6/27/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your chance to win one thousand dollars on our website.
Grand that's Grand Brands its R A n D. What's
up on Moegar? The Bengals are staying in Cincinnati?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
We found that out yesterday new ten year lease? What's up? Moegor?
ESPN fifteen thirty Thanks for listening. Appreciate Mike Petralia for
filling in yesterday. I played. I played golf on the
surface of the sun. I love hot weather. Okay, I
think I've built a bit of a reputation for being
a hot weather apologist. I like the hot weather. I'm

(00:41):
not sure I love playing golf in it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
This fy o, our phones are back working.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Our phones are back working. Thank God for that. Now
maybe I can get him to ring. We're gonna give
away some tickets on the four o'clock hour. Red's Marlin's
Old Dominion. Post game show show previews available on Twitter
at thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union your credit Union
with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot

(01:08):
Orgay Busyreds weekend, A big series against the Padres, A
disappointing performance and outcome. The last time the Reds played
we'll get to all that coming up in just a bit.
Some good Bengal stuff a little bit later on and
Tony Husband from MLS s'son Pass on Apple TV, who
has FC Cincinnati's tilt against Orlando tomorrow. The Bengals are
staying in Cincinnati. And I will admit to you this

(01:30):
is not something that we have spent a lot of
time on this show talking about, because the stadium lease
issue is more of a politics issue, and while it's
certainly relevant to what we do, I view that as
more of a political thing. And you know what we
do on this show. We don't do politics. No, anybody
who's like, well, the intersection between sports and politics is inevitable,

(01:52):
maybe in your world, not in this one. We have
prided ourselves on that. I don't do politics on this show.
Won't do anything really that has anything to do with
Pauls unless there's a real hardcore direct sports connection, and
even this I didn't think had one. So it's not
something we have spent a lot of time on. But look,
we get spared, and I'm not talking about we on
this show. We in this city get spared any more politicking,

(02:15):
any more fighting, any more worry the Bengals are staying.
That's what I love most about this. The thing that
I love most about this, secondly, is there's going to
be a concerted effort to host more events at the
venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium. There's nothing but
good that can come out of that. More events means

(02:37):
more stuff, means more revenue, means more jobs, means more
people spending money. Downtown means more hotel rooms. That's great.
More events. For years, this was one of my biggest
hangups about PBS was it was forever pretty much just
used for football and the Cincinnati Music Fest. And then
you know, we've had more concerts and more events, and

(03:00):
there should only be more at these venues where there's
a lot of public money going toward them. You want
as much stuff as possible, and there's going to be
an effort to do more stuff. I do think this
is going to be fascinating. And I'm talking years down
the road. So's we're kicking the can down the sidewalk

(03:20):
a little bit, and that's not a criticism, but we
don't have to hear about stadium politicking. And we'll see
what the Bengals do in the Hamilton, when Hamilton County
does to renovate the stadium and all, that's going to
be interesting. But well, now the Bengals new lease and
the Reds current lease will expire at pretty much the
same time. The Reds lease of GABP expires in twenty

(03:43):
thirty six. And maybe this is just me, I've always
found the Reds place downtown to be a lot more
interesting for a couple of different reasons. Number One, when
GABP was signed off on by taxpayers, that was two
ownership groups ago. Like that vote took place in January

(04:05):
of ninety six, Marge Shot still owned all the controlling
shares of the Cincinnati Reds. I remember watching a press
conference with Marge Shot talking about the money going to
the new stadium. And then it was the Lender family
and now obviously the Castellini's And so there's that there's
an ownership group that, even if it changes, by the
time we start talking about what's next for the Reds

(04:26):
in their stadium, the ownership group is going to be
entirely different than the one that was in place when
GABP was voted on and when GABP was built. And
there's also this I love GABP. I think it's an
underrated stadium. It's my favorite place to go during the summertime.
Some of the happiest moments of my life have occurred there.

(04:49):
I'm bringing my eight year old daughter tonight. I love
GABP and I I shake my headed. People who seem
to know hold it in the same regard that I do.
But if you go back to when the stadiums were built,
the Reds kind of got table scraps. It's not to

(05:12):
say that they put together a ballpark filled with table scraps,
but they kind of got table scraps. Whenever we talk
about stadium issues, it's always the Bengals. And by the way,
say what you want about Red's ownership, and I've said
a lot, and most Reds fans have set a lot
of chances are you have too. But when there have
been upgrades made at the stadium, for the most part,

(05:33):
the Reds have paid for them, or they've gotten a
sponsor to pay for them. Like one of the knocks
of Bob Castellini, reasonably early on during his tenure was
remember when they redid the scoreboard? And you know, if
you go back and look at an old picture of
Great American Ballpark. They still had the scoreboard. Graphic looked
frankly a lot like it looked at Riverfront Stadium, you know,

(05:57):
still very sort of primitive. There was no video board
out there, and that got changed entirely and they built
a new scoreboard and I think the cost, if my
memory serves me correct, was nine million dollars and the
Reds paid for that themselves. And I remember one of
the criticisms that people would throw at the Reds was,
you can spend nine million dollars on a scoreboard, but
not nine million dollars on a left fielder, or not

(06:20):
nine million dollars on a starting pitcher like that was
one of the criticisms. So for the most part, when
the Reds have done stuff like that, they've they've at
least kicked in a lot of money. So I think
it's going to be really, really interesting. And this is
not so much a topic for today. I'm just you know,
the Bengal Stadium thing is done, and not that there
aren't teased to be crossed and i's to be dotted.

(06:41):
And you talk about something that I could not find
more boring, and that's diving into the minutia of a
stadium lease. But we'll do this again in eight or
nine years and talk about the future of the team
and what's gonna happen with the Bengals, and are they
going to get an entirely new stadium by then, and
is it going to be where the new one or
the current one is now stuff that we're going to
talk about in nearly a decade. But the one that

(07:03):
has always been really interesting to me is the Reds, who,
by the way, host eighty one games in their park.
And that's not a topic for today. I get it,
but it's now going to be fascinating. You may want
to just turn off everything in ten years when we
are talking about new stadium deals for both the Reds

(07:23):
and the Bengals. I remember what it was like in
the mid nineties, man, I remember all of that. It
wasn't that fun. We will see. But the Bengals are
staying in Cincinnati, which is terrific. So I was not
here yesterday. I was melting playing golf. So I was
here Wednesday, and Wednesday, you know, we were all dealing

(07:46):
with the immediate afterglow of that game on Tuesday, the
walkoff extra innings went over the Yankees, which I think
was the best win of the season. I was talking
with somebody last night who works at the ballpark who
was talking about how like on Tuesday, that's one of
the coolest nights that GABP has ever hosted. And I
spent a lot of time on Wednesday expressing some optimism

(08:10):
that I think the Reds can hang in this thing.
I'm not sure they can. I don't think they can
win the National League Central. My money would not be
on them to get to the postseason. But for a
team that at times this year it has felt like
their playoff hopes were completely slipping away, I think they
can hang in this for a while because of the
starting pitching. Because you know they're gonna get Austin Hayes'

(08:32):
back tonight. I think the success of the starting staff
is sustainable. They don't have this huge, glaring weakness like
the team did two years ago when they were really
fun in June and July, but you knew the starting
staff was just a train wreck and it was going
to catch up to them. And there's there's nobody who's
really having such an otherworldly good season that you feel

(08:52):
like at some point they're just gonna come crashing back
to earth. And I felt that way, and I still
feel that way. But I'll admit to this man, that
performance on Wednesday night was as awesome as Tuesday was,
as fun as Tuesday was, the performance on Wednesday was
equally disappointing. And look, they're gonna lose games. They won

(09:14):
two out of three in the series against the Yankees. Whatever,
but it was even in the tone if you were
watching or listening to the game on Wednesday, immediately after
it ended, everybody pivoted to, well, they at least won
the series against the Yankees, which is true, and they've
won five out of six series, and if you can
win two out of three the rest of the way,

(09:35):
you're gonna be in really good shape. But the performance
on Wednesday, and maybe it's an overreaction to a couple
of plays in the field, was sloppy, unfocused, and they
sort of looked like a team that was content to
have won the two games against the Yankees they did.
Maybe that's an overreaction, maybe it's not fair. All I
could do is tell you what I saw. I saw

(09:57):
a team that looked a little ill paired to play
that game. On Wednesday, and one of the things that's
gonna have to happen is this team's gonna have to
figure out ways to handle success. And it was disappointing
to me. Look, it's it happens during the course of
a season. You have a great win on Tuesday, you
lose a game on Wednesday. But Wednesday was kind of
non competitive and Max Freed, the Yankees starter, had a

(10:20):
lot to do with that. But that was that was
disappointing to me. And so you know, I got a
lot of this in social media, which I've I've spent
the last week and a half taking a semi social
media break, which has been kind of refreshing. We'll maybe
jump back into it with two feet this week and
we'll see. But I looked on social media and there

(10:40):
was a whole lot of going to eat your words. Now,
It's like, no, they they lost game number eighty two,
Like it's it's not that big of a deal. You
don't change how you feel about a baseball team in
the middle of June because they lost one game. That said,
I thought the way they played, I thought the lack
of focus, I thought the overall sloppiness was pretty disappointing,

(11:04):
and hopefully it turns out to be a one off.
Maybe they can win the series this weekend against the Padres,
and if so, we'll say a bunch of really good
things about him on Monday. Our phone lines are open
and working. How about that? Five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty eight six six seven oh two three seven
seven six How about that working phone lines today? That

(11:25):
makes me happy? At Moegger on Twitter thanks to Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart and vibrant communities for
all good at Delta dentaloh dot com, and we love
the tweets from people who aren't totally anonymous. There's a
lot of ground to cover today. The seventy five team
is going to be honored this weekend at GABP. We

(11:47):
have a very optimistic take that I'll read to you
on the Bengals and uh something that I also think
is realistic as it relates to Zach Taylor coming up
here in just a bit. Plus. I was really surprised
by something I read earlier today about the Reds that
I hope is dead wrong, and I have asked, I
have asked for an explanation, then for two years when

(12:10):
it comes to the trade deadline in the Reds and
I haven't gotten it. I'm gonna try again today. That
coming up in just a bit. Two things on Ellie
de la Cruz not being a finalist in the NL
All Star voting at Shortstop next on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 1 (13:05):
This report is sponsored for three o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Hope your weekend is off to a great start.
On Molegar, your phone calls are coming up since the
phone spar today and in the next hour, we're gonna
give away tickets to go see the Reds and the

(13:26):
Marlins and a postgame Old Dominion concert that at four
thirty five, So be here for that. The Reds and
Padres tonight. The seventy five team is going to be
honored this week, and we'll get to all that here
and just a bit we were talking. I don't know
if it was earlier this week. Had to have been
earlier this week, because I wasn't here last week about
All Star voting, I don't know anybody. Pretty much everybody

(13:49):
in my circle is at least a casual baseball fan,
some more hardcore than others, most Reds fans, some root
for other teams. I know no one, no one who
has voted for All Stars. I know no one who
has voted for All Stars this year. I know no

(14:10):
one who has voted for All Stars at any point
over the last let's say decade. And that's okay. I
take the All Star Game for what it is. MLB
doesn't encourage you to vote for the best players. They
encourage you to vote for the players on your favorite team.
So Ellie Dela Cruz is not one of the two

(14:31):
finalists and shortstop. MLB has made I think the voting
process unnecessarily complicated, but that's where things are. So you
have Francisco Lindor and Mookie Betts. Now by most objective measurements, Statistically,
Ellie Dela Cruz is having a better season than both players.
The great Chad Dodson, who has been on this show
a bunch of times, has written Red's books. Cincinnati magazine

(14:53):
columnist put a tweet out there and it does a
side by side by side compare some of all three players,
and statistically, which stats are objective, Ellie's the better player,
having the better season. So if I voted, which I
admit I didn't, I would vote for Ellie. I'd also

(15:14):
vote for Ellie because I'm a Reds fan and that's
the guy that I want to watch start in the
All Star Game. But I'm not complaining about this. If
you are complaining about this, my question would be did
you vote? Not not that unlike people who complain about
the stuff that politicians do, it's like, well, did you vote? Nah? Okay, Now,

(15:38):
I don't know anybody who has the sort of time
that you might need and by the way, they're if
you're going, well it's a big market versus small market thing, well,
you know, maybe you know that might that might be
the case, except well you'll see small market players who

(15:59):
are leading at their respective positions. I mean, you got
a guy who's currently the leading vote getter in shortstop
who's playing in a minor league part Jacob Wolf's Jacob
Wilson of the should still be in Oakland Athletics, and
Bobby Wood Junior is getting a lot of votes, and
Ryan O'Hearn has leading at dah in the American League.

(16:20):
But sure, yes, maybe in large markets there are more
people voting. I guess I don't know anybody who has
the sort of time to sit down and vote for
their favorite All Star one hundred times a day, But
that's kind of how it works. And so chances are,
if you want a guy like Ellie de la Cruz
to leap frog two big name players for teams that
have made deep postseason runs that are named brands, you're

(16:41):
probably gonna have to get a whole lot of Reds
fans to sit at their computer and just vote all day.
I don't have time to do that. Chances are you
don't either. I do think, though, that this does reinforce
something important, and it's a theme that we have touched
on often here. Ellie de la Cruz's future has been
a topic here, sometimes unnecessarily so, for a couple of

(17:05):
years now. Ellie made his big league debut this month
two years ago, and once it was abundantly clear that
this guy had the goods to at least stick in
the big leagues, folks have wandered out loud and in
many cases worried about the Reds signing Ellie de la
Cruz long term. I can only speak for myself. This

(17:27):
has not been something that I've been that worried about,
because I'm more worried about do the Reds win now
while they have him. But have also tried to make
the point that if you want Ellie Delacruz to stay,
and you acknowledge that under Baseball's current rules, the Reds
are are gonna fall woefully short of paying what the
Dodgers could pay him or what the Red Sox could

(17:47):
pay him, even though the Red Sox don't want to
really pay anybody, or what the Mets could pay him
or what the Yankees could pay him. Then you have
to find ways to compel Ellie to want to stay here,
and the best way to do that is to give
him the biggest stage as possible. The biggest stage possible
is not the All Star Game. It's the World Series,
it's the postseason. You know, even the home run Derby

(18:11):
to a degree, which is an entirely different story that
we'll talk about a little bit later on. If you
want Ellie to want to stay here, yes, you could
hope the Reds write him a check for a billion dollars.
But if you want him to stay here, finishing in
fourth place every year, not making the postseason every year,
ain't how to do it. This dude has yet to
play on Sunday Night Baseball. He will not start in

(18:34):
the All Star Game this year, even though you can
make a very convincing argument that he should. He has
yet to play in the postseason. If I'm still saying
that at this time next year, if I'm still saying
that at this time two years from now, that ain't
going to be good. So the All Star Game voting
is not that big of a deal. Ellie will be

(18:54):
an All Star, and I would be shocked if he
didn't play in the game. We're gonna watch Ellie Dela
Cruz in the All Star Game this year, even if
he's not a starter. And that's fine, that's how it works.
But there's there's something about like Francisco Lindor and Mookie Betts.
You know, Francisco Lindor started his career with the Cleveland Indians.

(19:16):
Hasn't always been a New York met Those are guys
that we get a chance to watch every October. Their
name brand players. Yes, on name brand teams, but those
are name brand teams not just because of geography, but
because those teams compete in the postseason. And it's not
just big market teams that make the postseason. The Brewers
are there almost every single year. So you know, part

(19:40):
of it is maybe people here didn't vote, that's okay.
Part of it is Ellie didn't get off to the
quickest start, and that's fine. But as viral as he
is gone and as much as most baseball fans know
who he is, I'm not sure most baseball fans know
how good he is because they never get to watch them.

(20:02):
Because the Reds haven't been good enough to be put
on baseball's biggest stages. That cannot continue, and if it does,
the Reds will not keep Ellie Della Cruz sports headlines
and your phone calls are next on ESPN fifteen.

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Speaker 1 (20:55):
New sports headlines, our service to Keil sherever lag home,
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Speaker 2 (21:17):
No, this is this is a somewhere passed from this
group today to whispers.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Oh is that why you Oh, is that why he
played rock Steady before? Yes, are we gonna be playing
whispers all day long? This is for a first hour. Okay,
that's fine by me. I did not know Reds and
Padre started a three game series tonight. Nick Martinez and
Wrighty Dylan sees on the Hill seven ten tonight, first
pitch on seven hundred wlwe Austin Hayes is back and

(21:42):
not a moment too soon. He has been on the
injured list three times. When he hasn't been on the
injured list, he has been awesome. Unfortunately, he's been on
the injured list way too much. This has to happen
in the second half of the season. He has to
stay healthy. Hopefully that begins starting tonight. Jake Freeley to
the injured list. He had missed the last couple of games.

(22:02):
He goes on the ange list with a right shoulder sprain.
A couple of other injury notes. We were talking the
other day about Connor Joe, who is dealing with sore
feet because of the diagnosis was hand foot and mouth disease.
Was is something you typically associate with children. Problem with
Connor was sore feet. Graham Ashcraft, the expectation is he

(22:23):
is going to throw from a mound over the weekend,
and we know that noelve Marte has been moved to
Double A Chattanooga as he continues his rehab assignment. That
is your Postman Law injury report. It is delivered by
Postman Law. If you're injured, Postman delivers called eight four
to four Postman eight four four Postman. Your starting lineup
tonight includes Austin Hayes, Friedel's and Center McLean's at second,

(22:46):
Elliot short Hayes's Dhing, Gavin luxon left field. Tyler Stevenson
is catching steers at first base, Will Benson in right field.
Cees is playing third base and batting nine. Florence Yawls
on the road tonight against Evansville and Cee Cincinnati traveling
to Orlando to take on Orlando tomorrow night at seven thirty.
That game is on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also this weekend,

(23:09):
the Reds are going to be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary
of the nineteen seventy five team that won the World Series.
And Tony and I were talking about this, there's I
think a small not even a small, but a tinge
of sadness because you're doing this, there's no Pete Rose.
And you know, who knows if Pete was still with us,

(23:31):
if Baseball would sign off on him being allowed to
be a part of this. I don't know. He has
obviously been allowed to be a part of a lot
of different things. And it's kind of a mood point
right now. Obviously, no Joe Morgan, Davey Concepcion, I guess,
is not going to be there. And so you know,
you do these reunions and you understand invariably there are
going to be people who can't be a part of it.

(23:53):
The more of these they do, this is just how
time works, the more and more guys will not be there,
and that that's sort of sad. It's not sort of
it is sad. And then you know it's fifty years
and so how many more of these are we gonna have?
I get I get confused when I hear people that

(24:13):
kind of verbally roll their eyes at the Reds honoring
their past. Number one, what's the harm? Number two? How
do you not? It's always interesting to me you hear
people who complain about the Bengals, Well, they haven't done
a good job of celebrating their past, and those criticisms

(24:33):
have been fair, and they have been better. The Cincinnati
Bengals have nothing comparable to the nineteen seventy five Rads.
Their most identifiable era was the mid seventies, arguably the
greatest team of all time. They're not going to celebrate that. Like,
I see nothing. I think there's a difference between all

(24:56):
they do is remind us of how good they used
to be and celebrating their past. I don't think the
Reds are guilty of just focusing too much on the past.
In an ideal world, you're celebrating your past all the
while you're enjoying an awesome present. Now I wouldn't describe
the Reds present as awesome, but it's like, in twenty fifteen,

(25:18):
they brought back the ninety team, which you know, that's
the team of my childhood, right, So that was cool.
Hell I get to meet Danny Jackson that weekend.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
That was cool.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
But that team was.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Terrible, not the ninety team, obviously, the twenty fifteen team.
And so you're watching the ninety team and they're out
there and it's awesome, except the contemporaries. The team you're
watching right now is atrocious. These things are more fun
when the modern product is better, and the modern product
has been at least better than the twenty fifteen team.
But I don't understand how you could ever roll your

(25:49):
eyes at a franchise celebrating its all time best. And
with apologies to other World championship teams, the Reds have had,
other National League championship teams. The Reds have had other
Division winning teams. The Reds have had. The teams of
the mid seventies are their best and so it'll be

(26:10):
cool seeing a lot of those guys around the ballpark
this weekend. Uh five, one, three, seven, nine, fifteen thirty
is our phone number, Eddie and Green Township. You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Eddie. How are you. I'm
great mode.

Speaker 6 (26:24):
It sounds like we're up, backing up and running with
the phones.

Speaker 7 (26:27):
You hear me.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Phones are working. I can hear you, and uh that's
a good thing. What's up?

Speaker 6 (26:33):
Uh not just talk from us baseball? You know the
Huge Series coming into this weekend. I know we said
about every series coming up now, the Huge Series with
the Padres and you're chasing them as far as one
of the wild card spots and they just happen to
have the last one right now, hm. But taking to
the three would go a long way here. And good
news is, like you said earlier in the show, they
don't have to face a lefty, so that's always good.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Uh, now you're right about that. Don't have to face
a lefty. And Robert Suarez is also not available for
tonight because he's dealing with the suspension, so you don't
have to face San Diego's closer if they need them.

Speaker 8 (27:08):
Right.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Yeah, that's been a problem for the Red though for
a while, not just this year, but they just have
a hard time hitting left handed starters, and I just
wonder if that has something to do. Is just they
don't have enough good right handed hitters on the roster,
which I think is a problem.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Well, the reason why they acquired Austin Hayes was because
they thought he could help them immensely against lefties. And
so you know, obviously San Diego is not throwing the
lefty this weekend, but you want Austin Hayes back against everybody.
But specifically, as we talk about their struggles against lefties,
there's two things that stand out. Number One, Matt McClain
got off to a slow start. Number two, Austin Hayes

(27:46):
has been unavailable way too often. If those two things
change over the course of the second half of the season,
and they've got to get more production from Ces as well,
who has been atrocious against lefties and frankly not that
good against anybody else. There's a reason why he's batting nine.
But I look at those three guys as key to
being better against lefties. The good news is Matt McClain

(28:07):
has been swinging a better bat and maybe just as
equally as good as Austin Hayes has returned. Yeah, there's
been a.

Speaker 6 (28:15):
Few guys have actually started playing a little better than
I did the first two months of the season, Spencer
Steer being one of them, Ellie being in one of
them as well. But I just hope that Nick Crawl
and company they don't take this season lightly like they
did two years ago and this team just sits there
and they don't really do much to help this roster
get improve because this looks, be honest, this roster, even
when fully healthy, still I still needs another thumper in

(28:38):
the lineup, or possibly maybe another bullpen arm or two,
because I'm looking at the bullpen, and the bullkan has
been great, though, Tony Sanchan's been great, Scott Barlow has
been really good lately, very dependable. But some of these
guys are being used way more than they have been
in the past, like they I think Tony Tantillion has

(28:59):
been He's made the most appearances I think in baseball
right now for his appearances. So I just worry about
that in the second half of the season, like these
guys being used so much in the first step that
they come out and maybe they start to hit a
wall in the second half of the season they're not
as effective, because we saw it happen with Bluck Farmer
a few years ago where he was just so good
the first half of the season, so dominant, so dependable,
that he ended up becoming just bad. And I think

(29:21):
it's being ever used. So that's something I do monitor
a little bit with some of these guys being, you know,
used so much already, So I think the bullpen needs
to be another thing. Ni Krawl has his eye on,
is possibly maybe trying to upgrade with another arm or
two for the seventh grade ending, and we needed a
pumper for forgotten knows how long the last two or
three seasons, we've needed a right handed bat, you know,
that could hit you thirty home runs or more in

(29:42):
that middle of the lineup. So I hope they do
the right thing, give us team a chance to win
not only this year, but next year as well in
the following year.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
You know, no, I couldn't agree more. I think there's
a couple of different things there. Number one, every every
team that's even remotely in contention needs bullpen help, so
they're going to have a lot of competition there. But
it's worth mentioning. Even though Nick Crawl didn't address their
biggest weakness two years ago, he did go get Sam
Mall and Sam, as frustrating as it is that he's
not been available this year, was terrific down the stretch

(30:11):
for the Reds two seasons ago, and so you would
expect him to be looking for a reliever. I want
to see more of Lion Richardson. I'd like to see
a little bit more of Connor Phillips, Luis May who
I think when he was up here earlier in the season,
you saw some glimpses Sam Luckier and I talked about him.
Zach Maxwell in their organization right now is somebody that
I think we could expect to see in Cincinnati. At

(30:32):
some point, they're going to have to turn things over
a little bit more to the younger relievers. I think
the good news is Lyon Richardson is showing you. You know,
earlier this year he was used in a couple of
mop up situations. They showed you against the Yankees. They
can use him and he can be counted on in
high leverage situations. The other one you talked about a thumper.
They need a thumper. They need somebody in the lineup

(30:54):
that you can go, boy, that guy can hit us
along one tonight. But which that's contending right now doesn't
want a thumper. How many of those guys are available?
And I think the bigger question is what would the
Reds be willing to give up if one were to
be available.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
It's true the Reds can always trade from their surplus,
which is starting pitching in prospects. My teams are really
looking for starting pitching as well. The Rights have a
couple of pitchers they could be willing to maybe deal.
I don't know if you traded Nick Ladolo or a
Chase Petty or something like that, and some prospects they
get maybe a bat, but having a bat in that
middle of the lineup would just be would go a long way,

(31:32):
and I no notice effected.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Often.

Speaker 6 (31:35):
Hey, I'm glad he's back to time. I hope he
stays healthy the rest of the season. But like you said,
he's doing then ail three times this year, and I
just as of right now, I can't depend on him
to be healthy and be available all year long. So
having another bat in the lineup, a right handed bat,
would would be would be tremendous. And I agree with
the bullpen. I think maybe it'd be great if they
could just find the bullpen from within, you know, a

(31:56):
couple of young guys coming up getting the shot to
be good, like a Zach max Well or Louise May.
But Lion Richardson proved to me that he's being trusted
now more so than ever. Drusty with Graham Mexically. I
l like he got four huge outs in that Yankees game,
Game two, and he's that game four huge outs one
of being Aaron Judge. I think the bases were loaded

(32:18):
or something like that, and he got the big out
of Aaron Judge. So yeah, he's actually being dependent on
right now. So far he's actually lived up to you know,
the pressure. Yeah, so that'd be great that we'll think
could be fixing itself and within the organization. Then they
can just focus on just making a trade for a
bat at the deadline or before the deadline. They don't
have to wait for the deadline.

Speaker 7 (32:34):
I could do beforehand.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
They're gonna get to a point, Eddie, thank you, as always,
it's good to hear from you. They're gonna get to
a point where they're gonna have to make a tough
decision about maybe giving up something of value, young starting pitcher,
young position player. You know, right now, it feels like
the strength of the organization, it's kind of flipped because
of all the pictures they've promoted, is positionally right. They're

(32:57):
gonna get to a point, and maybe it's in a month.
Maybe it's this offseason where the best acquisition is not
a free agent, the best acquisition is from another team,
and they have a chance to make that acquisition. What
are they willing to give up? You will hear some
suggest that it's going to be really hard to mortgage
their future. In fact, I read that verbage today and

(33:19):
I don't understand why that coming up at four h
five five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is
our phone number A an optimistic take about the twenty
twenty six Bengals coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Traffic from the UCLP Tramfic Center at you See Health,
You'll find comprehensive care that's so personal. What makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect
more You see health dot Com Having traffic now, he
spound two seventy five from Mostellar off and on the
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(34:02):
out of Florence into town southbound seventy one break lights
from Dana to the tunnel North bounds heavy from just
before Redbank and to Kenwood. There's a racon ready near McMillan.
Chuck Ingram with traffic.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
This report is sponsored by Miami Preseason Polls, so his
stable of summer is discussing the preseason poll, which, by
the way, Arizona State was picked to finish last last
year and then won the league. So we're not going
to have that to discuss also reading from a Charlie
Goldsmith's Twitter feed. He of a Charlie's Checklist, Charlie's Chalkboard

(34:39):
Checklist Charlie's Chalkboard, which is a great newsletter. I mentioned before,
Jake Fraley has gone on the Angelist Austin Hayes' back.
Jake Fraley says he has a partial tear in his
laborom which is tied to a recent diving catch, but
it's something that he has been dealing with in that
shoulder for years. The new tear, though, took place recently,
and so he is going to get a third opinion

(35:01):
from his doctor and then sit down for some meetings
and they'll try to figure out a plan moving forward
that would strike me as something that's gonna be a
pretty long term thing. So no Jake Frayley obviously tonight,
but it feels like at least for a little while.
I speaking of newsletters, I subscribe today to the one
that is authored by a guy who I've read before

(35:24):
at cbssports dot com, Chris Trepasso, and he has done
He's put together a little bit of a formula every
team's future Outlook NFL Long Game Index. So go find
this We're gonna try to get Chris on the show
next week. Long Game Index and future outlook is two years,
which I I'm glad that he did this and didn't

(35:45):
make it about four years or five years, because I
think in the NFL and maybe in all sports, it's
it's really hard to wrap your brain around what things
are gonna look like a half decade from now. So
he looks at two years Long Game Index thirty two
through on. If you're looking for somebody who writes about
and talks about the sport nationally, who feels bullish on

(36:07):
the Bengals, Chris is your guy because he ranks the
Bengals at number one. I'm not going to give away
all of Chris's content here, but he writes the Bengals
are the number one team in the first ever long
Term Index and writes about the core of the team,
which is obviously Burrow Higgins, and Chase writes about Chase Brown.

(36:29):
You know it's Chase Brown is going to be like
the sexiest fantasy pick this year. When I say sexiest,
I mean like people are gonna want to draft him
on there there are fantasy teams. But he goes into
very briefly, how in how good of a shape they
are financially and how and contrary to what a lot

(36:49):
of people would say, how flush with cash they are,
how financially flexible they are. By the way, like for
all that we talk about, like Burrow and Higgins and
those guys making all their money, Trey Hendrickson is still
under contract for this year. One of the reasons why
you signed t Higgins the way you did is there's
nobody else to pay. They're still in a pretty good

(37:10):
spot financially. Now that obviously can change in the coming years.
But he writes that the Bengals deserve this ranking because
they technically are flush financially and they have the firepower
to go to battle with any one offensively, so they're
number one. You don't often see the Bengals rank number
one in pretty much anything. We only have like about

(37:31):
a minute here, So if you're on hold, we're gonna
get to you coming up right after the top of
the hour five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
You're also gonna hear from Austin Hayes, who is back.
I speaking of stuff that I read The Athletic dot
Com divided MLB teams into tiers relative to whether or

(37:53):
not they're gonna buy or sell at the deadline, and
I was surprised in win tier. The Athletic listed the
Reds and the verbiage used to explain where they were
ranked made me want to punch myself in the face.

(38:14):
I'll share it with you. Coming up in the four
o'clock hour, plus we've got to giveaway Red's Marlins tickets
July tenth, coming up in just a couple of weeks,
and a postgame concert by Old Dominion. All that coming
up in the four o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you very much. Three minutes after four o'clock, you're
getting a free minute here, a free minute. You say

(38:37):
it never gave you anything. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you for listening. By Brendaman and Jones on Baseball.
A little bit later on about forty five minutes from now,
Brandaman and Jones on baseball. This year pretty consistently has
been about baseball. We'll see if it is again. Coming
up in just about forty five minutes. Are the Reds

(38:58):
trending to be sellers? And yes, Elie Dela Cruz should
compete in the home run derby if he wants to
compete in the home run derby. Plus in about a
half hour, we're gonna give away a pair of tickets.
We're gonna tell you know we're gonna do. We're gonna
play dumb trivia. We're gonna play dumb trivia or like
blind guest trivia, maybe that's what we should call it,
because we're gonna give you a chance to win based

(39:19):
on your knowledge of the shared history of the Reds
and Padres, because the Padres are here this weekend. So
if you think you know a lot about the Reds,
and you think you know a lot about the Padres,
and you want to go see the Reds and Marlins
and a postgame Old Dominion show on July tenth, your

(39:39):
chance is coming up in just about thirty minutes. I
don't know why I'm laughing. We have folks who have
been waiting, and the sports talk radio playbook or handbook
I should say, has an entire chapter in it about
how you're not supposed to take phone calls to start
the hour. But I don't like the sports talk Radio handbook,
and so we're going to ignore it instead. We're going

(40:01):
to talk to Luke who's been waiting patiently. Luke, thank
you for hanging on. How are you. I'm doing great.

Speaker 8 (40:07):
I'm gonna go out of the limb for the dumb
question or the dumb trivia. Benito Santiago is what my
guess is going to be before the question even happened.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Benito Saniago. Who you're going with? Not not a bit Roberts, No,
not a Greg Vaughan, not a Carmelo Martinez. You're going,
You're going, You're going Benito Santiago.

Speaker 8 (40:28):
That's the answer before the question.

Speaker 9 (40:30):
Is it kind of like a Jeopardy situation there?

Speaker 4 (40:33):
Anywhao?

Speaker 2 (40:36):
Another comment I wanted to have. The last time I
voted for.

Speaker 8 (40:40):
An All Star Game was back when I would go
to the games.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
They would give you that hard card with a punch.

Speaker 8 (40:46):
And nobody takes a pen to a game, so you're
trying to use your thumbnail, pop through it, you.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Know, all the tea.

Speaker 8 (40:52):
So that's the last time there you go.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, whatever you've got, the usher would bring the usher
would bring them down. And if there were like let's
say you're sitting in a row and there's six of you,
he would still hand you like eighty cards, and it's like,
all right, man, I got thirty of these, now, I
guess I'll vote for Chris Sabo thirty times. And you would,
and then you would. There was a little section on
the back of it where you could win something from

(41:16):
USA today and you could write down your name and
address and stuff. And I never want anything. No, no, neither.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I don't even think I ever got anybody.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
Elected who I voted for back in the day.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Brandon Larsen never made it.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
No matter anyway.

Speaker 8 (41:33):
What I wanted to talk about here, mo is you know,
we obviously, like you said, are going to be in
it for come into the playoffs, which is exciting playing
meaningful baseball in July and later that's fun.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (41:45):
Whether we make it or not, who knows. But we've
got some of these young position players mcclan marte cs,
these guys that you know, the afore mentioned Brandon Larsen.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Maybe they're they're.

Speaker 8 (41:59):
There's prototypical Quad A players, right, you know, can can
all stars in Triple A.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Who knows if they make it. So if I'm the
Red Brass, I.

Speaker 8 (42:10):
Am giving them as many at baps as humanly possible.
Whether it's in the rehab assignments or up top figure
out what I've got. And I'm not saying it's time
to move on, but if you can move some of
these like top thirty arms that we have where we
have such a young starting pitching, so these guys that
may not be ready to twenty seven to twenty eight,

(42:32):
there's value to be able to bring in some type
of a potentially controllable off above average offensive player that
I would love to see us try to go after
to build onto the starting rotation corps. Some of these
guys that are maybe decent guys to Connor Phillips of

(42:53):
the world, like you mentioned the maze of the world,
let's throw them in.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
To see what they have in the bullpen.

Speaker 8 (42:59):
But the starting pitch is going to keep us in games,
and we have depth there. So just just my two
cents and just happy to hear what your knowledge. Being
a beacon of sports knowledge ocean of ignorance.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
You know, well, I clearly have you fold. I think
you make. I think you make a good point. You
could trade. You can make a trade for an established player.
That player doesn't necessarily have to be a rental. You know,
Gavin Locks wasn't a rental this offseason, they get him
for next year. Jose Travino has proven not to be
a rental. They gave him a contract extension, and so

(43:34):
I think sometimes when we look at what the market
may may look like and it's it's going to evolve
over the course of the next month, we tend to
only look at players who have two months left remaining
on their deal. I think it would be interesting if
they could find a team that is interested in what
the Reds have to offer, which is quality young starting pitching,

(43:55):
and would be willing to part with a player who's
not simply a two month guy, but is somebody that
you can keep around for a while. I don't know
what that deal may look like. I don't know who
the Reds are more willing to deal with than not.
I don't know which players could be made available, but
I don't know that the best acquisition involves a guy
who you only get for sixty or so games, and

(44:17):
so I would be interested in finding out could a
deal be consummated that involves the Reds getting a player
who could help them this year and next year and
maybe even beyond.

Speaker 8 (44:28):
In your trading controllable young arms for controllable path. I
haven't done enough scouring of the research, and I have
to think there's a team that has a serve plausible
we don't have a surf plus off and that a
trade can be made. In one final comment I would
make for Nick Crawl for you know, some of his
faults for the roster building.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
The one thing that's really.

Speaker 8 (44:49):
Interesting about coming into this trade season is with this
type of player that we're talking about, the positional flexibility
that he's built into this roster. It can be a
third base, but it can be a first basement. It
can be a corner outfielder. Heck, it could be a
center fielder. And then you slide right Freedol over to
one of the corner outfields. Now you've got a pretty
damn good, uh defensive outfield with Freedo be in one

(45:11):
of your corners and and you know, potentially another center fielder.
So that's the final comment I will take off, is
that it's we're not pigeonholed. That hey, we have to
find a first baseman that Nick Grawl with this positional flexibility,
that we can find a controllable even if the person
we acquire isn't positionally flexible. The roster we have now
is so flexible that it's a pretty valuable piece that

(45:33):
we can look.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
To acquire going forward. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (45:37):
You're giving me some time today.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I appreciate any Brandon Larson reference. Thanks for the phone call,
and don't forget the bench beneath doesn't.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, that's my answer before the question.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
You have a great day about right.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I appreciate the phone call and the Benito Santiago Prussians.
I think I used that word correctly. Look mentioned a
couple of names, and like Christian A. Kronas on Strand,
I don't know what he is and I know he's
a first basement slash third baseman. I know he is
a guy who has been hurt a lot, right, But
I think it'd be interesting to see if the Reds

(46:12):
had on their shopping list a corner infielder, I mean
Christian in karnasi on Strand has had his moments. He
just hasn't had enough of them. Christian and Karnassian Strand
came off the injured list and in that series against
the Diamondbacks was otherworldly and he had a huge hit
on Tuesday night. But look at the numbers guys ops

(46:38):
is barely over six hundred. Now he has under five
hundred big League at bats, And so, you know, you
do want to give a guy a long rope, and
you do want to see, you know, there's a reason
why they acquired him. You do want to find out
what you got. But can you do that when you're
trying to win? Is there a better alternative out there

(47:01):
to Christian and carnassion straining? Noelve Marte, I think you
have almost no choice but to play every day. Look,
they're giving regular abs at third base to Santiago Espinal,
and I know Santiago Espinal is a favorite of the
in the UH. He handles the batwell community, but he's
just a below average offensive performer. And Noelve Marte, when

(47:22):
he got caught up, before he got hurt, was was hitting.
But you know he's still a guy that I think
most of us are trying to figure out what is he.
So you want to give those guys a long rope,
and you want to give those guys a chance to
establish themselves. And you want to give those guys a
chance to you know, put behind them whatever growing pains
they're going to deal with. But you're also trying to
win right now. So you know, hopefully neelve Marte comes

(47:45):
up and stays healthy and hits at the level that
he was, and hopefully Christian and Carnasion can also stay
healthy and hit at a higher level than he has been.
But you know, we talk a lot about the need
for outfield help, and perhaps that's exacerbated now by Frehley
going on the injured list, with which, if you don't know,
it's apparently dealing with a torn laborm there, Jake Frailey.

(48:06):
Let's be honest, Jake Frayley's numbers weren't exactly jumping off
the Baseball Reference page either. So but now you have
perhaps even more of a need for a corner raulfielder.
And you know you're not You're not getting a ton
of awesome production at first base. You don't really know
what you're gonna get from Noelve Martek. They need an
offensive player, they need a hitter, and I don't know

(48:28):
that it has to solely be an outfielder. And if
you do have positional flexibility all over the roster, you
could take advantage of that by moving some guys around
to make room for the player you acquire from outside,
but they need offensive help. Needed offensive help before the season,
they need offensive help now that they're, you know, playing
reasonably well. This is what's interesting to me. So the

(48:52):
Athletic dot Com, which I'm a huge fan of UH,
kind of took on the somewhat modern trend of dividing
teams into tiers in a similar to how our buddy
Mike Sando does this with the Athletic, where he doesn't
necessarily rank their quarterbacks, he separates them into different tiers

(49:14):
and so U Chad Jennings, Aaron Gleman, and Tim Britten
from The Athletic did this just this week, separated every
team into certain tiers. So tier one and by the way,
this is just the first exercise, which suggests it's one
point zero, so it suggests they're going to be more
of these as we get closer and closer to July thirty.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
First.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Tier one would be could be should be aggressive buyers.
Tier two would be typical buyers. Tier three would be
trending to the buy side. Those would be teams that
are the way they're playing, would suggest if they keep
playing the way they are, they're going to be in
buy mode. Tier four are tailors t A I L

(49:57):
O R S teams that are as they put it
stuck between a short term opportunity and a long term plan,
like the Cardinals coming into the season, like their whole
thing was we're going to rebuild. They tried to trade
Nolan Aernato, They're gonna they announced this publicly, We're going
to try to start rebuilding. And now they're kind of
in it, and so what do you do? Tier five

(50:20):
is the AL Central because the AL Central has three
teams that are sort of very similar to each other
from a profile perspective. And then there are Tier six teams,
which are the ones trending to the cell side Atlanta, Cincinnati,
and Texas trending to the cell side. Now this was

(50:42):
written on Wednesday. At that point, the Reds had won
five at a six series above five hundred arms length,
if not a little bit longer from first place, but
not that far back from the last wildcard spot. Here's
what's written about the Reds. The Reds were not preseason darlings,
but they did seem to have a show in a
wide open NL Central. They have a positive run differential,

(51:04):
which would suggest the possibility of being a playoff team,
but They're only a bit over five hundred and just
haven't gained much traction this season. Their playoff odds have
consistently been in the single digits. Maybe they could be
more tailors than sellers, but it would be hard to
justify mortgaging the future for a last ditch effort in
the present. Here's my question, and it's not the first

(51:26):
time I have asked this question. Why does making a
trade to make your team better that involves you giving
up young players or prospects, why does that have to
represent quote, mortgaging the future. Two years ago I asked
this question before and after the deadline when the Reds

(51:48):
did very little. What realistic deal was out there that
involved the Reds mortgaging their future? To me, at least,
there is a difference between mortgaging your future and giving
up a valuable asset. If you believe in your farm system,
if you believe in your organizational depth, and the Reds,

(52:08):
by by most evaluators, have a pretty good farm system,
decent amount of organizational depth, a lot of good young players.
Clearly it's hard to trade any of them. Clearly, there
are some that you may take off the table immediately
when you start talking deals. But if your organization is

(52:29):
that good, and if your farm system is that good,
you mean to tell me that making one deal for
something you need is gonna totally screw up your chances
of winning down the road for a team that's core
is young, like the core, the core of this team,

(52:52):
Say what you want about it. Maybe you think some
of us overrat it, maybe you think some of us
underrat it, But there's there's not really a guy there
who's due to leave the core. This team is going
to be in place now for a while. So where
is the realistic move that mortgages the future. It was

(53:12):
so interesting to me two years ago. I would hear
this time and again. Now you don't make a move
because you don't want to screw up the future. And
I'm like, wait a minute, you mean to tell me
making one trade, which, by the way, who knows, but
that one trade could have helped him get to the
postseason two years ago. That one trade, that one deal,
that one trade, even if it's for a marginal upgrade,

(53:33):
offensively is going to mortgage your future, I think, And man,
maybe I'm wrong. I think there's there's some room there
between doing nothing and doing too much. There is room
between not spending anything and totally overpaying. There is room
between standing pat and just giving away everybody within that room.

(54:01):
I think, at least, and you could tell me if
I'm wrong, there's some room to trade away again, a
player that you may not want to trade, a player
that you think down the road could really really help
a team, and doing so and doing it understanding it's
difficult to do such things, but getting something in return

(54:22):
that can help you. Again, Man, a huge bat is
probably going to cost a lot. You're probably you're probably
not gonna be able to fleece a team. You're gonna
have to give up something of value. But giving up
something of value to me isn't mortgaging your future. There
are things that I will pay for that cost a
lot of money, but I'm still gonna be able to
send my kidney college right like if I could afford it.

(54:48):
You know, there are things that I'll spend a lot
of money for, but I'm not, you know, putting my
family in a position where we're now living in our car.
I do not understand why this can consistently gets framed
this way, especially if you have a decent farm system
and by all accounts the Reds do twenty minutes after

(55:08):
four five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. Maybe
somebody can help me make sense of it. You'll hear
Austin Hayes. Austin Hayes is back. You'll hear Austin Hayes
and a I think pretty reasonable assessment of Zach Taylor.
I'm gonna say something most won't agree with, but that's okay.

(55:29):
That's coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (55:31):

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Traffic from the UCL Tramfic Center. At you see health,
you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal. What makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes, expect more. Right,
you see how dot com cruiser working with an accident
in southbound seventy one on the ramp to Smith Then
we're it's saying southbound seventy five on the ramp to
eastbound two seventy five and Sharonville. Some ring showers moving

(55:59):
through Bublack County, slowing traffic near the rest area. Southbound
seventy five then slows through Lachland and from seventy four
to the bridge, Chuck Ingram with traffic.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
We're on Twitter. I have lots of questions on Twitter.
You know, my Twitter experience over the years really hasn't
changed all that much. I don't follow idiots, and I
mute certain terms. Poll questions on Twitter are a service
of United Heartland Insurance. The average insurance renewal has increased

(56:32):
twenty to fifty percent. If your business has five or
more commercial fleet vehicles and you want to save money,
contact John Turner, the Commercial Fleet expert at United Heartland Insurance.
Go to uhi ns dot com. Do you want Eli?
What do you want? Do you want Ellie Dela Cruz
to participate in the home run Derby? Do you want

(56:54):
Ellie Dela Cruz to participate in the home run Derby?
I've made this one simple quote now at moment, thank you.
Uh let's see here. John in Boston. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty John, Good afternoon. How are you good?

Speaker 8 (57:11):
Mo?

Speaker 6 (57:12):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (57:12):
I'm awesome? What's up?

Speaker 4 (57:14):
I just figured i'd call in because I heard the
tail end of one of your segments talking about the
seventy five red So I figured I called in from
the Boston perspective So in nineteen seventy five, I was
twelve years old. I was a big Red Sox fan.
I no longer I'm a Red Sox fan, and you
know I was upset, cried, whatever what a twelve year
old does when his favorite team loses. But I can
honestly say intil fifty years that that team was the

(57:37):
best team I've ever seen, when you consider they had
the greatest catcher ever in Johnny Bench, the best second
basement of the modern era in Joe Morgan. You had,
of course, Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Tony Perez is an I beyond machine, SAYSA Geronimo, and
Dac and Setio both Gold Glove caliber players. George Foster
went on, they had fifty two old runs two years
after that, and oh yeah, Ken Griffy Jr.

Speaker 9 (57:58):
Ken Gravey Sr.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
In Whitefield. I mean, that felt like an all star
team and good when I look back, amazed the Red
Sox took them to seven games. But I'm not sure
I got to tell out of the segment. But people
like not wanting to celebrate that because it's going looking backwards.
That's that's crazy, because that team is for my money,
and again, I'm been watching baseball for fifty four, fifty
five years. That's the best team I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
I think there are folks and like, I'm forty seven, right,
so I didn't I didn't see the seventy five or
seventy six team, so that the team of my youth
was the ninety team. And there are there are a
lot of folks who are roughly my age who I'm
trying to figure out the best way to put this.

(58:41):
It's understandable that everything is always compared to your best, right,
everything is, you know, I mean, future Patriots teams are
always going to be compared to the twenty year Patriot
dynasty of Brady and Belichick. And so there's a lot
of us who grew up. If the Reds were good,
we were constantly told by our parents or older people, yeah,
but not as good as the big Red machine. And

(59:04):
so we've heard that that has been an omnipresent thing
in our lives for pretty much our entire existence. If
the Reds are good, well, yeah, but they're not the
seventy five or seventy sixteam, which I've always felt like
is a very annoying and unfair way to look at it.
So there's that. I also think because the Reds over

(59:24):
the last thirty years, for the most part, simply haven't
been that good, that you have people who kind of
roll their eyes and go another reminder of how good
the Reds used to be. Again, this is not how
I view it. They could celebrate the seventy five team
every year, as far as I'm concerned. To me, you
can't do this enough. You can't do enough to make

(59:44):
people feel good about teams, players and moments that develop
their fandom and that just make them feel good. But
I know people, and I've heard from people who kind
of tire of the What they will say is unending
nostalgia and the constant reminders of how great the Reds
used to be when they haven't been very good in

(01:00:05):
quite a while. And there are people for whom the
big Red machine will acknowledge is awesome, but you get
tired of hearing about them even when the Reds are
really good. Again, that is not at all how I
view things. I think what they're doing this weekend is cool.
I think there have been other moments where they could
have brought back the seventy five team. There are other
teams that didn't win the World Series that I wish

(01:00:25):
they would honor. But I know that sentiment is out there,
and while I will acknowledge it, I don't completely understand it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
Well, we faced that a little bit here mal in
Boston because the Red Sox since winning the World Series
in twenty eighteen, are essentially a five hundred team, third
in revenue nineteenth and payroll, which is absurd. I mean,
it's a cashcow Snway Park, and they're just not spending
money to improve the team. And again, I'm not a
Red Sox for him, so they can go do whatever
they want, but constantly reminded, actually they celebrate the sixty

(01:00:54):
seven Red Sox who lost the World Series for the
same of Lois Cardinals. You know, that's like when baseball
bloomed in Boston and New England, when the Red Sox
made that miraculous run in nineteen sixty seven. Now I'm
not old enough to remember that it was.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Only four the impossible dream, the impossible dream, nineteen sixty seven. Yeah,
oh that's all.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
We hear them, and then the seventy five team will
be lauded to they lost to the reds Now. We're
starting to see. Like the last year was the twentieth
anniversary of the twenty fourteen, which is still the team
most people have braced because it was the first time
in eighty six years and it was built with a
bunch of characters. But again, that gets tiring when you
again have gone six years of playing five hundred baseball

(01:01:32):
and you're not spending money and you're trading your best
hitter for you know, forty five cents on the dollar
with prospects. So I think the fan base here is
a very neurotic fan base. I'm sure you've got that
from talking to people, the most neurotic fan base, because
you know, the last two months, I'm tired of hearing
about how short Will Campbell's arms are because that's the

(01:01:52):
big topic of conversation. So that's why I switched over
to you guys, A a big Bengals fan, big big
Jill Burrow fans.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
I for you guy. Well, I know there are I
know there are folks in Boston who still believe the
Red Sox won the seventy five World Series three games
to three. So you know, I probably don't understand why
we're even celebrating the seventy five team here.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
Do celebrate because it's deserve it. And I can tell
you I remember they lost that Srey because again, twelve
year old John was crying for several days. But like
I said, as I've grown older and appreciated the history
of baseball more, that is the greatest team I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Yeah, and there's a lot of folks, John, thank you
very much, a lot of folks who feel the same way.
And I would be clear about this, like I'd celebrate
the seventy five team every year if I could. Now
you know it's doing so over the course of the
last few decades has been often hampered by well, Pete
Rose's lack of availability, for a lack of a better

(01:02:51):
way of putting it. And so you know this in
two thousand, I'll never forget. It was a Saturday night.
I think the Red play the Twins in early June.
They I think think that was the first formal on
field Red sanctioned reunion of the seventy five team. In
two thousand. I was there and if you remember, Pete

(01:03:11):
was not allowed to be there. Barry Larkin put a
Rose on third base and that was cool.

Speaker 7 (01:03:17):
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Subsequent to that, whenever there have been attempts to have
reunions or moments for some of the players on those teams.
Invariably the discussion turned to Pete Rose, and I think
to a degree sometimes unfairly because while Pete maybe not

(01:03:41):
being able to be a part of it, the two
thousand and two, the last game at Riverfront Stadium, Pete
was not allowed to be there, which is unfortunate and
God rest his soul, but a result of his own behavior,
and so I always felt like the conversation always drifted
toward this one thing, in this one player, instead of
what was truely being honored. Now, unfortunately Pete is no

(01:04:03):
longer with us, Unfortunately Joe Morgan is no longer with us,
and so those two iconic figures can't be there this weekend.
But as a general rule, I don't think there's anything
wrong with, you know, making people feel good, man, And
look a lot of us as born in seventy seven, man,
My first Reds memory is nineteen eighty three, so I

(01:04:25):
certainly know a lot about the seventy five team. I've
watched all seven games. You can find them on YouTube.
I had the DVD set for a while. I've been
lucky enough to interview every member of the Grade eight,
with the exception of Caesar Gerondimo. And when I have
I get goosebumps. It's awesome, you know. So I'm it's

(01:04:47):
not in my wheelhouse. But I don't think there's anything
wrong with making people feel good. And you know, reminding
people of teams and players and moments made them feel good,
especially during their formative years as a baseball fan, is
always a good thing. My argument for the Bengals having
a Ring of Honor was always like celebrating boomeras iiasin

(01:05:09):
will make me feel good. That was my guy as
a kid, celebrating Isaac Curtis. These players who maybe they
didn't win Super Bowls but formed fandom and make people
feel good. You could do that, But I do know
folks who will tell you like I get tired of
hearing about the Big Red Machine. And I do know
folks and will tell you like I'm tired of hearing

(01:05:29):
about how good the Reds used to be. And if
that's you, like, I don't know, don't go this weekend then,
or don't pay attention to the on field ceremony. But
for my money, you can't do this enough. And I
think if you're doing this the right way, if you're
around in seventy five and someone says that to you,

(01:05:51):
perhaps in a non condescending way, educate people about like
my dad was awesome. My dad was awesome for a
billion reasons. My dad loved the Cincinnati Reds. But I
feel like I watched the Reds of the seventies because
of how he taught me about them and how much
he loved those teams. And you know, he wasn't like

(01:06:15):
overbearing about how like in ninety when the Reds were good,
it wasn't like, ah, you know, but they're not the
seventy five team. But you and I both know there
are people who would say that, and it's like.

Speaker 5 (01:06:24):
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Maybe no one ever would be, but can I enjoy
this in real time? I was lucky to I had
a dad who was really good at like, let me
tell you about the seventy five World Series, let me
tell you about the seventy two playoffs. Let me tell
you about how heartbreaking it was when they lost in
seventy two and then again in seventy five in the
NLCS to New York, and when they swept the Yankees
in seventy six and then everything that happened subsequent to

(01:06:44):
seventy six, and so I have a very deep appreciation
and love for those teams that I did not grow
up watching. The other way of doing it, though, is
how a lot of people did do it. And I've
heard these people like, oh yeah, Reds might be okay now,
but they don't have Joe Morgan like okay, And so
I think those folks are maybe the people who are

(01:07:06):
kind of rolling the rise at celebrating the seventy five team.
But for my money, you can't do it enough. And uh,
look man, it's it's fifty years and so who knows
when they'll do this again, But when they do it,
just the reality is not as many of them are
going to be here. So if you're going enjoy it,
and if you weren't around in seventy five and seventy six,

(01:07:26):
I believe that those players still deserve your attention and
your applause, and I hope you give it to them.
Sports headlines, Oh, we're giving away tickets, Red's Marlins, We're
gonna play stupid trivia. We need contestants five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. If you wanna well, we'll test your knowledge

(01:07:47):
of the shared history of the Reds and Padres. We
need a contestant five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty Reds and Marlins with an old Dominion post game
show on the tenth of July. We'll give you tickets.
We'll give you a chance to win tickets after sports headlines,
which are next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Traffic from the UCL Traffic Center at you See Health,
You'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect more.
You see how dot com. Heavy traffic continues on the
highways this afternoon. North bound seventy five continues over a
half hour delay between Florence and the Bridge. Sathbound seventy one.

(01:08:34):
I'm seeing break lights near fields Irdle and again through
blue Ash and Kenwood. There's a wreck on the double
A near Ridgewood and downtown on Second and Pete Roseway.
Chuck Ingram with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
This report is sponsored by the Lines Are a Service
at Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to yours for life. Just
go to kelseyshev dot com. All right, as maybe like
a half second early there, but I could still hit
the post Old Dominion postgame concert July tenth, Reds Marlins

(01:09:09):
tickets given away here in just a second. First Red's
padre tonight, Nick Martinez, Dylan Cees, Austin Hayes is back.
He is a dhing and batting fourth a. Jake Fraley
to the injured list. He says he has a slight
laborm tear in his right shoulder. That's no good. San
Diego comes to town at forty four and thirty six,
six games back of the Dodgers in the NL West

(01:09:31):
but currently occupying the final wildcard spot. Florence on the
road tonight against Evansville FC Cincinnati en route to Orlando
where they play tomorrow night, that game at seven point
thirty right here on ESPN fifteen thirty. All right, So
Reds and Marlins on July tenth, and there's an Old
Dominion postgame concert and you could win tickets right now.

(01:09:53):
If your name is Tim, Tim, thank you for joining us.
Congratulations on being a contestant. Are you ready, yes, all right?
Very Are you a Reds fan?

Speaker 9 (01:10:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
Definitely knowledgeable Reds fan. I like to think, So, okay,
I'm gonna ask you five multiple choice questions about the
history shared between the Reds and Padres. Now, we had
a guy that played on Wednesday and he lost, but
he acknowledged I'm just guessing here, and so if you're
just guessing, that's okay. If that's the case, good luck.

(01:10:26):
And if you're gonna actually like use your brain and
try to come up with answers that you you know
are true and I don't know what I'm saying right now,
good luck to you as well. Did that make any sense? Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:10:39):
Totally sure?

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
All right, here we go, Reds, Padres Padres are here
this weekend, which is why they're doing this.

Speaker 5 (01:10:46):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Are you ready?

Speaker 7 (01:10:48):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
All right? This man pitched for the Reds in the
nineteen ninety World Series and for the Padres in the
nineteen ninety eight World Series. Was it a Randy Myers,
b Dan Jackson or C. Rob Dibble? Hey a Randy
Myers tarn Yes, all right, very good. One for one.
This is nice and efficient.

Speaker 7 (01:11:09):
I like this.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
All right?

Speaker 5 (01:11:10):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Number two three, men Tim have managed both the Reds
and the Padres. One was trader Jack McKeon. The other
was Jim Riggleman who was The other was at a
vern rap b Jerry nearn or C. John McNamara, Oh man,
Come on now see John McNamara, Tarra what we got for?

Speaker 9 (01:11:32):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
John McNamara managed the Padres in the early to mid
seventies and then took over for Sparky Anderson in nineteen
seventy nine and won the NL West. All right, here
we go, number there are two for two. Only got
to get one more. This two thousand and five Red's
opening Day hero would be traded to San Diego during

(01:11:53):
the five season and appear for the Padres that year
in the playoffs. Was it a Adam Dunn b Austin
Kerns or see Joe Randa? Joe Randa with the opening
day home run? How about Joe Randa? How about Tim
going three for three? Tim hen tight you are gonna
go see the Reds in the Marlins on July tenth.

(01:12:15):
Congratulations to you Red's Marlins with an Old Dominion postgame concert.
If your name is not Tim and you still need tickets,
all you got to do is go to Reds dot
Com Slash Concerts and by the way, you could upgrade
your ticket for a pitfield pass and get an up
close view of the show. You're not allowed to be
in the pit during the game, because I think you
would be like standing at second base, but you can

(01:12:38):
be on the field in the pit and so check
it out Old Dominion after the Reds and Marlins on Thursday.
It's Thursday at Thursday, July twelfth, all a part of
the Ohio Lottery postgame Concerts series. Again, Reds dot Com
Slash Concerts and go see the Reds and Marlins and
Old Dominion. Congratulations to Tim h five nine in fifteen

(01:13:00):
to thirty. Let's see we got a few minutes here
before Brenneman and Jones hopefully on Baseball one Bengals note
not even really a note. We're in a list season,
hot seat season, ranking quarterbacks season, rank him and bank them,
as they say, because there's not a lot going on

(01:13:20):
in the NFL, but NFL people still have to create content.
So Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports ranks NFL coaches under
the most pressure to win this year and has Zach
Taylor getting fired if the Bengals don't make the postseason,
writing quote, Taylor will need to get the Bengals back

(01:13:41):
to the playoffs to keep his job, and it's no
short thing he'll be able to do that. On top
of playing in a division with the Ravens and the
Pittsburgh Stealers with Aaron Rodgers, the Cincinnati defense has major questions.
The team is currently inbroad in a contract spat with
Trey Hendrickson as well as rookie Schamar Stewart, and the
offense may not be able to bail them out. Last season,
the Bengals lost six games despite the offense scoring twenty

(01:14:03):
five points. They also lost two games is by a
thirty eight point put out or thirty eight point out
a thirty eight point output from the offense. All of
that doesn't exactly bode well for Taylor in what feels
like a make or break season. I believe it's a
make or break season for Zach Taylor. Like yes, the
Bengals have a history of being very patient with coaches.

(01:14:26):
I do believe, and I say this from a place
of information. I guess Bengals have looked closely at Zach
Taylor's future before certainly did so after twenty twenty, and
I think they did so at the end of this year.
Now they rebooted things, specifically with the defensive side of
the ball and the coaching staff and a new offensive

(01:14:46):
line coach. Coaches only get so many opportunities to overhaul
the staff. So the other part of this, and maybe
many don't want to acknowledge this, is the Joe Burrow factor.
The clock is ticking for Joe Burrow and he knows it.
He has a lot to gain this year, but he's
judged by winning. He's in year number six, He's twenty

(01:15:10):
nine years old. Joe Burrow was often angry last season
that Joe is a good guy and by all accounts
has an awesome relationship with his head coach. And for
you and I, hopefully this entire conversation is moot because
the Bengals are good enough to get to the postseason,
and they advance in the postseason and Zach keeps his job,

(01:15:31):
and Joe's happy, and you're happy, and I'm happy. If
the Bengals are on the outside looking into the postseason
last year, how do you think that's going to go
over with the quarterback? Quarterback who by all accounts is,
you know, checks all the boxes in terms of competitiveness.
We don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that

(01:15:52):
Joe Burrow goes to management and goes, look, I like Zach,
I need someone else.

Speaker 7 (01:15:57):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
Some are going to say, well, he would never do that.
You wouldn't an NFL quarterback face of the franchise, the
guy who has more juice than anybody who's ever worn
the uniform, especially if the Bengals are on the outside
looking in and Joe has to hear a whole new
round of criticism about how well Joe is not quite there.

(01:16:19):
Joe is He's in that next day, not quite there
with those other guys because they haven't won. You mean
to tell me, you just you, You wouldn't think at
all possible that Joe Burrow goes to the team and says, okay, thanks, Zach,
I need a new coach. Let's go. So, that to
me is the caveat here. Look, a year ago, everybody
was writing the T Higgins has gone at the end

(01:16:39):
of the season. Joe Burrow changed that. So to me,
this is not so much a question of whether or
not the Bengals would as a franchise would want to
move on from Zach Taylor. Although that's certainly a possibility.
The question is would Joe Burrow tell them it's time
to move on from Zach Taylor if they don't make
the postseason again. Hopefully that's not something we have to

(01:17:01):
deal with. UH five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty.
Good calls today. It was almost like we had to
reboot the phones. Entirely good calls today. Another hour to go.
We're going to talk with Tony Husband from MLS season past,
Apple TV. He is going to join us. Coming up
at five twenty. The Bengals are staying in Cincinnati. I

(01:17:25):
think this is a bigger deal than some are kind
of making it out to be. And Ellie Teller Cruz
needs a big stage, so let's give him one that
Coming up at five oh five. Brennanman and Jones on
Baseball is.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Traffic from the ucl Tramfic Center. At UCE Health, you'll
find comprehensive care that's so personal. What makes your best
tomorrow possible? That's boundless care for better outcomes, expect more.
You see how dot com heavy tramfic continues on the
highways this afternoon. North bound seventy five continues over a
half hour delay between Florence and the Bridge. Sathband seventy one.

(01:18:03):
I'm seeing break lights near fields Irdle and again through
blue Ashton Kenwood. There's a wreck on the double A
near Ridgewood and downtown on Second and Pete Roseway. Chuck
ingram with traffic. It's thirty, the official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
Four minutes after five it's the mickelob Ultra five o'clock
Happy Hour. It has been insanely hot over the last
couple of weeks, and nothing goes better with hot weather
than an ice cold michelob Ultra Superior Taste, Superior light Beer.

(01:18:38):
I have a six pack on the way home. Please
drink responsible uh Tony husband MLS season pass. Apple TV
is going to be with us. In fifteen minutes, FC
Cincinnati played really well offensively. Evander was terrific on Wednesday
night and a quick turnaround. They beat up bad Montreal team.
They play Orlando tomorrow. Tony has the call for Apple

(01:19:00):
joins us. In just about fifteen minutes, Bengals are staying
in Cincinnati, which is Mike Petrelia talked about this a
little bit yesterday filling in for me, which was great.
We have on this show. We have avoided a lot
of the minutia, the ins and outs, the mechanics of
the stadium lease and how it's going to be paid for,

(01:19:20):
in the back and forth between county commissioners and the
Bengals in the county, because I feel like that's kind
of a political issue, and we are very proud on
this show that we don't talk politics. We try to
make it a safe haven from all of that, and
maybe we do that to our detriment. I don't know,
but I think I think outlets like that are needed,
and we're happy to provide one. And so we've kind

(01:19:42):
of avoided the whole stadium talk thing. But it is
a relief if you live here, if you're a Bengals fan,
if you're just a citizen of the area, that we
get spared any more political wrangling, so to speak. Bengals
are going to stay. What it's going to look like,
how the t's get crossed and the eyes get dotted,

(01:20:05):
I don't know. I will tell you this that I
think for a lot of folks when we found out
there's a ten year extension of the lease. I think
that's the best way to put it. There were a
lot of folks who just I think, kind of said, well,
that was inevitable. We knew that was going to happen,
and maybe to a degree it was inevitable. Perhaps you

(01:20:26):
didn't believe that if push came to shove, the Bengals
were ever going to do anything but continue to stay
where they are, and that common sense was going to
prevail with the county commissioners and boys. That's often something
that you can say. I will tell you this that
over the last week and a half or so, there

(01:20:47):
have been a handful of people who I think are
really well connected to local politics, to the Bengals, to
the Bengals as a business, and to the stadium issue
who were pressing some at least mild skepticism that a
deal would get done. I asked somebody over the weekend

(01:21:10):
who I think is more plugged in than anybody. I
asked him simply like, is this going to get screwed up?
And I was surprised when this person told me I
actually think it might. So Fortunately it hasn't the same
person also told me Wednesday afternoon, which is the last
day that I was here, that actually things are trending
in the right direction. So things have trended in the

(01:21:33):
right direction, and the Bengals are going to remain at
the venue originally known in Paul Brown Stadium. I talked
about this a little bit to start the show, so
that kicks the can down the sidewalk for ten years
and ten years we're going to be talking about new stadiums.
Let me just think about the ten years from now,
the venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium is going
to be thirty five years old. What's also going to

(01:21:54):
be interesting about that is that's coming up on when
the Reds lease is also up. And so if you
were remember the late nineties, the mid to late nineties
and the back and forth about the stadiums and who's
gonna pay for him and how they're gonna be paid for.
Where the Reds are gonna play. Is it gonna be
on the river or is it gonna be over near
the prison? Like it's get ready for a lot more
of it. In ten years. You get like eight or

(01:22:16):
nine years to strap in and get ready for two
teams to be looking for new stadiums, and what I
think is going to be fascinating. And this is not
a here and now thing. Ten years feels like forever away.
But I've always felt like, as it relates to the
two stadiums downtown, the more interesting one is actually the

(01:22:37):
one the Reds play in, the one that is used
eighty one times a year. Now, I think the good
news is when it comes to the current stadium the
new stadium, least with the Bengals, is there's gonna be
a concerted effort for there to be more venues at
that stadium, which is badly needed and something that has
been better and better in recent years. But the current

(01:22:57):
owners of the Reds were not running the team when
the stadium issue was on the ballot in the mid nineties,
and they didn't own the team when the stadium was built.
And so what's going to be really interesting to me
is I think the Reds, you know, back in the
late nineties, kind of to a degree got table scraps.
So I wonder if there's going to be a little

(01:23:19):
bit more of a push to be a bigger priority
than the Bengals when we get there in a little
bit less than a decade. We will see, but the
Bengals are staying and I think we would all agree
that that's a good thing. Ellie de la Cruz is
a not a finalist to be the starting shortstop for

(01:23:39):
the National League in the All Star Game, despite the
fact that statistically he's having a superior year to the
two guys who's in front of him, Francisco lindor the
Matts Mookie Bets of the Dodgers. All Star voting hasn't
been worth taking seriously in decades, and for the better
part of the twenty first century, it hasn't been about
choosing the best players. And if you're upset that Ellie's

(01:24:01):
not a finalist, you should have spent more time voting
for him, which I have more things to do with
my free time to vote than vote for All Stars.
But I do think it speaks to a slightly bigger
issue here. We want Ellie Delacruz to play for the
Reds for a while, and whether or not he signs
here long term is an ongoing topic. My guess is

(01:24:22):
Ellie wants to hit free agency one day. My take
all along has been my money is going to be
on Ellie dela Cruz playing for someone that's not the
Reds in the twenty thirties, So I'm more interested in
winning while he's here. But if you want to make
a serious effort to get him to want to stay here,
win with him. Give him the stage. So he'll be

(01:24:44):
an All Star and he'll probably play in the game,
and hopefully he plays great. He's going to get that stage.
But Ellie Delacruz is a known name. All baseball fans
know who Ellie dela Cruz is. I'm not sure most
baseball or at least many baseball fans, really know that
much about him. They'll see a viral highlight, they know

(01:25:07):
the name, they know the swagger. Not sure many baseball
fans really have watched him play really could tell you
how good he is. And yes, Ellie this week has
done some maddening, mind numbingly dumb things on the field,
not knowing the game situation, running the bases on Tuesday,
falling asleep as the cutoff man on Wednesday like stuffed

(01:25:28):
and drives you nuts and has to be fixed. But
I don't think that most baseball fans have actually seen
Ellie de la Cruz play, and until they do well.
He's probably gonna struggle when he's put up against dudes
like Francisco Lindor and Mookie Betts were known commodities because
those guys get the big stages. A part of that
is market size, but those guys get big stages. Ellie

(01:25:51):
de la Cruz has never played on Sunday Night Baseball.
He obviously has yet to play in the postseason. So
you want to keep him, win with him, give him
a chance to build his brand on the biggest stage.
The Home Run Derby is a bigger stage than the
All Star Game. I don't think that's disputable, by the way,
and I think that started here ten years ago at

(01:26:12):
the Home Run Derby, the Todd Fraser one. The home
Run Derby's a bigger deal than the All Star Game.
That's not necessarily a criticism of the All Star Game itself,
which once it gets played, is just a typical baseball
game this year, thankfully, with the players wearing their actual uniforms.
But I think the Home Run Derby has overtaken it
as the signature event. And so this is my poll

(01:26:36):
question on Twitter at Moegger. For what it's worth, we're
already we're already seeing players commit to the Home Run Derby.
Big dumper Col Raley, who has thirty two home runs
for the Seattle Mariners, has committed to participating in this
year's home Run Derby, which will be awesome, and his
dad is going to pitch to him, so he is

(01:26:59):
joining the home run Derby field. Ellie Dela Cruz may
compete in the Home Run Derby and he might not
compete in the Home run Derby. You're gonna hear folks
who say, well, you know, I don't want him to
screw up a swing, don't want him to wear himself out,
don't want them to, you know, leave nothing left in

(01:27:22):
the tank for the second half of the season. And
I think to a degree those are valid concerns. Now,
there are hitters who have competed in the Home Run
Derby and then had bad second halves of the season.
There's also hitters who have competed in the Home Run
Derby and been fined in the second half of the season.
I don't know that there's enough evidence to suggest that
competing in the Home Run Derby is likely to screw
you up for the second half of the season. Ellie

(01:27:43):
is a guy who plays every day. He's appeared in
every game, and so there's an argument to be made
that over those four days, if he can get as
much rest as possible, that's a good thing. But if
my guy wants to compete in the Home Run Derby,
far be it from me, you, or anybody else to
tell him that he shouldn't like If I'm Elie de
la Cruz. Okay, my team hasn't competed in the postseason

(01:28:07):
during a full season in twelve years. We are currently
among a handful of teams vying for a wildcard spot.
By the way I use the word vying, a bunch
of a handful of teams trying to get to a
wildcard spot. We're trying to get to the postseason. Certainly
no guarantee that that's gonna happen. Lack of awareness of

(01:28:28):
how good I am and he's having a better season
across many statistical categories than Betts and Lindor is being
ignored by people. A lot of folks have seen my
viral highlights. I never compete in games that are nationally shown.
I've not been on Sunday Night Baseball. Yeah, I want
to be in the Home Run Derby. So the question,

(01:28:49):
thanks to United Heartland Insurance, do you want Ellie Dela
Cruz to participate in the Home Run Derby? If he
says no to it, or if he just doesn't do it,
that's fine, I'll probably still watch. But if he's in it,
how could you how could you hold it against him
the decision to participate. And by the way, I'll give
him the benefit of the doubt that he'll figure out

(01:29:10):
a way to still be a productive player in the
second half of the season and help the Reds win
while still competing in the event. Guys like him deserve biggest,
big stages. Until we get to October, there is I
would argue no bigger stage than the Home Run Derby.
You want some La Dela Cruz awareness, let him compete

(01:29:33):
in the sport's biggest regular season event. A quarter after
five on ESPN fifteen thirty five one three seven four
nine fifteen thirty can get you in eight sixty six
seven oh two three seven seven six works as well.
Pat Noonan was really happy after FC Cincinnati's road win
against Montreal, and I can't blame him. Will he be
happy tomorrow night? Orange and Blue taken on Orlando Tony

(01:29:54):
Husband's calling the match for Apple TV and he joins us. Next.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
The UCL Traffic Center. At you see Health, You'll find
comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your best tomorrow possible.
That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect more. You see
how dot com Heavy traffic continues. Eas spend two seventy
five through northern Kentucky between Dixie and for seventy one,
but the accident that caused part of that backup is clear.

(01:30:23):
Southbound seventy one slows above two seventy five into Kenwood,
then below Dana to the bridge. Northbound seventy five remains
an extra half hour out of Florence into town. Chuck
ingram with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
This report is sponsored by twenties Is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm oleger productive night Wednesday Night for FC Cincinnati. That's
two consecutive wins separated by ten days and a pretty
happy patent intern after the three to one victory over Montreal.
Hopefully that continues. FC Cincinnati plays again on the road
tomorrow night with a game against Orlando starts at seven thirty.

(01:30:56):
You can find it on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV,
where great Tony husband, who has been very busy over
the last couple of weeks, is on the call. It's
good to have you, Tony. How are you very well?

Speaker 5 (01:31:08):
But thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:31:08):
Yes, it's nice to be on with you, and very
much looking forward to what should be a really good
game in Orlando tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
You had FC Cincinnati, We at least we had you
in late March they were getting set to play Nashville,
so it's been a few months. What are you looking
forward to seeing from the Orange and Blue tomorrow?

Speaker 10 (01:31:23):
Well, I was really interested to hear Pat new New's
comments after the game against Montreal the other night about
the way this team is connecting, the way the relationships
are building, the way they're evolving with the new star
of the team, I guess in Evander this season. And
I was chatting to Pat earlier today and just kind
of asked him to outline where there.

Speaker 5 (01:31:45):
Are differences with Lucho Acosta.

Speaker 10 (01:31:48):
It's particularly relevant when you consider that this time last
year when Cincinnati went to Orlando, they won the game
with a seventeen second goal from Luco Acosta that would
ultimately see them win the game one nil, and ev
Ander brings something different. He's a different type of player
to a Costa, and this team is still learning how
to bring the best of out of him around him.

(01:32:10):
And I think we saw evidence on the Wednesday night
in Montreal how that is happening, particularly in the partnership
with Oroshano as well.

Speaker 5 (01:32:18):
Could to see him on the score sheet.

Speaker 10 (01:32:20):
And when you consider that Cincinnati have got a home
heavy schedule to finish the regular season, but still pretty
much a half a season to go, and when you
look at where they are right now, the sky's the
limit for where this team ought to be aiming now
in the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
Yeah, I kind of gotten the sense, and I said
this after they beat New England that I felt like,
number one, this team was in bed, bad badly needed
of a break. They needed to get healthier, which they
were against Montreal. I felt like they did a good
job of still finding a way to get points when
they weren't at their best. There was a while where
we were wondering, Okay, when are they going to start
scoring more goals? And when they did, you know, they

(01:32:57):
had some defensive issues. Injury was a part of that,
but that obviously something that had to be sort of fixed.
I felt like the match against Montreal was the first
time in a while that they had really put everything together,
and I think that bodes well for what they have
coming up over the next few months.

Speaker 5 (01:33:12):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 10 (01:33:13):
I mean there's a few things that I would take
away from that. I think it just goes to show
the progress the Cincinnati ha made in that you know,
people are looking for improvement and looking for better performances
on and off in recent games. You know, this is
a team that I think has only lost five games
all season, and I know there's been a couple of
rough ones in there with I think back to the
Atlanta game where things kind of conspired against them a

(01:33:34):
little bit on that occasion, and the DC United losses
is a strange one. But ultimately, you know, this is
a team that has perfected the art of getting their
noses in front in games and then winning them.

Speaker 5 (01:33:49):
They're very, very good.

Speaker 10 (01:33:50):
They have a great identity just pinching a goal here
and there and then being able to see games out,
and they're a team that's very good at doing it
on the road as well.

Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
They've got the characteristic some qualities to do it and
if you've got those, you should go a long way.

Speaker 10 (01:34:05):
And also you know they've got the firepower Kevin Denk,
you know, overlooked for an All Star, but certainly an
emerging star in this team.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
It's a crowded top of the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia feels
like they're never gonna lose. You have between Orlando and
the fifth spot and Philadelphia, five teams separated by seven points.
So we could have some movement based on what happens
in Orlando tomorrow. Tell me where Orlando's good?

Speaker 7 (01:34:32):
Yeah, and just on that.

Speaker 10 (01:34:33):
On that Orlando fact as well, when you look at
the top of the Eastern Conference, it's a brutal conference.

Speaker 5 (01:34:37):
It's very very strong. I saw Nashville on Wednesday. They're
looking really good at the moment.

Speaker 10 (01:34:42):
Miami, don't forget who play in the Club World Cup
on Sunday. They've actually got three games in hand on
moost teams, so you know they you would think are
going to push up and where they are in six.
This Orlando team is an exciting team. They're an explosive team.
They're a team built on quality, on emotion, on passion.
Oscar Perea always sends out a competitive team, and in

(01:35:05):
recent years they're a team that gets stronger as the.

Speaker 5 (01:35:07):
Season goes on.

Speaker 10 (01:35:08):
And so right now I think it's a bit of
a warning shot for MLS. At nineteen games in the season,
Orlando looking pretty good, very good road win the other
night at.

Speaker 5 (01:35:17):
Saint Louis, scoring goals.

Speaker 10 (01:35:19):
You know there will be a difficult proposition for Cincinnati.

Speaker 5 (01:35:24):
And of course at home at the end of a
road week.

Speaker 10 (01:35:26):
For since he where it's been a trip north to
the relatively cooler era of Montreal. It's into the sauna
tomorrow night in Orlando. It'll be warm, sticky, and you
know you're Orlando team.

Speaker 5 (01:35:38):
We are back at home and hoping to build off.

Speaker 10 (01:35:40):
There could result loads of places you know you could.
You could look out across the field when you look
at the Orlando side. Ramiro Enrique comes into the side,
scores goals. You've ad Angoula good on one side. Marco
Vasilich sensational, the new signing that they've brought in this year.
Do not let that guy cut in on his left
foot and shoot from distance. He's proved deadly. So there's

(01:36:00):
a lot of threats there in that Orlando side, but
one or two creeks at the back as well, which
are very good offensive side like Cincinnati ought to be
able to exploit.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
You mentioned the Club World Cup. You have been behind
the microphone for a number of those matches. What has
that experience been, like, I've.

Speaker 10 (01:36:16):
Been super Yeah, I'm talking to you from Atlanta right now,
and Sunday I'm gonna have the pleasure of doing Miami's
game against PSG, which will be on TNT at lunchtime,
twelve o'clock kickoff from Atlanta.

Speaker 5 (01:36:30):
And you know what a moment for Major League Soccer
that is.

Speaker 10 (01:36:33):
And if Miami can pull off a result in that game,
you know, I mean, I think that goes up there
is one of the greatest moments in American club soccer history,
and for still a young league in Major League Soccer,
you know, perhaps a pivotal moment for the league on
the world stage, a coming of age moment maybe for
the league if they can pull off a surprise and

(01:36:54):
beat the European champions. Huge, huge task, of course, but
the absolutely they've got the players on the field that
can pull off a surprise and can win a game
out of nothing. And you know, I think the competition's
been great I think always with these big tournaments, they
really get going when you get into the knockout stages,
when it's the jeopardy of knowing that you know it's

(01:37:17):
win or nothing, or win or go home. And I
think we're going to see some really, really good games
in the remainder of the competition.

Speaker 1 (01:37:24):
Now, first things first, Tomorrow night, FC Cincinnati on the
road against Orlando. Watch it on Apple TV's MLS Season Pass.
The great Tony Husband with the call. Awesome to have
you as always. I know you're very busy, so we appreciate.

Speaker 9 (01:37:36):
The time man, Thanks so much, No problem mode, take care.

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
You've got an FC Cincinnati looking for a third consecutive win,
third consecutive road win tomorrow night at seven thirty, And
of course you can also listen to the match live
on ESPN fifteen thirty. We got a few minutes here
before we step aside. Bob, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
What's up, Bob, Bob sounds like he's writing a spaceship, No, Bob, Bob,

(01:38:10):
have a good weekend. Five went, three, seven, four, nine fifty.
Thank you, Bob. By the way, I mentioned Elie Dela
Cruz on the home run derby. Uh, it's a pretty
tight pole question, Paul questions on Twitter at Moeger thanks
to United Heartland Insurance check out uhi NS dot com.
Should Ellie do you want Ellie Delacruz to participate in

(01:38:30):
the home run derby? Fifty two percent say hell yeah?
Forty eight percent say OMG no. I'm in the hell
yeah camp. If you're gonna have the event and he's
eligible to participate in it, who am I to tell
him that he should.

Speaker 5 (01:38:50):
Vote?

Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
At Moeger Sports Headlines here in just a bit, Bob
is back. I'll give you another shot, Bob go, what's up?

Speaker 9 (01:38:57):
Hey?

Speaker 7 (01:38:57):
Well, I just wanted to let you know I was
not so I uh, I just stepped away from the
phone for a moment. Okay, Hey, I uh I heard
you're talking about nothing but good callers today, So I
wanted to see if I could continue to help out
with that, uh, with that effort.

Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
You know, I don't just say that to patronize the audience,
but today today's we've had some very good phone calls today,
and not just because we've had phone calls from people
who have said nice things about me.

Speaker 7 (01:39:27):
Either, right right, Hey, Well, a few years back, refreshed
my memory. Did you do some country disk shopping a
little bit?

Speaker 1 (01:39:38):
Did I do some country djaying?

Speaker 6 (01:39:40):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:39:41):
Yeah, like well on the radio? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:39:44):
No, no, why okay, okay, I for some reason I
thought a few years I had heard you doing that.
But anyway, the reason I brought it up, I had
a good friend of mine called me last night and
he's going to be going on tour with Eric Church.

Speaker 1 (01:40:05):
Yes, yeah, he.

Speaker 7 (01:40:11):
Uh Andy Shrek and he he's from northern Kentucky. He
uh he actually was in sewn Alexander's graduating class at
Moon County.

Speaker 1 (01:40:23):
Yeah, and uh is he and he's a performer.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
No, no, no, he's he's he's actually gonna be doing
a camera uh for Eric.

Speaker 1 (01:40:34):
He's doing you said camera yes, okay, all right, so
video works, Okay, that's cool. Nice.

Speaker 7 (01:40:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
Yeah, but Eric Church is performing at rupp Arena on
my birthday, Bob, will he be there?

Speaker 7 (01:40:47):
Is it the fourth.

Speaker 1 (01:40:50):
October?

Speaker 7 (01:40:50):
Okay? Yeah, he actually texted me last night he will
be there. Yeah, he's he's actually starting on the first.

Speaker 1 (01:40:59):
I'm considering I'm considering attending that show.

Speaker 9 (01:41:03):
You know what.

Speaker 7 (01:41:03):
He he told me that he has a possibility of
getting some free tickets, so.

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
Well, now I'm even now now I'm even considering it more.

Speaker 7 (01:41:13):
Yeah, I saw Phil Collins there about oh god, forty
years or yes, oh no, Rapera is he.

Speaker 8 (01:41:25):
Is?

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
I think Eric Church is. That is a Reparna on
October third, my birthday. I'm almost certain of that.

Speaker 7 (01:41:32):
Okay, it is Raperena. I didn't know if he was
playing there or at.

Speaker 1 (01:41:35):
The uh he's also he's playing Ropperena and he's also
playing indie like the following week, so my options are open,
but we'll see.

Speaker 7 (01:41:44):
Yeah, I don't ever hear you talk much about music.
What's your What do you like?

Speaker 1 (01:41:49):
I like classic rock, I like newer country, I like
nineties hip hop. I like a little bit of everything.
If we were if we were to like pigeonhole me
in one category, I would say classic rock. But since
there are no like rock and roll bands anymore, country
music is now rock and roll music, and so when
it comes to like newer artists, I gravitate toward country.

Speaker 7 (01:42:13):
Hey mo, I'm right there with you and my favorites
right now. And I am a big Eric Church guy.
But Morgan Walland is just taken over, and post Malone
is fabulous post.

Speaker 1 (01:42:29):
Malon's awesome, very talented.

Speaker 7 (01:42:32):
His country's stuff is just incredible. Yeah, but anyway, I
didn't mean to get off on this subject, but in
talking about the baseball trades and things, yeah, you know,
I think in some ways teams can actually get better

(01:42:53):
at being sellers. And my favorite team is one that
I think would get instantly better by getting rid of
Eric Setti, by getting rid of Miles Michaelis and bringing
up the McGreevy kid, who deserves to stay here anyway.

(01:43:15):
He'll come up for a start and then they send
him back down there all the time. And they have
another kid named Quinn Matthews who first on the same
last year as the minor league pitcher of the Year.

Speaker 1 (01:43:27):
Well, but you know, to do that, you have to
have options that are ready to go. So like from
a Reds perspective, you know, it's I think they have
some young relief pitchers who can help out. I think
Luis may should get caught up here soon, and hopefully
when he does, we could see even more glimpses of
what we saw earlier in the season. It's one thing
to get better by selling, but then you have to

(01:43:49):
have players from within who can replace them. I'm not
sure the Reds, despite the fact that they have a
pretty good farm system right now, I'm not sure the
Reds would would fall under that category. Yeah, yeah, I
make a fair point.

Speaker 7 (01:44:01):
I right, right, And I tell you the other thing
though that I've noticed with my with my favorite team,
is that I think Jordan Walker's leash is getting very small,
and not necessarily all because of him. But Alec Burleson
is one heck of a hitter.

Speaker 1 (01:44:22):
Yeah, yeah, Alec, Alec Burlson is really good. Jordan Walker's
got appendicitis right now.

Speaker 7 (01:44:28):
Dunny, he does, and actually it was out for about
ten days before that with something else, So it's you know,
I don't know. I think that I think the clock
is ticking on him rather quickly, and I would I
give him the rest of this year, probably just stay there.

Speaker 1 (01:44:47):
But with Moza like.

Speaker 7 (01:44:50):
Leaving after this year, I think that could be it.
And mo one other big thing before I before I
get off here, the NHL draft is tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
Oh my.

Speaker 7 (01:45:05):
Prediction to you some weeks back where the Florida Panthers
would win the NHL.

Speaker 1 (01:45:10):
I remember back to back, and you know what, here's
the other thing though.

Speaker 7 (01:45:15):
And tell me if this is true in the NBA,
because I know it's true in hockey. The Western Conference
is so strong that the teams that get through that thing,
especially in the NHL, I think are so worn down
by the time the finals gets there that they lost
four straight.

Speaker 1 (01:45:34):
Now, I don't know that we have a similar dynamic
in the NBA. The Western Conference was clearly better the show.
I mean, look, it's a little bit of a war
of attrition. Sometimes it's not the best team, it's the healthiest.
Okase was healthy, but they were also the best team
all year long. So I think that might have applied
last year to Dallas because it felt like they were

(01:45:56):
totally out of gas by the time they got to
the NBA Finals against but Boston was superior. I think
that's maybe an anecdotal thing. Kind of depends on the
individual team, but I have heard that observation shared about
the NHL.

Speaker 7 (01:46:12):
Yeah, it probably depends much more, I guess on the
sport as well. I mean, it is just so physical, yeah,
and yeah, it's it's it's tough. Samo. Good talking to
you again, and have a have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:46:26):
Bob. You continued our long line of good calls today.
We do appreciate it. Sports headlines and we'll talk injuries
with doctor Jonathan Slaughter from worthos Inci.

Speaker 3 (01:46:34):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
From the UCL Tramphic Center at u See Health. You'll
find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your best
tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect more
you see health dot com. Ivan tramping continues northbound seventy
five out of Florence into down Town. That's close, through
a forty minute delay. Southbound seven twenty five not much better.

(01:47:01):
It's an extra half hour between Sharon Villa and the
cut in the Hill. Both directions of two seventy five
continued slow at the Ko Cropper Bridge, so to South
Bend seventy one above two seventy five. Chuck Ingram with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:47:14):
This report is sponsored by twenty twenty five list. Batting
fourth for the Reds tonight, Jake Frailey to the injured
list with a right shoulder strain. He says he has
a slight chair in his labor and Reds and padres
Tonight's seven to ten first pitch, Nick Martinez, Dylan CECI
on the Hill here at on seven hundred wl W.
Don't forget tomorrow FC Cincinnati on the road against Orlando.
That match can be heard live on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(01:47:38):
By the way, stuff you may have missed this week,
go get on the iHeartRadio app. By the way, not
only that, you should make ESPN fifteen thirty a pre set.
It'll make life easier for you when you want to
listen to this radio station. Podcasts of this show are
a service of long Neck Sports Grill. If you're looking
for a place to post up this weekend, indoor or out,
no better spot than Long Necks. You got Wilder, got Hebre,

(01:48:00):
and you got Richwood Along next Sports Grill. We do
this weekly, typically not on Fridays, but we're making an exception.
We talk injuries with one of the experts from ORTHO
Sinsey Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. The awesome thing about Ortho,
since he is they have specialist locations and services all
over the Tri State. This includes walk in orthopedic urgent

(01:48:21):
care where you don't need an appointment at five locations,
and extended evening and weekend hours in Edgewood and Anderson.
Learn more at Orthosinc dot com. That's Ortho ci ncy
dot com. Doctor Jonathan Slaughter is with us from Ortho Sincy.
Let's talk a little bit about Wade Miley, who unfortunately

(01:48:42):
is back on the injured list. Now there is a
sense that the injury is not as bad as originally feared.
But since coming back off of Tommy John surgery, made
a few starts and then during a game against the
Detroit Tigers, he was pitching through pain and so he
is dealing with a left flexer strain.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:49:01):
Now, let's begin with the obvious question, what is a
flexor strain?

Speaker 9 (01:49:05):
Yeah, so flexor strain. So it's a pull or a
injury to the muscle or tendon of a flexer muscle,
so muscles that flex down. So for him, specifically, it
would be the common flexor tendon, which is on the
inside of the elbow that the muscles that bend the

(01:49:26):
wrist fingers down making a fist, those muscles attach, they
have a common tendon. They all come together kind of
and create a common tendon and attached to the inside
of the elbow. And so that is also known as
golfer's elbow. For more chronic people, where they can irritate

(01:49:48):
that tendon or the muscle on the inside of the elbow.

Speaker 1 (01:49:52):
So let's talk about I guess his short term prognosis.
What do the coming days and weeks look like for Wade?

Speaker 9 (01:50:00):
Yeah, it's tough because he's going to decide what he
wants to do. Whether it's just going to be time
with therapy, we're working on range of motion, stretching, giving
this time to heal, taking anti inflammatories, or is he
going to want to undergo a potential procedure that could
be PRP where they take some blood, spin the blood
down to get the plasma injected in to create an

(01:50:22):
inflammatory response to increase healing. So it's really first going
to be one rest, get the inflammation down, get going
with therapy stretching, and then deciding is a secondary procedure
going to be beneficial in his kids.

Speaker 1 (01:50:36):
He was pitching through pain in that game against the Tigers.
I'm sure there's a part of him that at least
kind of wishes he can go back and redo that.
But could he have caused further damage by choosing to
pitch instead of stepping away and saying, look, I'm dealing
with some discomfort here.

Speaker 9 (01:50:53):
Most likely he didn't cause more damage because if he
was already having pain, the damage, the pull or the
tearing of the muscle and tendon was already done. The
concern would be could he have then caused more damage
and damaged his ligament underneath, because that bustle is a
secondary stabilizer to the elbow. It's a dynamic stabilizer that

(01:51:17):
helps protect that ligament. And I actually talked to him
on Saturday because his son and my son play Little
Leak together different teams, and he is talking about how
he was having pain, how it's not uncommon to have
some soreness and tightness after this, which is very true.
But when he continued to have the pain that increased

(01:51:38):
a little bit pitching in Detroit, that's when he's like,
it's we've got to get this checked out in more detail.

Speaker 1 (01:51:44):
Does the prognosis change or does the treatment plan get altered,
because he recently did have Tommy John surgery.

Speaker 9 (01:51:55):
So the treatment plan would only alter if the ligament
was involved too. You're always concerned somebody that's gone through
Tommy John with ligament injuries, if he injured the ligament
or the ligament was strained or injured on top of it.
That's when therapy or treatment would change. But if it's

(01:52:18):
just a flexor tendon strain and the ligaments intact and healthy,
there's not gapping or instability of the elbow, then it's
pretty much just treatment for the flexor tenet itself.

Speaker 1 (01:52:31):
All right, let's talk about Tyrese Haliburton. So a lot
of us were so excited last Sunday for Game seven
of the NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton is Indiana's best player
and he's off to a great start. He had been
dealing with CAF discomfort, and then he goes down and
it was heartbreaking to see. He goes down with an
achilles tendon tear, right, achilles tear, And not only did

(01:52:53):
they obviously not finish Game seven, but he is expected
to miss the entire following season. So we talked about
achilles ten a lot. I do think it's worthwhile in
sort of examining specifically what the tendon is. So can
you explain that for me?

Speaker 9 (01:53:09):
Yeah, So, the Achilles tendon is actually the largest tendon,
or one of the largest tenons in the body that
connects your calf muscle, your gas mimius, your calf muscle
to your heel bone or the calcaneus and allows you
to basically push down going up under your tippy toes.

Speaker 1 (01:53:26):
He was dealing with a calf issue, so could that
have played a role in this and was that a
warning sign that this sort of injury was possible?

Speaker 9 (01:53:36):
See that's a great question because majority of people that
tear their achilles tendon have no warning signs. It's something
like one percent of people have a pain before tearing
their achilles. Most people have no pain, and so was
it a warning sign? Obviously he did have a strain
or some sort of tear of the muscle, or he

(01:53:59):
likely had some tendinopathy of the tendon, which is where
the tendon is not healthy. It's not normal collagen tissue.
So it always makes you wonder did something else happen
on top of it? Could he have potentially gotten an
injection that then led to an injury. Not trying to

(01:54:21):
speculate or accused, but with majority of people not having
a harbinger or a warning warning sign or pain before,
it does make you wonder.

Speaker 1 (01:54:34):
So he's obviously very unlikely to play at all this
coming season. He has had surgery, had surgery the day
after Game seven. Let's talk long term. Could this have
a lasting ability on his mobility and his quickness? And
I guess to a degree is overall game.

Speaker 9 (01:54:52):
It really depends on getting strength back in the calf muscle.
That's why it takes so long for these players to
get back. It takes a year. Is the calf muscle
atrophies so quickly with these injuries, and so it really
takes a year to that elite level to get the
strength needed to be at that elite level. Most weekend

(01:55:15):
warriors like you and me could probably be back within
about six months to the strength we would need to
perform at a week in warrior level, But to perform
at the top elite levels, it really takes getting that
strength back. And so if he's able to get the
strength back where they get the tendon to heal at
the right level, right length to allow him to get

(01:55:39):
the strength and the function, he should not have a
major deficit. But if he doesn't get the strength back,
or if the tendon stretches out, he might have.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
A little bit of a deficit. He was one of
three players who during the playoffs suffered achilles tears, and
in Tyresee's Case and Jason Tatum the Celtics as well.
They had also played in the Olympics. It's a long season,
you know. Tyrese Haliburton was playing in the last game
of the season, four rounds of playoffs, and so a
lot of folks have speculated that it might make sense

(01:56:10):
to shorten the season or even some of these guys
question whether or not they're going to play in the
Olympics because that cut into a huge part of his
offseason last year. So could something like overuse be a
factor here?

Speaker 9 (01:56:22):
Yeah, that's another great question because and that's true about
all sports now with how people now train more in
the offseason, there's not as much off time. Same thing
with pitchers and the Tommy John issue. Is it where
people are so they don't get the time to rest, recover,
recuperate that then leads to more injuries. It could be

(01:56:44):
a factor. It's hard to truly say, uh, and in
these instances, I mean, you did have two of three,
But it just also could be that their tendon over time,
it's tendonofse with where again you don't have that healthy
tendon that can then lead to these injuries and ruptures.

Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
Of the attendant awesome insight. It's an unfortunate situation, but
I appreciate you shedding some light. We'll do it again soon,
doctor Jonathan Slaughter from Ortho Sinsey. I appreciate it, man,
thanks so much. Thank you Mo. That's our guy, Doctor
Jonathan Slaughter from Orthos Sincy. I said every week because
it's true. The awesome thing about Ortho Sincy is they
have specialists and locations across the Tri State, including walk

(01:57:27):
in orthopedic urgent care weekdays nine a m To nine
pm and on Saturdays nine am to one pm at
both Edgewood and Anderson Easy because you don't need an
appointment and definitely cheaper than going to an er. Whenever
you have an urgent orthopedic injury. Check out Orthosinc dot com.
That's Ortho ci Ncy dot com. The weekends here, we're

(01:57:50):
back at it Monday at three oh five recapping Red's
padres and looking ahead to Quarterback on Netflix starring Joe Burrow.
That is all coming up on Monday. Have a great weekend.
Thank you for listening, and thanks to Tarren Bland for producing.
It's been the michelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:58:18):
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