6-12-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hr 2

6-12-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hr 2

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, five minutes half before this is esp HAD
fifteen thirty Get afternoon, Moeger, Thank you for listening. Hopefully
your weekend is off to an unbelievable start. I think
better than a June Friday, Red's and DBAX tonight. More
on that coming up a little bit later on Ellie
deler Cruz positive news ninety percent healed good news on

(00:26):
the MRI. That from Tito Francona. More on that a
little bit later on. We've talked about the Brendan Soresby thing,
and I don't think overly extensively, but we've talked about
it a lot for two different reasons. One you might
have heard Brendan used to play at uc B. It's
a really interesting story here. You had somebody who blatantly

(00:48):
violated one of the cardinal rules of all of sports,
clearly violated by his own admission, one of the core
principles of the NCAA, and in doing so, jeopardized his
elegi ability. And he's going to be allowed to play,
and he's he's not going to be playing for Southern miss.
He's not going to be playing for Purdue. He's not
going to be playing for you know, Kansas State. He's

(01:11):
going to be playing for the prohibited favorite to win
the Big Twelve, a team that won the conference last year,
played in the College Football Playoff, well funded program like
He's going to be playing in a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Huge, high profile games.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's maybe not likely, but it's not implausible that Brendan
Soorsby will be on the national Championship or at least
College Football Playoff stage.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
This season.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's it's a fascinating story, and there's been a lot
of online back and forth between UC fans and Texas
Tech people. So my take on this has been that
it is absurd that the NCAA in this regard isn't
allowed to enforce its own rules. It's really bad for
the NCAA. I'm far from the only person who have

(02:03):
said that. I also believe, as I've used sports through
a very simple prism entertain me to a large degree.
I'm not a professional wrestling fan, but I subscribe to
the Dan Levittard theory that sports would be more fun
if there were a little bit more professional wrestling elements

(02:25):
in them. So give me bad guys versus good guys
like give me dudes talking smack to each other. I'm
here for all of it, and I think for college football,
this is a huge storyline. It's an interesting one, it's
a polarizing one. It's one that I think is going
to create interest in games that people ordinarily wouldn't watch.

(02:46):
Those are really good things. So all right, he's gonna play.
Let's see how it unfolds. Texas Tech keeps talking Texas Tech,
we keep reading statements. There was this video made last
night that included the athletic director, Joey McGuire, the football coach,
the school president, and the school senior Associate athletic director

(03:09):
for student athlete Health and Wellness. It's a twenty two
minute video. As somebody who makes a fair amount of
social media videos, they probably shouldn't exceed ninety seconds.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
They probably shouldn't exceed thirty seconds.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
These guys made a twenty two minute social media video.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm not gonna lie to you. I never do. I
did not watch it, but I've seen the highlights.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Like a lot of NBA fans don't actually watch the game,
I see the highlights. H give me tark, give me
a brief, very brief snippet of this video where they
they effectively explain why Brendan Sorosby is a part of
their football program, what they're gonna do to help them.
If you want to watch the whole thing, by all means,

(03:54):
go find it on the internet. But here's a brief snippet,
as we say, of the video.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
And so we're hearing the integrity word being bandied about.
How would you address some of those issues about the
integrity of the game and what's going on right now?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, very strongly, I would say there's no reason whatsoever
to question the integrity of our athletics department or the
competitive product that we put on the fields or on
the courts each and every time that we go out.
Integrity of the game is sacred, and that's why we've

(04:27):
gone to such great lengths to ensure the monitoring and
the compliance measures are in place for Brendan's return that
Grant talked about. And he's made mistakes, and he looked
me in the eye this morning again and reassured me
that he has done nothing to jeopardize the integrity of

(04:50):
a game that he's competed in. He has not given
information about a game that he's competed in. He has
not jeopardize the competition or affected the outcome of any
game that he has competed in.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
There's like twenty one and a half more minutes of
that online if you want to go watch it, maybe
some nice weekend viewing. A few things about this Number one,
shut up, stop talking.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
You won like you won.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
You got the ruling you were looking for. Your guy's
gonna get to play. You've got a team I'm sure
you think has a chance to be really good. Stop talking.
Who are you appealing to? Who are you trying to
win over in the court of public opinion? Who are
you trying to win over fans of other programs? Stop

(05:51):
talking once you have won. Like if you go to
your boss, and maybe this isn't the best analogy. You
go to your boss and you ask for something and
you're not sure you're gonna get it. The moment you
hear yes, stop talking. You ask your wife about something,
the moment you hear yes, stop talking. The court told
Texas Tech yes, stop talk. There's no reason to You won.

(06:14):
You got your guy. Now understand you will be portrayed
as a villain. Fine, lean into villainry. Some of the
most popular college sports programs are known as villains. I
am a die hard UC basketball fan. You know what,
My favorite era in the program's history was when they

(06:35):
were the bad guys of college basketball.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (06:38):
You didn't often hear Bob Huggins defending him and his
program for why and how they did things. He would
defend his players. He would point out the hypocrisy in
the NCAA's graduation rates. But okay, we're the bad guys. Fine,
let's lean into it. You're the bad guy.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
That's cool. You'll have your fans on your side.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
You're not gonna win anybody over one once you have
gotten the result you're looking for.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Shut up. I remember when I was a senior in
high school.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I went to my mom and I said, I want
to go to the Great Midwest Tournament.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
And she said yes.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
And I missed school because of it, and I was
going with people who were out of high school.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
And I remember I asked her. I couldn't believe she
said yes.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
And then I kept like convincing her, like yea, I'll
get my schoolwork done, don't worry about it. The hours
I'm gonna miss at work. I'll make like, don't worry
about it. And I remember at one point she's like,
shut up before I change my mind, Like, you got
the answer you're looking for, not apples to apples, Texas
Tech got the.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Answer it's looking for. Shut up.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
The bad guys in professional wrestling don't do interviews explaining
why they're bad.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
They're just bad. They're just bad guys.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
I see absolutely no reason to do what Texas Tech
is doing, making statements and putting out videos and just
you won. You got what you were looking for. What
else is there to say? Brendan Sorosby's gonna play for us.
Don't like it, tough, that should be the statement. And
it may bother you that Brendan Sorosby is playing. It

(08:24):
bothers me that Brendan Sorosby is playing, But okay, he's
playing for us.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Don't like it. Kick rocks.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Our fans are all about it. Our fans are the
one that support us. Our fans and donors are funding
our program. Chances are very few if any Texas Tech
fans have decided to abandon the program, turn in their tickets,
stop donating to the school. In the athletics department, what
is the point of continuing to talk about this. If
you're a Texas tech, who are you trying to win over?

(08:55):
He's playing for us. If you don't like it, boo us.
When we come to your town, have your team beat us.
That's all you gotta say. I would respect that more
than twenty two minutes of word salad.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
A couple of other things about this.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Quickly. On addiction, I am extraordinarily sympathetic to those who
are dealing with addiction. I've seen what it can do.
I've seen what it could do to people, their careers,
their families. I don't know that I know anybody who
has admitted to being a gambling addict. Maybe I truly
don't know any gambling addicts, but I know people who

(09:33):
have suffered addiction from eating, addiction from alcohol, drugs. I
know what it can do, and I genuinely admire folks
who attack addiction head on. But you don't get addicted
to something until you try it. Brendan Soresby clinically has

(09:55):
been diagnosed as an addict. I think we can all
respect that. But he didn't become addicted to gambling until
he gambled. The moment he gambled on his team. He
broke a rule. The addiction came later the addiction, which
good for him for treating, good for him for attacking

(10:17):
head on, for fessing up like good for him. But
the addiction came after the act, and the act.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Broke a rule.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
So this whole thing about, like, well, you've got to
understand how addiction works.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
A lot of us do. A lot of us are
really sympathetic or empathetic about it.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
But what he did caused the addiction, the addiction, and
didn't compel him to make that first bet, So lose
me with the you know, well, nothing he could do
about it. He was an addict. No, he became an
addict once he did what he shouldn't have done. You know,
maybe people don't get clinically addicted to TV shows, but
I can't tell you how many times I've heard somebody
talk about their addiction to a Netflix show or something,

(10:57):
and boy, I binged it, and you didn't become an
addicted to the show, and til the first time you
watched it, Then you got sucked in, then you got addicted.
I know it's not again apples to apples, nothing against
the concept or you know, the realities of addiction. We
are all aware, but this, Hey, I'm a victim here
because I was an addict. No, you became an addict

(11:19):
because you did something and then the addiction took hold
of you. And that's really really unfortunate. But what you
did first broke a rule. Sorry. The other thing about
this is, and this is the question that I'm sure
is not asked her in the twenty two minute long video.
Would they be going to this length for a Texas

(11:43):
Tech track and field runner, or a Texas Tech tennis
player or a Texas Tech golfer? Would they be going
to this length for a Texas Tech punter or a
backup offensive lineman or somebody on the football support staff

(12:07):
who's probably replaceable, Like, of all of these things, and like,
if I'm if I'm the PR person at Texas Tech,
I'm like, can.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
We just stop now? Like we got our guy?

Speaker 2 (12:21):
But of all the things that I would love to
hear answered, that's maybe the only question. All right, Cool,
you're doing this for the quarterback that you think highly
enough of to help fund ay five to six million
dollar compensation package.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Cool? Great, you're doing this for the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
You're doing this for a guy that you think is
got a chance to win the Heisman Trophy. Would you
do this for a kicker? Would you do this for
a third string defensive tackle. Would you do this for
somebody who ran cross country? Would you do this for
an athlete competing in another a lower profile sport. I'm

(13:04):
going to guess the answer is no. I mean, if
you're gonna release twenty two minute long videos about this
because you're trying to win somebody over, at least acknowledge like, look,
this is an outlier because he plays quarterback and he's
really good, and we can win a national championship with him.
It'll time will tell if they're good enough to be

(13:25):
able to do that. If you can successfully convince me
or others, you know what, we would do this for
any student athlete, regardless of sport, regardless of position, regardless
of what they were making.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Okay, cool. I don't know that you could convince me
of that.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
But I'm also not really sure you should be trying
to convince me of anything because you won. You know,
when the bad guys win in professional wrestling, and I
know this only from being a kid and watching professional wrestling.
I'm not even sure there's good guy and bad guys.
But when the bad guys would cheat in professional wrestling

(14:04):
when I was a kid, and they would hit somebody
with a foreign object, or they would do something that
sort of bent the rules, they would win the match
and they would instantly run back into the locker room.
Good guys when they won would hang out pos you know,
do the whole whole Cogan thing. There were the bad
guys when they won, if they won in some in

(14:24):
some underhanded fashion, which they usually did, they really didn't
hang around the ring. They got out of dodge. The
bad guy here, which is Texas Tech, should just go look,
we'll see you this fall. With Brendan Soresby playing quarterback
for a starting week three nineteen minutes after four o'clock,

(14:44):
Elie Dela Cruz is progressing nicely, which is just unbelievably
good news. More on that coming up here in a
bit on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
From the Health. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Brentiman in Jones on Baseball is twenty five minutes away.
We're looking forward to that. Ellie Dela Cruz, they say
is ninety percent healed. I just saw tweet from a
Jeremy Row of Fox nineteen with.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Ellie doing some on field work. I do.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think I'm in the majority here a little bit
unfair when when Ellie got hurt to kind of point
the finger at the manager, because you know, Ellie. Ellie
played every single game last season, and one of the
topics this offseason was are they going to do more
to ensure that he is healthy and fresh for the
entire season? Are they going to give him occasional days off?

(15:45):
Are they gonna, you know, even have him DH here
or there just to have his bat in the lineup,
but he's not playing, it's not really a day off,
but it's kind of a day off, right, Like that
was something we talked about a lot this past winter,
and it's something that Tito in spring training even admitted, like,
we're we're gonna have to find ways to lessen the

(16:05):
workload here. But when the season begins, Ellie's really important
to the team. Ellie, to his eternal credit, wants to
play every single day, and so it was fair to wonder.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Like, when are they gonna get him a day off?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
But I also think it's a little bit unfair to
just conclude that Ellie got hurt because he plays every
single day.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Hamstrings are fragile, and.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Ellie has been durable enough to play every single day
for whatever it was, two hundred and fifty plus consecutive games.
Like athletes who get regular rest, don't play every day,
get the occasional day off, they suffer hamstring strains, hamstring
tears two. Fortunately, this seems to be on the more
benign end of it. We're less than two weeks into

(16:51):
the injury, already ninety percent according to the MRI scan today.
That said, when you have a track record of playing
Elle every single day, and you've admitted that we need
to do a better job of lessening his workload, and
you have a pretty clear example of what can happen

(17:14):
with a guy's production, and specifically with Eli, a guy's
power and a guy's speed when he plays every single
day without a day off and now in consecutive years
lower body leg injuries because legs are on the lower
part of a body. I think, as important as he is,
and as much as you are reluctant to give a

(17:36):
guy like him a day off because of all of
the team's other flaws. You got to come up with
a little bit of a plan, and not that you
look at the schedule and go, okay, well, on this
particular Sunday he's not gonna play, or on this day
game after night game, he's not gonna play. But I
do think it makes sense to have a little bit
of a loose plan moving forward. And to me, that

(17:58):
comes down to a willingness to tell the guy. Ellie
Dela Cruz wanted to play every single day last year.
They never told him no, and to me is awesome
of a manager as Tito is. And despite this season's issues,
I still believe Terry Francona. He certainly has had an
awesome managerial career. We'll put it that way.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
You hire somebody like that, with his poll.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
With his heft, with his gravitas, with his experience, with
his cachet. You hire somebody like that because they've they've
got a resume that allows him to be able to
say no to a player. And by the way, if
you say no to a player and you're acting in
the player's best interests, they may not like not playing,
but they will appreciate you looking out for them. So

(18:48):
I think that's an interesting storyline here over the final
three and a half months of the season, and it
looked at the Reds were in the postseason hunt last year,
so in the final two months of the season they
were gonna play him every single day. It'll look a
little bit different if this team falls out of contention,
and you could argue perhaps they've already fallen out of
contention though that six wild card spot is still there.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
I suppose.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
But what do they do over the course of the
final three and a half months of the season to
maybe best keep Ellie fresh. There's nothing you could do
that's going to put him in bubble wrap and completely
insulate him against the possibility of injury, whether it's some
sort of weird contact injury or something as routine, so
to speak, as a hamstring string. But for two years now,

(19:33):
the dude has basically played every single day. Last year
there was the quad issue. This year it's a hamstring.
Could the possibility of that stuff happening again get lessened
if you work in the occasional day off, like we're
not talking about resting him for you know, two games

(19:55):
a week once.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
He comes back.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
But a long, long history of players who play nearly
every single day, but get a blow now and then
maybe when they're baddest, low down, or maybe when they're
struggling a little bit in the field, whatever it is,
will they have a willingness and will they use that
willingness to say no to Elidelacruz. Sports headlines are next
on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic r.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
A service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for
life Kelsey chev dot Com. After an off day, the
Reds and Diamondbacks square off tonight at GABP. Nicolodolo gets
the ball for Cincinnati against lefty Eduardo Rodriguez Tonight's first
pitch at seven fifteen tonight, the action on seven hundred WLW,

(20:48):
Terry Francona says Elie Dela Cruz's hamstring is quote ninety
percent healed.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
The MRI results pretty encouraging.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
He's doing some on field work, the ramp things up
a little bit, and then, as Tito said on Sunday,
they'll put their heads together to determine the next course
of action. Meanwhile, Red starting line up for tonight's game
A Dane Myers in center. JJ Bledet is playing.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
He's playing DH.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
It's not you don't play DH. He is dhing. He
is the designated hitter. Salth Stewart at first base, Spencer
Steer at second, Elie de la Cruz what Uhaneo Sarez
is playing third, Blake Dunn and left. NOELV Martes in
right field. Tyler Stevenson catches. Mat Maclaan is playing shortstop

(21:34):
and batting ninth National League Central this weekend, Pirates hosting
the Marlins. Milwaukee's home this weekend for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Saint Louis Is at Minnesota, and the Chicago Cubs on
the road this weekend against San Francisco, Florence. Yawl's on
the road against Gateway Soccer Bosnia. Herzegovina leads Canada in

(21:56):
the Faithful World Cup Group B first game seventy five
minutes in US plays Paraguay. Tonight will be at the
pitch watching that. Also, College World Series is underway in Omaha.
Did I hear Tony On since he three sixty today
say that if UC made the College World Series that

(22:21):
he wouldn't go to Omaha. Or did he say, unless
you see was in the College World Series, he would
have no interest in going to Omaha. I know I
do this every year. I've been very lucky in my
life to have either chosen to cross off some bucket
list items or be in a position from a professional

(22:44):
standpoint to go to some really cool sporting events. The
College World Series is the best of all of them,
and I have been lucky to have. I've attended three
Super Bowls, won the Bengals play I went to a
World Series game in twenty twelve and froze my face
off the ten to final four College Football Playoff, went

(23:08):
to the Masters in twenty nineteen, US Open, Tennis, twenty twelve,
Indy five hundred. Like a lot of the stuff that
you go, boy, that's on the list of things I
want to go to before I dive in.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Very lucky. Omaha's the best.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Somebody took me up on this last year and they
sent me an email asking for recommendations, and I'm not
sure I heard back from them about how their trip went.
But like, if you even just like baseball, go, it's
one half baseball convention, one half party. There's not a
lot that happens in Omaha. So it's one of those

(23:47):
things I would imagine a lot like Louisville and the
Kentucky Derby. It just the city just rolls out the
red carpet for people who come in. As as big
events go, it's very affordable. Omaha has some awesome restaurants.
You could stay on the cheap, stay across the river
in Iowa, like I I went for my fortieth birthday.

(24:11):
I told a buddy of mine last night, like I
go on a spring training trip every year. If there's
a lockout, I'm taking that trip. And it's going to
be the College World Series. And I've never talked to
anybody who ever attended that event who didn't just have
an awesome time. So it's underway in Omaha. Two games today,

(24:32):
Troy and West Virginia are playing a good one. Top
of the eighth inning. It's five to five. Later on tonight,
Ole Miss and North Carolina five point three fifteen thirty
is our phone number. You know, we talked about Ellie
Dela Cruz last segment. This is the frustrating thing about
this team that we we can discuss how to use,

(24:54):
how not to use Ellie. We can debate, lineup construction,
who should be batting? Where we can talk about how
long the lease should be for players who have gotten
a seemingly endless opperatuity, all what do we got?

Speaker 1 (25:06):
What do we got? Canada has scored.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
The equalizer in the seventy ninth minute.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
We're going Justin Bieber.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Of all of the great Canadian artists, we chose Justin Bieber.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
One one Canada and Bosnia Herzegovina in Toronto, Canadian fans
are losing their mind.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Looks like a gorgeous day up there in Toronto.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
But of all the different things we can discuss when
it comes to the Reds, and all the different arguments
we can have about strategy and lineup construction and roster
construction and who should be playing more who should be
playing less, Frankly, none of it matters if your bullpen stinks.
And that's what I think makes sometimes the conversations about

(25:53):
the Reds as currently constructed a little bit limiting for starters,
like being mediocre doesn't inspire a lot uh kind of
hovering around five hundred in drifting in last place, and
buyers versus. I don't know if there is a more

(26:13):
mind numbingly bad discussion. Then are they buyers or are
they sellers? If you have to ask, you're not. It's
like if you have to ask if you could afford something,
you probably shouldn't try to buy it. If you have
to ask, should we buy, you probably shouldn't. All of
that doesn't matter if Red's relief pitchers don't pitch better.

(26:33):
And it's got to be I thought about this on
the way home listening to the ballgame on Wednesday. The
just total lack of reliable options. It just has got
to be so frustrating for Terry Francona. I know it's
frustrating as a fan, but it just it puts a
cap on what this team can accomplish. You're less likely

(26:55):
to win close games, which was kind of the backbone
of the twenty and eleven start. You're less likely to
win close games if you can't get those last nine
outs without there being a bunch of traffic on the bases,
without giving.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Up runs like it. It's really hard to.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Win close games when your bullpen is bad. When you've
got a low offensive ceiling, then you have to win
a lot of low scoring games. It's hard to win low,
low scoring games when you give up runs late in
the game, and I just I don't know how this
gets better. Emelio Pegana is inching closer to returning and
that will help, But there are still so many pitchers

(27:33):
that Tito has to call on because of a lack
of better options that are completely and totally unreliable. Who
in that.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Bullpen are you comfortable pitching?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Who in that bullpender you or anybody else comfortable coming
in a night and a tie game in the ninth inning?
Who in that bullpen are you comfortable just trying to
get free outs, whether it's the seventh, eighth or ninth inning,
when you're nursing a one run lead, like that's that
to me, of all the different things that kind of
let this team down since the twenty and eleven start,

(28:03):
that's at the top of the list. And what's frustrating
about it is it's not because they didn't try. They
brought back Emilio Pagana. We can argue whether or not
he should be the closer, but they brought it back
pretty surprisingly coming off a career year, and they went
and got Caleb Ferguson, and they went and got Pierce Johnson,

(28:24):
and it felt like it was. Nick Kral talked about
it when the offseason started, a major priority for this team,
and he made it one.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
And the results are still so bad that Iowa.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
You know, we spent a lot of time debating lineup,
who should bat leadoff, who should bat third? Where should
Ellie hit? Where should sal Stewart bat? If your bullpens
thinks it doesn't matter, and yeah, man, they're asking that
bullpen to do a lot because starting pitchers are basically
throwing a league average number revenings per game.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
None of it matters.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
None of it matters, And it's what makes rooting for
them so frustrating. It's what makes talking about them so frustrating.
Like Ellie's gonna come back, hopefully they figure out a
way to keep him healthy. He was having an excellent season,
deserves a lot of credit for it. What he does
and what his impact is is completely and totally negated

(29:29):
by having a bunch of pitchers that you.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Cannot count on.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
You know, we used to do this when David Bell
was the manager, like, all right, you want me to
take this guy out of the game, who do you
god for me? The difference between then and now is
they at least try to give the managers some options.
None have stuck unless that changes. I don't know how
the direction of the team changes. I don't know how

(29:55):
their position relative to the rest of the National League
Central changes. I don't know how their odds of even
hanging on the periphery of.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
The race change. This is the issue now.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Many will say, well, there's larger issues ownership, who's calling
the shots in the baseball front office.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
But on this team this year, what else is there
beyond the bullpen stinks and they're not being a fix
in the offing. Yes, Pierce Johnson can come back here,
hopefully soon, same for Amelio Pagan. Trade deadline is still
seven weeks away. Everybody's gonna want relief pitching. How do
you improve as.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
A team dramatically because they need dramatic improvement if the
bullpen isn't better, And how do you expect different results
from the bullpen when for the time being it's gonna
be made up of basically the same guys at Moeger
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Speaker 1 (30:56):
Go to Delta Dental.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Oh dot com, Brendanman and Jones on baseball eight minutes away.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
From the UC Health Traffic Center, Carolina Hurricanes. Here's my answer. Well, yeah,
there's something you've made a promise on this airways that
you need to start trapping forward. All right, I have
no idea what this is, but you have told me
about this.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I think on air and off what did I what
did I promise?

Speaker 1 (31:31):
I have to clip. I'm about to eric this.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
This was back in September when we had Friend of
the Show My House McBride on. Okay, all right, you're
you're kind enough to join us during the offseason, and look,
I talked to you and we'd have you no matter
which team you played for. But the fact that you
played for the Knicks means a lot to me, and
so we've.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Joked on the show that we were going to talk
to you from the parade next summer. Okay, absolutely, no,
I'm with her. I'll have to see you up in
New York.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
You know what, if you guys win it, I will
do the show from the parade.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
It might just be for me. It might just be
for you and I, but I will do it. Yeah,
that's what I'm talking about. I'm gonna mark day on
the calendar. Ald you do it.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
So two things. One, they haven't won yet. I believe
san Antonio is gonna win Game five. Objectively speaking, I
believe san Antonio will win tomorrow and New York will
win it on close it out on Tuesday. I want
to be wrong about that because I want them to
win it on Saturday. So I can't fulfill a promise, however,

(32:44):
unless there's an opportunity to and so I cannot make
plans to attend and do a show from a parade
that I promised to go to if if.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
There's no parade.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Number two, do you think Deuce as the NBA, which,
by the way, he's got to play better, God love him.
But do you think Deuce as the NBA finals have progressed?
Is that all thinking about my promise to go to
the parade to join him if they.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Win, Once they win it. Yes.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Number Three, Understanding what we've come to understand about New
York City, is there any chance I would be able
to get within like thirty feet of Deuce? McBride or
anybody else on that team.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Possibly you want to as to make your power more.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
I got none, I would I just I mean, you
know what I'm gonna if if they win it, you
know I'm gonna beg you to get Deuce on the
show asap, you know, because we all localize a Molarduce McBride,
Molar High School NBA champion.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
If if if if, if, if they win, win Tarin.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
My heart's been broken by teams so many times. I
take nothing for granted, but yes, the odds right now
are significantly in their favor. Well, if they win, then
there's a parade. And if the possibility exists that I
could go, I mean a trip to New York ain't cheap,

(34:21):
then we'll say what we will.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
We'll see.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
But now that as soon as you hit the button,
I remember that I did say that Brendanman and Jones
on Baseball is next