6/4/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
At fifteenth. Yeah, Cincinnati Sports Station. Things aren't good right now.
Things are I mean they're good. They're good if you
root for the same NBA team that I do, and
indulge me with that. A little bit later on, I
won't start to show with it, okay, although maybe it
would be better if I talked about the Knicks instead

(00:20):
of the Cincinnati Reds right now. Good afternoon on Moegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening. Hopefully you're
having an awesome Thursday afternoon. Great outside. Wish we were
out there. Nonetheless, we have a lot of ground to cover.
Things are not good right now for the Reds, and
I will I will admit this, man, And we're kind
of wide open today. So I'm having a hard time

(00:41):
mustering up much optimism for the season. I'm having a
hard time mustering up much faith that what they're doing
this season, with the way the year has so far unfolded,
with what they have and what they don't have, and
the division they're in, all of that throw everything into
one big batch. I'm having a hard time believing that
this season is going to be what so many of

(01:04):
us wanted to be. Things are bad and you don't
need me to remind you of that. If you care
about the Reds at all, you know that. But here's
how bad things are. In a two two game last
night against the Kansas City Royals, a game that was
there for the taking because Chase Burns was good enough,
because Blake Dunn hits a two run homer. It's a

(01:25):
two to two game in the ninth inning, and like
you got to, you gotta take advantage of teams like
the Kansas City Royals. You gotta beat the bad teams
on your schedule. It's just one baseball game here in
early June. But still, man, you're you're at the bottom
of the pack end the National League Central. You're you're
supposed to be like in the in the hunt for
a playoff spot. I don't think it's too early to

(01:46):
start talking about being in the hunt for a playoff spot.
Two two ball game, it's there for the taking, and
Tito Francona put in a guy who, over his previous
fourteen appearances, had an ER of ten to fifty. Now,
a lot of folks who love analytics, and I love analytics,

(02:07):
will remind me and you that there are better metrics
that you could use to gauge a pitcher's effectiveness. Fine,
but when a guy's ERA is ten to fifty, when
it's four figures over the course of fourteen appearances, I
think it's pretty safe to say the guy isn't very effective.

(02:28):
They put a guy in in the ninth inning last night,
ninth inning of a two to two baseball game, a
tie game. They put in a guy who, over his
previous twelve innings pitched, had given up eight homers, for
what it's worth, had walked six dudes. Right now, of course,
you know I'm talking about Tony Santien. Tony Santien last

(02:51):
year had a really nice season. There's a big reason
why this this team got to the playoffs, and maybe
there is still some thing there that allows him to
recapture what he was last season, which was a work
course of a reliever, reliable eighth sometimes ninth inning guy.
But this year he's been anything but. Even early in

(03:14):
the season when he wasn't giving up any runs, the
velocity was down. Since mid April, though, it feels like
when Tony Santien comes on, he ends up pitching batting practice.
You know what happened in the ninth inning. Last night,
Casey scores three times. Reds lose to the Royals. You
gotta win the games when Chase Burns pitches. Like that's

(03:35):
a statement about Chase Burns. You gotta win the games
when he pitches because of all the other uncertain issues
with your starting staff, with your bullpen, with your team
as a whole. You gotta win the ones started by
your ace right now. That's what they're complaining about in Pittsburgh.
By the way, the Pirates have lost a bunch of
Paul Skeen starts, even when he's been really, really good.

(03:57):
Chase Burns might not have been otherworldly last night, but
he was good enough. It was good enough to give
the Reds a chance. Gave up two runs in six innings.
Whatever chance the Reds had of winning the game realistically
went up in flames in the top of the ninth inning.
Last night. Terry Francona's team loses two out of three
to Kansas City. The Reds are off tonight, open up

(04:19):
a series against the Saint Louis Cardinals tomorrow. If you
give a manager Tony Santien, he's going to use him.
Tino after the game on Tony Santien coming up in
just a few minutes. I don't, I don't. I don't
know where things go from here with this group, and
I'm I mean the Bullpen. I don't know where things

(04:42):
go from here with that group, And I'm all ears.
If you want to tell me two different things, and
they may be along similar lines, One is where, dude,
how do things get any better with this bullpen is
currently constructed? And number two, if you view me as
overly pessimistic, and I'm I'm legitimately a very naturally optimistic person.

(05:08):
But if you're objective, and I try to be man,
I want the Reds to win badly, but got to
try to be objective. I'm having a hard time believing
that this is gonna work this year. And we could
dive into what they may or may not do it
to trade deadline, what Nick Krawl may or may not do,
Who they may go get, who they may be willing

(05:29):
to give up? Are they buyers? Are they sellers? What
assets could they move on from? How could they make
this team better? Close to July thirty? First? Are they
gonna get Ellie Dela Cruz back soon? What about Amelia Pegan?
How about Hunter? Green. Bottom line is this. If the
bullpen is the train wreck that it has been for
about a month and a half now, none of it matters.

(05:52):
Let's be painfully honest about it, because we could talk
about who's gonna come back. None of those guys I
just mentioned are coming back tomorrow. None of those guys
I just mentioned or coming back next week. None of
those guys I just mentioned are coming back really anytime
in the very very near future. So I don't know.
Man Like Nick Krawl talks about keeping his head above water,

(06:13):
the team keeping its head above water, and I understand
what he's saying, but it's fair to wonder, but by
the time they actually start swimming or stop doing something
that's they stopped keeping their head above water, where are
they going to be? Where are they going to be
in relation in the first place, Where are they going
to be in relation to the wild card teams? Where

(06:35):
are they going to be in relation to five hundred?
How bad is it going to be? And I fear
that the answer is really bad because the bullpen is
really bad. This hasn't been because of lack of effort.
Nick Crawl this offseason spent time on the bullpen. They
brought in Peters Johnson, they brought in Caleb Ferguson, They
brought in you know, established big league relievers. This wasn't

(06:59):
because of life of effort. There has been a revolving
door of guys they have brought up from Louisville. They've
given a lot of different guys opportunities. They've had injuries,
and yeah, injuries are bad luck, man, But dude, every
team deals with injuries. You got to figure out a
way to work through it. Got to figure out a

(07:20):
way to work through it, either with what you have
or what you have in the pipeline, which from a
relief pitching standpoint doesn't seem to be all that much.
That creates a conversation about Derek Johnson that will have
a little bit later on. And yeah, man, like I
was big in the' Connor Phillips coming into the season.
A lot of its were because of how he threw
toward the end of the season last year. And it's
maybe nobody's fault that when he was here he couldn't

(07:43):
throw a strike. But like, you combine all these issues,
the lack of performance, being let down by guys that
you thought would be good, the injuries, the current makeup
of the bullpen. I don't know how this gets better.
I don't have this. It's better if the performance, the
collective performance of the bullpen doesn't improve. And I don't

(08:05):
know how the collective improvements a collective performance of the
bullpen improves as it's currently constructed. You trust Tony Santin?
Who in that bullpen do you trust?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
So?

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Like, this is what gets frustrating if you love talking
about this team, right, there's other issues we could discuss.
We could debate forever what the construction of the lineup
should be, who should play where, how longer of a leash,
Matt McClean should have, who should be playing in the outfield, Like,
we could do all of that stuff. None of it

(08:38):
matters if everything goes up in smoke because the Reds
are bad in the seventh, eighth, and ninth inning and
you could crush Tito for putting Tony Santine in the
game of the ninth inning last night. I'm sort of
a believer that, like a coach or a manager in
this case, if you give him players, he's going to

(09:00):
use those players, and he's going to use him in
high leverage situations. If you don't want Tony Santina to
be in the game, then he shouldn't be on the team.
And it's fair to say that he shouldn't be on
the team. But like, if not him, then who right,
Like if you give a manager or a coach players,
they're going to use them. Last night, things are so

(09:22):
bad right now that in the ninth inning of a
two to two baseball game, a game that's there for
the taking, Tito called on a guy who, coming into
last night, had given up eight homers in his last
twelve innings. You can now make it nine out of thirteen.
So where do things go from here? With the current

(09:47):
construction of the bullpen. It doesn't feel like there's anybody
in Louisville who's really deserved a shot to show that
they could be better. Doesn't feel like there's a hot
prospect who's, like, you know, bursting at the seams to
get an opportunity. Doesn't feel like return from injury anytime

(10:10):
soon is really going to provide no pun intended that
much relief. And even if you're clinging to the idea
that the Reds at the trade deadline, if they could
just of course tread water till then the Reds at
the trade deadline are going to add a bullpen arm.
That's cool. Every team in the sport is going to
be looking to add bullpen arms. And by the way,

(10:34):
the trade deadline is a long time from now. So
I've asked this multiple times this week and I haven't
yet gotten an answer. Maybe today I will, maybe today
I won't. But like, dude, where does this go from here?
And I know two nights ago the bullpen did a
nice job, and that may happen anecdotally, may happen here

(10:55):
and there, but when it happens, it needs to be
the rule. The rule needs to be. Reliability from the
bullpen doesn't mean that every pitcher is going to pitch
a scoreless inning every time they're out there, But you
can't have what this team has gotten from that unit
the relief corps for the better part of a month
and a half. And by the way, that's a large

(11:18):
enough sample size to conclude that this group of relievers
the bullpen is currently constructed, acknowledging who they don't have,
is not likely to be a weapon, not likely to
be an asset for this team, not likely to not
get in the way the way the bullpen has gotten
in the way over the last six seven weeks. So

(11:41):
where's this thing go from here? Where's this bullpen go
from here? And as an extension, where does this team
go from here? Five point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty is our number eight sixty six seven oh two
three seven seven six. I know where we're gonna go.
We're gonna go back. We're gonna go back to three
years ago today because a lot has changed and yet

(12:06):
a lot hasn't. As it relates to the red some
Bengal stuff. Later on this hour, seventeen after three o'clock.
My name is Malwegar. Follow on Twitter, Send me tweets,
love tweets. I still't call it Twitter at Moueger Thanks
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(12:28):
Seventeen minutes after three, This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Well do you see health traffics three? This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Mulleger. Appreciate you listening today. Anything you may
have missed anytime on the iHeartRadio app, including some really
good stuff from our buddy Seth Walter of ESPN yesterday,
who he is the guy in charge of the Football
Power Index, which the twenty twenty six projections came out yesterday.

(13:01):
Then Seth joined the show and he was terrific. He
is bullish on the Bengals, and so am I for
what it's worth. Listen to that and so much more
on the iHeartRadio app. You can also go to my
page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Podcasts of this
show are a service of Long Next Sports Grill. Long
Neck Sports Grill has three locations. It got Wilder, you

(13:22):
got Hebren, you got Richwood, and he got four KTVs
all over the place, and he got tons of ice
cold beer, and you've got awesome wings. All we need
is you. By the way, nice weather could sit outside
have a cold one. Long Necks go check them out.
I've got some Bengal stuff to get to a little

(13:42):
bit later on five, one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
We'll take phone calls in just a little bit. Let's
go back to three years ago today. So three years
ago today, that's obviously two thousand, twenty three three years
ago today, Reds played a game and they lost. And

(14:09):
it came at the end of, you know, a two
month stretch where the Reds, with David bell Is still
the manager, you know, really hadn't quite taken off yet.
They had just gotten beaten three consecutive games at the
hands of the Milwaukee Brewers. The loss was their fourth consecutive.
They had just won five consecutive games going into that

(14:33):
four game losing streak, and then gave most of it
back with their five to one loss at home to
Milwaukee on Sunday, June fourth, The Reds fell to seven
games under five hundred. The very next day, Andrew Abbott
made his big league debut helped the Reds beat the
Milwaukee Brewers. The next night, Elie Dela Cruz made his

(14:58):
big league debut, and in one of the most fun
nights so many of us have spent at the ballpark
in a very long time, Red's walked off the La
Dodgers walked them off the next night, and within just
a couple of days they would they would go on
that twelve game winning streak and vault into contention. So

(15:20):
some really good stuff happened. But three years ago, today.
We'll just use that as a little bit of a
point of demarcation, so to speak, three years ago today.
Since three years ago today, the Reds are two hundred
forty seven and two hundred forty one, six games over

(15:41):
five hundred, barely over five hundred, and man, a lot
has changed, a whole lot has changed. If you go
back to that game four years ago today, pitching for
the Reds, Ben Lively, Fernando Cruz, and Ian Jabbo. Kevin

(16:05):
Newman led off of the Reds that day. Jake Frayley
batted forth. Nick Senzel started for the Reds that day,
so did t. J. Hopkins. Jonathan India was still here.
He batted third for the Reds that day. And it's
pretty striking if you look at the difference in the
twenty twenty three Reds from early in the season to

(16:27):
what they would be later on in the year. It's
pretty striking, right, Ellie Dela Cruz, Matt McLain three years
ago today was still a Cincinnati Red but you know,
obviously wasn't here the first five, six, seven weeks. There
was this steady stream of dudes who got brought up,
and McLain was the first, but then Andrew Abbott, then
Ellie and they took off from there. But it felt

(16:52):
like around that time, like this infusion of young talent was,
you know, was going to start to turn things around
a little bit. Since that day, they've played four hundred
eighty eight baseball games, they're six over five hundred, and

(17:12):
like not only that, we're you know, I'm reading, we're talking.
This week, nickrawl has talked about got to see where
we are, got to stay above water, keep our head
above water. A lot being written already about whether they're
buyers or sellers. Here's something that was written last year.

(17:35):
This is from redleg nation dot com. Cincinnati's rotation is
not exactly certain the rest of the way. Hunter Green
is about to start a rehab assignment. He has already
spent more than six weeks on the injury list this season.
Chase Burns, who's pitching this afternoon in Philadelphia, likely isn't
going to be able to stay in the rotation all season.
And then there's the whole thing where it seems like

(17:57):
every pitcher is just to pitch away from winding up
on the injured list. Reds could certainly use an outfielder
who can hit could probably use a quality bullpen arm
or three. Cincinnati is a flawed team. They've got a
handful of impactful parts, but they've got more than a
handful of parts that could use a serious upgrade. That
was written a year ago. Does that sound like something

(18:21):
that could be written today. Uh, we're hearing Nick Crawl
talk about needing to keep the head above water. Hey,
just just hang tight. We just got to hang in there.
Not sure what we are, not sure if for buyers
or sellers, Not that he necessarily said that two years ago.
Here's Brad Metterer, the GM telling Gordon Wittenmeyer, this is

(18:45):
two years ago. We have to wait and see how
we finish off this road trip in the homestand coming up,
and then we'll see when asked about today, buyers or sellers.
So like a similar message, right, Like we don't know.
We got to see lots of office change, right, and
yet we keep kind of talking about the same things.

(19:07):
We keep getting basically the same results. Now, I know
you might be inclined to tell me or remind me
that the Reds made the postseason last year, and they did,
and that's fine, that's great. I mean, I enjoyed that
day that we found out the Reds were gonna play
the Dodgers and enjoyed talking about the Reds playing in
the postseason. But come on, man, they finished with eighty

(19:29):
three victories. If I would have said to you early
in that run twenty twenty three, which took off in
early June, that over the next four hundred and eighty
eight games, the Reds will have won six more than
they've lost. By the way, that does not include the postseason.
I could throw in the two losses to the Dodgers

(19:49):
last year, and we will be sitting there in three
years in early June, still wondering are they buying or
are they selling? Which is really not so much about
buying and selling, about being in it or not in it.
Can I feel like three years ago a lot of
us talked about like by now the Reds would always
be in it or be in it for the foreseeable future.

(20:10):
And have there been nothing left to the imagination as
to what they may or may not do with the
trade headline? So you know, a lot of players have
been changed, They've gotten a new manager, Hall of famer,
right Terry Francona. The sport as a whole has changed dramatically,

(20:31):
and yet the themes are the same. Needing to wait
and see the roster being flawed, lots of guys who
they could use upgrades from. Two things about this one,
when will things change? Two? Does anybody trust Nick Crawl
right now to be the person to help change them?

(20:52):
I don't think the answer is yes. Sports headlines are
next three thirty, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of
lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com. Off day
for the Reds, But that doesn't mean there's no transactions.
Ah Wrighty Kyle Nicholas has been traded to the Baltimore
Orioles in exchange for cash considerations. Cincinnati has also plays

(21:49):
Jose Travino on rehab assignment to TRIPAA Louisville Reds begin
a six game road trip tomorrow, first of three against
the Cardinals. Excuse me. In Saint Louis, Brady Singer will
for Cincinnati against Kyle Lahey. Cincinnati heads to San Diego
for the back end of that road trip on Monday.
In the National League Central today, Saint Louis Is off Pirates,

(22:13):
I'm sorry. The Brewers trail the San Francisco Giants by
a score of six to one. Pirates are in Houston tonight,
and the Chicago Cubs have a home game against these
Sacramento as Florence y'alls have a home game tonight against
Windy City. NHL Stanley Cup Final Tonight, Game two, it'll
be Vegas at Carolina with the Golden Knights holding a

(22:35):
one nothing series lead, same as the New York Knicks,
which I won't bore you to death with, but winning
Game one last night was truly awesome. And you know
I am a lifelong Bengals fan, lifelong Knicks fan. These

(22:57):
are two teams that I've rooted for that as in
a adult, I've gotten a chance to watch play for
a championship, and the parallels are there for me because
the twenty twenty one season. You know, there's a lot
of us I know who feel the same way. It
would have been awesome had they won a title. And

(23:18):
you know, them not winning the Super Bowl against the
La Rams might might be something that we spend a
lot of time talking about in future years. But just
to have them be relevant and play in the Super
Bowl and play for the right to go to the
Super Bowl, those things in themselves just felt like such

(23:38):
a reward. And I don't love, you know, gatekeeping as
a fan. I don't love shoving away folks who are
innewer to the party. Like you know, everybody, everybody's relationship
with a team with sports is unique and is different.
So I say it all the time, casual fans and
bandwagon fans are really the life blog of sports because

(24:01):
those are the fans the teams need to go get.
But for anybody who had been you know, pulled through
playoff failures and you know, even as rough as the
last couple of years have been as a Bengals fan,
I don't think anything will ever equal what it was
like to root for that franchise in the nineteen nineties.
And I know there's folks listening to me who aren't

(24:23):
old enough to have experienced the nineteen nineties, but you know,
just that team dragging us through decades of either playoff
utility or oftentimes complete and total irrelevance. To have them
play in the biggest sporting event in the United States
of America was awesome. And when I think of that
season and when I think of the run to the

(24:44):
Super Bowl, I don't think first about how the game
ended or how it felt to watch them not win.
It was rejuvenating, and the entire experience felt like a
long overdue payoff for rooting for that team for as
long as so many of us did. Being a Knicks
fan is very, very similar for those who don't follow

(25:06):
the NBA closely, Like, I get it, that's fine. This
was the most embarrassing franchise in the league for twenty years.
Like there's bad, and they were usually bad. No team
lost more games between two thousand and two and twenty eleven,
but they were often just embarrassingly bad on and off

(25:26):
the floor. And you know, I don't do the whole like, well,
I hung in there and I was a fan, Like
that is the one where it's like if they're really bad.
I wouldn't totally scrape it off the plate, but it's
like I don't live there. I live here. There's other teams.
I'm kind of just gonna maybe not pay as close attention,

(25:47):
but still like buying League Pass every year, watching from afar,
being the one guy in Cincinnati wearing a Knicks hat occasionally,
like what's happened over the last five or six weeks
has been a payoff for all of those years of
hanging in there, and it feels very much like it did,

(26:08):
you know with the Bengals in twenty twenty one, hopefully
from my perspective, with a different outcome. The series is
far from over. The Knicks are current favorites in it
because they won last night. But you know my pick
on the show yesterday, as I said, Spurs and seven.
I don't know that one game is going to make
me deviate from that, But just the joy in watching
your team play in a game like that, the nerves

(26:30):
that get worked up, I haven't had many of them.
I know people who are Ohio State football fans, you know,
for whom playing in games like that is old hat,
or you know they root for the Patriots who played
in all those Super Bowls or that sort of thing
we just hear haven't had that many of them, haven't
had the Reds in the World Series in thirty six years.
I'm dying for that to happen, Dying to see the

(26:52):
Bengals in the Super Bowl, dying to have U see
football and basketball play in championship events. Obviously, UC played
in a final four, so to speak, in college football
in twenty twenty one, and that was very similar and
unique in so many different ways that that season is
maybe my favorite of any sports season ever. Twenty twenty one,

(27:13):
U see football, But it was like years of never
believing they would play in a game like the college
football Playoff. Just the experience was so rewarding, And yeah, man,
I wish they would have played better, wish they would
have won. It didn't happen whatever, And so like I
desperately hope the Knicks win. If they do, I cannot
imagine how I'm gonna behave. I cannot imagine what it
would feel like. I've not allowed myself to really even

(27:36):
consider the possibility, even though they are three wins away,
because they're playing such a good team and have such
an uphill battle. But I just like watching last night
when the ball went in the air, It's like, it
felt like what it felt like to watch the Bengals
play in the Super Bowl. And what sports fan can't
relate to that. So it's been fun, it's just been
It's been remarkably fun, and it has been so rewarding.

(28:00):
The best part of being a fan is when loyalty
gets rewarded. And it doesn't often happen often enough for
any of us, certainly here. But I would always tell
people like you think being a Cincinnati sports fan is
rough fold into it the New York Knicks and the
last couple of years they have been relevant. They've played
in huge playoff games, some of them awesome, some of

(28:22):
them thoroughly disappointing. I don't know what's going to happen
the rest of the series, but I'll always and this
may sound hokey to you, and I'll be I'll be
told I have a loser mentality, which I don't. I
don't care. I'll always treasure watching that game last night,
Treasure watching it. Watched the first half of it with
my daughter and was just awesome. So and then it

(28:45):
was you know, they won, and I we could dive
into how they won and the x's and o's and
what do might mean for the rest of the year,
But they won the game. And it's also fun when
your team is really good. And again, like I haven't
had many of these, and you hear from people who
might not necessarily be ardent fans of the team or

(29:08):
the league, and they'll tell you like, I'm watching tonight
and I'm rooting because I know how much this means
to you. You know, That's I've tried to be the
same with so many people in my life who I
care about if my team's not playing or if it's
a you know, one of the few sports that I
don't follow closely, and you know their team is playing

(29:33):
for something, like I think it's I think it's cool
to latch on and hope they get their moment. And
so I've there's a handful of people in my life
who have just said, like, man, I'm not a huge
NBA fan, or I'm an NBA fan, but I root
for fill in the blank. But like, I know how
much fun you're having with this, and so like, I

(29:53):
hope your team finishes the deal. And that's that's one
of the cool part about being a sports fan. Man.
You know, I've enjoyed the hell out of that. So
hopefully it continues. They have a long way to go,
we will see, but last night was awesome. It is
a quarter to four ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger, We've got it.

(30:18):
Didn't meant to do this earlier this week with the Bengals.
We talk a lot about the Bengals in the environment
around them, schedule, the division, the conference as a whole.
We've got to talk about the environment for two guys
who were sort of done dirty last year. We'll do

(30:39):
that coming up in the four o'clock hour. Let's have
a discussion about a guy who I don't know has
really ever been in the crosshairs of Reds fans or
in the crosshairs of media. We'll do that coming up
in the four o'clock hour as well. And I know

(31:02):
I might be one of the only people who cares
it all about the quote effort to save college sports.
But I heard somebody who's got a voice that is
is a well highly respected voice who said something in
Washington that made me laugh out loud. We have time

(31:25):
for a phone call to go ahead, Mike, go ahead,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Mike. How are you.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Well?

Speaker 6 (31:32):
I let you know, congratulations laugh, I coach Robinson your
jacket game on. The Knicks played a good game. I
give him credit for what they did. They took advantage
of the opportunities they hit. I watched Jalen Williams rip
the Spurs this morning on Get Up. And you know

(31:52):
who Jalen Williams is, of.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Course, Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
No Jalen Williams that played for North Carolina's on ESPN
all the time and played in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
You mean you mean Jon You mean Jason Williams who
played a duke.

Speaker 6 (32:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, j okay, yeah, okay. I get these
names were cooking me. But he got up at three
o'clock in the morning and rewatched the game. He found
twenty seven glaring, defensive, absolute mistakes that the Spurs made,

(32:31):
And as I was watching it, I didn't pick up
as many as he saw because he's, you know, he's
because of his stature. But I saw a lot. I
see Burnton go down.

Speaker 7 (32:41):
There, and Lembley's standing in the freaking lane, and and
Brunson just doesn't even go out and put the hand
in the states or nothing, and Burnston just pops one
from about the free to the side of the lane
from about to free, Torolnica, what are you doing in
the game.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I thought the second I thought his the second half
one on San Antonio look fatigued.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
H I don't know what they look like. I really
put a lot on the on the coach. But anyway,
we'll see what happens with.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (33:15):
I was thinking of you.

Speaker 6 (33:16):
Most of the games would be quite frank with you
because I knew.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
How thank you it was fun. Here's here's what I
think from a strategic standpoint is is interesting about the
game last night, and I talked about this with with
Tony and Austin. So for a large chunk of the game,
it reminded me of when college basketball players would drive
into the pain against UC and see Kenyan Martin and

(33:40):
just throw up crazy stuff. Now I'm not comparing Victor
wenbin Yama to Kenyan Martin, but it was sort of
the same thing where it's like you feel like you're
gonna get a shot off, and then here comes this
seven foot five help defender and if the shot doesn't
get blocked, it's gonna have no chance of going in.
And when the Knicks tried to shoot over Wemby, they

(34:01):
were two or fourteen, so he did his job. But
as the game went on, where I thought Mike Brown,
who has been masterful all season long, made an adjustment
was number one, if Wemby is guarding a guy that
he leaves to go help somewhere else, he typically guards
the other team's worst guy, which allows him to roam

(34:22):
a little bit. New York said, fine, we'll throw it
to him. They also did a good job the Knicks
did of vacating the space that Victor wembin Yama left.
And so where I think from a chess match perspective,
the real interesting move is going to be is to
kind of see how san Antonio counters that, because as
the game went on, like all right, here comes Wemby

(34:44):
to double team to block a shot to contest, which
is what he is so good at, and he covers
so much space in so little time. But if you
move the ball quickly, you can get it to a
guy who takes the space that he vacates it. And
the Knicks were really good at.

Speaker 6 (34:59):
That last night they were and it was pissing me
on No. I mean, I don't hate them, mix, It's
not like that.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
That's all right, I don't every every every series they've
played for for four years now. You've told me how
you're rooting for the other team, so that's okay.

Speaker 6 (35:13):
Yeah. I don't look for any East Coast teams.

Speaker 7 (35:15):
Ever.

Speaker 6 (35:15):
The farthest east I go is the Bengals. That's it.
I don't care name a team from the East Coast.
I ain't rooting for him. I don't know why, my
own ignorance, but but I will tell you one thing.
Wendy has got to start. And I'm listening to these
experts like like WHN Horne and all these guys this
morning on day and they're all saying to him, Man, Wendy,

(35:36):
you got to stay down in the paint sun, especially
on defense. You have to. Yeah, so they know that.

Speaker 7 (35:44):
Why doesn't the coach know that?

Speaker 6 (35:46):
Mom?

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Well? Because no, I I think what it was is
that the strategy that we talked about yesterday, which was
the Knicks, we're going to try to pull him away
from the paint. They did. I mean, he's Karl Anthony
tan for a big guy. He's one of the best
outside shooting bigs of all time. So if you're gonna
play if you're gonna play him like you don't respect

(36:08):
his ability to shoot the three, then you're gonna stick
Wemby closer to the to the hoop. But then Cat's
gonna then Kat's gonna get wide open looks. I thought
where it was interesting last night and the inside the
NBA guys talked about this was Kat put the ball
on the deck with Wemby right in front of him
and got to the hoop. Now Wemby is gonna have
a positive imprint in this series, there's no doubt about it.

(36:29):
I thought he looked a step slow. They just played
a grueling seven game series. But I think there's the
pickure poison thing right that the Knicks have a starting
big who's great at shooting threes. So you could decide
that you're not gonna guard him with Victor Webbin Yama
and and you're gonna keep Wemby closer to the hoop

(36:50):
than a very good outside shooting big is gonna get
open looks, he's gonna kill you. Or you could choose
to pull him away from the hoop and then you're
gonna have a defense that has to adjust the way
they tried to adjust last night, which, by the way,
I think is a testament to the quality of the
next roster, Like who do you wh who do you

(37:13):
put them on to let them leave to go double team?

Speaker 6 (37:17):
Well, and the other problem was they just couldn't shoot.
The Spurs just weren't shooting the ball well all the way.
My Harper might as well just stayed home. He didn't
really do a whole lot of anything.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Well, I also I didn't. They did such a good
job of getting the ball to Champagne in the in
the corner in the first half, and I think he
shot two threes in the second half.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
Yeah, I think it was. But but anyway, you know,
I had to be a slap in the head to
the Spurs, and uh and I hope it was so
because I want these games to be close. So it's
I know you won't blowouts. I want close because I'm
not committed to eather team.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
But I do know you are you root for the Spurs.
That's okay, that's you can't root for me. You've got
you know, I root for the Dodgers when they're in
the World Series for you. And you know that's fine.
It's all well and good, Mike. You're root for the
Spurs and uh you know last night they lost by
ten points on home hope. Hopefully Game two, for your perspective,
is a is a closer game.

Speaker 6 (38:11):
Did you get the money order?

Speaker 1 (38:12):
I have not gotten. I have not gotten the money
order yet. But I got a final tally of I've
got a final tallly of how much money we raised?
You ready for this? Yes, twenty three hundred and twenty
five dollars in just three days. So I am extraordinarily
thankful to you and everybody else who contributed. I got
a run, man.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
Okay, well you got to be proud and listen, show
hey real quick. The lowest ri in baseball since nineteen thirteen,
and Tim Starts.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Is the greatest. He's the greatest player of all time.
He's the greatest player of all time. Yes, he's the
greatest player of all See that thing, Mike, Thanks very much.
We can we can break now that that's the thing
that can happen. Very good, we do the the the
I tas didn't didn't play the Tito audio him talking
about Tony sanm and that'll be fun seven away from

(39:02):
four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
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Finding great candidate to Nattie's sports station sound effects.

Speaker 6 (41:51):
Five after four.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty mo Agar, thank you for
listening today, for having a great Wednesday. Jones on Baseball
later on this hour. Nick Nick Saban. Nick Saban not
exactly known for his humor, but he made me laugh.
Made me laugh yesterday the Hall of Fame head coach
of Alabama, LSU, Michigan State, Toledo Rockets, and the Miami Dolphins,

(42:19):
although I don't think he's in the Hall of Fame
for his work with the Miami Dolphins. Made me laugh,
and I'll tell you what he did to make me
laugh a little bit later on, there's We've the Reds.
Pitching issues are interesting for a lot of different reasons.
One of them might stand out more than others, and
we'll spend a little bit of time on that later

(42:40):
on this hour. We had Paul Dayner Junior on the
show on Tuesday, and he was terrific. And it wasn't
the typical Paul Dayner Junior visit because he couldn't visit
us in person because he had to cover his Zach
Taylor press conference. So he joined us on the phone
and we talked about a few different Bengals related issues,

(43:01):
the Eric All offseason, the Eric All possibilities, a guy
that I don't know how you don't root for, and
a guy that if you remember two years ago, you
can't help but think about. You know how impactful he
was in such a short amount of time. Paul wrote
in great detail about Eric All go read that. He

(43:21):
also wrote in great detail, and this is what we
started the conversation by discussing. Talked in great detail about
the Bengals linebacker approached this offseason, which, if it works,
is gonna end up being lumped in with a whole
lot of other teams whose approach was pretty similar to

(43:42):
what the Bengals are doing this year, specifically with Barrett
Carter and Demetrius Knight, and that's you know, not go
as all in on linebacker, but get a really good
defensive line, fortify the unit up front, and that'll bring
out the most in I hate to put it this way,
whatever linebackers you have, Paul talked about it. Go listen

(44:04):
to the conversation. Go read his piece on the linebackers.
If this works, if this works, if what they're doing
at linebacker works, then I don't want to say the
sky's the limit for the defense, but to me, that's
where you unlock going from kind of hoping they're middle

(44:27):
of the pack ish to you know, now you could
be something really really interesting and maybe statistically really really good.
I've mentioned this before. I think you have to acknowledge this.
Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight struggled, and that's putting it mildly.

(44:47):
There were times watching them last year where you were
wondering if they had just been introduced to the sport
of football. They missed tackles, they were bad, and coverage
like anything you want to linebacker to do. Neither guy
did well. They did play better toward the end of
the season, but if you look at the overall body

(45:07):
of work. I cannot even remember how many segments we
did on this show or on the Tony and Mo
Football Show talking about deficient linebacker play. Is that because
they're bad players, maybe have to allow for the possibility,
like there's a chance those are just not good NFL

(45:30):
players they prove to be end up being bad draft picks.
Bad players usually get off to bad starts and then
they're never good. That's what makes them bad players, and
they typically don't have very long careers. You have to
acknowledge the possibility that just based on what you saw
last year, based on what they put on the field

(45:50):
last year, what they put on film, possibility exists. Those
guys just aren't very good. Not every draft pick who
struggles as a rookie gets better. But I think you
have to acknowledge this that they did those two guys
dirty last year. I've talked a lot in the last
week or so about the circumstances surrounding the Bengals this season,

(46:15):
the environment around them and how favorable it is. And
I don't know about you, I could speak for myself.
I'm stoked for this season because of what they've done
to the roster, who they have at quarterback, the continuity
on offense, an offensive line that has a chance to
be pretty decent, Big Brian Cook, guy like boy A

(46:35):
Mafe all in on what they're doing with Dexter Lawrence
Jonathan Allen potentially sneaky good acquisition, Kyle Duggart, perhaps sneaky
good acquisition, and it feels like they have a head
a productive draft. But then you add to it AFC
North new coaches, soft ish schedule relative to the rest

(46:56):
of the league, which Seth Walder talked about with us yesterday. Seth,
for me, the schedule itself, no major competitive disadvantages, the
open nature of the AFC like bullish, bullish on them.
I think we all are. I think we're all pretty optimistic.
But they did those two guys dirty last year. Two

(47:20):
rookies thrown to the wolves, I mean thrown to the wolves,
set up to fail. Did they play well?

Speaker 5 (47:31):
No?

Speaker 1 (47:33):
And so I think one of the most interesting storylines
really around the entire league is is this approach going
to work? Do those two players naturally improve because of
a combination of lessons learned by the accumulation of experience
last year, combined with a better environment around him. The

(47:55):
environment around the Bengals as a whole pretty favorable. The
environment around Barrett Carter and Demetrious Knight certainly seems like
it's better than it was a year ago. And I
don't care really who you are. It's hard as a rookie.
There's a lot to adjust to. Danner mentioned in his

(48:16):
piece that, like, you know, those guys talked about in
college not ever seeing a quarterback play under center, not
ever seeing a fullback, Like it's a different game. It's
one thing if you're one of those guys and the
player playing opposite you is a five or six year veteran,
The player playing opposite a rookie. Last year, most of

(48:37):
the time was a rookie. There was a time when
Logan Wilson was here and ye Orn Berks was on
the team. But I think how many snaps Barret Carter
and Demetrius Knight played with each other on the field,
and I'm sure looking at each other like, man, I
don't have the answers, But I'm not sure that guy
has the answers either, because he's a rookie. Add to
it all of the other dysfunctional pieces on the Bengals defense.

(48:58):
They didn't have Trey Hendrickson for much of the season.
The defensive line as a whole was bad. The secondary
last year, specifically at safety, was atrocious. Like environments matter,
circumstances matter, you got to set people up to succeed,
and you can set people up to fail. Those two
guys were set up to fail last year. One of

(49:21):
the most interesting storylines in this entire league is does
the Bengals linebacker play improve, in large part because the
team has created a better environment around them with the
guys they've added to the defensive line with to a
large degree, the additions and changes they've made at safety.

(49:42):
Add that plus a normal NFL offseason, like your first
real offseason as an NFL player, coaching, comfort with the system,
a lot of different things. If it works well, then
the people and coaching and front office capacities for the
Bengals are going to get a lot of credit. A

(50:05):
decent chances defense really really really takes off. If not,
it blows up. And what limits this defense is the
unwillingness or inability to address a position that last year
was completely and totally terrible. There's just, frankly, very few
other ways to put it. But you have to acknowledge this, man.
I mean, like and by the way, Barrett Carter and

(50:27):
Demetris and Barrett Carter's kind of talked about this a
little bit. Both dudes have taken head on some of
the criticism they've gotten. They get it. They watched the film.
They know how bad they were last year. They know
how many tackles they missed, they know how many mistakes
they made, They know how bad they were in coverage.
Like it's it's not a mystery to them, but they

(50:49):
were not set up for success by any stretch of
the imagination, and the environment around them was really, really,
really bad. How much better is it the year If
it's that much better and those guys could use the
accumulation of experience to their benefit in year two, then

(51:11):
maybe this can take off. Now, where my skepticism comes
from is we're not talking about one player, Like, it's
not like, well, Barrett Carter struggled as rookie, it's two
guys struggled as rookies. I do this sometimes where I
talk about the difference between each and every Can each

(51:33):
guy get better? Yes? Can every guy get better? I
think there's a difference, right, Like each of those things
can happen, well, all of them. Maybe Barrett Carter's better
and Demetrious Night isn't well, okay, then what's the failsafe
if one isn't very good? And I'm sort of overly
simplifying it here, And I also do think and like
acquiring a veteran this offseason was to me at least

(51:55):
as much about finding better linebackers as it was is
not giving up on the two guys you had last
year and giving them someone they could attach themselves to.
I've talked to a lot of people who've agreed with me,
and like, all right, Bobby Wagner might not have had
a lot left in the tank, although the way he
played last year would suggest that even at the age

(52:15):
of thirty seven, he does. But what better guy to
just tell Demitrius Knight and Barreck Carter to stick to,
to attach themselves to, to work with, to spend time
with away from football, like what better guy? And so
you know, to me, the conversations have been as much
about like the tangible on field impact of somebody they

(52:35):
would have acquired from outside, as much as it's been
about giving those dudes a mentor. But in the absence
of that, creating a better environment around him. And you're
not making excuses for Demetrius Knight or Dmitri or for
a Barck Carter and Demetrius Knight when you mentioned this,
But like those dudes from an environment perspective, were set
up to fail and they did. Are they better set

(52:59):
up for success they year? And will they succeed? It
is maybe the biggest storyline on this team this year,
quite frankly, and it's one of the more interesting ones
around the National Football League. Sixteen after four. You know
who we never talk about on this show, I'll tell

(53:20):
you in four minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Helped to see the Savannah Bananas at GABP in a suite,
then join me at Oakley Greens on Saturday from noon
to two for World Cup for Dummies. World Cup for
Dummies is a World Cup event. I love the World Cup. Now,
I will admit to this. I'm not a hardcore soccer fan.

(53:50):
I like f C Cincinnati, I route for f C Cincinnati.
I pay attention to Major League Soccer as a league
to the extent that I need to. But I love
the World Cup. I think the reason I love the
World Cup is, you know, we in many international competitions
that the United States is involved in, we're expected to win.

(54:13):
Obviously not all of them, but like I love hoops,
love basketball, men's and women's basketball. In the Olympics, we win,
we kind of feel like we're supposed to, and so
the celebrations are muted. Now on the men's side, in particular,
we have been tested in recent international competitions because the
rest of the world has caught up. But it's different

(54:34):
when your favorite hockey was fun men's hockey, I think
in particular, because it felt like the underdog won, and
in soccer, we're not a powerhouse, and so there's an
underdog element to it. And I remember talking about this
the first time I got into the World Cup. Was
twenty fourteen, and just happened to go downtown to Fountain

(54:54):
Square with friends of mine to go watch a match,
and I'm like, dude, this is it. This is awesome.
So I love the World Cup. And we're going to
be hanging out on Saturday getting set for the World
Cup at Oakley Greens, talking soccer. If you're a hardcore
soccer fan, it's going to be a blast. And if
you're very very casual like me, well maybe learn some
stuff about the World Cup. We've got special guests, we've

(55:16):
got prizes. It's going to be a really good time
Oakley Greens. If you haven't been Oakley Greens, I don't
know what you're waiting for. And we've got among the
prizes sweet tickets. Want to be a fancy person in
a suite at the Savannah Bananas on June nineteenth, right
after the US plays a game in the World Cup,
then come on out Saturday, Oakley Greens noon to two.

(55:37):
We hope to see you there. Twenty three minutes after
four o'clock, Audi and Tony talked about this, and I
think fairly so. As a baseball fan, I've always felt
like one of the lazier things we can do is
when a team is struggling offensively, we blame the hitting coach. Now,

(55:57):
teams like the Reds they have like different hitting coaches,
so it's it's a little bit more difficult to blame
the hitting coach. But this has been that for years.
This was one of my favorite tropes. Well, must be
the hitting coach's fault. It's like, maybe they just don't
have good hitters. Maybe it's a roster composition fault. Maybe
it's a player acquisition problem, that sort of thing. I

(56:21):
kind of shy away from that, but I can't help
but wonder this. Right, So, the Reds bullpen issues, as
stark as they are, what they've had to do, I
think has uncovered a little bit of a lack of
development among the relief corps. And Derek Johnson. Derek Johnson

(56:43):
is a really interesting guy to listen to and an
interesting guy to talk to. He is the Reds pitching coach.
He is also the Reds Director of pitching. That's like
his job title. He's the pitching coach and director of pitching.
I almost said director of pitching development. I'm not going
to tell you that Derek Johnson is a great pitching

(57:04):
coach or a bad pitching coach. I know what his
reputation in the game is. His reputation is he's a
very good pitching coach. I'll never forget when the Reds
hired him. He had been with the Milwaukee Brewers. Jeff
Brantley put on social media like, dude, great hire and
I remember, you know, him getting Sonny Gray. And you know,
Sonny Gray with New York was not very good. He

(57:24):
came back. He obviously had a relationship with Derek Johnson
that went back to his time in college at Vanderbilt,
and Sonny Gray turned things around in Cincinnati. And I
remember listening to Sonny Gray credit Derek Johnson for his turnaround.
And so he's got this great reputation as a pitching coach,

(57:47):
but given the fact that his job title has him
overseeing pitching, and that's like pitching everywhere in the organization,
and there is this gas, so to speak, between like
the dudes like Chase Burns first round pick, Hunter Green,

(58:08):
first round pick, Nick Lidolo, first round pick, Ret Louder
first round pick, and then the lack of pitching development
in the organization which has contributed to the bullpen issues
may be contributed to the lack of pitching depth issues.
I'm not gonna be disingenuous and tell you that I

(58:29):
think it's time to bring out the pitchforks and yell
and scream and told Derek Johnson is fired. I can
do this, though I can wonder if he really should
be serving in both roles. Like we talked about Zach
Taylor sometimes play calling. I don't dive into play calling
nearly as much either, because I don't think most of
us know what goes in the calling and NFL play.

(58:52):
So whenever I talk about Zach Taylor and play calling
and the role of the offensive coordinator, for me, it's
about the overall function of the offense. And as good
as the Bengals offense is, as good as the Bengals
offensive players are, I think you would admit it, like,
over the last number of years, there have been these
long offensive lulls. And I'm not talking about when Joe
Burrow's not healthy, but there have been these offensive lulls that,

(59:15):
for me at least make me wonder like, is there
just a better, more efficient way of doing things? Would
it make sense to just have Zach Taylor manage the
game and have somebody else call the plays. The game
plan and the playbook is basically going to be the same.
I make it about like the most efficient and highly

(59:35):
functional way of making the offense work, the most effective way.
I wonder and man, I don't know here, but as
long as you're having these issues in pitching development or
bringing guys in and hoping that Derek Johnson can make
them better, is it really the most efficient and effective

(59:57):
usage of what he does well to have him be
the pitching coach and the director of pitching. When the
Reds named him director of pitching, he came on this
show and he talked about, you know, the different hats
he would be wearing in the organization, and the pitching
coach like a hitting coach is maybe gonna set the
tone for the organization in terms of how they teach pitching,

(01:00:17):
how they teach hitting, etc. But like what where the
Reds pitching is for the most part, really really good,
like Derek Johnson. Derek Johnson from a starting pitching perspective,
has been handed since he took the job as pitching coach,
He's been handed. Trevor Bauer, Luis Castillo, He's been handed,
Tyler Malley, handed Sonny Gray recently, obviously, Hunter Green, rhtt Louder,

(01:00:42):
Chase Burns, Nicoladola like a lot of arms that a
lot of pitching coaches would like to work with. And
I'm sure each one of those guys have benefited from
his tutelage. But to me, it's like what you do
with what you do with other guys who maybe don't
bring with them as much acclaim aren't first rounders, weren't

(01:01:05):
acquired by giving up a lot from other organizations. Who's
really gotten better? And why is pitching development such an
issue right now? And again maybe not starting pitching as much,
but relief pitching. You know, we've seen this over the
last few weeks, this constant churn of guys. Injuries are

(01:01:25):
a reason why. But like we've seen this constant churn
of possible solutions from Louisville, and it has felt like
that covered as bare. Is that on Derek Johnson? I'm
not qualified to say that it is or it isn't.
How do you not wonder that? And then how do
you not look at his job title and what he

(01:01:46):
does and wonder if maybe there's a more effective way
to develop pitching in this organization. Twenty nine minutes after
four o'clock five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty
is our phone number. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball is
twenty minutes away. Sports headlines like five minutes away on

(01:02:07):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center a service of
Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit
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dot Com. No game for the Reds. They're off, but
they made a move today. They have traded Wrighty Kyle Nicholas.

(01:02:34):
What was your favorite Kyle Nicholas moment? Traded to the
Baltimore Orioles in exchange for cash considerations, cash considerations. Coming
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(01:02:55):
the start of a six game road trip for Cincinnati,
Brady Singer will pitch against Kyle l There are National
League Central teams in action today and tonight. Milwaukee Brewers
are getting pasted by the Giants in Milwaukee eleven to three,
the score of their so Cincinnati could if this score
holds game a half game on Milwaukee. The Reds are

(01:03:17):
seven games at a first place. Later on tonight, it's
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Cardinals are off. The Florence Yawls are not off tonight.
They're hosting Windy City. NHL Stanley Cup Final continues tonight.
Game two Carolina hosting Las Vegas, with the Golden Knights

(01:03:40):
holding a one nothing series lead. You are up to date.
I laugh at this. I laugh at the attempts to
quote save college sports. Now, should there be rules in guardrails? Yes,
And without diving too deep into the weeds of politics here,

(01:04:03):
some of the stuff proposed by some bipartisan members of
Congress makes sense. There should be eligibility limitations, five years
of eligibility. You know, I'm as I'm as in favor
of player empowerment as anybody. But all right, let's let's

(01:04:24):
let's have some rules about the number of times that
a student athlete can transfer, with some exceptions based on
a coach leaving that sort of thing. And so let's
not have you know, athletes playing in four schools in
four years. And so, okay, we limit the amount of
penalty free transfers to one fine, and you want to

(01:04:46):
ensure that athletes don't go play in the pros and
then come back and play in college. No issue with
that whatso, Like, there's some good common sense stuff. But
I hear and read all the time about well, we
got to save college sports. And I've asked this question here,
I've asked this question on other platforms, and I've never
really got an answer, Like, who are we saving it from?

(01:05:06):
Who are we saving college sports from? Everybody seems to
be making money. Stadiums are full, the arenas are full,
TV ratings are good. Jobs have been created because of
the way college sports work now, Like we have general
managers and personnel evaluators, and at the big schools we

(01:05:27):
have more of those positions maybe than at some of
the smaller ones. But I don't know who we're saving
college sports from. And so I ask that, and I
ask it somewhat rhetorically, but not entirely rhetorically. So anyway,
this bill has been proposed many believe it doesn't have
a very good chance of ultimately becoming law. But there

(01:05:51):
was And I didn't watch this or follow it too
closely because I have a life, but there was a
Senate hearing about college sports, group of witnesses warning that

(01:06:12):
the current system is unsustainable without federal legislation. And it's
hilarious to me that the nc DOUBLA needs government intervention
to be able to enforce its own rules and really
craft its own rules. But that's okay. But anyway, and
I'll just read it here because it's not very long.
Nick Saban with a stark warning about the devastating trajectory

(01:06:34):
of college sports under current NIL rules. He said, quote,
it's becoming an arms race. Who spends the most has
got the best chance to win. It wasn't that way
ten years ago. Like that's what I'm amused by, because

(01:06:55):
it's interesting, nobody is really that interested in quote saving
college sports when we were having you know, just unending
conference realignment and traditional rivalries were being broken up, and
nobody was that interested in saving college sports. And then
the players started getting their piece of the pie, and
suddenly we've got to save college sports. Nick Saban's obviously

(01:07:16):
an icon in college football, arguably the greatest coach of
all time. I would imagine, and there's ways to look
at this, look this up. I would imagine when he
was at Alabama that his recruiting budget was higher than
the recruiting budget at the University of Kentucky. And I

(01:07:37):
would imagine that his recruiting budget and budget for facilities
and staff higher than guessing, most of the schools in
the SEC, maybe most of the schools in the country.
When you See played Alabama in the Cotton Bowl in
the College Football playoff, Alabama won that game. Alabama, you know,

(01:07:59):
I would stop sort of saying they dominated, you see,
but I'm not sure the game was ever really in doubt.
But you know what I remember most about being at
that game was looking at Alabama's sideline and the number
of people on it wearing coaches attire, the number of analysts,

(01:08:20):
staff members, folks assisting in college in football. And you know,
you See had those guys, but there was a very
very striking difference between what you see had on the
sidelines and what Alabama had on the sidelines. And that's fine, whatever,
That's just how it works. Because they had the ability

(01:08:45):
to hire more people. It might be fair to wonder
what some of those people did, but on some level,
they each had a function, they each had a purpose.
I would imagine there has never been anything that Nick
Saban or frankly his successor at Alabama, has gotten from
a facilities perspective, from a travel perspective, and so like, yeah, man,

(01:09:07):
it's it's always been an arms race. It has always
been an arms race. And I think most of us
have been okay with that. Whenever we've joked about this
on this show, whenever there have been conversations about like
a pro sports salary cap, I go, cool, Let's let's
make college sports. Let's do the same thing here. Let's
have Ohio State spend the same money on recruiting that
U SEE does and that Bowling Green does, and the

(01:09:27):
Kent State does and Miami does. Like then then then
let's see, let's see if we really want to truly
level playing field, let's do that. Nobody's interested in that.
I'm not interested in that. You're not either. But I
find it hilarious that here you have a guy whose
legendary career included stops at places that would spend an

(01:09:49):
unending amount of money on everything but the players. And
by the way, it's interesting, ever since you could spend
money on the players, suddenly the SEC's dominance over college
football hasn't quite been the same. It's always been an
arms race. And I guess what I would ask Nick
Saban is like, Okay, well, you know, was was anybody

(01:10:11):
trying to save college sports when you might have argued
that spending on staffs and travel and recruiting and facilities
was maybe getting a little bit out of hand. There
were no congressional hearings to save college football when that
was happening. And who are we trying to save college
football from? And I have folks who work in college

(01:10:32):
athletics who get mad at me when I say this.
I go, dude, like ratings are good, stadiums are full,
everybody's making money. Coaches salaries are only going up. That's
not just head coaches either, Like who's jobs have been created?
Who are we trying to save it from? But where
you miss me is if you know you want to say, like,
there's got to be guardrails, there's gotta be rules, there's
there's gonna be some semblance of order, like yes of

(01:10:54):
course there has to be. If Brendan Soresby ends up
being declared eligible to play college football, then as far
as I'm concerned, just blow up the NCAA rulebook because
this one's very clear cut. If they can't enforce this one,
if they don't have the power to enforce this one,
then what are we doing? So let's have some rules.
But miss me with this. Oh, it's turning into an

(01:11:14):
arms race. When has in college sports, specifically football, when
hasn't it been an arms race? Speaking of arms, Reds
could use some. Last night was really really bad for
a few different reasons that we'll get to coming up
at five oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
The UC Health Traffic site to ask. He asked the question,
don't get mad at me, don't get mad at Arran
for playing the song? He asked, what's going on in
the NBA of the finals? That's like it right now
and my team's in it and lead the series one
game to none, which I guess you couldn't watch it

(01:12:03):
if you have Direct TV. Direct TV and the company
that owns Channel nine are in a carriage dispute. I
don't know if there's anything, and I don't have direct TV,
so no problem watching the game. Last night. There's a
buddy of mine who texted me. He's like the only
other Knicks fan in town and texted me shortly after

(01:12:24):
tip off and he's like, I don't get Channel nine,
and I'm like, you only get channel nine. It's like, yay,
I'll get channel nine because I have direct TV direct TV.
He doesn't have Channel nine. He's like, no, they're in
a fight, a pissing match with scripts that owns Channel nine.
And so he somehow got like a bootleg firestick or
something and was able to watch the game. But that

(01:12:46):
was problematic, I guess for bar owners who have and
I'm sure you know folks weren't flooding into bars to
watch the NBA Finals last night, but still like to
be able to carry the game in case someone shows up.
So I'm not able to join them tomorrow. But the
growing group Knicks fans of Greater Cincinnati, which is up

(01:13:07):
to twenty seven people, they are having a watch party
for everybody in the group, and I'm not able to
go because of a little bit of a family commitment
in the early evening. But hopefully the venue that they
have chosen is able to broadcast Channel nine. I mean,

(01:13:27):
we don't do rabbit ears anymore. I don't know, so
hopefully wherever they go there. But because you're not gonna
want a bunch of angry Knicks fans, even if there's
only like a dozen of them showing up to your
place to specifically watch the game, and they can't because
of whatever's happening between DirecTV and the company that owns
Channel nine. Fortunately for me, I stop becoming a Direct

(01:13:51):
TV customer the moment they lost NFL Sunday tickets. So
not my problem. But if you didn't get a chance
to see the game last night, you missed a stove
performance in the final let's say eighteen minutes by Jalen
Bruns and Josh Hart and friend of the show Deuce
McBride and the New York Knicks, who are up one game,
that not after a ten point victory. I said yesterday

(01:14:15):
I think the series can go seven games. I still
cling to that. You know, I think this series New
York is up one. I think it's a pick them.
I thought coming into yesterday it was close to a
pick them. The prevailing sentiment, and understandably so has been
to pick the Spurs. They have been favored. But I

(01:14:37):
don't know, Vegas hasn't looked at it as quite as
clear cut as the public has. And I did this
you know segment yesterday, but put it on social media
as well. Like the the the Knicks odds to win
the series coming into it are the shortest or the
seventh shortest this century. So only six underdogs have had

(01:14:59):
short odds. Just to give you an illustration last year
at the Pacers, which forced a Game seven. The unfortunately
Tyrese Haliburton got hurt, but their pre series odds were
plus five hundred. New York was plus one sixty. It
is almost a pick em in most Vegas sports books
right now, and you could certainly understand why I still

(01:15:23):
think it's going seven. I still think if I had
to be objective and pick one, I picked San Antonio.
But as a Knicks fan, I feel a lot better
today than I did twenty four hours ago. So there
you go. The dude asked what's going on in the NBA?
If had he asked about the NHL. We talked about
our guy Torts looking to take a two games to
none series lead in the Stanley Cup Final tonight against Carolina,

(01:15:44):
but he didn't, So I had to talk about what's
happening in the NBA and my team's in the finals
and winning. I don't know if my team's going to
be in the World Series because it's bullpen is a
wreck and last night last night, Terry Francona, it would
be maybe a little bit irresponsible to say that he

(01:16:05):
had to do what he did in the ninth inning
last night, but I'm not blaming him for it. I
don't think you should blame him for it either. We've
got to spend some time on the ninth inning of
the ball game last night, the missed opportunity, not winning
a game, where Chase Berns starts, and where things go
from here because it ain't early anymore. That coming up
after Brendvan and Jones on Baseball, which is next on

(01:16:28):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Buddy, ESPN fifteenth thirty, Try Cincinnati Sports.
One would say we are the king of Bengals coverage.
What's up, muleg or ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening.
Hopefully I'm having like a great Thursday. It feels like
a Friday here man. And by the way, I'm just

(01:16:48):
telling you, a load management season ain't that far away.
We're going to talk with a history making UC athlete
coming up in thirty minutes. I have not come up
with a poll question yet. I've been busy here. We've
been mostly focused on the Reds, little Bengals here and there.

(01:17:08):
Last night's game was hard, hard for a few different reasons.
Like you know, you can overemphasize sometimes a game played
in early June, but you know, like, let's face it, dude,
this team is hovering around five hundred. They're trying to
stay above water. They're in an extraordinarily competitive division. They

(01:17:29):
have struggled to beat division teams. They have three games
this weekend against a divisional opponent. They go to San
Diego next week and play a team that is really
scuffling right now, but is a quality club. You have
the Kansas City Royals in your building. Kansas City Royals,
even after taking two out of three, have the second
worst record of the National League. They came here having

(01:17:50):
lost six consecutive games. Now, it's one thing when you
have to throw in a pseudo emergency role Lion Richardson
Adam like, that's okay, fine that game and many have
said this, that game felt like it was lost before
it actually even began. Those things happened, and the Reds
got creamed and whatever. They had a guy who's no

(01:18:14):
longer with the team come on and just eat up
night at nine innings, and Brandon Lee Brandt was a
trooper and hopefully the Reds gave him something nice before
they kicked into the curb. It's one thing to lose
that game. You gotta win the games when you're playing
against the Kansas City Royals when your staff a starts.
And maybe maybe Chase Burns wasn't like awesome last night.

(01:18:37):
Maybe he wasn't completely and totally at the top of
his game, but the staff ace did what the staff
face is supposed to do. Gave you a chance to
win six innings, struck out nine. He gave up the homer,
but beyond that was fine. Chase Burns is the staff face.
He has been terrific. You gotta win the games against
bad teams when your staff a starts. Maybe that's not

(01:19:00):
as important. If you are fifteen games over five hundred,
maybe that doesn't matter at all. If your fifteen games
under five hundred. When you are where the Reds are,
Chase Burns pitches pitches well, pitches against a bad team,
you gotta win that game. Why didn't the Reds win
that game? Well, they scored two runs, which is often

(01:19:21):
not going to be good enough. Blake Dunn hit the
two run homer, But Blake Donn has done a really
nice job since being called up and has had a
positive impact on this team. Two runs, but it's a
two to two ball game going into the ninth inning,
anyone's game. Reds obviously get last licks. Playing at home
they won the night before with the magic runner rule.

(01:19:42):
In the tenth inning two two ball game, your staff
ace has put you in a position to win. Blake done,
for what it's worth, has helped put you in a
position to win the ball game because he hit the
two run homer and the manager had to turn to
Tony Santin. I can't crush Tito for doing that. I

(01:20:02):
am a big believer that if you give a manager
or a coach a player, he or she is gonna
use that player. Like there's not enough low leverage situations
in baseball for you to go You know what, this
guy's never gonna pitch when it matters. And by the way,
Tony Santien last year had a really good season, workhorse reliever,

(01:20:25):
pitched in eighty games, was a very good part of
that eighth and ninth inning combo Santia and Pegan and
you know it might not have been the Nasty Boys
two point zero, but still pretty good. He did a
good job for him last year. But here's what Tito
did last night. He put a guy in the game,

(01:20:47):
two to two ball game, top of the ninth inning, who,
over the course of his last twelve innings pitched, coming
into last night, had given up eight home runs over
his last fourteen games, twelve innings, eight homers. I don't
need any other metric, Like I'll throw e rah if

(01:21:09):
you want ten point five zero and you can tell
God mo era And that's the most advanced metric. Okay, cool,
how about this fourteen games, twelve innings, eight dingers, Like, well,
do we need I say anything more? Do we have
to go deeper into the dude's fangrass page or his
baseball reference page. That's where things are right now. That
in a two to two game, that was the dude

(01:21:30):
that was the guy. Obviously not the first guy out
of the bull pen. Ferguson pitched, Antone pitched on came
Tony Santien. Tony Sentien is a nice dude, had a
good year last year. Maybe there's a way to get
him fixed. I don't know what it is. He feels
like they walk a tight rope with him every time
he's out there, and it felt that way early in

(01:21:50):
the season, even when he was getting hitters out because
his velocity was down. That's where things are now. Now
you might go cool that, here's what you do. Get
rid of Tony Santia. Okay, what else you got? What
else you got? That's not a question for Terry Francona.

(01:22:12):
It's a question for Nick Crawler. It's a question for
anybody who looks at Tony Santia and says, gotta be
somebody better than him? Who Who you got? Who you got? Look, man,
there's lots of things that we could talk about with
this team that need to get better. Offensively. Man, there's

(01:22:36):
there's just not enough guys having good seasons, and the
best player they have is currently on the injured list,
and it's gonna be a little while before he's back,
and like the Blake Done story is neat and it's cute.
Nobody's gonna be the stunned if he falls flat on
his face, but maybe he doesn't. And JJ Bleday has
been a revelation, might make the All Star team, has
proven to be a nice pickup. NATHANIELO has been a

(01:22:57):
nice pickup. Sal Stewart's gonna be a very good player
even if he is really, really, really having a hard
time right now. But none of it matters, frankly, none
of it matters if the bullpen stinks, and for a
whole time now the bullpen is stunk. I can make

(01:23:18):
that observation, and you can make that observation. What is
much more difficult to do, though, is to come up
with a solution, because I don't know what's out there
that that provides one. Either in terms of player. They
could add from the system, the farm system. What do
you got? Like they've they've done this churn of Franco

(01:23:41):
and May and you know, we'll lee Brand and they
brought Lyon Richardson back for a game. What do you got?
Zach mccambley pitched in the game last night, mopped up
for Tony Santien What what what do you got waiting
in the wings down there? There's also dudes who are

(01:24:03):
already hurt Ashcraft for a while. We'll see when Pegank
comes back, hopefully Pierce Johnson here soon. Trade deadline. If
you're thinking, well trade, hey, they'll get some arms at
the trade deadline. Show me a team in contention, and
I'll show you a team that would like some bullpen help.
Who knows if there's going to be more buyers than sellers,

(01:24:26):
don't know, So like I get called, well, you're being
pessimistic and being realistic. Man, they're a game over five hundred.
They have kind of kicked away their twenty and eleven start.
They spun their tires for a while. The bullpen, which

(01:24:48):
was such a really good strength of this team for
the first couple of weeks of the season, has been
a major weakness. And you could have said that a
week and a half ago before Graham Ashcraft and Pierce
Johnson went on the injured list. Does this get better?

Speaker 5 (01:25:02):
Like that?

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
That's the part of the team right now that I
think should be in everybody's crosshairs, that unit, because the
other stuff, Look, man, some other guys might hit more.
It's not gonna be a team that scores a bazillion runs.
Their starters probably aren't gonna give them the most length
in the sport. They're gonna need almost every single night
at least nine outs from that group of guys in

(01:25:23):
the bullpen, sometimes more, maybe sometimes less. How how is
this gonna work with this unit as currently constructed, with
the injuries they have, with the lack of performance that
they've had to enjoy, so to speak, how does this
get better? And like not in August now now while

(01:25:48):
you're trying to keep your head above water, I'm gonna
bet you don't have an answer, which is cool because
I don't. I think the bigger problem is doesn't feel
like Nick Crawl has an ad and this isn't necessarily
a reflection of him doing poor work. I don't recall
anybody complaining about what Nick Crawl did to the bullpen
this offseason, like there was they prioritized it, like there

(01:26:12):
was an effort to go get relief pitchers. Which is
why Caleb Ferguson is here, which is why brock Burke
is here. Brock Burke has been a workhorse for this team,
which is you know why Pierce Johnson is here and
like a lot of us thought, Connor Phillips is going
to be able to help this team this year. That

(01:26:32):
obviously didn't work out. I mean, there's there's been lack
of performance, there's been injury, that's been pretty much everything.
I don't know how much I go, Well, God, Nick
Krawl screwed up the bullpen. You could say he shouldn't
have traded for a third baseman who can't hit. He
should have gone and got some legitimate bats in the outfield.
All that's very valid. But what he's done with the

(01:26:52):
bullpen I don't recall anybody having a huge issue with.
But you could say that and also go, like Nick,
I'm not sure how you or Tito or Derek Johnson
or Brad Mehter or anybody else can fix what ails
this team, which right now is a collection of relievers
that you cannot count on. And I'm talking about that

(01:27:14):
unit as a whole. Samull's had a nice season. Caleb
Ferguson may end up being a solid pickup, but you
have a guy back there and Tony Santin think it's
really frustrating when a guy like that pitches the way
he did, and you're not surprised. In fact, I said
to my wife watching the game last night, attention divided
between the Reds and the NBA game. When Santien gave

(01:27:38):
up the first run, I said, two run homer is coming,
because that's how it works. So like, yeah, man, I'm
identifying an issue and I'm not really offering a solution
because I don't know what one is. But unless one
is found, Ellie's return, whatever else happened, none of it matters.

(01:28:00):
There's none of it matters. The team is trying to
dig out from too big of a hole. The margin
for error is too small, the starting pitching is still
very spotty, and the offense has a low ceiling. It
needs the bullpen to be really, really good. And when
it was really good early in the season, they built
up a nine game cushion above five hundred. I think

(01:28:20):
one of the reasons why a lot of us thought
this team could be decent this year, even better than decent,
was Tito's got some options in the back end of games.

Speaker 5 (01:28:28):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:28:29):
Last night, one of his options was a guy who's
RA over his last fourteen appearances is ten to fifty.
His RA over his last fourteen games is a radio
station frequency not great, not great last night, not great,
moving forward, and really not great if you feel like

(01:28:52):
there's a lack of alternatives for that group. Seventeen minutes
after five o'clock, How's it get better? Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty at Moulagar on Twitter thanks to Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy and smart and vibrant communities
for all. Go to Delta Dental, Oh dot com. We're uh,

(01:29:15):
we're in that the time of summer where the people
who cover the Reds start to write about the trade deadline,
and you know, Nick Crawls quote was, well, we we
got to keep our head above water. It is striking
how many things have changed for the Reds over the
last three years yet remained the same. We'll spend time
on that next.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center from a little
bit less than two and a half weeks away from
the Bananas Savannah Bananas come in to town. Want to
win tickets, Want to win tickets in a sweet, sweet life.
Rob elbows with the members of high society in this town.

(01:30:00):
Well cool, Then come to Oakley Greens on Saturday for
World Cup for Dummies, and we're gonna have a blast
talk in soccer. World Cup gets you a primer for it.
If you're a hardcore soccer fan, you'll love it. If
you're casual, you'll love it. If you just like the
United States of America, you'll like it too. And we've
got a ton of other prizes as well. But I

(01:30:21):
think that the kooti gras so to speak, by the way,
first time I've ever used that phrase on this show.
Will be a couple of tickets, sweet tickets to go
see the Savannah Bananas That is on the nineteenth, two
weeks from tomorrow. So join us this Saturday, Oakley Greens
noon to two. Should be awesome. We hope to see
you there. Twenty four minutes after five o'clock. We joked

(01:30:45):
about this yesterday that with Nick Crawl talking about needing
the Reds to simply keep their heads above water, it
feels like this is what we always do. It is
striking to me think if you're a Reds fan, probably
striking to you. June fourth, twenty twenty three, was right

(01:31:07):
before the Reds called up Andrew Abbott, Right before the
Reds called up Elie Dela Cruz, Matt McClain was already here.
It was right before the Reds kind of jumped into
the thick of the twenty twenty three n L Central Race.
They didn't just jump into the thick of it, by
the way. They led the division on the day the

(01:31:28):
trade deadline, and then of course they did nothing. But
that week, that time period kind of felt like it
could have been a turning point in the evolution of
what the Reds are trying to do. Right this is
when they go from a team that is almost perpetually rebuilding,

(01:31:50):
that bottomed out with one hundred losses the year before.
This is when they start to climb to contention. This
is when things turn. Since June fourth, twenty twenty six,
the Reds have played four hundred and eighty eight games.
They're winning percentages five zero six. There are six games

(01:32:15):
over five hundred, two forty seven and two forty one.
I mean, to a degree, there been changes. I mean,
they've they've added players from outside, They've added players who
are with the team right now. In the draft. They've
had some guys they called up become established players. Some
other guys they called up didn't really pan out, they

(01:32:36):
have a new manager, two forty seven and two forty one,
one game over five hundred today, admitting that there's lots
of time between now and the end of the season,
but also acknowledging like this team's got flaws, and so
I talk about like the fact that it feels like
we're always doing this, We're always hearing about having to

(01:32:58):
keep keep their head above water, stay hang tight, just
give it, give it if you we just got to
get through the next few weeks and then we can
we can kind of take off, like we're it feels
like we're constantly hearing about how like if they can
just get to this date, just get to this point
in the schedule, just get to this moment, just get
to this juncture that then then they're gonna be good.

(01:33:18):
Then they're gonna take off. And quite frankly, they never
really do. I mean, like, as much as you may
want to romanticize over a team that last year won
eighty three games, their longest winning streak was five. Read
this from a redleg nation dot com earlier today, where

(01:33:38):
you know there was a piece done about how the
Reds could go either way to trade deadline by the way.
No shortage this week here in Cincinnati of pieces about
how the Rets could go either way. Excuse me either
way at the trade deadline, reading this piece from Red
leg Nation last year that says Hunter Green is about
to go on a rehab assignment, already spent more than
six weeks on the injured list, Chase Brown J. Burns

(01:34:00):
isn't likely to be able to stay in the rotation
all season due to an innings limit. And then there's
this whole thing where it seems like every pitcher is
a pitch away from winding up on the injured list.
The Reds could certainly use an outfielder who can hit.
They could probably use a quality bullpen armor three. Cincinnati
is a flawed team. They have a handful of impactful parts,

(01:34:20):
but they've got more than a handful of parts that
could use a serious upgrade. Like the theme is the
same as a year ago. Two years ago. Brad Metterer,
in a piece in The Inquirer told Gordon Wentmeyer, we
have to wait and see how we finish off this
road trip in this homestand and then we'll see again
something else They just got to get through. It feels

(01:34:41):
like the themes are the same because it feels like
the seasons are the same, and it feels like the
teams are the same. And it might be a little
unfair to say the seasons are the same because they
did qualify for the playoffs last year. But if I
would have said to you during that stretch of time
in early June twenty twenty three, when it felt like
the fortunes of the franchise were turning for the better,

(01:35:03):
if I would have said to you that over the
next nearly five hundred games, they will barely win more
than fifty percent of them. Slightly more than fifty percent
of them will still be doing the thing where we
try to figure out what they are at the deadline.
They still will not have advanced in the postseason. You

(01:35:25):
would have said, there's no way, and yet that's here
we are. We'll talk with a record breaking U see athlete.

Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
From the UC Health Traffic Center at the time.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
It's US twenty eight from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Moegger,
Thank you so much for listening. The NCAA Track Championships
are next week and the University of Cincinnati is sending
five athletes to them. Among them is Or Williams, who
is a a just beast when it comes to the
hammer throw, the two time Big twelve hammer throw champion

(01:36:06):
who owns a school record of that event. He is
a qualifier for the NCAA Championships and kind enough to
join us. Or finished twentieth at Nationals last year. This
year he's headed to Eugene, Oregon, not just to qualify,
but as a dominant Big twelve champion and kind enough
to join us. Or It's awesome to have you. How

(01:36:28):
are you? I'm doing pretty good? How are you doing great?
So let me start by asking this. You are from Belgium.
You stopped off at Finley, you were dominant there. Now
you're at the University of Cincinnati. Walk me through that path.
How did you end up in Ohio from Belgium?

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
So I had a company reach out to me asking
if I wanted to study into the United States. So
I said sure. Then they sent my profile to to
the United States. And then I had schools reach out
to me and ended up picking Finley first. And then
after those four years that I did in the undergrad
I decided to transfer out for a master's degree while

(01:37:10):
competing in a higher level at Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
How does one decide to become a Is it a
hammer thrower? What's the proper what's the proper term?

Speaker 5 (01:37:21):
Yes, a hammer thrower?

Speaker 1 (01:37:22):
How does one decide to become a hammer thrower?

Speaker 4 (01:37:26):
So?

Speaker 5 (01:37:27):
I was pretty lucky back home in the club I was.
So I started out just doing track and then slowly
started to become a thrower. I started learning that that
was my strong suit, and then once I got to
the age of thirteen, they said like, hey, we have
some people that throw hammer here if you're interested in
trying it out, And it ended up working out pretty well.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
So all right, yeah, I would I would say first
bearcat and program history to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor
Championships in the hammer throw multiple times last year and
this year. How is how is your mindset in preparation
this year? Maybe different from a year ago.

Speaker 5 (01:38:05):
I definitely think it's a little different because last year,
like it was kind of going in like not knowing
how exactly it was going to look like. So I
think like this year going into nationals already knowing like
I've already been there, so I know what to expect.
So I can end up a little higher than last year,
maybe possible podium.

Speaker 1 (01:38:25):
Walk me through the developmental process going from a D
two school at Finley to now here in the Big Twelve.
What was the biggest adjustment going from that level of
competition to the one that you're dominant at now.

Speaker 5 (01:38:40):
I think just like going to bigger competitions, getting like
bigger competitors in the field, so like getting more used
to like having to fight for that spot, and I
think that really helped for me to really achieve those
big marks.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
You broke your own school record twice during the Big
Twelve Champion when you when you let it go, like,
could you tell this could be a record a record
breaking toss? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:39:08):
I think once that hammer like left, I was like, okay,
this is the throw that I needed today to put
a good performance and possibly win, which ended up happening.

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
So what is the training like to be a hammer thrower?

Speaker 5 (01:39:26):
So me personally, since I'm only a hammer thrower, I
throw three times a week. I do two times where
I just do drills, so just like work technical and
then we get in the weight room about three times
a week to get a lot stronger.

Speaker 1 (01:39:42):
Uh, when you you say you toss, like, how are
you just you're obviously you say you're just a hammer thrower,
so you're not doing the shot. But how many? How many?
Like how many throws are there in a workout?

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
It depends from like what part in the season you are.
I'll say, like here, I'm averaging about fourteenth to sixteen
throws of practice.

Speaker 1 (01:40:06):
And then what do you feel? How do you feel afterward?

Speaker 6 (01:40:09):
Say one more time?

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
How do you feel after doing that?

Speaker 6 (01:40:13):
I feel usually pretty good.

Speaker 5 (01:40:15):
I don't feel super tired because currently we're working mostly
technique wise and like working on speed, so we're trying
not to exhaust the body too much since we have
a lot of competitions back to back.

Speaker 1 (01:40:27):
What has been the one thing about this part of
the United States that you've learned or maybe come to
love since you moved here?

Speaker 5 (01:40:36):
Just loving like the environment, I think, and like all
the support that I have around, especially here in Cincinnati,
Like having that strength coach, having that nutrition person, having
the media team and everyone around is just like helping
me a lot to develop as a person as an athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
How cool is it to be a part of a
team that is sending four others to the NCAA Championships.

Speaker 5 (01:41:01):
I think it's amazing. It's exciting that I get to
share this experience with other athletes that are in the
same boat as me.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
So so so like you'll you'll have you have runners.
Do you ever invite the runners to come over and
throw the hammer?

Speaker 5 (01:41:15):
No?

Speaker 8 (01:41:15):
We did not.

Speaker 5 (01:41:16):
I don't know how well that would go.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
What if they asked you to run?

Speaker 5 (01:41:22):
I can run, it won't be pretty far.

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
But you and I, You and I have that in common,
except I've never thrown a hammer. Could could I? Could
I come down there and could Like what would happen
if somebody like me and I've I've never thrown a hammer?
What would happen if somebody like me decided with your guidance?
Of course? Uh uh that I I want to I
want to try to.

Speaker 6 (01:41:42):
Do what you do.

Speaker 1 (01:41:43):
Well, how would that work out?

Speaker 5 (01:41:45):
I think it actually worked decent. We would definitely have to,
like start from the from the beginning, give you a
cone or something to throw before we start the hammer,
so there's no no injuries or anything.

Speaker 1 (01:41:58):
But I think after like a day, so you start
by like like a parking cone, Like what kind of cone?

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
Just a small cone? I mean you can use a
lot of things, just not a metal object.

Speaker 6 (01:42:13):
You like.

Speaker 1 (01:42:15):
Most who know me well would say it would be
best if I wasn't throwing metal objects. Well, best of
luck next week. You've obviously had a remarkable college career
both at Finley and at the University of Cincinnati, and
we'll be rooting for you. Have a great time, Ori,
Thanks so much. Thank you. Ory Williams uc track and
Field Men's hammer throw two time a qualifier for the

(01:42:40):
NCAA Championships, the reigning twenty twenty six Big twelve Outdoor
Men's hammer throw champion, breaking his own school record twice
during the competition. He is headed to a Eugene after
placing six in the NCAA East first round with a
sixty seven point one point one meter throw. I don't

(01:43:00):
know that in my life I have ever talked to
a hammer thrower. I can cross that off my list.
Sports headlines are a service a Kelsey chev Lae home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot Com. No
game for the Reds tonight. They're in Saint Louis three
with the Cardinals beginning tomorrow evening that will start a

(01:43:22):
six game road trip. Cincinnati has traded righty Kyle Nicholas
to the Orioles in exchange for cash considerations. Red's also
placing Jose Travino on rehab assignment at Louisville, Florence. Yawl's
played tonight against Windy City. By the way, I got
to give you, I gotta give you a final in
that Reds were on pace today to a gain a

(01:43:45):
half game in the National League Central, the Brewers playing
the Giants and San Francisco staving off a furious late
game Milwaukee rally to beat Milwaukee by a score of
twelve to nine to The Reds are now six and
a half games out of first play. Elsewhere in the division,
the Cubs are hosting the A's and the Pirates on
the road against the Houston Astros. NHL Tonight Stanley Cup

(01:44:09):
Final Game two, Vegas at Carolina, with the Golden Knights
having a one nothing series lead nineteen minutes away from
six o'clock. My name is Moegor. Thank you so much
for listening today. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
From the un mentioned excuse me and sports headlines is
tonight there's a Richard Patino show. That's right, The summer
series returns to Sorrento's Italian joint in Norwood. So tonight,
in fact, just here in a few minutes from six
to seven o'clock, Richard Patino, Joe Sunderman, Byron Larkin talking

(01:44:51):
all things Xavier basketball the offseason. They did a couple
of these last year, and the first one is happening tonight.
That airs down the hall on seven hundred WLW. So
if you're a Xavier fan an hour wal to wall
XU hoops with Richard Patino, who based on following him
on Twitter, he was at the Reds game? Was he
at the Reds game last night or two nights ago?

(01:45:12):
Richard Patino went to a Reds game this week, I
can tell you that. And tonight, no Red's baseball, but
he's gonna be at Sorrento's for his show, and that's
at six o'clock. So if you're in the Norwood area,
swing by Serrentos, go see Richard Patino. You have you
have a chance to win a Richard Patino autographed mini
basketball not sure, why can't be a full size basketball?

(01:45:33):
But that's that's neither here nor there. And Serrnos is cool.
I've been there in a while. So go see the coach,
go talk hoops, go hang out, go get a great meal,
and you can you can thank me later. How about that.
I have a chance to win autograph basketball mini basketballs.
Why can't it be a full sized basketball? I'm not sure.

(01:45:53):
And there's no full size basketballs laying around the the
Xavier basketball facility for the coach to sign all four
mini basketballs. But I just, you know, I think, like
you could, you know, go into your pockets a little bit.
Would you rather have a full sized ball or a
mini ball? That's all I'm saying. I have an autographed

(01:46:15):
mini basketball by Bob Huggins. It's nice. I have a
full sized basketball signed by Denny Crumb. The full size basketball.
Nothing against Hugs. I'm a U see guy, but the
full size basketball is a little bit cooler because it's
a full size basketball. That all whatever. Don't trust. I
don't need Xavier mad at me a great relationship with

(01:46:35):
the Musketeers, but you know, I don't need Xavier fans
on Twitter mad at me I have a good relationship
with them too, I think relative to some of my colleagues.
Just saying that could have been my poll question today.
Would you rather have a Richard Patino full size ball
or a Richard Patino mini basketball? I bet what you
could do is go buy a full size basketball, bring

(01:46:57):
it to Serrentos, and I would all almost guarantee you
that Richard Patina will sign.

Speaker 4 (01:47:02):
It for you.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
Then I'll spend my own money. Yes, fair. But if
you're like, hey, look I'd rather the full size, kind
of giving you a choice here, you can go and
get the free mini basketball, which will be great. So
signature mini basketball probably is a Xavier logo on it.
If you want the full size, then you're gonna have
to pay a little bit more. Full size cost more
in life. So the mini is free. The full size

(01:47:25):
cost swing by Dix. Go get a basketball Richard Patino.
I'm sure we'll sign it, or get the mini and
ask him. It's like I once gave Red's tickets to
somebody and they complained that I didn't have a parking
pass like think I am. So you can go to

(01:47:45):
Serrno's tonight, get the mini basketball, and then look at
Richard Patino and look at Joe and Byron and complain
that it's not full size. Well, this is the first
of two I want tonight. In the second one September third,
So maybe September third to have a full size bett.
Oh man, how about that?

Speaker 6 (01:48:00):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:48:00):
Are you eligible to win a basketball on September the
third if you win one on June fourth? Not sure.
It's a very good question and one that could perhaps
only be answered tonight if you show up at surrenders.
By the way, I have to say, this is probably

(01:48:21):
the single greatest promo for a coaches show that's ever
been done. So you know, I sometimes get needled by
Xavier fans, and understandably so their team and men's basketball
routinely beats mine. But I have gone out of my
way to promote this show tonight. In fact, I think

(01:48:44):
instead of getting a free basketball, I should go to
Serrnos and get a free meal for this. I think
that could be a range. The first time when I
was when I was starting off in this business, and
I I was given an opportunity to engineer the Skip

(01:49:04):
Prosser radio show, and I loved doing that because Skip
was an extraordinarily nice Man and Joe Sunderman and Byron
Larkin are awesome. But when I was given this opportunity,
I was given this opportunity because the person who was
supposed to engineer it like broke his leg. And so

(01:49:24):
I remember getting a phone call at my house. This
is back in the landline days, and it's like, hey,
we need somebody who can produce the Skip Prosser Show.
And this was at the original Montgomery In and so, like,
I got off my couch and I ran down to
the radio station, grabbed equipment, drove to the Montgomery In
and set all the equipment up, and you know, we're

(01:49:47):
good to go. Joe walks in, Byron walks in, Skip
Prosser walks in, and you know, this is cool. I
think I know what I'm doing. I had never engineered
my own broadcast remote before, but I had a good
idea of how it worked. And right before the show starts,
this guy gets up like sitting there, and he's got

(01:50:09):
his Xavier sweatshirt on Xavier hat as you might understand
for the Skip Prosser Show, and he walks up to
me and he goes, I don't know if you're an
intern or not, but it would make sense to not
wear a Conference USA shirt to the Skip Prosser Show
because I had gone to the Conference USA tournament. Now,

(01:50:31):
in my defense, it didn't just have a UC logo,
it had all the conference and the guy had a point,
I mean, and God rest his soul. Skip Prosser, I'm
sure didn't care if he did. He didn't say anything.
And then I went on to produce that show for
a couple of years and he was just a sweetheart
of a man to work with. And Joe and Byron

(01:50:52):
are like the two nicest people of all time. But
my introduction to that program is as a media professional
when I was like twenty one years old, was showing
up wearing my Conference USA basketball shirt to the Xavier's
Coaches Show. So whatever, But you can go see Richard
Patino tonight and don't wear Conference USA does exist a

(01:51:17):
no area schools in it where wears Xavier shirt, You're
good to go. That has best segment of the show,
quite frankly. We're back tomorrow at three oh five. We'll
get your set for Red's Cardinals and knick Spurs game too,
and preview Nick Spurs Game two with New York looking
to steal a second game on the road in an

(01:51:39):
effort to take a commanding two games a non series lead.
We'll see anything you might have miss go find on
the iHeartRadio app. Thanks to long Nex Sports Grill, and
thanks to Tarren Bland for producing. Thanks to you for listening.
Have the greatest night of your life. Don't forget Tony
Pikes since he three sixty is tomorrow from noon to three,

(01:52:00):
and we are back tomorrow at three oh five. We'll
talk to you then. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
sports station.

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