive win. Only three
teams, including FC Cincinnati, thiscentury, have winning streaks of seven or
more, so they could add tothe select company they are already keeping by

(01:07:55):
winning tonight. I mean, whilethe Reds did lose today five to three
at GABP, and we've been talkingextensively about it, we've got some Bengal
stuff to get to a little bitlater on. I think we are going
to do the Dirk's Bentley ticket giveaway. I think we're going to do two
pairs tomorrow instead of a pair today, for reasons that are wholly unimportant,

(01:08:16):
but it gives you something to lookforward to tomorrow. Let's start the hour
by taking a phone call. Let'stalk to Scott. Scott sounds like you
just dropped something. You're on ESPNfifteen thirty. How's it going. That's
going fine? Though. You werethere last night? Also I was.
I was there. I saw themlose. I was also there. My

(01:08:40):
great nephew brought out the first ball. Really and yeah, how does one
go about becoming the person who bringsout the first ball? Well he not
that this is of course an excuse, but he's a CF warrior and is

(01:09:01):
the ambassador for the great strides walksthat have happened. And we reached out
to the reds and instead of doinga first pitch, he got to do
the first ball. That is reallyreally cool. That's pretty awesome. It
was. That's very cool class.They handled it all first class and it
was what a what a great dayto do that. I mean not only

(01:09:27):
the he is up on the screenand everything, but Amarus Mims was there.
Oh yeah, yeah, I sawhim walking through the concourse. He's
huge, enormous. That might bethe biggest person I've ever seen in my
life. He was with Eric Alhe was yeah, yeah, and of
course got our pictures taken with him, and so that was great too.

(01:09:51):
And then I don't know if yousaw him either, but Dave Parker was
there. He was, you know, it was interesting. I had just
read yesterday he was in Pittsburgh forthey celebrated the forty fifth anniversary of the
nineteen seventy nine team and they alsoput i think the same weekend they put

(01:10:14):
Barry Bonds and Jim Leland into thePirates Hall of Fame. And it's obviously
been forty five years since the WeAre Family Pirates won the World Series in
nineteen seventy nine, and Dave Parkerwas obviously a central figure on that team.
And I saw him in his Piratesjersey, and whenever I do,
I think that, I hope somebodywho can do something about it gets David

(01:10:36):
Cooperstown. And then there he waslast night where his city connect reds Jersey
and one of my absolute all timefavorite players. And I'll say it again,
I hope to God in a largepart because of what Dave is dealing
with, that whoever can get himto Cooperstown can expedite that process. Yes,

(01:11:00):
exactly. I had no idea ofseeing him and how small in stature
he was as compared to his playingdays was a very stark comparison because that's
such a terrible disease, and justseeing him wheelchair bound was hard to see.

(01:11:20):
It's hard to see somebody who waskind of defined by their stature right
like Dave Parker was. Was wasterrifying. It was terrifying in large part
because of just his build on topof just being you know, he was
a terrific five tool player. Hecould run, he could hit, he

(01:11:40):
could throw, but six foot fiveprobably at his peak, what about two
twenty five, two thirty back whenthat was hulking and this hulking presence and
to see what Parkinson's has done.I will say this about him though,
because he was in studio here backin late summer of last year along with
his buddy Doug King to promote hisgolf outing. Still a very strong handshake,

(01:12:04):
so uh, you know, hehe's not quite the physical presence that
he was, but if you reachout to shake his hand, you can
you're still gonna walk away feeling it, which I liked. Yeah, well
again, I I that's my years. Those are my years. I knew
Parker and to see him now,I had no idea who that's who that

(01:12:29):
was. I hate it. Ihate it for him. I hated for
his family. I hate it.I hate it in ways that I can
only begin to describe. Yeah,well, the Reds did a terrific job
on handling Jacob, little ten yearold boy. Good and uh first class
is a great, great night forhim. I'm glad to hear I'm glad

(01:12:50):
to hear it. Unfortunately, theycould unfortunately they could win the game for
him, Scott. But I knowhow you are. You're going to spin
it into a positive, So goahead. I can't. We'll get him
today. Well, no, can't. That doesn't work. It no happen.
They're getting good. They're getting goodstarting pitching, right, I mean

(01:13:13):
you know, even yeah today,if you didn't love how Frankie started the
game, he got him through sixand I think unfortunately Andrew Abbott was left
in the game a little bit toolong last night. Otherwise I think you
would be mostly pleased with his performance. That is something to build on.
I just don't know what we're supposedto count on offensively. Yeah, I

(01:13:34):
am as perplexed as everybody is asto why they're not hitting. I mean,
they they've all it in the past, whether it be minor league or
major league. But yeah, don'tI don't get it. But as you
mentioned, I am optimistic that they'llturn it around eventually. I expect nothing

(01:13:57):
else, Scott. I appreciate thephone call. Man. I'm glad your
nephew had to go try. Yeah, thank you, thank you for the
phone call. Now. Uh,Dave Parker was at the ballpark last night,
and that was that was really cool. I am a huge proponent of
him getting to Cooper's town. Andit's funny. I got his autobiography three

(01:14:19):
four years ago and had it andit was a signed copy and I cherished
it and then I realized one dayI never finished reading it, and it
is it's a great sort of journeythrough seventies and eighties baseball. There are
a lot of names in there thatyou know a kid growing up. I'm
like, oh, yeah, Ilove that guy. So it's called Cobra.

(01:14:39):
As as you might expect. Asfor the game, I think that's
that's kind of the question here,right. TJ. Friedel is back,
by the way, if you missedit. They've sent Mike Ford down the
Regin now oh to one without MikeFord. Mike Ford's journey interesting because we
spent a lot of time in earlyMay kind of having fun and not not

(01:15:00):
making fun of any fan who wasdoing this. But the Reds had reached
such an offensive low point that youcouldn't help but be desperate enough to wonder
should they add Mike Ford. Journeymannot good enough to make the team out
of spring training, although we hada very productive spring training goes to Louisville,

(01:15:20):
did nothing but hit ops out ofhis deal. The Reds had about
forty eight hours to make a decisionas to whether or not to add him
to the active roster or lose him. They elected to lose him, and
then well, another injury no cees. So now they go ahead and they
add Mike Ford to the team.And not only do they add him to

(01:15:41):
the team, they often batted himthird. Unfortunately for Mike, he went
out and showed why not only shouldhe not be batting third, but he
is at best a friend major leagueplayer. So the Reds took a chance.
It didn't work out. He wasexpendable. He struck out to end
the ball game last night, and, barring something changing here, soon likely
to be his last plated appearance withthe Reds, although you never know,

(01:16:04):
because if nobody claims him, hecould accept another assignment to Louisville. We
will see. So Mike Ford's gone, TJ. Friedel is back. Hopefully
he could stay healthy. But Ithink that's kind of the question right now.
Right like, the good news isthe starting pitching has been good enough,
and it's been good enough for awhile. You could have said this

(01:16:25):
prior to this homestand better than leagueaverage across the board. We talked extensively
yesterday about Hunter Green. I thinkAndrew Abbott for the most part, has
been fine. I love how hethrew for most of last night. Frankie
Montas, let's be honest, ifthings were ideal with this rotation, Frankie
Montas would be considered the middle ofthe rotation, end of the rotation,

(01:16:48):
back end of the rotation. Butall right, fine, Maybe they've asked
him to be a little bit morethan that. The overarching theme, though
with the starting pitching has been it'sbeen better than last season. Last season,
the Reds starting pitching was a weakness. This year. It's a strength,
it's a strength ish. It's maybenot quite as consistent as you would

(01:17:09):
like. He doesn't give the teammaybe as much length as you would really
like, but it's been better.It's been better than league average on a
night in a night out basis,it feels like for the most part,
red starting pitching gives the team achance, and when they've had bullpen games,
they've won them. The question iswhat are we going to be able
to count on offensively? Forget theNick martiniz of the world, like who's

(01:17:33):
gonna turn it on? Who's goingto turn it on here? That's a
big part of this team moving forward. Not the I know he's not here
anymore, Mike Ford's not the Iknow he's not here anymore, connor Cables.
Who's going to turn it on forthis team offensively? And not Matt
McClain, who I'm not convinced isgonna play for the Reds this year.

(01:17:55):
Not noelve Marte who's still Let's see, the Reds have playedft six games,
so still twenty four more games withoutnoelve Marte? Who is going to turn
it on? And it does haveto be more than one person who can
they count on. What can theycount on? And I don't have an
answer to that, and that's frustrating. It's frustrating at this point of the

(01:18:19):
season to not have that answer.They've played two months. It's got to
be frustrating for David Bell. I'msure it's frustrating for you. So on
one hand, you have this reasonfor optimism, which is starting pitching that
has been fine. Again, ithasn't been great, it's been fine.

(01:18:39):
On the other hand, you getan offense that has been if you're being
at your most generous, inconsistent todaymade Andrea Plante look like Greg Maddox and
doesn't offer much in the way ofhaving something to count on. And that's
that kind of it's end of theoptimism and then overshadowing all of this is

(01:19:06):
just the sheer mathematics of it,right, Like you could, you could
do the whole thing about where theyare. I don't really concern myself with
games back in May. I makeit more about how many wins do you
need to hit a certain number?And maybe maybe I'm being a little conservative
here, but I make it abouteighty five wins. I don't know if

(01:19:30):
eighty five is gonna get him ineighty five, would have got him in
last year. I make it abouteighty five wins to get to that number.
They got to go sixty one andforty five the rest of the way.
They gotta play what a shade undersix hundred baseball at math. The
longer it goes without them being ableto go on an extended run becomes more

(01:19:55):
and more difficult. I said ityesterday before the Reds loss last night.
The four game winning streak was fun. It needs to be a small chunk
of a bigger stretch where and theraw numbers that I used were go win
fifteen out of twenty. And ifthis team could have done that starting with

(01:20:16):
the four game winning streak, thenyou're back to five hundred, and then
the math is a little bit lessdaunting. Four in a row is great,
but it's got to become a smallerpart of a larger run of success.
And for that to happen, whathasn't happened all season long is going
to have to become a thing.And that's going to be this team hits,

(01:20:40):
and it's not going to come fromthe fringe guys. It's not going
to come from the guys who getshuttled back and forth between here and Louisville,
or who are fringe big leaguers orwho wouldn't be here if this team
was healthy. It's going to haveto come from guys who have higher ceilings,
who are a bigger part of thisteam moving forward, and the few
amount of guys who have a trackrecord. It's really not that hard.

(01:21:05):
Twenty one minutes after five o'clock yourour phone numbers are five one, three,
seven, four nine, fifteen thirtyand eight sixty six, seven oh
two, three, seven seven six. On FS one, they were talking
about Jamar Chase and t Higgins,and I think I'm contractually obligated to make
a segment out of it, sowe'll do that next. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen

(01:21:25):
thirty. Traffic from the UC Healthtrackers. I liked this. Twenty seven
after five o'clock, Tommy Gallatder TomGletder, the voice of FC Cincinnati.
Tommy g is going to join usfrom TQL Stadium coming up in just about
ten minutes. They've got the calltonight FCC versus Nashville. That game starts
at seven thirty. Pregame coverage hereon ESPN fifteen thirty at seven o'clock.

(01:21:48):
Can I get a little of aJames Jones from Speak? Is that what
they call the show Terrence Speak?Yes, the name of the show.
On that show, you got amanual Acho, you got Joy Taylor,
you got Shady McCoy, and hegot James Jones. We're about to hear
James Jones talking about whether or notJamar Chase and T Higgins being missing from

(01:22:10):
Bengals OTAs is a big deal.We're absent at OTAs. Man, this
is a big deal. And usuallywe're talking about one dude, you know,
run hold out receiver, hold out, tighty end, hold out whatever.
We're talking both of your star receiverson the team, which means you
don't got no offense. If thesetwo dudes are not at the X and

(01:22:31):
the Z, you have no offense. And then Jamar Chase, Tyreek Hill
got four years, one twenty.It's new day and age. Boss.
I need a little bit more ofthat because I done show, y'all.
I'm like that too. So theygot to pay him, and they got
to pay him first. You know, Nico Collins from the Houston Texas.
Who you want Nico or you wantt Higgins want t Higgins. Nico Collins
just signed three years, seventy threeMS. They gave him that. They

(01:22:55):
gave him that shady They gave himthat. Hey hold on shut off to
Collins. Yeah, She's like,but it's I mean NKO. But you
know who else is seeing that besidesme on TV? An agent? You
know what, man, I'm gonnabe a little bit more than that.
I don't know how you get bothof them done. One of them is
gonna be lining up at the zunhappy. One of them is gonna be
lining up at the x unhappy.And that ain't necessarily good when you are

(01:23:18):
trying to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, who they have gotten better, when
you trying to beat Lamar Jackson,who they have gotten. This is not
good. It's not good for JoeBurrow. You know what this means for
Joe Burrow? Dang my time andain't there with the receivers and Peach two
dudes or not. In the footballgame, you know what that means.
I got to hold this ball alittle bit longer, might get hit a
little bit more. Oh, Igot to make some players with my feet,

(01:23:38):
might get hit a little bit more. It is not good. Both
these dudes gotta be on the CincinnatiBengals roster, breaking that huddle at the
X and the Z, and theyboth got to be happy. And I
don't know if that's gonna happen.And that is why it is a big,
big concern. They're missing OTAs,right not I mean T's not going

(01:23:59):
to be here for training. They'remissing OTAs, okay, Like add their
names to the long, long,long list of people players who have missed
OTAs, who have used, perhapsjustifiably so their availability is leverage and trying
to get what they're looking for financially. I think the overarching point here is
I don't know that either guy isgoing to be unhappy. I think both

(01:24:20):
guys are going to be motivated.But it is really hard to do what
many want the Bengals to do withboth. It's also really hard to win
eight straight soccer games. FC Cincinnatiis trying to do that in the in
the non shootout era, the longestwinning streak in Major League soccer history this
century nine games. FC Cincinnati lookingto go into the International break with an

(01:24:44):
eight game winning streak, hosting Nashvilletonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. Pregame coverage
starts at seven o'clock. The gamestarts at seven thirty. The voice of
FC Cincinnati. I feel like it'sbeen a while since we've had him.
Tommy g on the call tonight,joining us. I'm the broadcast booth.
Is he with us now? Tarnapparently not? Should we step away?

(01:25:10):
Okay, we'll step away with Tommy? Want me come back? See I
I did this big intro. Ishe there? I'm here? And it
was a big interest You're coming tome in like ten minutes. So I
took the headset off. I wasplaying the audio of the guys screaming about
t Higgins, and then Tarren said, you can go ahead and go to
Tommy if you want. And Iwanted to talk to you. I didn't
want to have to wait. SeeI heard you say ten minutes, So
I took the head set off.I settled in a little bit. Oh
so you weren't interested in hearing whatI had to say? Well, no,

(01:25:32):
I's took the headset off. Yeah. Thanks. I had a cookie.
Let's just be honest. I justI just had a cook. That's
what happened. Uh that game onhere, it is it's good to have
you. It feels like it's beenforever since you've been with me, because
you know, you spend all yourtime with with Tony and Austin, which
is which is totally fine. Iget it. How fun was that game

(01:25:55):
on Saturday night? To call Patterdaywas a lot of fun. I was
just talking to the Apple TV guysdown the hall, and it was funny
because at halftime, if you werelistening on the radio, I asked Pat
Noonan what more he wanted from theteam in the second half, and he
said, honestly, I'm pretty goodwith the way the team is playing,
and if we get shots on goal, I'm confident they're gonna find the back
of the net. And man washe right. Four goals in the second

(01:26:15):
half, and it was like,you never felt like f c Cincsni was
out of the match. You kindof almost felt like they were gonna find
a way to win. A drawwould have felt really disappointing with the way
it was going, and every timethat Toronto got back into it, f
c Cincanni found a way to score. And honestly, you know, you
look at games historically across sport andyou label it a certain players game right,

(01:26:38):
and that was the Luca Oreano game. He was unbelievable in the match.
He was named to the Team ofthe Match day with a spectacular performance.
And I really give the team alot of credit because you're gonna find
different ways to win over the courseof a winning streak, and that was
certainly the case in this one.You know, in the middle of April,
they have a very rare losing streak, right twenty three months, they

(01:26:59):
lose consecutive games, and through thefirst month and a half they were getting
points, and they lost the consecutivegames, but it felt like the whole
operation was kind of clunky. IfI would have said to you the middle
of April that you and I wouldbe talking a month and a half later
and they will have gotten three pointsin each of their next seven, you
would have said, what, Yeah, No, I mean, I would
have said, I hope so,you know, but it certainly there was

(01:27:23):
those back to back losses that justfelt so heavy, and Pat Noonon provides
the good perspective there that the skywasn't falling, that there's gonna be times
you lose back to back games,even if it doesn't happen very much during
his ten year And yeah, certainlyit didn't feel good after losing that game
in Montreal, but this team hasalways bounced back well under Pat Noonon and

(01:27:45):
you saw the way they went toAtlanta to start this winning streak, and
again that was a come from behindvictory. And they're twenty three and four
in one goal game since the startof last year. That's the definition of
a championship caliber team, right.They find a way to win in close
matches, so it's not often thatthey just pound their opponent. I would

(01:28:06):
love to see that tonight and havea comfortable win going into this break.
But no, I think it's beenincredibly impressive the way they've turned it around
after kind of a sluggish start ifyou want to call that. It wasn't
bad start by any means, buta sluggish start to the season. Yeah,
I think that's I think that's afair way of putting it. They
get Kevin Kelsey and there's a lotof excitement in a very short amount of

(01:28:27):
time. I hate to say thathe has exceeded expectations, but it feels
like that's been the case. Yeah, I think that's completely fair. Three
goals so far and He's looked reallygood in Orange and Blue. He's stepped
in and look, he's only startedtwo matches, five appearances and got a
big goal in Toronto on Saturday night. But you're right, it's a guy
who has come on and given thisteam an important striker that fills a bit

(01:28:50):
of that role that Brandon Vasquez left. Obviously, Brandon left gigantic shoes,
but Kevin steps in. He lookscomfortable. And when guys come in from
outside of MLS often it takes awhile to get comfortable in Major League Soccer.
It's a bit different. It's adifferent calendar obviously, and guys need
a couple months before you really startto see them fire on all cylinders.

(01:29:12):
And I don't know if we're atfiring on all cylinders with Kevin Kelsey at
this point, but man, he'slooked good and I'm excited to see him
continue to grow. And after thismatch, we have a couple of weeks
just to practice with his teammates andcontinue to get more and more comfortable.
And I think as this team chasesanother supporter shield, Kevin Kelcey becomes a
very big piece of the puzzle.Tom Gletter, Voice of FC Cincinnati.
The match tonight starts in about twohours from TQL Stadium, the Orange and

(01:29:36):
Blue hosting Nashville. Do you runout of adjectives to use to describe Luco
Acosta. Yeah, it's it's unbelievable, right, and I think I posed
it a week and a half twoweeks ago. Is Luco playing at a
higher level right now than he didlast year in his MVP season? And
I think there's a fair argument tosay that he is. But you know,

(01:29:56):
whether you want to call him amagician or spectacular, fantastic, whatever
it might be, every match you'rescratching your head just watching him play and
kind of jaw dropping moments. Whatwas kind of beautiful about Saturday night and
the team scoring four times against Torontois that they didn't really lean on him
for those goals. Obviously he's apart of everything that happens in the attack,

(01:30:17):
but he only had an assist,so he only contributed to one of
the four goals for FC Cincinnati,which hasn't been the case. But he's
nine straight games now with a goalcontribution, So that tells you how often
he's been involved in this team findingsuccess, especially during this winning streak.
So I think it's great that theywere able to do it without him having
a direct correlation to three of thefour goals. But yeah, it's just

(01:30:41):
unbelievable to watch him play and seewhat he's doing, and he's putting in
another MVB caliber season. It's goingto be an interesting second half of the
season. How much has Messi involved? How much does he separate himself maybe
if Messi is out for a longtime with Copa America and maybe jump ahead
in the MVP race. The thing, because it felt to me, even

(01:31:01):
at the beginning of this winning streaklike maybe they were leaning on him just
a little bit too much and he'srisen to the occasion. How important is
it as we move into the middleof the season for this team to look
Lucho Acosta is going to put hisfingerprints on every single game, but you
would maybe like to have a teamthat's slightly less reliant on him and his
heroics. Yeah, I think so, And I think that with Kevin Kelce

(01:31:24):
scoring goals, that helps, right. Dado Aleezuela has had some good games
as he started a few. Youknow, the hope is Corey Baird is
back from injury soon and Sergio Santoshas stepped in and give Sergio credit.
We talked to Pat yesterday after trainingand he said it's been the best two
weeks that Sergio's had since he's arrivedin Cincinnati in preparing himself for games.

(01:31:44):
And it shows because he has twogoals in the last two times. So
i'd imagine Sergio's start to get moreminutes. But when you're talking about those
guys getting goals, and Luca Oreanowas brilliant in Toronto, like we started
this conversation, So when those guysare involved, and those guys are getting
goals or those guys are getting assists, sure it takes a little bit rusher
off of Luco Acosta. And atsome point, you know, Luco,
we don't hope he misses a game. He may miss one at some point,

(01:32:06):
but he's a guy who doesn't liketo come off the pitch, So
no, I think it's important thatthat guys are are carrying way across the
pitch. And then if if Lucois doing his thing as well, this
team, with the way that they'rebuilt defensively, is going to be very
very hard to beat. And we'veseen that over the last five and a
half weeks. Is Nashville any good? Not really? I mean, I

(01:32:27):
love the candor, I'm not gonnasugarcoat it. I mean they've already thought
they're the first team this season tofire the coach. They're three to four
and seven. They haven't won onthe road this year. They're three and
two away from home. I thinkthey've won one, yeah, one of
their last sixteen MLS road games.They that Gary Smith go thirteen days ago.
They have some good players though,and uh, you know, Haney

(01:32:48):
Muktar is a former MVP on thisteam. They have Sam Surage, who's
now starting to find his his rhythma little bit as a designated player.
They have a national team center back, and Walker Zimmerman, who played a
lot against Cincinnati, has had somesuccess against Cincinnati. So they have good
players on the roster, but theyjust haven't been able to put it together
this year. Look, this gamecertainly is not played on paper by any

(01:33:12):
means. But on paper FC Cincinnatiis the better team and should win running
away tonight. Is it ever thateasy? Probably not? But FC Cincinnati,
if they played like they've played overthe last seven games, then they
win tonight they make it eight ina row and they're one shy of tying
the MLS record of nine straight wins. Yeah, I'm pretty remarkable. I
love the honesty because you know,we get the vokes from Apple TV on
and they're great, but there theywere. They weren't for the league,

(01:33:33):
and so if I were to sayis Nashville any good, they would make
it sound like, oh, thisis a sleeping giant. Boy, y,
you don't want to poke this bearboy this this team's coming to town.
You haven't seen their best soccer.They're asleep excite right, and look,
I'm not trying to be disrespectful inNashville. To be fair, Gary
Smith took them to the playoffs andevery year that they've been in Major League
Soccer, but they just haven't reallybeen able to get over the hump.

(01:33:55):
Last year they went to the LeagueCup final, uh you know, and
lost to Miami in that they hostthat match, so they've had success there,
but they just haven't been able tofind any type of rhythm this season.
Tonight, seven o'clock, Tom Gletter, Kevin McCloskey have The match starts
at seven thirty TQL Stadium FC Cincinnatihosting Nashville. I'll let you go back
to your cookie man, Thank youso much. The cookies long gone.

(01:34:16):
Kevin's here so we can get intoour final prep and what we get.
Hour and twenty minutes we'll start thepregame show. Thanks Bo night man.
We'll be listening the great voice ofFC Cincinnati, Tom Giletnar on somewhat short
notice both for him and me.He's got the match tonight. It has
been a while since we had Tommyon. He joins since he three to
sixty all the time, and whichis fine, that's awesome, but nice

(01:34:40):
to chat with the voice of theOrange and Blue. Pregame coverage at seven
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. Weare insanely late. I am, I
am. I'm gonna say, onehour away from the the heaviest dose of
Nike will ever. I will watchthat match tomorrow. Moe is not gonna
see anything tonight. I've I've neverneeded cold medicine. I shouldn't be here

(01:35:05):
today. Like pre COVID, Iwouldn't have bat at an eye. When
I started to feel lousy, I'mlike, man, can I get home
in time to do this? Ihave not left this room. We're gonna
change out microphones. I'm gonna makesure that everybody here stays healthy. But
I feel like death. It's twentyminutes away from six ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station. Cincinnati is fine.It is fourteen away from six. This

(01:35:32):
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Anything youmight have missed you can find on the
iHeartRadio app or the podcast page ofESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Our podcast
of our show are a service andpodcasts of our show, like we put
up the entire show and we putup interviews, and that's pretty much everything

(01:35:53):
we put on the podcast page orthe app. Either way, they're a
service of our friends that Long NeckSports grow with a location in Wilder Hebron
and rich Wood. There's a nobetter place, no better place to post
up on a nice, warm summerevening than a long Neck Sports Grill.
They've got four k TVs, they'vegot awesome wings, they've got a great

(01:36:14):
beer selection. Long Nex Sports Grill. By the way, five o'clock Happy
Hour is a service of Mick ultraRed's lost to the Cardinals today by a
score of five to three, somewhatof a deflating last couple of games,
somewhat of a deflating end to thehomestand if you look at it in a

(01:36:36):
vacuum and go, well, theywent five and four in a home stand
that included a tough San Diego team, a very good Dodgers team, and
a hot Cardinals team. That's prettygood. If you could win five out
of every nine games you play overthe course of a season, you know
that's at least in this day andage, going to put you in a
position to contend for a playoff spot. But the Reds are going to have

(01:36:59):
to do better. It's I talkabout this often. I talk about this
more maybe than some. I certainlydo not ever want to fall into the
trap of overreacting to results early inthe season, but those results do matter.
And yeah, you could look atlast year and talk about how they
bounced back and they were nine overfive hundred at the All Star break,

(01:37:20):
and they were in first place inAugust, and they were alive until Game
one sixty one. Man, allof that is awesome, but just imagine
had they gotten off to a betterstart where they would have finished. They
did dig themselves such a hole thatit required this insane run in June.

(01:37:42):
Just to jump back into contention,they're in the same place, in a
similar place right now. They couldright now, they could start on Friday
and win eight straight games, andit would be awesome. It'd be awesome,
and that might put them on apath where they go ahead and win
this division and leap frog four teamsand streak into the postseason as NL Central
champions, and that would be terrific. But they could win eight consecutive games

(01:38:05):
and they'd be a five hundred club. So yeah, on one hand,
you can go look winning homestand nota bad homestand yeah, they beat the
Dodgers. They're getting good starting pitching. But the baseball part of this is
still very up and down. Andthen the math part of this as we
get into June is going to startto become more and more pressing. This

(01:38:26):
is I mean, literally, yougo back in last year, if you
want to use last year as acomparison. They had a three game sweep
of the Cubs in Chicago. Theythen went to Boston and won two straight.
They came home after losing a gameon the road, lost three straight
to Milwaukee, beat the Brewers ona Monday. That was Andrew Abbott's first
game, and then Elie Dela Cruzgot called up and they won the first

(01:38:48):
two games in that series against theDodgers and took off from there and by
the end of the month were bonafide contenders. This is when it started
last year, and it's gonna startthis year. I guess TJ. Friedel
coming back is a plus. It'sgonna start this year if it does without
the benefit of a whole bunch ofreinforcements coming in from the minor leagues.

(01:39:10):
Now, hopefully Christian and carnassion Strandcannot only come back in the month of
June but be productive. But thisis when this week, these next two
weeks are when it started a yearago. So if you love the comparisons
to last year, they stop.If over the next two weeks this team
doesn't go on some sort of run, they do not have to win twelve
consecutive games, but they've got todo better than win four lose two to

(01:39:35):
be determined. Now, if it'swin for a lose two, then win
two out of three in Chicago andtwo out of three in Denver. That's
acceptable. But at some point theygot to start digging. They did a
lot of digging and got themselves toa position where they were in the race
for the rest of the season.In early June, that run started a

(01:39:56):
week I'll never forget it, man. I mean, I'm participating hosting with
Seg the Red Legs run on Saturday, and I remember the run kind of
taking hold right around that time andit being a very exciting time and hopefully
it can be duplicated. But today'sresults still nonetheless very disappointing. I gotta
go. Thank you for bearing withme. Thanks to Tarran. I haven't

(01:40:18):
even gone into the control room.Ms McKenzie here today. No, no,
she's training down the hall, downthe hall on a better show.
Yeah, well, Tarren, thanksto you. I've been useless and I've
sounded useless. I felt thank you. I feel like death. There's nothing
worse than a guy in the radiowhining and crying about how he doesn't feel
good. But I don't feel good. I'll feel better tomorrow. Have a

(01:40:40):
great night. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Terren for producing Talk to
You Tomorrow. Three oh five ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station is getting gas
at Exon burning a hole in yourwallet. What if I told you you
can easily earn cash back while youfeel