5/30/24 - The Mo Egger Show

Another WR gets paid and it's not Tee Higgins or Ja'Marr Chase. Plus A Reds lesson, ballplayers and athletes throwing stuff, and what the Bengals decided when the team made its biggest decision ever.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.All Right, what's up, Good afternoon,
I'm Mulegar. This is ESPN fifteenthirty. Thank you so much for
listening. Hopefully you're having a delightfulThursday afternoon. It is at least here
in Kenwood gorgeous out It is gorgeous. I feel good. I appreciate not

(00:24):
only you in the audience, butmy guy Taren and my co workers for
putting up with me. Yesterday,I didn't feel good. I don't know
if it was a summer cold.I don't think it was allergies because I
do a good job in taking myallergy medicine. But I yesterday I felt
like crap. And I know there'snothing worse than somebody who's got a job

(00:46):
like this telling you how bad theyfeel. You don't care, but I
felt. I didn't feel good.And then I went home and from about
seven o'clock last night until about eighto'clock this morning, I did nothing but
sleep. And it was delightful andit was glorious and it was much needed.
And I feel great today. Ifeel like a couple hundred bucks.

(01:06):
So thank you for all of yourcards and letters. Didn't get any cards
and letters. I'm not even sureI know what that means. We have
a lot to get to today.There is no Reds game tonight, but
we're still gonna talk about MFC CincinnatiC's their seven game winning streat come to
an unfortunate end at home last night. We'll spend a few minutes on that.
We've got some college football stuff toget to. We're gonna give away

(01:29):
Dirk s Bentley tickets. We're gonnagive away two pairs. Because I didn't
do it yesterday. I kind offorgot. I kind of just felt so
bad. I just wanted to getthrough the three hours. I'm not gonna
lie today though. We're giving awayboth pairs of Dirk Spentley tickets three thirty
three, and I think at fivethirty three. I think at three thirty
three, we're gonna test your Dirk'sBentley knowledge. So if you're a big

(01:52):
Dirk Spentley fan and you want togo to this show at Riverbend on the
fifteenth, and you think you knowa lot about Dirk Bentley, We're we're
gonna We're actually gonna put you upagainst one of our newest staff members,
Mackenzie, who I guess is abig Dirk Spentley fan, So that is
coming up in just about thirty minutes. We'll do the baseball later on.
There's a big NFL story today involvinga wide receiver signing a massive contract extension.

(02:19):
Jalen Waddle agrees to an eighty fourpoint seventy five million dollar contract extension
with the Miami Dolphins. It willpay him seventy six mill guaranteed. The
twenty eight point two five million dollaraverage annual value of the extension is the
fourth highest in the NFL, andthe guaranteed money is the third highest,

(02:43):
behind A. J. Brown andA Monree Saint Brown, who signed his
deal this offseason with the Detroit Lions. Obviously, AJ Brown signed his with
the Philadelphia Eagles. Waddle is nowsigned through the twenty twenty eight season.
He has been uber productive despite beingin the same as Tyreek Hill, who
also got a huge contract from Miamilast offseason. And so there's a parallel

(03:07):
there, right. The Dolphins theygot they got Tyreek Hill, who is
terrific. They got Jalen Waddell,who is terrific and wide receiver one in
one, a not wide receiver onein wide receiver two, wide receiver one,
and wide receiver one A. They'vepaid both, and so a lot
of people are looking at Cincinnati going, well, hey, look, the

(03:28):
Bengals kind of have a similar situation, right They got Chase, they got
Higgins. It's it could be aone in one A. If the Dolphins
can do it, why not theBengals. There is a difference, and
the difference is to attack if ILooa hasn't signed a contract extension yet,
Joe Burrow is locked in to attackoff I Looa For all of his attributes,

(03:52):
and there are many, is viewedby many as a little bit of
a riskier if you will, ininvestment and a guy like Joe Burrow,
Let's face it, there have beeninjury and concussion issues like there have been
with Joe. I guess more injuryfor Joe than concussion, but still there
have been many who have thought,you know, to attack of I loo

(04:13):
is perhaps one more head injury awayfrom being out of the NFL. How
valid that is, I don't know. I'm not a head doctor. Also,
for all of his attributes, andfor as fun as the Dolphins have
been, they don't have a verygood record in hard games. With two
attack of i Looa as the quarterback, there's been some regular season success,

(04:34):
there has been no postseason success.You can't say the same about Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow got his contract extension withthe Bengals, and when he got
it, he had won five playoffgames already, And so there is a
difference here. The Dolphins, toa degree, have set themselves up to
have some leverage in negotiations with twoattack of Iloa, who I guess they'll

(04:56):
still sign. But now, hey, look man, we've got for the
foreseeable future, Tyreek Hill and JalenWaddle, Like we're going to be fine
offensively with any quarterback. And that'smaybe an oversimplification, but to a degree,
you could understand having those two guysand feeling that way right Like,

(05:18):
we don't we don't have to handhand a quarterback the moon. We don't
have to overpay for a quarterback.We're not at the mercy of a quarterback.
We don't have to reset the marketwith you. We don't have to
give you a Joe Burrow contract.Look, man, you've had health issues,
you haven't won any really big games, you've got a bad record,
against teams with a winning record.Ah, we've got dudes to throw to

(05:42):
that. We feel like if wehad to turn the page to another quarterback,
we'd still be fine because well wegot Tyreek Hill. Let we got
Jalen Waddell. With the Bengals,well, it's different. They have their
quarterback under contract. I think they'repretty comfortable with that. If not,
that's a that's a highly different problem. But they've got their quarterback in a
contract. They know what that moneyis going to look like it is,

(06:04):
they know what the guaranteed money is. They don't have any leverage with Joe
Burrow. They're not negotiating with JoeBurrow. They're trying to shoehorn in wide
receiver contracts onto a balance sheet thatalready is going to include moving forward,
really big numbers for their starting quarterback. It's not entirely apples to apples.

(06:28):
What is kind of interesting about thisis how the market has changed and is
going to continue to change and willchange even more when Justin Jefferson gets his
deal. Jamar Chase, for hispart, has made it known he doesn't
want to sign a contract until hesees what Justin Jefferson gets and you could
certainly understand why as things relate toT. Higgins. You know a lot

(06:51):
of people kind of characterize this aswell. The Bengals haven't made an offer
to T. Higgins. They madeone, they just haven't made one recently.
They've negotiated with T. Higgins.They'm sure they would like him on
the team in twenty twenty five andbeyond. They just they haven't made him
an offer that he's interested in acceptingsince they made that offer. Look at

(07:12):
how much the wide receiver market hasevolved. Look at how much the wide
receiver market has changed, and yetnothing really has changed as things stand between
T and the Bengals, and asthings stand with T and the Bengals,
well, not a lot has changedin regard to his performance. Let's face

(07:33):
it, I love T Higgins.He didn't have a great year last year.
Earned a lot of admiration in myeyes for gutting through injury, but
he did have injury issues last year. He did have some productivity issues last
year. So the market has changed. T didn't have a good year.

(07:54):
Why would anybody be compelled to believethat? Knowing that, with that in
the background, that over all lastyear the market has changed, but he's
not coming off a great year thatsuddenly the Bengals are going to change their
mind and give T Higgins, whoI think they don't view as favorably as
they view Jamar Chase, that they'regoing to give him a contract that's going

(08:15):
to pay him seven million dollars morein guaranteed money than he's set to make
in twenty twenty four. It GE'sprobably not gonna happen. What I think
that was most interesting about this entiredynamic, And you could tell me if
you agree or disagree if five win, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, time is going totell whether or not the Bengals are

(08:35):
are handling this right. There's noanswer to that question now right it appears
that the most likely outcome is THiggins plays for the Bengals this year,
Jamar Chase plays for the Bengals thisyear, and then T. Higgins is
going to walk. And I thinkmost of us still expect Jamar to get
a contract extension from the Bengals thatright now, they're not under the gun

(08:56):
to give him and a contract extensionthat if I'm Jamar Chase in no hurry
to sign because I want to seehow many more times the market gets reset.
But regardless, by kind of kickingthe can down the sidewalk with Jamar
and holding firm with their position withT. Higgins, they have put a
lot of pressure on themselves to winthis coming season, a lot of pressure

(09:18):
like that's they're pointing toward this year. We're not gonna trade T. Higgins,
We're not gonna sign them. Wewant them on the team this year.
We're not gonna do anything with JamarChase. We want to focus on
this year, a hyper focus onthe here and now. I'll be honest,
I kind of like it because Ithink the Bengals have this sort of

(09:39):
team this coming season that's worth goingall in on. And again, who
knows how things are gonna unfold withT Higgins. Maybe he has a subpar
year this season, Maybe he hasa record breaking season. Maybe he becomes
the highest paid wide receiver in theNFL elsewhere, and the Bengals struggled to
replace him. Perhaps down the roadthey rue the day that they didn't lock

(10:01):
in T. Higgins, or maybeeven they rue the day that they didn't
lock in Jamar Chase before his contractcame became so much more expensive. We
don't know. What we do knowis the Bengals are very very much and
have very much sent a message thattheir priority is winning big in twenty twenty

(10:22):
four and kicking some decisions to thefuture and for going the opportunity to trade
T Higgins to get something for him. They want to win the title this
season. They're putting the focus onthis year. They're putting the onus on
themselves to win this season. Ican't recall another time since I've been following

(10:43):
this team, which goes back nowforty years, where I legitimately could have
said the Bengals are going for itthis season. They're going all in on
this season. They've addressed their biggestweaknesses. They've shown impatience and understandably so
when it comes to development its safety. They've added some offensive line depth.

(11:03):
They've not traded away a guy likeT Higgins. They have moved on very
quickly from guys who they feel liketheir usefulness has expired. They haven't hung
onto them for sentimental reasons, likea like a Joe Mixon or a Tyler
Boyd, and so part of what'sgoing to determine whether or not their approach

(11:24):
with T Higgins is going to work? Is do they win while they have
them? Do they win while theyhave T? Do they win while they
have Jamar? Do they win whilethey have Jamar, Joe and T together?
I don't know, but they haveput a lot of pressure on themselves
to win this year. I thinkwe know how this is going to end.

(11:46):
But it's not going to keep usfrom talking about it. Not today,
not this week, not this month, not when training camp starts.
We're headed to our breakup here andI got a question about that at five
point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty that allow coming up in
just a few minutes show. Apreview video has been posted on x at
moegar. Thanks to our friends atEmory Federal Credit Union, your credit union

(12:09):
with heart since nineteen thirty nine.Go to EMORYFCU dot org. Seventeen after
three o'clock, we have a lotto get to today, Dirk's Bentley Tickets
Part one being given away. Injust about eighteen minutes, we'll get to
the Reds, who have today offafter losing two straight to the Cardinals.
Cincinnati headed to Chicago for a threegame series against the Cubs that begins tomorrow.

(12:33):
Afternoon. It is eighteen after threeo'clock on Moweger. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station ESPNfifteen thirty studios powered by Greater Cincinnati's roofing
and exterior restoration experts made while restorationdot Com. Check them out, Check
them out. I said, we'regonna give you a chance to win Dirks

(12:54):
Bentley tickets. It's coming to Riverbend, I assume with his band June fifteenth.
We'll be looking for two contestants atfive point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty and eight six six seven ohtwo three seven seven six. There's there's
something kind of being telegraphed here withthe Bengals and T Higgins, and it's

(13:16):
interesting. I don't I have donea better job in recent years of not
falling into the trap of Hey,two people are mad about this one thing
on Twitter. So I'm gonna makeradio segments out of it, right,
I mean I I think it's oneof the big mistakes you can make,
and I've made it dozens of timesdoing this, like, hey, people

(13:37):
are big mad about this one thingon Twitter. Or there's three people who
have sent a lot of tweets aboutthis one thing and so I'm gonna talk
about it, or this thing istrending on Twitter, so I'm going to
talk about it. Sometimes, yes, sometimes there's a reason to bring those
things up. Sometimes not so much, but it is interesting every day.
I look at that app. I'mlooking at it right now, and you

(14:01):
know, one of the things they'retrying out, I guess on the beta
level is something called the Explore feature. And to the right of that,
you know, there are a lotof things that it feels like might be
trending or people are tweeting about.And so you know, for instance,
NCAA denies Dante's Hardship waiver, whichis Anfellie Dante, a basketball player for

(14:26):
the Oregon Ducks, looking for anotheryear of eligibility with that program. And
if I click on that, Icould see all the tweets about that story.
At the top of it is HigginsEyes Bengals stay amid contract stalemate.
Now this based on some comments hemade on a podcast that we're going to
play for you a little bit lateron. And so according to X,

(14:46):
this is generating a lot of conversationand I look at it, it's actually
true, like all the Bengals accountsthat I follow, or all the fans
of the Bengals that I follow,even some that I don't follow that I
recognize, are all having conversations onsocial media. T Higgins and how the
Jalen Watnell thing is going to affecthis contract and whether or not he's going
to play for the team this year, which I'll spoil that for you he

(15:07):
will, and should they just goahead and pay him? And how's this
going to impact Jamar Chase. Ithas become something that has dominated the offseason
discourse. I look at it likethis, T Higgins is going to play
for the Bengals this year. Isee no reason to think otherwise. I

(15:28):
think T Higgins will play hard forthe Bengals this year. I see no
reason to think otherwise. And thenthe two sides are going to break up,
and you and I have the nextI don't know U seventeen eighteen,
nineteen months to kind of reconcile ourselveswith that. I guess not that many

(15:50):
months. Let's say nine months Ithought I was doing. That's the cold
medicine, you and I. Youand I have the next ten months to
reconcile ourselves or nine we have untilMarch to reconcile ourselves with the fact that
t Higgins is not likely to playfor the Bengals in twenty twenty five.

(16:11):
This is a telegraphed breakup, right. It's kind of like when I was
a little kid and my dad gothis own apartment. But they hadn't told
me that they were getting a divorce. But I could kind of see how
this was gonna unfold. Dad andmom. Mom and Dad weren't going to
be around together for that much longer. We were going to get through the
holidays, we were gonna get throughmy birthday or whatever it was. Something

(16:33):
similar is happening here, And soI think if you're holding out hope and
Man, if I'm wrong about this, I'll be the first to admit it,
and honestly I won't be that upsetabout it. But I think if
you were clinging to hope and usingevery wide receiver contract to make the argument

(17:00):
that the Bengals should revisit their approachwith TA and get a deal done,
you're clinging to something that is notgoing to happen. By the way,
Time may prove the Bengals wrong withtheir approach. Time may prove it right.
It's the beauty of this, right. T Higgins might go and be

(17:21):
a star elsewhere and help a teamto a championship, and the Bengals might
fill his role with Jermaine Burton orsomebody who's playing college football right now and
might win a championship without T Higgins. I don't know, but we have
between now and next March to kindof reconcile ourselves with the fact that the

(17:42):
twenty twenty five Bengals are likely tonot include T Higgins. This is a
telegraphed breakup, and frankly, it'sbeen telegraphed since about a year ago.
I can't find anybody who's really closeto it, who's there every who believes

(18:03):
that there's a world where the Bengalsand T Higgins agree to a contract extension.
It might find some who think it'snot beyond the realm of possibility.
They franchise tag him again in twentytwenty five, and we have to do
this whole song and dance again.But if you're spending every waking moment of
the off season hoping that something thathasn't happened yet suddenly materializes, I don't

(18:32):
know what other evidence to the contrary. You need to convince you that that's
not going to be the case.This is a breakup that you could see
from miles away. It's just nothappening yet. And in the offing,
if they can win a title,then I think everybody's gonna walk away feeling
good about what te did here duringthe time he was here. Uh three

(18:56):
point thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty.If you want to go see as Bentley,
we are looking for We're looking fortwo contestants Tarran eighth game we're playing
first. Uh, do you wantto play the McKenzie game first? Or
do we want to test our listener'sknowledge of the shared history of the Reds
and Cubs? Reds and Cubs?All right, if you want to go

(19:17):
see Dirk S. Bentley, who'scoming to Riverbend on June fifteenth. Reds
are in Chicago starting tomorrow, threegame series against the Cubs. Reds and
Cubs have quite the history with eachother. I actually came up with eight
trivia questions because I was gonna dotwo games of five, and then Tarren
reminded me we're actually gonna play theMcKenzie game. The Dirk s. Bentley
song game that's later on. Soif you think you know a lot about

(19:41):
the shared history the Reds and Cubs. Oops, I just knocked the camera
down. And you want to goto Dirk S. Bentley on June fifteenth,
and you want to go on ourdime uh five one three seven four
nine, fifteen thirty, we'll getyou in eight six six, seven oh
two three seven seven six. We'relooking for the first two people who want
to try to for some trivia questionsor let someone else answer trivia questions,

(20:03):
and if they suck at it,you'll go see Dirk S. Bentley.
You want to go see Dirk's Bentleyknow a lot about the Reds? Five
point three seven four nine, fifteenthirty, and you'll have a chance.
It's twenty nine away from four o'clockon ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
Cincinnati's E thirty, Cincinnati's Sports station. Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey

(20:25):
Chevrolet, Home of a lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed corredit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dotCom. Reds are off? They are?
Are they in Chicago having an offday? In Chicago ain't bad,
but you know what, neither ishaving an off day in Cincinnati. I'm
guessing. I'm guessing they would travel. Would they would they have to go

(20:45):
yesterday? Pay for a hotel room. I don't know. They're playing the
Cubs tomorrow. Would you say,Tarren, they got it, they can
pay for a host. Hey,they can. But I mean, if
you, if you played for theReds, would you prefer to play the
game, excuse me, yesterday andthen you know, meet up and fly
to Chicago today. It's a veryshort plane ride. You know they're not

(21:07):
busting up there. Or would youprefer to leave and go to Chicago after
the game and have like an entirenight and then an entire day in Chicago
and then play the day game tomorrow. Yeah I'm doing the latter. Yeah,
I think I am too. Uh. Anyway, Reds and comes tomorrow,
two twenty first pitch, first ofa six game homestand three in Chicago,
then three in Colorado. Game timeshave been set for U see football's

(21:34):
first three weekends. Write these downright now, you see is gonna host
howsend at two thirty in the afternoon. I love a two thirty kickoff excuse
me two thirty in the afternoon onSaturday, August the thirty first, the
pit game return match from a gamethat you see one of Pittsburgh last year.

(21:56):
That'll be at noon on September theseventh, and the game at Miami
will also be at noon at JaegerStadium. The battle for the victory bell
as Cincinnati tries to keep Miami fromwinning it in consecutive years. Also,
UC's October twenty sixth game at Coloradohas been announced as an ESPN selection time

(22:18):
and specific network announced at a laterdate. Carrie Colms, speaking of UC
football, was on with Tony earlieron since he three to sixty. Carrie
said, and we have the audio, but we'll play it later on that
the only game they play in heavenis football, Tarren, Do you agree
with that? Do you think that'strue? No? The beauty of this

(22:41):
is we don't know, right,I've not been to heaven. You've not
been to heaven. But do wereally believe that the only game they play
in heaven is football? No?No. If that's the case, then
the world be shaped like football,which is n You know. I bet
you you can find people who believethat the world is shape. You can
find people who believe the world isflat, so I'm sure you could find

(23:03):
someone who thinks that the world isoblong shaped. All right, we're gonna
give away Dirk s Bentley tickets,Taren. You know what we can do
is we can do best of seven. Because I came up with eight questions
because I thought we were gonna dothis twice. I can eliminate one and
we can go best of seven withour Reds Cubs trivia questions. You want

(23:25):
to do that? Sure? Whywhat else do we have? All right?
Dirk S Bentley's coming to Riverbend onJune fifteenth. You can get tickets
right now at ticketmaster dot com.Who do we have playing for Dirk's Bentley
tickets? Arran? We could testat number one? Nick? All right?
Nick? How you doing? Youwant to go see Dirk Spentley?
I do? All right? Verygood? Hang tight? And then who

(23:48):
do we have? Who else dowe have? Terren? That's the number
darn nine? Darren? Come ondown, Darren. You want to go
see Dirk s Bentley? Of courseyou do? All right, Well,
here's what we're gonna do. Onlyone of you is going to in Tarren
by Now, is it well establishedhow we do this? We ask,
We're gonna ask. We're gonna gobest of seven seven Reds Cubs trivia questions,

(24:08):
and whoever plays, if they getfour of the seven correct, they're
gonna go see Dirk Spentley. Andthe other person's gonna do nothing. If
the person who answers the questions doesn'tget four of the seven correct, that
guy is gonna go see Dirk Spentley. Tarren, that I explained it successfully,
you did, all right? Whois going to call the virtual coin
flip in the air? Darren?Darren, go ahead and give us a

(24:30):
call. Heads or tails? Let'stail? Let's go tails. I feel
like most of our most of ourcontestants guest tales, all right, Tarren
going, Oh wow, man,that almost hit me in the eye.
What do we have, Tarren?Tales, Darren, you want to play?
You want to do nothing? Donothing? He wants to do nothing?
I like it, man, aftermy own heart. If if given
the choice between doing something and doingnothing, I'll usually take doing nothing.

(24:52):
All right, Nick, are youready? Are you excited? Are you're
a Reds fan? I am?Are you a do you consider yourself a
knowledgeable Reds fan. I do wellversed in franchise history. Yes, all
right, very good. We haveseven questions pertaining to the shared history between
the Reds and the Chicago Cubs.Are you ready for question number one?

(25:17):
I'm ready. Let's do it,all right, Tarn, here we go.
Question number one. In twenty sixteen, Jake Arietta of the Cubs threw
a no hitter against the Reds atGreat American Ballpark. Chicago won that ball
game sixteen to nothing. Which Redmade the final out? Was it a
Joe Evado, b Jay Bruce orc are Uhenio Suarez? I'm gonna go

(25:42):
j Was it Jay Bruce Tarran?No, it was a Eugenio Suarez.
That's okay. It's all right,early hole, but a longer game.
We're going best to seven stand byuh Nick. Question number two. This
player appeared in both the nineteen eightynine National League Championship Series with the Cubs

(26:06):
and the nineteen ninety five National LeagueChampionship Series with the Reds. Was it
a Thomas Howard, b Jerome Waltonor C. Damon berry Hill. I
will go with C. Got Iget Jerome Walton? Yes, Jerome Walton,
Yes, Rookie of the Year innineteen eighty nine with the Cubs and

(26:29):
then a pretty big member of theninety five Reds. Both played in the
National League Championship Series. Both lost. All Right, very good. He's
one for two. He's one fortwo. Gotta get three more? All
right? I wrote eight. Ieliminated question three, so I'm I'm just
doing this for my own knowledge.Here question number four, which is really
now question number three. I'm goingout of my way to confuse everybody,

(26:52):
including less. All Right, herewe go. Nick Pete Rose's first game
as Red's manager came against the Cubsin nineteen eighty four. His last game
as Reds manager also came against theCubs in nineteen eighty nine. Two players
appeared in both games. One wasHall of Famer Ryan Samberg, who was

(27:18):
the other. Leon Durham, AB. Dave Concepcion or c ron Oster
played in both Pete Rose's first gameas manager of the Reds against the Cubs
and last game as manager of theReds against the Cubs. Durham, conceptsci
Own or Oaster. Nick, whatdo you got? I'm gonna go see

(27:40):
ron Oster? Can I get asee Ron Oster. Yes on Oster played
in both games August August seventeenth,nineteen eighty four and August twenty first,
nineteen eighty nine, both Red's victories. All Right, here we go.
He's two for three. He's gotto get four. Prior to the twenty

(28:00):
twelve season, Nick, the Redsmade a trade with the Cubs in which
they acquired believer Sean Marshall from Chicago. Going to the Cubs. Was this
future All Star? A Travis wouldbe as Monti Grandal or C D D.
Gregorias. I believe it was Ais an A Travis wood Wood as

(28:25):
very good? All right? Nickis in the driver seed. He's gotten
three correct, one incorrect. Hisnext correct answer will clinch Dirk's Pentley tickets.
Very good? All right? Thisis another Pete Rose related question.
On September eighth, nineteen eighty five, Pete Rose tied Ty Cob for the
most hits in Major League history witha hit number forty one ninety one.

(28:49):
It came at Wrigley Field against theCubs. Who was Chicago's pitcher A Steve
Trout, b Rick Sutcliffe or cReggie Patterson? Was it Rick Sutcliffe?
Tarn. Oh, it was ReggiePatterson. Steve Trout fell off his bike

(29:11):
riding to Wrigley Field, and theCubs made a last second pitching change and
Reggie Patterson started, and then PeteRose put himself in the lineup and nearly
broke the record at Wrigley Field.That game ended in a tie because they
didn't have lights, But forty oneto ninety one did come at Wrigley Field
that day. All right, you'restill in the driver's seat. Uh,
you got one. You got twochances to get one. Right, here

(29:32):
we go. Five men have managedboth the Reds and the Cubs. One
of those men was Joe Tinker,One was Rogers Hornsby, one was Lou
Panella, one was Dusty Baker.Who was the fifth? Was it a
Davy Johnson? B Verne Rapp orc Jim Riggleman. Was it a Davy

(29:56):
Johnson? Wow? No, itwas Jim Riggleman managed both the Reds and
the Cubs. All right, itall comes down to the last one.
Nick, can you Tarren? Canyou can you feel the excitement? Game
seven? Yeah? All right,Uh, here we go, the first
ever Reds win at Great American Ballpark. Came against the Cubs on April fourth,

(30:19):
two thousand and three. The Redswon the ball game ten to nine.
They scored the go ahead run inthe bottom of the eighth inning.
Who drove it in? Was thata Barry Larkin? B Aaron Boone or
C Sean Casey? Let's go at? Was that Aaron Boone? No?

(30:44):
It was not, Ah Nick.I am so sorry. Much like the
twenty sixteen Golden State Warriors, muchlike the twenty sixteen Cleveland Indians, you
have blown a three to one lead. You had the Dirk Spentley tickets in
your hand, and you let themslip away, which means, Darren,
you did absolutely nothing, and yetyou're gonna go see George Bentley at riverbend.

(31:06):
Congratulations story in my life. Thankyou? I understand, all right,
hangtied. I you know, maybeTerryn, you should figure out a
way to have Darren take Nick tothe concert. He came this close.
He came this close, and Ifeel kind of bad because typically we do
best of five, but because ofmy own incompetence, we extended it to

(31:26):
best of seven. So I feelsort of bad because he would have won
it the old way. But nowI did best of seven? Is this
my fault? Tarran? No,thank you up three one, three to
one. He has another chance toWe have another ticket to give were given
another given away another pair of pairof tickets at at five thirty three?

(31:47):
Correct, Yes, those are goodquestions, right, yes, thank you?
All right, congratulations to Darren.My apologies to Nick. Do we
have any sort of consolation prize?I've got a pack of Red's baseball cards
right now? Okay, thanks toboth. Nick can also buy uh going
Dirk s Bentley. I'm not goingto Dirk s Bentley. No, I

(32:09):
will not be in town that weekend, but uh but if I was,
I'd be there hanging out with Darren. And if you could buy tickets,
Nick h Dirk Spentley is coming toriverbend June fifteen. Tickets on sale now
ticketmaster dot com. We'll give awayanother set of tickets at at five thirty
three. Do you just want tolet Nick have a chance to win those
at five thirty three, Terran?Or do we open it up to everybody?

(32:30):
I think we should be democratic hereand open it up to everybody.
Yes, okay, I mean nowNi is the first caller. About time
we well what we could do islike get Nick a date and see if
somebody wants to take Nick to Dirks Bentley. That's another can really sort
of is, isn't it? Yeah? All right? H anyway, go

(32:51):
see Dirks on the fifteenth ticketmaster dotcom. Ten away from a four o'clock
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.My wife and I both it's four minutes
away from four o'clock. This isESPN fifteen thirty on Moweger. Thank you
so much for joining us today.We'll have a whole question shortly here on
X thanks to our friends at UnitedHeartland Insurance. Go to uhins dot com.

(33:16):
We'll jump back into the Bengals andthe obligatory conversations about T Higgins coming
up here momentarily. One thing thata lot of folks have done as the
Reds have struggled a bit here inthe first third plus of the season is
go back to last year at thetrade deadline, and we'll see this is

(33:37):
why they should have gone for itlast year. I think that's a slight
oversimplification. I will explain why Ithink there's something we need to just all
agree on moving forward. Really,regardless of what position the Reds are in
at the trade deadline this year.We'll get to all of that, more
on the Bengals and Brennanman and Joneson baseball, plus a preview of one

(33:58):
of the best events of early Iare coming up this weekend. It's three
minutes away from four o'clock on ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. And
you found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.All right, good afternoon. I'm Malegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thankyou for listening, and hopefully you're
having a terrific Thursday afternoon. Godknows. Ian Brendanman and Jones on baseball

(34:24):
Coming up. Bengals made a decisionabout a year ago. What to remember
about that decision? Coming up injust a bit. And I have a
question about the big league reliever whogot in trouble, and I guess has
been dfa'ed for chucking his glove intothe stands. The Reds don't play today,

(34:44):
but there's I keep making the samepromise when it comes to the Reds
this year, and I keep breakingit. I'm gonna break it again in
just a few minutes. We're gonnado this first though we're gonna take a
phone call to start the hour inthree seven thirty uh A six six seven
two three seven seven six. Weare not supposed to do this, but

(35:07):
uh, I believe in breaking therules. So Bob is calling from bowling
Green, Bowling Green, Kentucky orbowling Green, Ohio. Bob. I'm
many bowling guds Kentucky. Bob.How you doing, man, it's been
a while. What's up? Everything'sgood, buddy. How you doing?
I'm well. Well, listen,though, I I called just to uh

(35:29):
kind of recap that Cardinal Red series, which we have to well, you
know, it's one of those thingswhere I just I'll tell you this though
I have been so disappointed for mostof this year up until the last fifteen
games, but they kind of keptsaying we're gonna turn in the corner,

(35:52):
we're gonna start hitting, We're gonnasome of the same things you guys have
probably heard, and and it lookslike perhaps they may have done it.
But one thing I did notice moment. And I know when I say this,
I'm going to act like an oldman. But I'm sixty seven,
so I guess I'm allowed to dothat. You know what amazed me.

(36:15):
The other day was when Lars Newtbartook a kick sling and he's now hurt.
I mean, somebody has to explainto me how these guys now are
in just fabulous shape. I mean, Tyler O'Neill got hurt more than anyone

(36:37):
I've ever seen. And if youwere a mack truck, you would not
want to run into Tyler O'Neill.And I just it amazes me. Help
me understand this moment. I can'tso check swing felt something on his side
which would suggest oblique. What's interestingto me we have one of the doctors

(37:00):
from Orthosincion with us every Wednesday.It feels like oblique injuries in baseball are
more common. And I say thiswith no scientific backing. It feels like
oblique injuries in baseball happened more thanoblique injuries in football or basketball or other
sports. It also feels like there'sno oblique injury that lasts a day or

(37:21):
two, right it. It alwaysends up resulting in a stint on the
injured list, and often a stinton the injured list then goes. Thing
goes that goes beyond the prescribed numberof days that it's supposed to be.
I don't know. In some scientistsand Biden, I I don't know.

(37:44):
I hate to sound like you,Bob, I hate to sound like an
old man, but I I Idon't remember people talking about oblique injuries thirty
years ago. Maybe we just saidhis side is injured. I don't know.
I don't I'm sure guys got injuredon Check's wings when I was growing
up, But boyd it feels likeinjuries like that are a little bit more

(38:06):
commonplace in this day and age.Well, Eric Eric Davis got hurt on
a plane back from the West Coast, I think one time. Stiff neck
or something. Uh yeah, yeah, stiff neck. I mean like stuff
like that has the there. Therehave always been. There have always been
things that keep a guy out ofthe lineup. And it might be a

(38:27):
stiff neck, it might be amuscle pool. But it it does feel
like within the context of gameplay thatyou see a lot you see a lot
more instances of players coming out forsomething that looks like it shouldn't hurt.
I'm not talking about like I waswatching that game where Ronald Accooney got hurt.
That happens unfortunately, right it hejust went down like he had been

(38:49):
shot, and it stinks, andyou go, okay, like acls get
torn all the time in every sportand and and non contact situations like that
one. But then you see somethingthat looks relatively benign, like Newt who
stayed in the game, I thinkfor a half inning, and then you
find out it could be something longterm. It's it's just I don't know

(39:09):
it, and I know they're legitimate, but it just kind of amazes me
with all the and like I say, I know they're in better shape now
than they've ever been, but maybethey don't need to be. I'm not
sure what's going on, but perhapsmaybe that's the secret to it. Be
less in shape, be more likeme, be out of shape. Yes,
yes, I couldn't agree more.Good talking to you, Bob.

(39:31):
It's great to hear your voice.Thank you so much. Ten minutes after
four o'clock, So can I dosomething on this really quick? The big
story in baseball yesterday was involved theNew York Mets, and they're now DFA
reliever Jorge Lopez, who is isnot having a very good year, but

(39:54):
his behavior after getting ejected from agame yesterday in New York went. He
got into it with the third baseumpire after Shohei o Tania the Dodgers hit
a home run, and I guesshe was upset. The previous at bet
there was an appeal play on acheck swing that didn't go the pitcher's way,
and so he got into it withthe third base umpire. The third

(40:15):
base umpire throws him out of thegame. As he is being thrown out
of the game, he yells somemore. He drops the ball, He
walks off the mound, untucks hisjersey, and as he approaches the New
York dugout, he tosses his gloveinto the stands. And to do that,

(40:37):
because now we have the netting,you kind of have to make an
exaggerated motion. You gotta get itup there. It's not like it was,
you know, six seven years ago, where you could just chuck it
up there to somebody in the firstcouple of rows, like, you gotta
make a pretty good heave to getit over that netting. So it it
goes a couple of rows deep intothe stands. A fan gets it and

(41:00):
he goes into the clubhouse. Itwas called a bad luck bad optics by
the broadcasters, The manager condemned it. The team has since dfad him,
and maybe that was the right thingto do. He's not a guy who's
having a very good season. He'snot a corner stone to that team.
He's thirty one years old, sohe's not an up and coming prospect.

(41:21):
But what's interesting to me is thecommentary around him in a moment of frustration,
throwing the glove into the stands.What I want to know is where's
the line? Because was it lastweek? David Bell threw a chair in
the dugout because he was pissed off. That understandably so by the way that

(41:45):
his guys keep getting hit. DavidBell, the leader of the team,
fifty one year old man throws achair in the dugout, and that's rallying
the troops. That's something that's gonnasound off alarm Bells. That's something that's
gonna light a fire under his team. It's a show of frustration, a

(42:07):
show of emotion, an understandable one, a very human moment. I had
no problem with it. Dudes inplaying it or involved in an emotional sport,
it's an emotional setting. He's takinga lot of heat, a lot
of criticism, he throws a chair. Ultimately pretty benign act, no harm,
no foul, nobody got hurt,he didn't punch anybody. He took

(42:29):
his frustration out on an inanimate object. And it's cool, it's almost encouraged.
The picture chucks his glove into thestands. Sign of immaturity, perhaps,
But I hear how that's quote abad look like I'm not saying it's

(42:54):
not. I'm not saying it is. Where's where's the line in a sport
where you know, we almost encouragefireworks, like we like it when guys
are showing emotions. Lou Panella famouslyso thirty four years ago picked up a
bass and heaved it into the outfield. I think since the shirt still has

(43:16):
a Loopanella basse throwing shirt, it'san awesome shirt. I've been in bars
where I've seen that exact picture,and it's signed by Lou Panella. If
we talk about Loop Panella's long andsuccessful and one might argue Hall of Fame
caliber career as a manager, thatmight be one of the very first things
that comes up. He throws abase in anger at an umpire. This

(43:39):
guy throws a glove into the stands. One is awesome, the other is
bad optics. Why I mean,like, that might not be something you
want your little leaguer to do.I don't disagree. Like, if I
have a seven year old she playssoccer and basketball, and if she did

(44:01):
something like that, we'd have tohave a conversation. That's that's not how
you're supposed to behave. But atthe professional level, we got managers chucking
chairs, we got a guy throwinga base, we got people kicking dirt
on umpires like we love the fireworks. This guy, you know again,
it's he's emotional. He's upset.He's upset, perhaps with his own performance.

(44:22):
He's upset with his inability to gethitters out. Maybe he knows writing
is on the wall. He's gonnaget dfaight, He's pissed, he's been
chucked out of the game. Heflings his glove into the stands and like,
nobody get hurt. It wasn't abad It wasn't hell. Was a
glove and everybody saw it. Thefans that got the glove looked like they
knew it was coming because they couldlook up and here comes a big leaguer's

(44:43):
glove falling toward use. That's badoptics. Manager Chuck's base, that's awesome.
Manager comes out, kicks dirt onumpire. Awesome player Chuck's glove in
the stands bad optics gets DF andmaybe he got dfa because he stinks,
Like I'm willing to bet if that'son the reds, if that's Hunter Green

(45:05):
or Nicolodolo, Like, they're notgetting sent packing for that. They might
get a talking to that, theymight be fined internally, might be fined
by the people who run the sport, but they're not being let go.
You get a longer leash in lifethe better you are at your job.
And this dude's not very good athis job. But man, I watched
some of the shows this morning thatthey rarely talk about baseball, and you

(45:28):
would think this was like the biggestsin against humanity, Like, oh,
you just you can't do that afteryou've been kicked out. But you can
throw a base, throw a chair, can rant and rave, row a
temper tantrum, like go on YouTubeand have a blast, and I love
these things and entertain yourself for hourswatching players and managers lose their mind at

(45:52):
umpires, like at another human beingand it's fun and it's almost encouraged.
So like, what's where's where isthe line between what we think is acceptable?
What's going to light a fire?What's an understandable display of emotion in
a competitive, heated emotional environment.And the dude should be cut because he

(46:16):
chucked a glove that hurt no oneand help provided somebody with a souvenir five
one, three, seven, fournine, fifteen thirty eight six six seven
oh two three seven seven six Bengalsmade a decision about a year ago.
Remember what came with that decision?Coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati

(46:37):
Sports station. He threw that forfour. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I appreciate you listening. Preview oneof the more fun events of spring and
summer coming up this Saturday in justabout ten minutes plus Brendamant and Jones on

(46:57):
Baseball uh in thirty and it's uh. You know, we talked at the
top of the show about the latestwide receiver to reset the market, Jalen
Waddle of the Dolphins, who getsa new deal three years eighty four point
seventy five mills seventy six guaranteed andevery time one of these contracts gets done,

(47:17):
Jamar Chase has a really good dayand T Higgins has a really good
day, And that's I mean sortof what gets lost in this is you
may want the Bengals to give THiggins a blank check, and I I
don't necessarily agree with that, butbut I get that point if you I
understand where it comes from. Jamar'sor Tea is a very good player and

(47:38):
Bengals have had a lot of successwith him. He's a big He's been
a big part of their success.But at the end of the day,
T Higgins has a very good yearthis coming season, He's either going to
get franchise tagged again and that's gonnacome with a pay raise, a big
pay raise, or he's going toget a massive contract from somebody else.

(48:04):
Many have talked about the Justin Jeffersondeal in its impact on Jamar Chase,
it's also going to impact T Higgins. So me, on one hand,
you go, well, the Bengals, they're sort of letting tea twist in
the wind. At the same time, it's not all that bad if a
market that you're a part of continuesto get reset while you have a chance

(48:24):
to get a new deal here inthe very very short term. Bengals made
a decision a year ago. Atthis time, we all wanted Joe Burrow
to sign, and we knew thatthe Joe Burrow contract was going to be
significant, not so much because ofits length, not so much because of
its overall value, but because ofthe guaranteed money, and it to a

(48:45):
degree was going to maybe reset thequarterback market. We wanted the Bengals to
lock into Joe Burrow, and Ithink with that was sort of a very
implied understanding. Our franchise is aboutthis guy, right that goes without saying
he's a franchise quarterback. That isthe face that is our the avatar of

(49:07):
our franchise. Danna and I jokedabout this. You could talk about putting
a strike be at midfield, youcan talk about putting the Leaping Tiger at
midfield. What they really should putas a picture of Joe Burrow because he
is the franchise he is. Butthat's not just something we say, and
that's not just something that we attachedto him because they give him an expensive
contract. It's something that we haveto keep coming back to every time we

(49:30):
discuss personnel decisions and roster construction,and yes, even wide receivers. Look,
the reality is when they sign himthat the most likely outcome was going
to be that they proceeded ahead withJoe Burrow under a massive contract. Watch
the wide receiver market get reset,Sign Jamar Chase, let T Higgins go,

(49:54):
and like, legitimately, if Iwould have proposed that scenario to you
or any other Bengals fan fourteen fifteenmonths ago, at the end of the
twenty twenty two season, here's what'sgonna happen. Joe's gonna get his deal.
He's gonna play all of his primeyears in Cincinnati. The wide receiver

(50:16):
market's gonna get reset. They're gonnakeep Tea, They're gonna keep Jamar Chase.
They're gonna let T Higgins walk.Maybe not your first choice, but
a choice that I think you wouldhave been okay with. Why because of
number nine? I mean to adegree, the Miami Dolphins are doing things

(50:40):
entirely different. Our franchise is aboutthese two wide receivers. To it take.
If I low it might be ourquarterback moving forward, we might get
a deal done. But our franchiseis about these two wide receivers. Bengals
said their franchise is about the quarterback, which means that's gonna have to come
with some collateral damage elsewhere on theroster. It's gonna have to come with
soccer des elsewhere on the roster.Mathematically, yes, they can keep Jamar

(51:06):
and Tea and pay Joe. Mathematically, they could do that. Philosophically,
I don't think that's ever been somethingthey've been that interested in. By the
way, when our friend Kelsey Conwaya year ago reported the Bengals don't have
t Higgins and their future plans andeverybody got butt hurt about that, and
everybody sent her mean tweets. Whatturned out she was right. That is
no knock on Tea. It's partof the reality of having a guy like

(51:30):
Joe make the kind of coin andbe the face of the franchise that he
has become and that they've chosen forhim to be. They made a decision
when they decided we're comfortable investing heavilyin Joe Burrow, and the decision was,
we're so comfortable doing this that weunderstand we're going to have to make

(51:51):
some really hard decisions elsewhere, reallyhard decisions elsewhere. If they're willing to
make that hard decision a white you'llfind folks will say, look, they
can get it done with both,and they can mathematically, you can figure
out a way to do both.Also, just remember this a year ago.
At this time, you know,we were all talking ourselves into well,

(52:12):
these guys will take less money.Well then why didn't they? I
mean, those are things we sayto ourselves because we want ourselves to believe
that the athletes we root for arereally good guys. By the way,
asking for the most money doesn't makeyou a bad person. Asking for what

(52:32):
you think your worth doesn't make youa bad person. Using whatever leverage you
have does not make you a badperson. If T Higgins wants to be
the highest paid wide receiver in thesport, that doesn't make him a bad
guy. Jamar Chase wants to behigher paid than T. Higgins and be
the highest paid wide receiver in thesport, that doesn't make them a bad
guy. But we did this andwe created these narratives. I don't know,

(52:54):
because we all just want to believethese guys are good dudes. They'll
take less money. Did Joe becamethe highest paid player in the history of
the league. That doesn't make hima bad guy. Nobody would say that
Joe Burrow is a bad guy.Did he take less? Like? Legitimately

(53:16):
the Bengals made t Higgins an offerwas for much less money than he wanted.
Like, if we believe this wholething about how well they're going to
figure out a way they're going totake less, why haven't they? Like
I would be willing to bet despitethe bengals long standing policy of waiting until

(53:37):
another year from now with a guylike Jamar Chase to get a deal done,
if he came to them and said, look, if in this exploding
wide receiver market, I want tosign long term, I don't need to
be among the top five highest paidplayers at this position. I don't need
to be among the top ten highestpaid players at this position. Go ahead
and lock me up for a seconddeal. The Bengals will go, Okay,

(54:00):
these are things we convince ourselves of, and many went out of their
way to do it a year ago. Was never gonna happen. All three
players want to be paid with themarket dictates they should. All three players
are competitive dudes who want their crackat being the highest paid at their position,
or at least one of the highestpaid. All three guys are smart.

(54:21):
Jamar and t are both smart.I mean again, like, if
I'm either guy, I'm looking atwhat's happening with dudes like Jalen Waddle and
I'm going and I'm Andre Saint Brownand I'm looking at aj Brown with the
Eagles, and I'm thinking, Man, look what I could do this offseason,
this coming off season. If Ihave a big year, look what
might be ahead for me. Butwhen the Bengals did what they did with

(54:45):
Joe Burrow, I think they madeit pretty clear franchises about him, and
that's gonna come with some sacrifices.I think most of us were prepared for
what those sacrifices were going to involve. A look ahead to this weekend's Red
Legs Run. Next Some Baseball isabout fifteen minutes away on ESPN fifteen thirty

(55:09):
this Saturday. It's the twenty thirdannual College Advantage Red Legs Run. It's
at Great American Ballpark. It's oneof the signature running events, running in
walking events of the summer, andof course, everything that happens on Saturday
benefits the Reds Community Fund. It'san awesome event. I'm always honored to

(55:30):
be a part of it. Andbecause I'm a part of it, I
don't have to run. Charlie Frank, the executive director of the Reds Community
Fund, is with us twenty threeyears. Charlie, it's hard to believe.
It is hard to believe mode gettingback to when Synergy fields because in
its final days people got to runthrough and I wish I had participated in
that one. That would have beencool. But it's great to have almost

(55:51):
a quarter century of a tradition withthe Community Fund. We're a youngish organization,
so it's kind of cool to havethis history with this event. All
Right, the event event is lessthan forty eight hours away, but my
understanding is you still have time toregister. We do, although you know
what, we were at nineteen hundredwalkers and runners last year. As of
right now, we're up to overtwenty eight hundred, so supplies are limited.

(56:15):
A couple of our events are eitherclosed out or close to being closed
out. Our Gappers Kids Fun Runfor kids ten and under has sold out.
We're down to just a few Ithink literally eight plots left for our
one mile family event, so it'syou know, we want to make sure
this is still a great event.As you said, this is hopefully one

(56:36):
of the ones that walkers and runnersin this community really find to be unique,
really enjoy year in and year out. In terms of all the resources
that it takes to put the eventon. We're so excited to have the
growth from last year to this year, but we want to make sure that
it's still one of the best racesand it's just a great experience for families.
So the numbers are closing pretty quick. There should be plenty of room

(56:58):
in our ten k, five kclosing up pretty fast. So yeah,
people should definitely visit reds dot comslash Run if they're still interested in getting
involved reds dot Com slash Ron Andobviously the most unique thing, at least
for me, is it ends rightthere inside Great American Ballpark, but walk
people through the other stuff that makesthis race so unique. Well, first

(57:19):
of all, as you said,all four of the races, so if
you're doing the ten k course,the five k course along the Ohio River,
if you're taking the one mile familycourse, if you're doing the Gappers
Fun Run. First of all,everybody finishes on the field, everybody's on
the warning track by one of thefoul poles. Everyone gets that experience to
be on the field to see themselvesup on the video boards. But it's

(57:42):
also a really high end event.Everyone gets a custom T shirt, everyone
gets a custom finishing medal, nomatter which event you're taking part in.
There's a fantastic post race party upon the fan zone. And of course
everyone gets a red ticket to theJune sixth Reds Cubs game. So it's
a great package. And if yousay today, it's just fifty five dollars
for the ten k event, fortyfive for the five k, and thirty

(58:05):
five for the family event, soyou know, very reasonably priced for all
the benefits. But most important,it's going to be a beautiful day to
come out and the experience great AmericanBallpark. Yeah, should have awesome weather.
Again, it's this Saturday, Redsdot Com Slash Run, twenty third
annual College Advantage Red Legs Run benefitsthe Reds Community Fund. We do this
all the time because I think it'simportant give folks an idea, especially this

(58:30):
time of year. The things theReds Community Fund is involved in. Oh
boy, you know, first ofall, we have our Reds Nike RBI
and baseball and softball programs. Youknow, that's sort of the jewel and
the crown of the Reds Academy.So those teams, now the high school
seasons are done, are ramping upand the cadence for that takes us to
regional tournament play in July and thenhopefully the rb I World Series in Vero

(58:52):
Beach, Florida in August. Wehave our Little Sluggers t ball and coach
pitch program that we launched this yearat our academy and at Schmidfield down on
the East End. So we're reallytrying to get more heavily involved in getting
kids into a Reds branded, youknow, entry level program. We have
our fun at That program that's justwrapping up with the school year. We

(59:15):
had twenty six thousand kids that participatedin fun at That. That's our introductory
program for K through six at publicschool districts all throughout Reds Country. And
you know, we've renovated three ballfields in about a two week span in
April, celebrated a beautiful new ballfieldin Augusta, Kentucky one in Anderson Township.

(59:37):
Marty Brenneman Field got a beautiful newsynthetic infield, and we rebuilt the
stadium field of the Reds Academy witha synthetic infield. So a busy time
of year, mo all kinds ofcool things going on, lots of stuff,
and obviously Saturday the Reds Community Fundtwenty third annual college advantage Red Legs
Run. It's going to be beautifulweather on Saturday morning. An awesome event.

(59:59):
You could sign up right now.Just simply got to Reds dot com
Slash Run and we'll see you onSaturday morning, Charlie. It should be
a good time. And by theway, by then your Timberwolves getting ready
for Game six, so well,I hope. So yeah, you know
this is as a as a longtimeTimberwolves fan, former employee, this has

(01:00:20):
been an exhausting couple of weeks forall the right reasons. As you know
as a Knicks fan, it's yeah, but the Timberwolves have the double whammy
out west of having a lot ofthese ten thirty starts, so I have
been even more of a zombie thanusual. Let me add two a couple
of things. Packet pickup for anyonethat is interested. Pack and pick up
is tomorrow at the ballpark from tenuntil three. That's on Crosley Terrace right

(01:00:45):
inside the main gate. So ifyou've registered already or if you're still interested
and would rather do it in person, you can do that at the at
the Crowsley Terrace here at Great AmericanBallpark from ten untill three. And then
also if folks want to take thechance and register on race day, that
will begin at six point thirty inthe morning, also by the main entrance

(01:01:07):
at cross the Turrets inside the mainentrance there. But again it's wrapping up
quickly and the moment you said,hopefully the Timberwolves will still be alive by
then. Hope. So reds dotCom Slash Run to find out more Saturday
morning. Cannot wait. I'll seethere, Charlie, thanks so much,
well, thanks for helping again thisyear. Look forward to seeing it Saturday.
Looking forward to it. Yeah,you get myself and Seg Dennison and

(01:01:29):
Sarah Elise at the start and finishline. It's going to be a lot
of fun again. Reds dot ComSlash Run twenty third year for that event.
I do remember the first year atthe old ballpark seventeen away from five
o'clock. Card numbers are five pointthree, seven four nine fifteen thirty and
eight sixty six, seven oh two, three seven, seven six Brendiman and
Jones on baseball coming up, anduh, remember last year trade deadline,

(01:01:53):
reds did nothing. Let's let's havea mature conversation about that. Next on
ESPN fifteen thirty, not next atfive oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports station, Help the Planet witha tip from the clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Anything you havemissed on this show, good news for
you. We record everything. Iguess that's bad news for me because there's

(01:02:16):
actual concrete proof of me just beingterrible at this job. But we had
Dizzy Peayton on the show yesterday.If you're an NKU alum or NKU baseball
fan, here our conversation with thehead coach of the horse who played tomorrow
night in the NCAA Tournament against Tennessee. That conversation is available on the iHeartRadio
app. You can also get onthe podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirty dot

(01:02:37):
com. Speaking of Northern Kentucky,if you're in the Bluegrass State, or
even if you're not gonna spend abeautiful summer night like tonight at a Long
Neck Sports World. There are threelocations in northern Kentucky, Wilder, Hebern
and Richwood and uh TV's all overthe joint. A is coold beer,
awesome wings and a great play topost up, as they say, on

(01:03:01):
a nice summer night on the patio. Long Neck Sports Grill sponsoring the podcasts
of our show, and we thankthem. All Right, let's let's let's
have a conversation about something we hadlots of conversations about like ten months ago.
We'll do that in fifteen minutes,But first, Brandonman and Jones on

(01:03:22):
Baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Trafficfrom the UCE Health Traffic Center. U
SEE Health was the region's first comprehensivestroke center and a leader in rapid life
saving treatment. Learn more at UCHealthdot com. They're stopping go traffic,
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(01:03:46):
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no one covers the Bengals like ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. All right,

(01:04:08):
here we go. Good afternoon onmy legger. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty. Thank you for listening.Hopefully you're having the greatest Thursday of your
life. Of your life. Isaid, we're gonna give away another pair
of Dirk's Bentley tickets at at fivethirty three, the five o'clock Happy Hour,

(01:04:30):
which is what this is. It'sa it's an hour and we're happy.
It's it's thanks to our friends atmichelol Ultra. And I'll be honest
with you, I cannot wait.I usually I'm gonna I'm gonna pull back
the curt and I usually go.I have a few beers on Thursday nights
after my daughter goes to bed,I start my weekend, even though I
work on Fridays, and so afew ice cool Mick Ultras in my future.

(01:04:54):
Perhaps a cigar Game five of theWestern Conference Finals sounds like a good
night Mick Galtre. No matter whatyou're doing, making a part of the
experience, we think them more onthe It's interesting that the T Higgins story
has had no real developments since theyfranchise tagged him, and yet on a

(01:05:15):
daily basis, we have yet toeven play the audio from T Higgins that
I has tearn to go get.I don't want his efforts to be wasted,
so we'll play that audio here injust a bit. The reason a
lot of people are talking about THiggins is another wide receiver assigned a big
money contract, Jalen Waddle the Dolphins, is the second wide receiver Miami is
paying this year. By the way, they also brought in Odell Beckham junior,

(01:05:36):
so they're paying Tyreek Hill the payingJalen Waddle huge contract seventy six mill
guaranteed eighty four to seventy five totalvalue of the contract. And so it
brings into maybe sharper focus. Iguess how the wide receiver market is changing,
evolving, exploding, and the goodnews that can mean for T Higgins

(01:05:59):
down the road and for Jamar Chasedown the road. And we'll spend a
little bit more time on that.No Reds game tonight, they're in Chicago.
I said this on the show yesterday. If you are in love with
the comparisons between last year's team andthis year's team and last season in this

(01:06:20):
season, and I will admit toyou that I'm not because seasons are mutually
exclusive. Each season and each teamare different. Also, last year's team
didn't make the playoffs. I mean, call it what it is. It
was a fun team. It wasa team that will always be one of
my favorites because of how it justinjected energy and enthusiasm and interest in baseball

(01:06:44):
into this city. But at theend of the day, it was a
team that finished barely above five hundred. It wasn't a team that established a
bar for what we want the Redsto be this year or what we want
the Reds to be moving forward.But last year's team made its move right
around now. It was on thisdate last year the Reds won the fourth
of what would be a five gamewinning streak where the road win against the

(01:07:08):
Boston Red Sox and he might forget. They then came home. They lost
the last game at Fenway Park.They then came home lost three straight to
Milwaukee. Andrew Abbott made his bigleague debut in the Monday game against Milwaukee.
The Reds won that one, thenthey walked off the Dodgers the next
night. That was Elie de laCruz's first game. They walked off the
Dodgers the night after that. That'swhen Will Benson hit the home run and

(01:07:29):
spiked the bat, and they prettymuch spent the rest of June rarely losing.
By the end of June, theywere six games above five hundred.
At the end of May, theywere three games below five hundred. Right
now the Reds are eight games belowfive hundred. So if they're gonna make
a move, it kind of feelslike, if you want to do the
comparison of last year in this yearkind of has to start happening now.

(01:07:54):
One of the themes, one ofthe themes of last season was around the
deadline. Should the Reds go forit? Should the Reds be buyers?
There was no reason for them tobe sellers. Frankly, there was nothing
to sell. Should the Reds bebuyers? And my answer was yes.
Now you can go buy stuff.You go shopping for stuff all the time.

(01:08:15):
You buy within your means, oryou look for deals that make sense
going shopping. Being a buyer doesn'tmean you just you spend every time you
have. It doesn't mean you exhaustall your finances. You don't drain your
savings, you don't kick away yourkid's college fun. It means you try
to find. You try to finddeals, You try to find bargains,

(01:08:38):
you try to find, you tryto find things you're interested in buying that
cost what you're comfortable paying. Solike last year, we did this big,
long thing for weeks on end.Boy, if they go into buy
mode, you don't want to kickaway the future. And my response then
was, explain to me how theycan make a trade that could make this
year's team better and totally derail theirplans for the future. That never made

(01:09:02):
sense to me. It didn't makesense to me. Then it doesn't make
sense to me. Now, whatdid the Reds do well? They really
didn't go all in. They didmake a good move. They acquired Sam
Mall who was terrific last year,But they didn't upgrade the starting pitching,
they didn't upgrade the offense, theydidn't make a big, splashy move.
They didn't do enough to help putthe team over the top. And so

(01:09:24):
this year, what conversations are wegonna have? I don't know. We're
still weeks away from really having asharp, clear focus as to whether or
not the Reds are contenders. Myguess is if on July thirtieth, the
Reds or eight games under five hundred, like they are right now, the
thing is going to be for themto stand pat But if they are where
they were a year ago, whichif you recall at the deadline last season,

(01:09:46):
they were a half game at afirst place, I think we're gonna
want the Reds to do something.I think we're gonna demand that the Reds
do something. I think it's gonnamake all the sense in the world for
the Reds to do something. Thefact that they've gotten off to a slow
start this year has caused many togo back to last summer and say,

(01:10:06):
well, look, this is whythey should have gone for it, this
is why, this is why theyshould have gone all in. Now.
I don't know that they should havegone all in. You could be a
buyer, you can make trades,you can make deals, and still not
necessarily go all in. But Ido think there's some validity to the idea
that, hey, look the uncertaintyof twenty twenty four and what's happened so

(01:10:29):
far in twenty twenty four bolster isthe argument that, yeah, they should
have gone for it last year.You can't go back in time. I
would love to, and by theway, if I went back in time,
there's a lot of things that Iwould change that I have nothing to
do with baseball. But you can'tgo back in time. What we can
do is acknowledge this. Moving forward, the future is uncertain and there are

(01:10:51):
events that are going to occur,maybe positive events, perhaps negative events that
you cannot predict. Let's also acknowledgethis. Windows tend to be pretty small,
like the Riots. It feels likethey're kind of set up to be

(01:11:11):
relevant for a while, right.They still love a young nucleus. Unfortunately
a lot of that young nucleus hasn'tplayed this year. But windows, they
tend to close pretty quickly, theydo. You know. I remember thinking
in twenty sixteen when the Cubs wonthe World Series, like, holy crap,

(01:11:33):
this team is set up to bereally good for a while. They
never played in the World Series again. A couple of years after that,
Joe Mann's gone. Like, windowsdo tend to close pretty quickly. I

(01:11:54):
mean, we're already reading things aboutEllie de la Cruz and his agent not
wanting to sign a long term contract. I think if we just acknowledge those
two things, that windows are maybenot as wide open as we tend to
think. Like even if you thinkof how how quick that time was,
Like I love that stretch of timefrom twenty ten through twenty thirteen, which

(01:12:15):
includes a year where the Reds werenot very good twenty eleven. But in
three of those four years, theReds won ninety plus games. In three
of those four years, the Redsplayed in the playoffs, and two of
those years they won the division.They were relevant every year. Fans were
excited. Twenty twelve, you canmake the argument they had the best team
in the National League. You mightmake the argument they had the best team
in baseball, really really good team. But remember twenty twelve, they're up

(01:12:40):
to to zero in the Giants.Of course you do, and at that
point it kind of felt like,God, you know what, they're gonna
win this series, and even ifthey don't, they'll be back. Well
two years later, look what happened. I get at the idea moving forward,
as the Reds build the sort offarm system that is just consistently churning
out big league players, and youwant it to be like the Cardinals and
the Ray. But windows close quickly, windows close quickly, and the future

(01:13:06):
is very uncertain. Also, thepast has been so frustrating. So moving
forward, if we're gonna do thisthing again this summer and the Reds have
to play themselves back into contention,They've they've got to play well enough between
now in late July to even giveus a chance to talk about how they
can make the team better. Butif we're gonna use last year as a

(01:13:29):
guide, you can criticize them forwhat they didn't do. You could justify
what they didn't do. But atthe very least, let's use that to
illustrate that there's no guarantee that you'regonna be better one year because you were
good the previous year. There's noguarantee that just because you took a step

(01:13:50):
forward in one year, that you'regonna take yet another step forward the following
season. I always use twenty elevenas an example. I use twenty fourteen
as an example. Two years thatthe offseason prior they were defined by inactivity.
The Red's not doing anything. Hey, this team's gonna be fine.
We're gonna run the same guys outthere we'll be even better. In neither

(01:14:11):
case, did it happen, andthat's it. If we're gonna just keep
harping on, well, this iswhat they should have done last summer.
I that's not going to go anywhere. Let's at least acknowledge if we do
these conversations moving forward that hey,look man, there's no guarantee. So
I look at last season and go, God, this season would have been

(01:14:32):
easier to absorb had they gone forit last year, and the struggles of
this year would be easier to swallowif they had made a run of the
postseason. And it would be kindof cool if this franchise could cross off
its list advancing around of the playoffs. Could they have done that in it
last year? I don't know,But especially in this watered down regular season
era where it doesn't take all thatmuch to get to the postseason, if

(01:14:56):
you're in a position like the Redswere last season, it's worth going for
it. If I would have toldyou a year ago the Reds in twenty
twenty four are actually gonna be prettybad, which, let's be honest,
they have been so far, youmight have been more inclined to say,
yeah, let's do it. Let'strade away a piece, let's get a
starting pitcher. Let's add something tomake the team better this year and enhance

(01:15:17):
their chances of winning the division andgetting to the playoffs. I'm not gonna
tell you that about the twenty twentyfive team because I can't because I don't
know. But let's at least acknowledge, like, when we do this again,
you might like that the shape thatyour team is in, but the
beauty of sports, beauty of lifeis we don't know. I know that

(01:15:38):
sounds rather obvious right now, butlast July there were no shortage of people
that were just deferring to what they'regonna be even better next year. How
do you know they're ahead of schedule? Just wait until next year. By
the way, the National League Centrallooks better this season. It feels like

(01:15:59):
it's gonna take more than an eightyfour wins to get to the playoffs,
which eighty four was the cap lastyear. That's what Arizona won. If
they're back in that similar position wherethere's a glaring weakness, like I'm already
dreading hearing about how injured players comingback are going to be the best trade
deadline acquisitions. Let's just acknowledge,you know what, maybe it's worth going

(01:16:24):
for it now because what you're doingin the here and now is a little
bit easier to control. By theway, there's no guarantee if you acquire
a guy at the deadline that he'sgoing to put you over the top.
You have to acknowledge that too.But what was so frustrating for me last
year was a lot of people talkedabout twenty twenty four like it was a
fade, a complice, so tospeak, inevitable. Hey, they're better

(01:16:45):
this year, so they'll be evenbetter next season. You don't know that.
So when you have a chance,take advantage of it. It's a
good day to be working here inthe old toy department. I'll tell you
that. Three seven four nine,fifteen thirty and eight sixty six seven oh
two, three seven seven six.It's seventeen minutes after five o'clock. This

(01:17:08):
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati SportsStation. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Yeah, we're giving away Dirk S. Bentley tickets, but first sports
headlines service of Kelsey Chevrolet, homeof lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit

(01:17:29):
approval from their family to yours forlife. Kelseyshow dot com. If you
want to win Dirk Spentley tickets fiveto win, three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty is our phonenumber. First, we'll tell you
the the Reds. They're off today. They're in Chicago. They're playing the
Cubs tomorrow afternoon, trying to breaka three game I'm sorry, a two
game losing streak. Tomorrow's game willbe at two twenty. By the way,

(01:17:54):
tomorrow, I will not be hereon this show, which if you've
listened to the last two days,you would, I think surely consider a
good thing. Mike Petrelli, youwill be here trags filling in bad news
for Lance McCallister listeners. I'll bedoing his show tomorrow night. Anyway.
Reds and comes tomorrow at two twenty, first of a three game series at

(01:18:14):
Wrigley Field, Graham Ash Graft withover Cincinnatigan's Javier Asad night game on Saturday
and a day game on Sunday Chicago. By the way, the Cubs lost
earlier today on the road to theMilwaukee Brewers. Craig Council's return to Milwaukee.
He was booed lustily as we saylustily booed lustily as we say.

(01:18:35):
Brett Kennedy cleared waivers and so hehas accepted an assignment to Louisville. Congratulations
to Brett. I guess meanwhile,professional baseball in the area. The Florence
y'alls are taking on the Lake ErieCrushers tonight. A game starts at six

(01:18:55):
thirty the road team. So ifyou want to go to see the Florence'll,
you better get in the car anddrive fast. College football, you
see the first three U SEE Bearcatgames of the upcoming season. The kickoff
times for those games have been announced. The first tilt is going to be
against Towson on August the thirty first. It will start at two thirty.

(01:19:17):
The pick game the following week inNippert Stadium will be at noon, and
the game at Miami this year willalso be at noon. Poll questions a
service of United Heartland Insurance. UnitedHeartland Insurance is the place to go if
you want the greatest deals on insurance. The greatest insurance company in the history

(01:19:40):
of civilization is United Heartland Insurance.Check out uhis dot com. I'm not
saying that if you vote on thispoll question that we're going to accept your
suggestion, but we have asked it. Should we rename our show, Oh,

(01:20:00):
the sports Cocoon. You know whatcocoon is? What keeps you safe
from the outside? A cocoon isIt could be also the sports Bunker.
Maybe we should put it to apoll between the Sports Cocoon and the Sports
Bunker. The sports Cocoon, youknow, we're sort of shielded from the
outside. Nothing can penetrate it.We're safe. We've got our thing,

(01:20:25):
no external forces. The early returnsare no, we should not name it
the Sports Cocoon. But you knowI have final say over this. I
have final say over the name ofthe show. Get some imaging. We
could get some new imaging. It'sthe Sports Cocoon on ESPN fifteen thirty.
And you know, there are certaindays where there's lots of other stuff going
on that grabs people's attention, andyet we'll still be ensconced in our own

(01:20:46):
personal sports cocoon. Are we justgonna give the tickets to Mackenzie, the
Dirks Bentley tickets? Uh? Maybeshould I think we just might give it
to Mackenzie. We could not findanybody who wanted to play in a stupid
Dirk Spentley game. So congratulations toMackenzie. She's gonna go see Dirk Spentley
at a bit of a gift forher for joining our staff. Congratulations.

(01:21:10):
Eighteen away from six o'clock Plate Higginsvideo. Oh, we're gonna play the
T. Higgins audio. We'll playthe T. Higgins audio then we'll talk
about it next on ESPN fifteen thirty. This is it is twelve away from
six o'clock. This is ESPN fifteenthirty. We have the T. Higgins
audio. What is this from tarn? What podcast? Is this? The

(01:21:32):
once famous I Am Athlete podcast?I Am Athlete podcast? Very good?
Who is T. Higgins speaking toon this podcast? Himself? To himself?
So he's just doing a podcast tohimself. Well, it's not really
a podcast. It's more like abehind the scenes dot CA see. I
understand, I understand. If there'sanybody who can understand what it's like to

(01:21:53):
do a podcast to themselves, it'sme. All right, let's hear T
Higgins. This is what people aretalking about today. Go ahead for this
time turning in my op up,because you know, this could be the
last time we turned it in myopad to to the Cincinnati beings. You
know, obviously I don't know whatthe situation would be right now. It

(01:22:15):
would be bittersweet. I guess asfar as me coming back, I would
love to come back, you knowwhat I'm saying. I grew. I
grew as a man, you know, in the past four years here,
grew as a player. Uh mayyou know, got new good new friendships.
Uh, you know, great relationshipswith it. You know people you

(01:22:36):
know, not in the facility,you know, in the city of Cincinnati.
Uh, the fans are great.So I would definitely love to be
here, you know what I'm saying. But that's not the situation. Yeah,
all right, there you go.I like that music in the background.
Bittersweet and I'm look at I'm sureit would be for a guy like

(01:22:57):
T. It'll be bittersweet to saygoodbye to him. What what the Bengals
have done here is they have strictlyput the onus on this season. Because
you'll find a lot of folks whowill go out of the way to talk
about how it makes more sense totrade T Higgins and get assets for him

(01:23:20):
than it does to keep him forthis season before letting him walk and on
a different type of team with adifferent quarterback, I would agree with that.
I want the Bengals to win theSuper Bowl this year, now,
I want that every single year.Obviously it hasn't happened. But if the

(01:23:43):
Bengals I did this exercise, excuseme back in in February or March.
Imagine it's the day after the SuperBowl, the Bengals have won, They're
having the parade, and T Higginsputs something out there on social media about
that being his last game as aBengal because he knows he's gonna hit free
agency. Would you trade the championship? No, with the championships off in

(01:24:10):
the blow. Yes, they've putthe focus on this year. If they
fall massively short of expectations and thenT Higgins walks, well you know,
then it's maybe a little bit different. Now, not that it's Super Bowl
or bust, but but I'm okaywith putting winning this year above all and

(01:24:31):
then figuring stuff out. By theway, that doesn't just apply to T
Higgins. It applies to him ifyou want to extend the conversation, it
applies to to Trey Hendrickson. Butkeeping him on the team, this year,
it's not that dissimilar from how thingsplayed out with Jesse Bates, by
the way, I just many aregoing to talk about this being a distraction

(01:24:53):
for the season, this being somethingthat derails preparations for the season, screws
up training camp. If you believethe Bengals have a great culture, and
everybody who's around this team who coversit, everybody who opines on it,
talks about that extensively, how greatthe culture is. If you believe this

(01:25:13):
team's got an awesome culture, thenthat's something you actually It's not something you
actually say, it's something you genuinelybelieve. Then you think this team is
built to handle something like this.By the way, last year they handled
pretty well, Joe Burrow missing alot of time in the second half of
the season, missing the rest ofthe season after he got hurt against Baltimore,
they handled very well. Whatever residualissues came out of the stalemate between

(01:25:39):
Jesse Bates and the Bengals two seasonsago, this is going to be something
they have to deal with moving forward, in large part because of the contract
the quarterback is playing under. Inlarge part because they've got some really tough
financial decisions to make like this isnot in the Joe Burrow era, likely
to be the only tough decision theBengals have, which is, here's a

(01:26:00):
player who we like, who wevalue, who has meant a lot to
us that we're just going to bewilling to say goodbye to by the way
they did it with Joe Mixon.Has anybody made a peep about Joe Mixon
since he got traded? No,not that it's not going to be talked
about, because God knows it willbe. It's going to be a front
and center topic for a huge chunkof the season. But I just I

(01:26:26):
nothing that I have seen about theBengals over the last five years would suggest
that something like this is going torip apart the team, be a big
impact in the locker room, goingto screw up their plans for the season,
or anything like that. What I'mfascinated by is to see what the
next chapter looks like, both forthe team and for Tea, because they've
kind of made it known he's notgoing to be with the team beyond this
coming season. If that was notthe case, then I feel like they

(01:26:48):
would actually be negotiating with him,And that's not that they're getting it right
or getting it wrong. He hasgot to be really excited about a the
ability to make twenty one million dollarsthis year and tap into a wide receiver
market that is changing seemingly by theweek. It is going to be fascinating
to see where he ends up,what he gets paid, and whether or

(01:27:10):
not the Bengals can replace him.I don't know if that's Jermaine Burton,
I don't know if it's somebody elseon the roster. I don't know if
that's somebody who's playing college football rightnow. But it is going to be
one of the most interesting things aboutthis team. But if for me,
when we were excited about the Bengalsdrafting Joe Burrow and wanted them to sign
him long term, that was Ithink based on a belief that you think

(01:27:33):
that Joe Burrow can win and winbig no matter what roster churn comes this
franchise as way, and some rosterchurn has. Look, it's already started
this offseason. We've seen who's notgoing to be here in twenty twenty four.
That was a big part of thetwenty twenty three team. John Williams,
Joe Mixon, Shudobi a Woozier.The roster churn will continue, and

(01:27:56):
beloved players, successful players, popularplayers, productive players, high end players
are not going to be immune tothat churn. This is probably an entirely
different conversation if Jamar Chase doesn't exist, or if he exists on another team.
But the reality is they have twowide receivers. They think Jamar Chase
is better. My guess is mostexacts around the NFL would agree with that

(01:28:19):
sentiment. The wide receiver market ischanging. Jamar Chase does not want to
sign his deal before Justin Jefferson signshis. Bengals don't have much of a
track record of signing players while theyhave two years remaining of team control.
So here we are. Go winthe title this year. That'll make everything
better. It'll make any departures easierto absorb, It'll make any hard feelings

(01:28:45):
easier to soothe. Go win thetitle this year. The good news is
number one Bengals seem to be prioritizingthat number two. They've got a team
that can do it. Time Willtelef I'm right, we got to go.
Mike Petrellia fills on this show tomorrow. I'm looking forward to listening to
that. I am in for LanceMcCallister tomorrow night after the Reds Cubs game
on seven hundred WLW to start yourweekend. My thanks to Tegaran Plan for

(01:29:11):
producing My thanks to you for listeningto the Sports Cocoon. Have a great
night, and if you're not withme tomorrow night, then have a great
weekend. This is ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports station.