6/12/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five minutes after three. Exactly five minutes after three. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger, thank you for listening today,
Hope for having an awesome Friday weekend off to a
great start. We've got lots of good two between now
and six o'clock. Good guest somebody we've had in the
show before coming up in about fifteen minutes, Trisha Whittaker

(00:20):
from Apple TV. They've got the game tonight, Reds and
d Bax the Pride of Indiana University working the dugout
on the sidelines. She joins us in just a bit.
Show preview is available right now on Twitter at moegar
thanks to a share facx credit union. Become a member today.

(00:43):
Go to share facts dot org to learn about the
benefits of membership. My thanks to Chad Brendle for filling
in yesterday. I did not I did not take yesterday
off because of the way the Knicks game ended, or
the fact that the Knicks game ended the way it did,

(01:05):
or the fact that they won. Yesterday's day off. If
you listen to Wednesday's show was planned. I said at
the end of Wednesday's show, I'm not here tomorrow. Chad's
gonna be here talk to you on Friday. So I
guess some folks asked me, like, did you really not
work yesterday because of the Knixt game, And the answer
is no. I had a commitment to play in a

(01:26):
golf outing for goodwill and that was a blast, and
so that's why I was not here. Now that said,
it is probably for the best for me and more
important for you that I was not here yesterday, because
it would have been it would have been really hard

(01:47):
for me to not devote more of the show than
I should to Game four of the NBA Finals. I
try to be careful with this. I try to be
It's one of my goals and I don't often reach it,
but I try to be respectful of the audience's time.
I try to be respectful of what you're into, and
you're not into the Knicks. For the most part, I
do think most sports fans are paying some attention to

(02:09):
the NBA Finals, But I would have sounded stupid yesterday
had at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, I talked about what
was at the very very top of my list of
things on my mind. So that's not why I was here,
but it's maybe for the best that I uh I

(02:30):
was not here. I will just say this, and chances
are you know I'm a Knicks fan. The next one,
Game four, they're up three to one. Game five is tomorrow.
I feel good about it because if you would have
told me before the series they have a three to
one lead, that's better than two to two or down
three to one or getting swept. But I believe this
series is far from over. We will see. But Wednesday night.

(02:55):
Wednesday Night reminded me of twenty twenty one here in Cincinnati.
My favorite period of time as a sports fan and
as a sports fan who has a radio show was
September twenty twenty one through February of twenty twenty two.

(03:19):
My single favorite six month stretch of my life as
a sports fan and easily the single biggest stretch, most
favorite stretch of time I've had hosting this show. Loved
every second of that six month run. That was obviously
the twenty twenty one football season. The Bengals played in

(03:42):
the Super Bowl and UC Football made the College Football Playoff.
There was as far as I'm concerned, and you know, granted,
I don't root for teams that have won anything recently.
The Reds won the World Series when I was thirteen
years old, and even then, like I was too young
to really apply proper context to that. But what I

(04:05):
remember about that season, I guess there's a couple of
different things. One that that year felt like a payoff
for years of waiting for the UC football program and
the Bengals to be nationally relevant again, And it really
did invigorate me professionally. This is a fun job. It's

(04:27):
the only job I've ever wanted. It's the only job
I hope I have for a while. But like as
much as there is this narrative out there, the talk
radio is easier and better when the teams are losing
because fans are mad. I don't subscribe to that, because
I don't think it's true. More people come to the party,
there's more interest, there's a wider variety of things to

(04:50):
talk about when the teams are winning. And after a
long stretch of their not being that much, winning the
twenty twenty one football season here for me was reinvigorate.
Not that I've never gotten, not that I've ever gotten
to a point where I haven't loved coming to work,
But then I couldn't wait every single day there was
something and both you know, seasons had their ups and downs.

(05:14):
The Bengals ran the table that year. It's not like
UC didn't have some games that were a little bit problematic,
even though they won all of them. But the thing
that I think of most when I think of those
two seasons, number one, I think of UC versus Notre
Dame in South Bend. Bearcats led that entire game. It

(05:36):
was almost almost anti climactic at the end. But what
I remember about that day was being in South Bend
and hearing from people as the game was coming to
an end and in the game's immediate aftermath. And I
think this is maybe the best thing about being a
sports fan. I said earlier, like I hear all the time, well, sports,

(06:00):
you know, unites people. I'm not sure it does, And
even if it does, I wish more important things would
unite people, Like we have more sports than ever before,
and it feels like as a country we've never been
more divided. So I'm not sure I buy that, but
I do believe sports can establish and maintain and help
re establish connection. And what I remember about that night

(06:22):
was in South Bend. I stayed after the game, was
looking at my phone and hearing from friends, and hearing
from family, and also hearing from people that I had
either lost touch with or hadn't talked to in a while,
who just happened to be watching the game or kind
of saw how things went down and knew me being

(06:45):
a UC football fan, how much that game meant. And
it was really cool to hear from people. I heard
from somebody I hadn't talked to since high school that night,
who's like, you know what, I listened to your show.
I know how much you love the Bearcats. I can't
imagine how much you're enjoying this. And I'm paraphrasing the text.
And then many many months later, the Bengals beat the

(07:07):
Chiefs to go to the AFC Championship game, and I
watched that game at a bar in northern Kentucky, and
I remember the bedlam unfolding at the bar, and I
remember like people were just handing out buckets of beer
and strangers were hugging and high fiving each other. And
what I remember is that afternoon and evening unfolded was

(07:32):
the amount of text like that's one of the fun things.
Your team wins a big game, and like you hear
from everybody, and I've got people in my life that
I only hear from when things go poorly. So it's
great to be a part of something where everybody's sharing joy.
But I remember hearing from folks I hadn't talked to
in forever, the people that I hadn't spoken to, I

(07:52):
wasn't even sure how they had my number, who were like,
I know what a big Bengals fan you are, and
I know what this means, do you? And again I'm
paraphrasing here, I talked to two people that I went
to college with that I wasn't even necessarily good friends
within college, but just you know, knew this was a
big deal. And that's that's to me one of the
cool things about that night Wednesday night. Look, I know,

(08:17):
I'm kind of on an island here, and I've been asked, like,
you know, the Knicks versus say the Reds, what would
you rather have? And Red's World Series ten out of ten,
more people to share it with, greater professional possibilities. It
just I go to those games. I'm a season ticket holder,
like that would be better, but more people to party with,

(08:37):
more people to share it with. Same for the Bengals,
same for UC, so I kind of know I'm on
an island here. I have like two friends in town
who are Knicks fans, so like not as many like
I know a billion Bengals fans and a billion Reds
fans and a billion UC fans. If you root for
those teams, you do too. But the game ends the
way it did. The Knicks were down by twenty nine points.

(08:58):
They were getting curb stomp. The Spurs were awesome, and
I am not giving up on being heartbroken by San
Antonio winning the next three. The Knicks author of the
greatest comeback in one game in the history of the
NBA Finals. No team had ever come back from down
twenty nine points. They do it in this hugely dramatic

(09:21):
and improbable fashion that triggered this insane scene at Madison
Square Guard and then like, I don't really care about
celebrities and who they root for, celebrity Knicks fans, but like,
just watching people in the immediate aftermath of that game
from my backyard on the west side of Cincinnati was
awfully cool. And I had taken my phone and I

(09:44):
have for a lot of these games, and I put
it in the other room, and I put it on silent,
because I've come to realize that, like my feet is
maybe a minute or so behind some people who are
watching different feed or a different provider. So as the
comeback is unfolding, I took my phone, put it on silent,
I put it inside the house, and then the game
ends the way it does, and I go back and
my phone is blowing up. And there's people that I

(10:07):
am very good friends with, and there's people that I
work with, and none of these folks are Knicks fans,
but they're happy for me. And if you're a sports fan,
you've been there before, right, Like maybe not everybody loves
your team, but your team wins and you hear from
people who are just happy for you. But that I
heard from somebody on Wednesday that I think it would

(10:29):
have been fair to say this person hates my guts
or we have at least we've had a falling out,
and a falling out that goes back a very very
long time ago for reasons that are wholly unimportant, And like,
not everybody in your life is meant to stay forever,
so like people kind of come and go, and that's,

(10:50):
you know, just kind of comes with getting olders like
you lose touch with people, and maybe there's something that
happens and what used to be a great friendship becomes
anything but. And maybe hatred is a strong word. But
I got a text from somebody on Wednesday night, late
Wednesday night, and it just said, I'm watching the end
of this Bananas game and I'm thinking of you and

(11:12):
I can't imagine what you're doing right now. And I
just thought that was awesome. And since Wednesday night, this
person and I have exchanged maybe seven other texts, just
catching up. We're probably never gonna be best friends again.
We're probably never gonna hang out, go get beers, but
it's been nice to reconnect to somebody who had completely

(11:34):
drifted out of my life, or maybe I've drifted out
of theirs ends When we talk about why we love sports,
that's why. There's the entertainment of it. There's how heartbreaking
it could be, there's how rewarding it could be. That's
the part that I like. That's the part that I like.

(11:54):
Maybe it's the shared experience of your team winning. One
of the best nights of my life was clinch Miss
twenty ten. Walking out of the ballpark, Jay Bruce hits
the home run, we all knew they were gonna win
the division. The magic number was one with whatever it
was ten games to go. But like high fiving total strangers,
that experience is cool as hell. And you know, sharing

(12:18):
moments with people that you have the same common interest with,
whether they're lifelong friends or people you just happen to
run into at a bar, that's cool too. But if
you've ever been a fan of a team that has
had a moment like that, maybe it's not even winning
a championship. Again, the Knicks haven't won it, and they
may and I hope they do, and if they do,
I can't even tell you how I'll behave. But that's

(12:42):
what made that moment special for me, and I think
you can relate to this. I've heard from a lot
of folks on social media. I've heard from people that
I work with or people that I know who will
say like, I'm not a big NBA fan, or I'm
not a big basketball fan, or even in some cases
I don't really follow sports, but I've I've glombed onto

(13:05):
the Knicks and I'm rooting for them because of you.
And if you're a sports fan, chances are. If your
team has had any kind of success, somebody has had
that to you, and that, to me is one of
the coolest parts of being a fan of a team.
And so I am not going to go x's and
o's on the NBA Finals. That doesn't do you or

(13:28):
anybody else in the audience any good, because I know
most don't care. And we have Trisha Whitaker waiting in
the wings to talk about the Reds, and I know
that's much more important, but you know, supposed to talk
about things happening in your life. And this is a
team that I've rooted for since I was eight years old,
and they're on the cusp of a championship and they

(13:48):
may win it, but that game the other night, if
they don't win, it will end up being a very
significant footnote. But in a small window there on Wednesday
and on Thursday morning, that game help reestablish some connections.
And that's what sports can do. Nineteen minutes after three o'clock,
Reds and Diamondbacks of equal importance this weekend, Trisha Whittaker

(14:11):
Apple TV part of the broadcast crew. The Pride of
IU joins US.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from oh what.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Do we got? Terror? What do we got? That's right, right,
that's right, Much like we did in the Olympics. Throughout
the course of the World Cup, which is underway, we
will break in programming with goals. Right now Bosnia is
taking on Canada, and in the twenty second minute, Bosnia

(14:45):
has scored, and so it doesn't matter who's playing. We've
got a goal and some music exclusive to the country
that just scored the goal. So right now Bosnia leads
Canada by a score of one to nothing. That game
is in Toronto. Of course, the US plays Paraguay tonight
in La My apologies for my voice allergies. One mow nothing.

(15:10):
I thought yesterday would make it better. It did not.
Apple TV has reds d bags tonight seven to fifteen.
First Pitch. Red's coming off an extraordinarily sobering road trip
getting walked off on Wednesday right after we got off
the air, so hopefully they can bounce back tonight seven
to fifteen. First pitch. Gab p Tricia Whitaker is with

(15:33):
us working the dugout tonight for Apple TV The Pride
of IU. We have not had Tricia on yet this season,
so this is the first time she's been on our
show since her beloved Indiana Hoosiers won the national championship
in college football. I would imagine you are still riding high.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, that's the way to make me smile that I
am still on cloud nine. So I live in Bloomington, Indiana.
I teach at Indiana University. Grew up an IU fan,
and when they won the national championship, I mean, I
think I could.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Have died happy that day.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
It was unbelieveab all unbelievable and it will never I'm
going to be insufferable about it until the end of time.
But I feel as if I have earned that as
an IU football fan for my entire life.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
So I can relate to you. And here's why. I
am a huge New York Knicks fan, right and obviously
the in Cincinnati, the Knicks are a win away from
the NBA title. I've had folks tell me like, oh, yeah,
you just jumped on board. I know you dealt with
that during IU's title run.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Oh, everybody was like, you're such a bandwagon fan.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
You weren't a fan before this.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I'm like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (16:40):
Like I used to go to games with my dad.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
When I was ten years old, and we'd sit there
and watch them get their.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Butt absolutely kicked by Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Like sixty to nothing.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
It was insane.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
And then when I was a student reporter, my first
job was covering IU football and they went one and eleven,
one end eleven.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
It was horrible. So no, we earned it. We earned it.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
Hey, and how about this og and anobi where you.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
Go to college?

Speaker 1 (17:04):
I was going to bring that up, but I kind
of felt like you would do that for me.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
You know, you know we're on suffer. We're insufferable, you fans,
we are insufferable.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well you you deserve to be. I want to be
this way as a Reds fan one day. And I
feel like earlier the season, when Apple was here, you
were here, things were going better than they are right now.
Can you can you provide any hope?

Speaker 3 (17:25):
Yeah, well they were going better, And honestly, they were
going better when we had we had the Reds on
Apple in Pittsburgh like a month ago, and things still
weren't going this poorly. But I mean, yeah, this is
a really tough stretch for the Reds. And I'm a
big Tito fan, and so you know, I've been watching
all of his pep talk to the team, you know
where he's like when it's the hardest to believe, you

(17:47):
have to when there's doubt, You've got to believe in
each other, that.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Type of thing.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
But you know, you really look at it, and the
bullpen is obviously a really really big issue right now.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
The injuries and a fluctuating roster.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
That certainly doesn't help for consistency in the lineup, and
the Reds are also you know, kind of finding out
to start the month of June, what we know how
how valuable Ellie day la Cruise is, duh like, But
I mean you really find it out when he's when
he's injured, which which for him, he's kind of in
the Iron Man, so that hasn't really happened. So it

(18:19):
is a very tough stretch for this team. I hope
that they can get it together later in the season.
It's a long year. We know they're not into the
postseason last year. You know it's possible, but I really
hope they get it together because.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
I mean, deep down, I'm I mean, don't tell anybody this.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
You know, but I'm kind of a closet Reds fan
because I live so close to Cincinnati, So I mean,
I'm hoping that Tito and the Reds can can get
a little bit better here in the at least in
the second half when someb of whose injuries pass him.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
So you know, typically Apple TV comes to town and
you get the Reds or you go get him in
a place like Pittsburgh. And even if things aren't going great.
You mentioned Ellie, you can spotlight Ellie de la Cruz.
I know you guys are going to talk about him tonight,
but in his absence, who you focus on?

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, one, we are going to talk about him tonight,
but you know, we also are going to talk about
McLean and and I think one of the things I'm
gonna you know, ask Tito, is I mean he I
think it's it's fair to say that McLean has looked
a little bit more like the player the Reds expected
him to be. And I think what he had a

(19:23):
couple of home runs if I'm not mistaken against.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
The Cardinals this weekend.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
So we're definitely going to be talking, you know, about
him and what he might be able to do for
this team. And I know that a lot of the
other guys in the lineup, you kind of look at
them and you're like, Okay, who who really is going
to talk about? But of course we're gonna have as
just because he's a good teammate and I know everybody
here loved them, but you know they they really have

(19:47):
to figure something out here and pick each other up
through this stretch without day La Cruz. So we'll talk
a lot about probably McLean and I'm I'm probably you
know at when Arroyo will talk about him a little
bit too. So there's gonna be a lot of good
things that we talk about and we're going to try
to provide some optimism.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
What's your take on the National League Central, which so
far has been the best division in the sport.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
It has been the best division in the sport. I'm
a big NL Central fan, and I I okay, so
this might not win me any fans in Cincinnati. I know.
You know what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
What is the thing I'm gonna say? Say it?

Speaker 1 (20:25):
You're gonna talk about the Cardinals?

Speaker 4 (20:27):
No, I no know.

Speaker 5 (20:29):
I know.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
I actually I grew up. I will say I grew
up with Cubs fans, but I but I think the
NL Central is an interesting and interesting division right now.
And I really enjoy covering the NL Central. Not just
because I grew up around some of these teams, you know,
growing up in the Midwest, but I really think that

(20:51):
the baseball is better when the NL Central is better
because it's kind of like the heart of America, you
know what I mean, Like those teams have that. And
I know that makes me sound so midle, but I
can't help it. I obviously I'm a big fan of
the Brewers. I've covered them a lot, great relationship with
Pat Murphy. I think that the Cardinals are a better

(21:11):
team than people give them credit for. Obviously, the Pirates
started the season on a tear.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
They've since cooled off a bit.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
But I do think that the Cubs are in my opinion,
if you're asking me down the stretch who.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
The team is to watch, I think it's the Cubs
and the Brewers.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
I hope that the Reds can make a run.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
I really hope they can.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
But if you're asking me who the teams are to watch,
I think down the stretch I would say the Cubs
and the Brewers.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I want you to talk about the Brewers. For Metritia
Whitaker from Apple TV is with us. They have Reds
d Backs tonight at Great American Ballpark. Because I've talked
about this a lot over the last couple of weeks.
The Milwaukee Brewers, it doesn't matter who they lose, it
doesn't matter if there's a managerial change, it doesn't matter
if they trade away established players. They're always good. Won
ninety seven games last year. This year, I think a

(21:58):
lot of us were like all right at some point
to end, and yet there they are at the top
of the National League Central as somebody who's covered them
and been around them. What organization, What do they do
that I need the Reds to do here.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
I mean, they prioritize depth, and they prioritize player development.
I think over you know, some of the high priced
superstar talent, and and perhaps that's because they have to write.
You know, they're one of the low pay lower payrolls
in baseball, but they really maximize their roster and and
when you really look at it, they they outperform.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
A lot of the times.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
I know in the postseason that didn't exactly happen, but
a lot of times they outperform some of the more
expensive teams.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
But they do have, you know.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Some pillars of success that are important. I think Pat
Murphy is definitely one.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Of those pillars right now.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
But I think the front office does a really really
good job. You know, they acquire pitchers that have kind
of like, you know, that raw talent, and they they
kind of turned some of the diamonds into rough arms
into you know, those heart throwing guys, which I think
is a really valuable thing to do. And and they

(23:11):
consistently lead the majors defensively, and I think that's something
that is probably overlooked nowadays.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
And I think.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Another word that comes to mind is just like how
relentless they are and the culture that they've created under
their GM and Pat Murphy, they just seem so you know,
aligned with each other, and the clubhouse environment is awesome.
And I think last year, what was their phrase, they
were just a bunch of average shows, is what Pat

(23:42):
Murphy kept saying. And you know, what could possibly appear
to appeal to people in the Midwest more than a
slogan like that, right, But I do think that that
is kind of their mo and they all buy into it.
In the front office has done some really good things
with their organizational philosophy.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Embarrassed to say that. I've only been to Bloomington twice,
once when I was in college, which was years before
you were in college in the nineties. And then I
went five years ago for a Cincinnati I You game
and we won that one. That was before you guys
got good uh, and I was. It was awesome. We
had a great time. It was parents weekend, it was September.
Baseball was still going on, and I was trying to

(24:21):
figure out its Bloomington Reds, Cardinals or maybe it's Cubs.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Who's it's Cubs and bloody Cubs. It's Cubs, but then
it's a little Reds, so it's not fully Cubs. But
I would say I would say for the majority of
Bloomington is Cubs. But but you know, you got some
Reds fans there too, for sure. But if I'm talking
the majority, I would say Cubs for sure.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
All Right, Sorry, whatever, w g N, I I get it. Well.
Apple TV Tonight, Reds and Diamondbacks. Trisha Whitaker on the call,
along with Alex FEUs and Ryan Spilbourg's seven to fifteen
Tonight at GABP tre. I appreciate the time.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, anytime, good chat with you.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
You got a Trisha Whitaker, the pride of IU Reds
Dbacks Tonight, We've got some encouraging Elie Delacruz News.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 6 (25:18):
UC Health Traffics furts headlines, though they are later or
a service at Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for
life kelseyschev dot Com.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
At for an off day yesterday, Reds try to bounce
back from a disastrous road trip. First of three against
the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight at GABP seven fifteen. Tonight's first
pitch the action on seven hundred WLW Cincinnati. Give the
ball to Nick Ladolo. He'll be opposed by lefty Eduardo Rodriguez.
Your starting lineup for Cincinnati tonight stand by Dame Myers

(25:53):
in center. JJ Bleda is dhing South Stewart's at first base.
Spencer Steer placed second and hits fourth, As is playing
third and batting fifth. Done in left Martean Wright Stevenson
catches Matt mcclann and shortstop and bats ninth. You will
hear in just a second Tito Francona with an update
on Ellie Dela Cruz Red's coming to the weekend nine

(26:15):
and a half games in a first place in the division.
The other four division teams play outside the division like
the Reds. Pittsburgh's hosting Florida this weekend. Sorry, Pittsburgh's hosting
Miami this weekend. Also Milwaukee hosting the Philadelphia Phillies. Cardinals
are in Minnesota, Cubs in San Franz to take on
the Giants Florence y'all's battle Gateway this weekend. Soccer Tonight,

(26:38):
World Cup opener for the US men take on Paraguay
at nine o'clock Canada and Bosnia. Right now, Bosnia leads
forty minutes in one nil. That game is being played
in Toronto. All right, Ellie Dela Cruz. MRI results out today.
Here's Terry Francona at GABP.

Speaker 7 (27:01):
He got scanned today and I'd say very good news.
He's about ninety percent healed, which is fantastic. I think
that kind of goes to show like he almost wills himself.
I think, so he's up in the activity, continue to
do that intensity and the amount of it, and then

(27:23):
we'll let him go over the weekend and then we'll
kind of put our heads together again on Sunday and
see where we think. Where he's at, and certainly he
has an opinion. We just need to try to temper
that sometimes because he wants to play so bad and
it's appreciated, but we don't want to hurt him either.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Any kind of a timeline that will come.

Speaker 7 (27:44):
After you get your heads together, well that's why we're
gonna put our heads together on Sunday and try to
figure that out. We're not gonna make a timeline today
before we meet.

Speaker 8 (27:55):
Is there a thought that he'll need rehabits so receive
the kind of guy you think you can plug right back?

Speaker 7 (28:01):
I honestly don't know. It probably is a dependent on
the amount of activity he's able to do and how
prepared we feel.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
He is all right. Tito with reporters earlier today, just
a few minutes ago, actually a gabp thanks to Trags
Mike Petrellia for letting us steal the audio from him.
So no real timeline offered, but ninety percent is good news.
Here's my plea. I got two two pleas for the Reds.
One let's be willing to tell Ellie no. Now we

(28:35):
love Ellie. And one of the reasons why we love
him is he plays every day because he wants to
play every day. But we saw last year the peril
in letting him play every day and not telling him no.
Now they would have to activate him before he could play.
So like the Reds, the Reds control this, Ellie. We

(28:56):
don't think you're one hundred percent. So, yeah, you want
to be out there, Yes you want to play, We
respect that, But no, and I don't think this is
an insignificant thing because like last year was so frustrating
for a billion different reasons. But Ellie for two months
last year offensively just didn't contribute at all. And the

(29:18):
reason was obviously he had a lower body issue and
not an injury that required a stint on the injured list.
He played every day. And I know I've talked about
this before, but we did this unending like, boy, Ellie's
really struggling, Well he's not one hundred percent, Okay, Well,
then give him a day off. Well you can't, why
because Ellie wants to play every day, Well tell him

(29:38):
he can't give him a day off because he's really struggling.
Well he's hurt. Okay, Well then put him on the
injured list. Well, you can't because they need him and
he doesn't want to go on the injury list. Well,
but he's not very good right now. And it was
just again and again and again, round and round and
round we win. Tell him no this time, Tell him
no this time, not just when he's on the injured list,

(29:59):
but tell him no once he comes back, like, yeah, man,
the Reds need him badly. They're they've won one game
without him, like two games, I'm sorry, two games without
him since he got hurt. But he's vital to this team,
and we have seen one compromised. He's not quite himself,
especially for a guy whose game is supposed to be

(30:20):
built in part on speed, also the ninety part. Look, man, yes,
the Reds are sinking fast. Yes, time is of the essence. Yes,
Ellie Delacruz is. I believe, at least without question, their
most important player. Ellie comes back. And when he's on,

(30:43):
bringing him back on a team that is not playing
very well at less than one hundred percent invites disaster.
You cannot be too careful with this. And we've seen
what this team looks like without him, But we've also
seen what Ellie looks like when he's compromised, when you
bring him back, ensure that there's nothing about him that's

(31:07):
going to compromise his play. But it is at the
very least and encouraging update. We'll see what comes out
of Sunday on Monday thirteen away from four o'clock. By
the way, our phone lines are open five point three
seven four nine fifteen thirty. Not that I have given
you anything necessarily to react to, but five point three
seven four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number. I

(31:31):
I'm not gonna lie to you, because I never do.
I have not carved out twenty two minutes to watch
the Texas Tech propaganda video, but the Brendan soaresb think
what Texas Tech is doing is comical and we've got
to spend time on it. Coming up in the four
o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 9 (31:56):
UC Health Traffic Center at the UC Cancer Set Care
goes beyond cancer treatment with the region's first the primary
care clinic for cancer patients and survivors. Call five one
three five uccc.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
HU correct me if I'm wrong. I don't. I don't
know that there's the Seahawks got their rings. I know
that happened, and maybe in a year the Bengals will
be getting their rings. Beyond that, I'm not sure there's
anything of a major significance happening in the National Football League. Tonight,
at the pitch, we're going to be hanging out watching

(32:31):
the US VERSUS Paraguay game. I am very upfront like
I'm not a soccer die hard by any stretch, but
in twenty fourteen, I became an enormous fan of watching
the US play in the World Cup because that is
an extraordinarily fun communal experience. And I think on the

(32:55):
international level, like there's a lot of team sports in
the Olympics. I love hoops, right, love basketball. We're supposed
to win now. The world has caught up. I mean, heck,
you could argue that the three best players in the
NBA are not American born. It's been a while since
we've had an American born MVP. But we're supposed to win.

(33:16):
We're favored every year, and I think that sort of
cuts into for a lot of folks the I don't know,
the interest and the interest in watching it with other
people on the international stage. The US is relatively speaking
an underdog, and I think there is something about that
that is to me at least inviting, and so I

(33:39):
love watching World Cup games out tonight. Will be at
the pitch for USA VERSUS Paraguay and my friends at
michelob Ultra have a chance for you to win tickets
to a match in this year's FIFA World Cup. So
if you haven't been to the pitch, it's an awesome place.
It's directly across the street from the FC Cincinnati Stadium.

(33:59):
It's an absolute go to before or after an Orange
and Blue game. But it's a great place to watch
soccer matches. And we'll be there tonight starting at I'll
get there at eight thirty. Game begins at nine. It's
gonna be a blast. Get a nice call Mick Ultra
your chance to win in a FIFA World Cup twenty six
tickets to one of those matches, and we hope to
see you there. It's gonna be fun, gonna be a

(34:20):
blast tonight at the pitch starting at eight thirty. Brendanan
and Jones on baseball is coming up in the four
o'clock hour. More on Ellie de la Cruz and his
let's call it hoped for return to the Reds line
up sooner rather than later. It's nice to hear that
he's ninety percent back less than two weeks after suffering

(34:42):
the original injury. The Brendan Soresby thing has become an
unbelievably interesting story and I'm not gonna back off what
I said last week, which is Brendan Soresby playing college
football creates an awesome storyline this season and storylines of
the life blood of but Texas Tech has to stop.

(35:03):
What do they have to stop? They've got to stop
doing what you'll hear next on ESPN fifteen thirty Tony
Pike Here for my friends at Jake Sweeney Chrysler Cincinnati's
sports season, ESPN fifteen thirty. All right, five minutes, half
to four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Moeger,
Thank you for listening. Hopefully your weekend is off to
an unbelievable start. I think better than a June Friday.

(35:30):
Reds and d Maax tonight. More on that coming up
a little bit later. On Ellie Deyler Cruz. Positive news,
ninety percent healed, Good news, on 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 a lot for

(35:51):
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 blew 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 eligibility. And he's going to be

(36:12):
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 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,

(36:33):
well funded program like He's going to be playing in
a lot of huge, high profile games. 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
this season. It's a fascinating story, and there's been a

(36:55):
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 rule. That's really bad
for the NCAA. I'm far from the only person who
have said that. I also believe, as I've used sports

(37:20):
through a very simple prism entertainment 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
in them. So give me bad guys versus good guys,

(37:41):
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.
Those are really good things. So all right, he's gonna play.

(38:03):
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
for student athlete Health and Wellness. It's a twenty two

(38:26):
minute video. As somebody who makes a fair amount of
social media videos, they probably shouldn't exceed ninety seconds. They
probably shouldn't exceed thirty seconds. These guys made a twenty
two minute social media video. I'm not gonna lie to you.
I never do. I did not watch it, but I've
seen the highlights. Like a lot of NBA fans don't

(38:47):
actually watch the game, I see the highlights. Uh give me, tark,
give me a brief, very brief snippet of this video
where they they effectively explain why brand and sores me
is a part of their football program, what they're going
to do to help them. If you want to watch
the whole thing, by all means, go find it on
the internet. But here's a brief snippet, as we say,

(39:09):
of the video. 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 8 (39:19):
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

(39:39):
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

(40:02):
a game that he's competed in. He has not given
information about a game that he's competed in. He has
not jeopardized the competition or affected the outcome of any
game that he has competed in.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
So there you go. 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. You
won like you won, You got the ruling you were

(40:44):
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 others? Stop talking once you have won. Like

(41:06):
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 talking. There's no
reason to You won. You got your guy. Now understand

(41:29):
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 Ucy basketball fan.
You know what, My favorite era in the program's history
was when they were the bad guys of college basketball.

(41:49):
You know what? You didn't often hear Bob Huggins defending
him and his program for why and how they did things.
He would defend his players. She would point out the
hip hop for seeing the NCAA's graduation rates. But okay,
we're the bad guys. Fine, let's lean into it. You're
the bad guy. That's cool. You'll have your fans on

(42:09):
your side. You're not gonna win anybody over.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
You won.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Once you have gotten the result you're looking for. Shut up.
I remember when I was a senior in high school.
I went to my mom and I said, I want
to go to the Great Midwest Tournament and she said yes.

(42:34):
And I missed school because of it, and I was
going with people who were out of high school. And
I remember I asked her, I couldn't believe she said yes.
And then I kept like convincing her, like ye, 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

(42:57):
Tech got the answer it's looking for. Shut up up.
The bad guys in professional wrestling don't do interviews explaining
why they're bad. They're just bad. They're just bad guys.
I see absolutely no reason to do what Texas Tech

(43:18):
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 Soorsby'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
bothers me that Brendan Sorosby is playing, But okay, he's

(43:40):
playing for us. Don't like it? Kick rocks. 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 continue to talk about this? If you're

(44:01):
a tax attack, who are you trying to win over?
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. A couple of
other things about this quickly. On addiction, I am extraordinarily

(44:28):
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 have suffered addiction from eating, addiction from alcohol, drugs.

(44:52):
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 Sorosby clinically
has been diagnosed as an addict. I think we can
all respect that. But he didn't become addicted to gambling

(45:16):
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 head on, for fessing up, like good for him,
But the addiction came after the act, and the act

(45:36):
broke a rule. So this whole thing about like, well,
you've got to understand how addiction works. A lot of
us do, A lot of us are really sympathetic or
empathetic about it. But what he did cause 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

(45:56):
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,
and boy, I binged it And you didn't become addicted
to the show until 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

(46:20):
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 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,

(46:44):
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 Tech
Track and Field runner, or a Texas Tech tennis player
or a Texas Tech golfer. Would they be going to

(47:07):
this length for a Texas Tech punter or a backup
offensive lineman or somebody on the football support staff who's
probably replaceable? Like, of all of these things, and like,
if I'm if I'm the PR person at Texas Tech,

(47:29):
I'm like, can we just stop now? Like we got
our guy? 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 a five to six million
dollar compensation package.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Great, you're doing this for the quarterback. 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

(48:10):
in another lower profile sport. I'm going to guess the
answer is no. I mean, if you're going to 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,

(48:31):
and we can win a national championship with him. It'll
time will tell if they're good enough to be 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. Okay, cool, I don't know that you could

(48:52):
convince me of that, But I'm also not really sure
you should be trying to convince me of anything because
you won. You know, when 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 guys and bad guys. But when the bad

(49:14):
guys would cheat in professional wrestling 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
cogain thing. There were the bad guys when they won,

(49:34):
if they won some in 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 Sorosby playing quarterback for a starting week
three nineteen minutes after four o'clock. Elie Dela Cruz is

(49:58):
progressing nicely, which is just unbelievably good news. More on
that coming up here in a bit on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Brentiman and Jones on baseball
is twenty five minutes away. 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
Ellie doing some on field work. I do I think

(50:34):
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?

(50:55):
Are they going to give him occasional days off? Are
they going to you know, even have him DH here
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 and Spring Training even admitted, like, we're
we're gonna have to find ways to lessen the workload here.

(51:19):
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, like when are
they gonna get him a day off? But I also
think it's a little bit unfair to just conclude that
Ellie got hurt because he plays every single day. Hamstrings

(51:40):
are fragile, and 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, or less

(52:02):
than two weeks into 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

(52:24):
example of what can happen 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,

(52:44):
as important as he is, and as much as you
are reluctant to give a 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

(53:06):
little bit of a loose plan moving forward, And to me,
that comes down to a willingness to tell the guy no.
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 Franccona, he certainly has had an

(53:28):
awesome managerial career. We'll put it that way. You hire
somebody like that, with his poll, with his heft, with
his gravitas, with his experience, with his cachet. You hire
somebody like that because 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

(53:49):
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 I think that's an interesting
storyline here over the final three and a half months
of the season. And looked at the Reds were in
the postseason hunt last year, so in the final two
months of the season they were going to play him

(54:09):
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, I suppose, 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

(54:30):
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, the
dude has basically played every single day. Last year there
was the quad issue. This year it's a hamstring. Could

(54:53):
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 a
week once he comes back. But there's a long, long
history of players who play nearly every single day but

(55:15):
get a blow now and then maybe when they're baddest,
lowed 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 Li Dela Cruz Sports headlines are next on ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic r a service to Kelsey Chevrolet,
home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life kelseyshev dot com.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
After an off day, the Reds and Diamondbacks square off
tonight at GAVP. Nicolodolo gets the ball for Cincinnati against
lefty Eduardo Rodriguez tonight's first pitch at seven fifteen tonight.
The action on seven hundred WLW Terry Francona says Ellie
de la Cruz's hamstring is quote ninety percent healed.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
The MRI results pretty encouraging. 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. Dane Myers in center. JJ Bledet
is playing. He's playing DHA. It's not you don't play DH.

(56:27):
He is dhing. He is the designated hitter. Salth Stewart
at first base, Spencer Steer at second, Elie Dela Cruz
what Uhaneosaurrez is playing third, Blake Donnan left Noelve Martes
in right field, Tyler Stevenson catches. Matt McLean is playing
shortstop and batting ninth National League Central this weekend, Pirates

(56:50):
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. Yall's on
the road against Gateway Soccer Bosnia. Herzegovina leads Canada in
the Faithful World Cup Group B first game seventy five

(57:12):
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 Sincy three sixty today say
that if uc made the College World Series that he

(57:33):
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 standpoint,

(57:58):
to go to some really cool sporting event. The College
World Series is the best of all of them, and
I have been lucky to I've attended three Super Bowls,
won the Bengals played in went to a World Series
game in twenty twelve and froze my face off. The
ten to Final four College Football Playoff, went to the

(58:21):
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. Very lucky. Omaha's the best.
Somebody took me up on this last year and they
sent me an email asking for recommendations, and I'm not

(58:43):
sure I heard back from them about how their trip went.

Speaker 7 (58:45):
But like.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
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 things. But
imagine a lot like Louisville and the Kentucky Derby, where
it's just the city just rolls out the red carpet
for people who come in. As as big events go,

(59:11):
it's very affordable. Omaha has some awesome restaurants. You could
stay on the cheap, stay across the river in Iowa,
like I'm I went for my fortieth birthday. 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

(59:31):
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, 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 one, three, seven, fifteen thirty

(59:54):
is our phone number. You know, we talked about Elie
de la Cruz last segment. This is the frustrating about
this team that we can discuss how to use how
not to use Elie. 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

(01:00:16):
seemingly endless opperatuity all what do we got? What do
we got? Canada has scored the equalizer in the seventy
ninth minute. We're going Justin Bieber. Of all of the
great Canadian artists, we chose Justin Bieber. That's cool. One

(01:00:36):
to one Canada and Bosnia Herzegovina in Toronto, Canadian fans
are losing their mind. Looks like a gorgeous day up
there in Toronto. 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

(01:01:00):
if your bullpen stinks. And that's what I think makes
sometimes the conversations about 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,

(01:01:24):
if there is a more 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, and it's got to be

(01:01:46):
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.

(01:02:06):
You're less likely 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 up runs. Like, it's
really hard to win close games when your bullpen is bad.
When you've got a low offensive ceiling, then you have

(01:02:27):
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. Emilio Pegana is inching closer
to returning, and that will help, But there are still
so many pitchers that Tito has to call on because
of a lack of better options that are completely and

(01:02:50):
totally unreliable. Who in that bullpend are you comfortable pitching?
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 have kind

(01:03:12):
of let this team down since the twenty and eleven start,
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

(01:03:34):
and got Caleb Ferguson, and they went and got Pierce Johnson,
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. And the results are still
so bad that Iowa. You know, we spent a lot

(01:03:54):
of time debating lineup, who should bat lead off, who
should bat third, Where should Ellie hit? Where should Sal
Stewart bat? If your bullpen's 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 of innings
per game. None of it matters. None of it matters,

(01:04:19):
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 by having

(01:04:41):
a bunch of pitchers that you cannot count on. 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 manager some options. None have stuck unless

(01:05:03):
that changes. I don't know how the direction of the
team changes. I don't know how 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 the race change. This is the issue now. Many
will say, well, there's larger issues ownership, who's calling the

(01:05:25):
shots in the baseball front office, 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 a

(01:05:46):
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 going to
be made up of basically the same guys at Moager
on Twitter thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart,
vibrant communities for all. Go to Delta DENTALOAH dot com.

(01:06:09):
Brendanman and Jones on Baseball eight minutes away. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 9 (01:06:20):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Carolina Hurricanes. Here's my answer. Well, yeah, there's something you've
made a promise on this airways that you need to start.
I'm talking forward, all right. I have no idea what
this is, but you have told me about this. I
think on air and off what what did I what
did I promise I have to clip I'm about to

(01:06:45):
Eric this is This was back in September when we
had Friend of the Show myuse 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 play for the Knicks means a lot to me.
And so we've joked on the show that we we're

(01:07:06):
gonna talk to you from the parade next summer. Okay, absolutely, no,
I'm looking forward to it. I'll have to see you
up in New York. You know what, if you guys
win it, I will do the show from the parade.
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. Hold you do it. So two things. One,

(01:07:32):
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, unless there's an

(01:07:56):
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 there's no parade. Number two,
do you think Deuce as the NBA which, by the way,
he's got to play better, God love him. But do

(01:08:17):
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 win? Once they win it? Yes?
Number three, understanding what we've come to understand about New
York City, is there any chance I would be able

(01:08:37):
to get within like thirty feet of Deuce McBride or
anybody else on that team? Possibly you want to as
to make your power more. 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

(01:08:57):
we all localize the molar abducemc i'd moll Or High
School NBA champion, if if if if, if, if they win,
win tarn there's 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

(01:09:22):
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, then we'll say what we will.
We'll see. But now that as soon as you hit
the button, I remember that I did say that Brendanman

(01:09:43):
and Jones on Baseball is next me traveling to New
York to go to the parade. That because the Knicks
are gonna blow it. I just I can't talk about
things that aren't happening yet until there's a reason for
them to happen. And you know, I'm I'm not a
superstitious person by any I don't believe in jinxes. I

(01:10:05):
just I'm not superstitious, but I do believe in karma,
and maybe karma is a superstition. I even thought of
it that deeply. But like, as soon as you start
talking about how we've won, we're going to win. Here's
how we're going to celebrate you lose. So I'll hold

(01:10:25):
off on sending me to any parades. Well, the company, Now,
if there is a parade, would the company send me
to it or would I have to go into my
own pocket? Because that would change things. And also, like
with the audiences, the audience really want to hand me
broadcast from a parade for a team that they don't
care about. Probably not anyway, seven minutes after five o'clock,

(01:10:47):
this is ESPN fifteen thirty on OEGAR. Before we have
a parade. I need my allergies to get rectified. It's
been a while since allergies have gotten the best of me.
But as you could probably tell, they haven't been helpful
this week. Something I did not mention, and I pardon
me for this because I should have. Bengals came out

(01:11:09):
today with their twenty twenty six training camp fans schedule.
Training camp is going to begin for public purposes on Wednesday,
July twenty ninth, with the first of six practices open
to the public that will include a special Friday night
practice inside pay Corpse Stadium on August the seventh. There

(01:11:32):
are four additional practices excuse me, that'll be open exclusively
to season ticket members and wait list members. The open
to the public training camp practices and it's not like
this information isn't readily available. Wednesday July twenty ninth, Thursday
July thirtieth, Monday August third, Tuesday August fourth, those are

(01:11:56):
the ones that are open to everybody. They have a Saturday,
August first practice which is open a season ticket and
waitless members. They have one that is going to be
on Sunday, August ninth that is also open to club
members and the season ticket, a wait list members only

(01:12:18):
practice on Saturday, August the fifteenth. One more that's open
to everybody on Sunday, August sixteenth. The practices, like last year,
will be in the morning from ten am the noon.
That is something that everybody seemed to really really like,
especially for a team that's gonna play a whole bunch
of one o'clock Sunday games. It felt like that went over

(01:12:39):
really well with coaches, with players. I feel like fans
enjoyed the morning practices. Go to a morning practice, then
go have lunch. We broadcast from training camp last year.
We're gonna do it again this year. It certainly helps
us broadcasting in the morning from camp and then kind
of keep it going all day long. So there you go.
The big story for the Bengals perspective this week has

(01:13:01):
been the Joe Burrow contract restructure, and it happened during
the same week where time got added to Patrick Mahomes deal.
And let's face it, whether you and I like it
or not, one of the bigger topics around the NFL
this season is going to be how is the relationship
moving forward between Joe and the team, And right now,
according to Joe Burrow, the relationship is pretty good. He's

(01:13:25):
expressed satisfaction of what they've done this offseason. He says
we have everything we need. He's talked about it being
the most talented team they've had since twenty twenty two.
Those are not things you say if you're experiencing any
dissatisfaction with the team that you play for. Now, things
can and do change. If the season goes sideways, my

(01:13:46):
guess is we're going to be back to wondering if
Joe wants to be here long term. But you add
to it the contract restructure, that would certainly suggest that
the working relationship between the two sides is really really good.
The next sign that the working relationship between the two
sides is really really good is when the current contract,

(01:14:09):
which expires in twenty twenty nine gets extended, and it
like it does feel like we just did this. It
feels like the ink is barely dry in Joe Burrow's
current contract, the extension he signed a few years ago,
but not that far away from either the Bengals coming
to Joe or Joe coming to the Bengals, and now

(01:14:31):
maybe these things have happened. I don't have no idea
about extending the relationship beyond twenty twenty nine. If there's
one definitive, clear cut storyline that could totally halt, maybe permanently,
speculation that Joe Burrow will play somewhere else sometime soon,

(01:14:54):
it's of a contract extension. That's what changes things. Is
that in the offing, not in the short term. So
and feel like it. Although I'm sure the Bengals would
love for Joe to come to them and say, hey,
let's keep this going, but that's how this changes. And
I know you can say, well, winning a super Bowl changes,
and then probably winning a Super Bowl then triggers talks
of a longer term contract. But that's like, that's the

(01:15:17):
next one. Right now. The conversation is about harmony between
the Bengals and Joe Burrow. For the time being, and
it feels like everything is really really good. The next
step is for the two parties to agree on extending
things beyond the current life of the contract. Reds and Diamondbacks.

(01:15:38):
This weekend, if you missed it, Tito Francona with a
pretty positive update on Elie de la Cruz. Says he's
about ninety percent healed, which is awesome considering when this
process started it was less than two weeks ago. He
is doing some on field work, did some on field
work at GAPP today and Tito said that everybody, all
the brain trust, will put their heads together on Sunday

(01:15:59):
to kind of come I'm up with the timeline for
Ellie to return. They made no official statement about when
he's going to do a rehabit signment or even if
he will do a rehabit signment, but it does feel
like with Ellie, for a team that needs some piece
of positive news, feels like that things are progressing nicely
with the team's best player. More on that coming up

(01:16:22):
in about thirty minutes. Right now, let's take a phone
call or two, starting in Covington with Chris. Chris, You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty Good afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:16:32):
How you doing. How's the band buddy?

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
Everything is wonderful, Chris about yourself?

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
Oh, I'm doing great.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
A couple of weeks ago, down to smoke, just as
you had your show going down there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
I stopped by.

Speaker 5 (01:16:43):
I smoking a cigar, drinking a beer, and you were
You were so gracious and kind. You gave me your
tickets to the game.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Oh yes, did you have fun?

Speaker 5 (01:16:54):
Yeah, I have blast and I went by myself and
I didn't use it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
Two tickets by just you know, not in anyway.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
And uh, I just wanted to thank you for that.
And uh, I just want to ask who's pitching tomorrow
because I wanted the game tomorrow. And I want to
give a shout out to UH, to my granddaughter and
the and the choir and drama club at UH Thomas
Moore University. They're going to be singing the national anthem.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
Very cool.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
Yeah, we're going to be down there with my son
and my daughter in law and all the other grandkids
and family and a big bunch of us down there
and watch your singing anthem.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Well that is that is awesome. Unfortunately, it feels like
the weather is going to be a little bit more
comfortable for being at the ballpark than it has been
over the last couple of days. Tomorrow's game, Uh, Rhet
Louder's pitching tomorrow, his second start since coming off the
injury list. He pitched last weekend, win three innings. Ideally
they can ramp that up a little bit. But it's
going to be Rhet Louder.

Speaker 4 (01:17:48):
Tomorrow, loud, We's going to be pitching.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
Okay, okay, cool, all right, man, Yes, I just want
to thank you again. Man. You know, you were so
gracious and kind and uh that was good for you
to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
Well, I you didn't have to to thank me in
this form. That's very kind of you. I uh, you know,
there there are occasions where I can't go, and uh,
I hate it when my tickets go to waste, and
so I always tried to find somebody who can use them.
And you happen to mention that you were going. That
was the night that Austin Elmore sold, uh split the
pot tickets for the Reds Community Fund. So did you

(01:18:20):
did you donate? Did you help out Austin?

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
So?

Speaker 5 (01:18:22):
Yeah, so I went down there and he could invest
me instead of twenty he convested me to buy forty
dollars for it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
All right. Well but then now now, and you got
to tell the audience that's that's what we agreed to.
I said, Uh, you got to go. If you're saving
money on a ticket, you got a free ticket to
the game. So you got to take your ticket money
and give it to Austin for the Red's Community Fund.
So you held up your end of the bargain.

Speaker 4 (01:18:42):
I held up bargain. It was great and I did.
I did.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
I didn't win, but uh what a payout was like
thirty eight thousand dollars that weekend, So it was it
was a nice It was been a nice little pocket
little change.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
Yeah, nice, nice, took a change. Well, I'm I'm glad
you had time and it was nice to see it.
Smoke Justice, Oh man, it's great.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
You go down here again. I'll be there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
All right. Well, well we'll try to make that happen. Chris,
thanks so much.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
All right, all right, man, CCE.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
I do nice things for people. We don't necessarily publicize them,
but I did. That's something nice for my guy. Chris.
Quota to five quota after five five on three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. If you want to thank me for something
nice that I've done for you. By all means, we'll
bump you to the top at Moeger on Twitter works
as well. Uh. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Traffic fromably helps to turn the microphone on. I guess
been in broadcasting twenty nine years. At about once a
week I forget to turn on my own microphone twenty
two after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on
ma Legger earlier this week, a little bit last week,
we were we were talking about where things were three

(01:19:59):
years ago with the and it's you know, it's really fun.
I think to go back to twenty twenty three and
remember that June run, that June early July run where
they won twelve consecutive games, vaulted into contention, re energized
fans when it comes to the Reds, I love that season.

(01:20:19):
I love that season because the year before, we didn't
talk about baseball. We didn't talk about pitching matchups or
strategy or how the team could get any better. We
talked about why everybody wasn't going to games and how
pissed off. People were at Phil Castellini when twenty twenty

(01:20:40):
three got here, and we started talking about Elie Delacruz
and Matt McClain and Andrew Abbott and Will Benson and
eventually noelve Marte Christian and Carnassi on strand the brand
of ball they were playing. We talked about baseball. So
I can only speak for myself. I have an incredible
amount of fondness for that twenty twenty three Reds team

(01:21:01):
and Red season. But I was talking earlier this week
about how if you go back to three years ago,
that felt like the start of something. And all right,
maybe it was a little bit much to suggest the
Reds could really win in twenty twenty three and get
to the postseason, but I think all of us agreed

(01:21:22):
that things were trending in the right direction. To the
extent that it was. It was it was easy to
get excited about what the Reds might be in the
middle of the decade, right twenty twenty five, twenty six.
Somewhere around then. Three years later, very little has changed.

(01:21:43):
The team has won one more game that it's lost
since then. They've had a below five hundred season, well
if you count twenty twenty three, They've had a two
games above five hundred season, an eight game below five
hundred season, four games above five hundred season. This year
they're three below. They haven't won a postseason game. They

(01:22:05):
obviously haven't advanced in the postseason. We're still waiting for
guys to either be the players they were in twenty
twenty three or be players they've never been. We're still waiting,
and it just feels like the team has run in place,
a lot has changed. Everything still feels the same. There
is nothing maybe more emblematic of that then the fact

(01:22:29):
that you can go on the internet today and read
some version of the following headline or story, and that
headline or story is are the Reds buyers or sellers?
The outstanding website, redreporter dot com has a version of
that that got published today. The headline is should these

(01:22:51):
Cincinnati Reds be buyers or sellers? Which way should the Reds? Go?
Go read it for yourself if you want red reporter
dot com. There's been a version of that on Reds
dot com. There's been a version of that in the Inquirer.
There's been a version of that on the Athletic. There
to me is no bigger, like tangible sign that things

(01:23:15):
haven't progressed than that. Because let's go back to twenty
twenty three. Even during a summer where the Reds spent
time in first place, they were in first place as
late as August second. Remember that was a topic that
was a thing, are they buyers or are they sellers?
Now it turned into should they buy? And if not,

(01:23:39):
why not? If so, what should they be willing to
move on from? But still there was this degree of
kind of uncertainty. What are they? I believe then and
I believe to this day they should have been aggressive
and going for it because I think contention oftentimes picks you.
You don't pick when to contend. And this idea, well,

(01:24:00):
the Reds are ahead of schedule, like, dude, the future
is not guaranteed. You got a shot, now go for it.
They didn't. They missed the postseason by two games. Twenty
twenty four, the same thing. You could go online use
your favorite search engine except for ass dot com, which

(01:24:21):
doesn't exist anymore. And fine piece is written in twenty
twenty four asking are they buyers or are they sellers?
I am not the most ardent record keeper, but I
do keep the little rundown sheet I make for myself

(01:24:42):
every single show for no real good reason. It's nice
to sometimes look back and I'll be told like, oh,
you never talked about it like I talked about it here.
I could also do this by looking up, because we
podcast every show, I can go back two years and
find the things we talked about this time of year
twenty twenty four, a season that never really totally took off.

(01:25:05):
There it is buyers are sellers last year and they
ended up kind of buying right like they They got
mcguil and dou Hahr and keep Brian Hayes. I'm still
not sure why they got key Brian Hayes, but that
was the thing. Are they buyers or are they sellers?
Here are show notes from a year ago, and I

(01:25:28):
wrote the note. I wrote the word clarity. Can the
Reds achieve clarity? Are they buyers or on they sellers?

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
Not?

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
By the way, last year's team was buyers and they
did make the postseason. Here we are again, June of
twenty twenty six. There's still time between now and the
trade deadline. There's time for them to achieve clarity. There's
that word again. But there we are again wondering buyers
or sellers for all of the apparently good things that

(01:25:59):
have happened to this franchise, from the promotions of Chase Burns,
Elie Delacruz, Andrew Abbotts sal Stewart at all since the
start of the twenty twenty three season to the hiring
of Terry Francona. At this point, shouldn't we be asking
different questions about the Reds in twenty twenty six then

(01:26:22):
we were asking in twenty twenty three, in twenty twenty four.
The fact that we're not represents complete and total lack
of progress. The Reds feel the same today as they
have for most of this decade, twenty twenty two being
an example of, you know, the exception, but in twenty

(01:26:43):
twenty one there was some of that, right or what
are they and they were buyers in twenty twenty one
they really didn't buy They acquired a couple of relief pitchers,
but this team was, you know, in the thick of
things in the middle of the summer, things will have
changed for the better. If at some point we're not

(01:27:04):
asking are they buyers or are they sellers early in
the summer, but instead, what are they willing to give up.
Who can they get? What's the one area they have
to address? What can this team do if it acquires X?
Like there it is like it's it's not just the
win loss record, though that obviously is a big part

(01:27:24):
of it. It's not just the lack of postseason advance,
but although that is obviously a part of it. The themes,
the topics, what we ask, what we say about the
Cincinnati Reds hasn't changed much at all over the course
of now parts of four seasons. If I would have

(01:27:46):
said in middle of the summer twenty twenty four, we're
gonna get to twenty twenty six, we're gonna be watching
a team that is hovering around five hundred, watching a
team that, as we get into the second third week
of June, is in last place, and we're going to
be asking the age old question, buyers or sellers. You
would have said, then things will have failed miserably. Well,

(01:28:11):
here we are. Sports headlines are next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 9 (01:28:21):
The UC Health Traffic su Who and who isn't a
real sports fan?

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
Have we arrived at that determination yet? Who? The real
sports fans are.

Speaker 3 (01:28:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
They listen to Sincy three to sixty with Tony and Austin.
There's your answer. Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey's
Chevrolet Home of Lifetime powertrain protection and a guaranteed credit
approval from their family to yours for life, Kelsey chev
dot Com, Reds and Dbacks. Tonight at GABP. This is
the beginning of a three game series, start of a

(01:28:55):
six game homestand Cincinnati will play nine of its next
twelve games at home. Seven point fifteen. Tonight's first pitch
on seven hundred WLW. Nick Lodolo will pitch for Cincinnati.
Eduardo Rodriguez throws for Arizona. Your starting line up tonight.
Rodriguez is a lefty. Dan Myers and centater JJ Bleda

(01:29:17):
DHS Sal Stewart plays first base steer it second, Soerez
at third, Blake Dunn and left field bat sixth NOELVEE
Martin Wright, Tyler Stevens behind the plate, Matt mcleain playing
short stuff. Elie Dela Cruz. According to Terry Francona, ninety
percent healed had an MRI today. The scans revealed some
of some excuse me some good stuff. Now. They're offering

(01:29:40):
no timeline for his return, but as Tito says, they're
going to quote put their heads together on Sunday to
determine a course of action. No insight as to whether
or not he'll go in a rehab assignment, no inside
as to whether or not he's going to come off
the injured list within the next few days, but things
I think are seemingly progressing in the right direction. Ellie

(01:30:03):
de la Cruz took some did some baseball activity on
the field today. Jeremy Row posted video of Ellie taking
some ground ball. So shortstop Red's coming to play this
weekend nine and a half games at a first place
in the National League Central Elsewhere in the division, Pittsburgh
home for Miami. Milwaukee is home for the Philadelphia Phillies,

(01:30:24):
Cardinals in Minnesota this weekend, and the Cubs in San Francisco.
The Florence Yawl's on the road tonight against Gateway. The
Bengals today announced their training camp schedule for public consumption.
Cincinnati will have an open practice to begin training camp
on Wednesday, July the twenty ninth. The weekday practices will

(01:30:45):
take place in the morning. There is going to be
a Friday night practice inside the I'm sorry, a Friday
night practice at the on the practice fields. On Friday,
August the seventh, there will be a a practice inside
the stadium. Yeah, that's on Friday, August. I'm reading this
from across the room for reasons that are wholly unimportant.

(01:31:09):
Friday night practice inside the stadium on August the seventh,
that'll be at night. You could find the schedule and
get so much more at Bengals dot com. Both times
this hour, I've been trying to read the practice schedule.
I've bungled it entirely. What else do we have? Soccer?
The World Cup Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina tied at one.

(01:31:30):
The United States battles Paraguay in La tonight at nine o'clock.
You could listen to that match Fox Sports thirteen sixty
or better. Yet, you can join us at the pitch
on the West End of Cincinnati, directly across from the
Soccer stadium on the West End. That match is gonna
start at nine. We'll get there starting at eight thirty.

(01:31:51):
Our friends at michelob Ultra tonight have a chance for
you to win tickets to this year's FIFA World Cup.
You can win if you're not there, so join me
tonight at the pitch on the West End starting at
eight thirty. Kickoff is at nine pm, twenty minutes away
from six o'clock. Apple TV has the Reds game tonight.

(01:32:12):
Tricia Whitaker is a part of that broadcast. The Pride
of Indiana University joins US.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 9 (01:32:26):
The right lane still blocked off from a stalled vehicle
northbound seventy one to seventy five at US forty two
in Florence, and there's a five minute to lake from
Mountain Zion Road. And in Batavia he's found State Route
thirty two accident approaching Power Road. I'm at Ezelek with.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Traffic getting a little old. PN fifteen thirty Moeger, thank
you for listening. Hope you're having an awesome Friday afternoon.
Reds or the Apple TV game tonight against the Diamondbacks
seven fifteen. Trisha Whitaker will be in the dugout sideline
reporter for Apple TV. And we have not had Frishaw
on the show since last year, which means we have

(01:33:03):
not had a chance to mention her beloved Indiana Hoosiers
the football National championship. I am sure you are still
riding high.

Speaker 3 (01:33:12):
Yeah, that's the way to make me smile that I
am still on cloud nine. So I live in Bloomington, Indiana.
I teach at Indiana University. I grew up an IU fan,
and when they won the national championship, I mean, I
think I could have.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
Died happy that day.

Speaker 3 (01:33:28):
It was unbelieveable, all unbelievable, and it will never I'm
going to be insufferable about it until the end of time.
But I feel as if I have earned that as
an IU football fan for my entire life.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
So I can relate to you. And here's why. I
am a huge New York Knicks fan, right and obviously
the in Cincinnati, the Knicks are a win away from
the NBA title. I've had folks tell me like, oh, yeah,
you just jumped on board. I know you dealt with that.
During IU's title r.

Speaker 3 (01:33:57):
Oh, everybody was like, you're such a bandwagon fan.

Speaker 4 (01:33:59):
You weren't before this.

Speaker 3 (01:34:00):
I'm like, are you kidding me? Like I used to
go to games with my dad when I was ten
years old and we'd sit there and watch them get
their butt.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
Absolutely kicked by Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (01:34:10):
Like sixty to nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:34:11):
It was insane.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
And then when I was a student reporter, my first
job was covering IU football and they went one and eleven,
one and eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:34:19):
It was horrible. So no, we earned it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:20):
We earned it. Hey, and how about this og and Anobi?

Speaker 4 (01:34:24):
Where did he go to college?

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
I was going to bring that up, but I kind
of felt like you would do that for me.

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
You know, you knew we're on suffer We're in sufferable.

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
You fans, we are insufferable.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
Well you you deserve to be. I want to be
this way as a Reds fan one day. And I
feel like earlier in the season, when Apple was here,
you were here, things were going better than they are
right now. Can you can you provide any hope?

Speaker 3 (01:34:47):
Yeah, well they were going better, And honestly, they were
going better when we had we had the Reds on
Apple in Pittsburgh like a month ago, and things still
weren't going this poorly. But I mean, yeah, this is
a really tough stress the Reds. And I'm a big
Tito fan, and so you know, I've been watching all
of his his Pep talks to the team, you know
where he's like when it's the hardest to believe, you

(01:35:09):
have to when there's doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:35:10):
You've got to believe in each other, that type of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:35:12):
But you know, you really look at it, and the
bullpen is obviously a really really big issue right now.
The injuries and a fluctuating roster that certainly doesn't help.

Speaker 4 (01:35:20):
For consistency in the lineup.

Speaker 3 (01:35:22):
And the Reds are also, you know, kind of finding
out to start the month of June, what what we know,
how how valuable Ellie day la Cruise is, duh like,
But I mean you really find it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:34):
Out when he's when he's injured.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
Which which for him, he's kind of been the iron man,
so that hasn't really happened. So it is a very
tough stretch for this team. I hope that they can
get it together later in the season. It's a long year.
We know this not into the postseason last year. You
know it's possible, But I really hope they get it
together because I mean, deep down, I'm i mean, don't
tell anybody this, you know, but I'm kind of a

(01:35:57):
closet Reds fan because I live so close Cincinnati So
I mean, I'm hoping that Tito and the Reds can
can get a little bit better here in the at
least in the second half when some of whose injuries
pass them.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
So, you know, typically Apple TV comes to town and
you get the Reds or you go get him in
a place like Pittsburgh. And even if things aren't going great.
You mentioned Ellie, you can spotlight Ellie de la Cruz.
I know you guys are going to talk about him tonight,
but in his absence, who you focus on?

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
Yeah, one d P.

Speaker 3 (01:36:25):
We are going to talk about him tonight, but you know,
we also are going to talk about McLean and and
I think one of the things I'm gonna you know,
ask Tito, is I mean he I think it's it's
fair to say that McLean has looked a little bit
more like the player the Reds expected him to be.
And I think what he had a couple of home runs.

(01:36:46):
If I'm not mistaken against the Cardinals, this wee can
So we're definitely going to be talking, you know, about
him and what he might be able to do for
this team. And I know that a lot of the
other guys in the lineup you kind of look at
them and you're like, Okay, who really is there to
talk about? But of course we're gonna have as just
because he's a good teammate and I know everybody here

(01:37:06):
loves him, but you know, they really have to figure
something out here and pick each other up through this
stretch without Daily Cruz. So we'll talk a lot about
probably McLean and I'm I'm probably you know Edwin and
Royal will talk about him a little bit too. So
there's gonna be a lot of good things that we
talk about, and we're going to try to provide some optimism.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
What's your take on the National League Central, which so
far has been the best division in the sport.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
It has been the best division in the sport. I'm
a big n L Central fan, and I I okay,
so this might not win me any fans in Cincinnati.
I know, you know what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
What do you think I'm gonna say?

Speaker 3 (01:37:46):
Say it?

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
You're gonna talk about the Cardinals?

Speaker 3 (01:37:49):
No, I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:37:50):
Know, I know.

Speaker 3 (01:37:52):
I actually I grew up. I will say I grew
up with Cobs fans. But I but I think the
NL Central is an interesting division right now, and I
really enjoy covering the NL Central. Not just because I
grew up around some of these teams, you know, growing
up in the Midwest, But I really think that the

(01:38:13):
baseball is better when the NL Central is better because.

Speaker 4 (01:38:16):
It's kind of like the heart of America, you.

Speaker 3 (01:38:17):
Know what I mean, Like those teams have that. And
I know that makes me sound so Midwest, but I
can't help it. I obviously, I'm a big fan of
the Brewers. I've covered them a lot, great relationship with
Pat Murphy. I think that the Cardinals are a better
team than people give them credit for. Obviously, the Pirates
started the season on a tear.

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
They've since cooled off a bit.

Speaker 3 (01:38:40):
But I do think that the Cubs are in my opinion,
if you're asking me down the stretch who the team
is to watch, I think it's the Cubs and the Brewers.
I hope that the Reds can make a run.

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
I really hope they can.

Speaker 3 (01:38:53):
But if you're asking me who the teams are to watch,
I think down the stretch I would say the Cubs
and the Brewers.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
I want you to talk about the Brewers for nutrition
would from Apple TV is with us. They have Reds
Dbacks tonight at great American Ballpark, because I've talked about
this a lot over the last couple of weeks. The
Milwaukee Brewers, it doesn't matter who they lose, it doesn't
matter if there's a managerial change, it doesn't matter if
they trade away established players. They're always good. Won ninety
seven games last year. This year, I think a lot

(01:39:20):
of us were like, all right, at some point it
has to end. And yet there they are at the
top of the National League Central As somebody who's covered
them and been around them, what organization? What do they
do that I need the Reds to do here.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
I mean, they prioritize depth, and they prioritize player development.
I think over you know, some of the high priced
superstar talent, and perhaps that's because they have to write.
You know, they're one of the low lower payrolls in baseball,
but they really maximize their roster and when you really
look at it, they outperform a lot of the times.

(01:39:57):
I know in the postseason that didn't exactly happen, but
of times they outperform some of the more expensive teams.
But they do have, you know, some pillars of success
that are important. I think Pat Murphy is definitely one
of those pillars right now. But I think the front
office does a really really good job. You know, they
acquire pitchers that have kind of like, you know, that

(01:40:17):
raw talent, and and they they they kind of turned
some of the diamonds in the rough arms into you know,
those heart throwing guys, which I think is a really
valuable thing to do. And and they consistently leave the
majors defensively and I think that's something.

Speaker 4 (01:40:37):
That is probably overlooked nowadays. And I think another word that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:43):
Comes to mind is just like how relentless they are
and the culture that they've created under their GM and
Pat Murphy, they just seem so you know, aligned with
each other, and the clubhouse environment is awesome. And I
think last or what was their phrase, there were just
a bunch of average jos, is what Pat Murphy kept saying.

(01:41:05):
And you know what could possibly appear to appeal to
people in the Midwest more than a slogan like that, right,
But I do think that that is kind of their
mo and they all buy into it, and the front
office has done some really good things with their organizational philosophy.

Speaker 1 (01:41:21):
I'm embarrassed to say that I've only been to Bloomington twice.
Once when I was in college, which was years before
you were in college in the nineties. And then I
went five years ago for a Cincinnati IU game and
we won that one. That was before you guys got good.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
And again it was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:41:38):
We had a great time. It was parents weekend, it
was September. Baseball was still going on, and I was
trying to figure out is Bloomington Reds, Cardinals or maybe
it's Cubs. Who it's it's Cubs and Blobek Cubs.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
It's Cubs, but then it's a little red, so it's
not fully Cubs. But I would say, I would say
for the majority of Bloomington's Cubs. But but you know,
you got some Red fans there too, for sure. But
if I'm talking the majority, I would take Cobbs for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
All right, all right, whatevergn I I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
Apple TV Tonight, Reds and Diamondbacks. Trisha Whittaker on the call,
along with Alex Foules and Ryan Spilbourgs seven to fifteen
tonight at GABP. Tricia, I appreciate the time.

Speaker 4 (01:42:24):
Yeah, anytime. Good chat with you.

Speaker 1 (01:42:26):
Trisa Whitaker, Alex Faust, and Ryan Spilboorgs have the game
tonight Apple TV Reds and Diamondbacks at seven fifteen. That's
gonna do it for us. We're done. Back at it
Monday at three oh five. Don't forget to join us
at the pitch tonight for the World Cup. You can
win tickets thanks to our friends at michelob Ultra. We
hope to see you there if not here Monday at
three oh five. Have a great weekend. Thanks to Tarren

(01:42:48):
Bland for producing, Thanks to you for listening, and go nixt.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station

Speaker 9 (01:43:09):
From the UC Health Traffics

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