July 10, 2026 • 36 mins
The Reds are ruining baseball. No, the Bengals don't have a bottom-five offensive line, but.... And yes, a four-team college basketball exhibition event played at a tennis venue is cool.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. What's up, Mulleger,
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thanks for listening, hook, You're having an awesome Friday afternoon,
maybe with your weekend already off to a great start.
So the Bengals have one of the worst five offensive
lines in football. I have not ranked all the NFL
offensive lines. But there's an analyst, pretty good, well respected
analyst who says, yes, I don't think I agree, but
(00:32):
there's a butt and I'll give you the butt coming
up at about fifteen minutes. I bet you can't wait
for that show. Preview is available. You can watch it
right now on Twitter. I'm gonna go on vacation next week.
Here's my promise to you. Ok, I'm going to go
on vacation next week, and when I come back, I
promise I will start to call it X.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But right now it's Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you can watch it thanks to a share Facts
credit Union Share Facts credit Union, there is there was
no greater financial institution in the United States of America,
and certainly no greater financial institution in the greater Cincinnati area.
So what you should do is learn about shareff Facts.
I'm become a member, learn about share Facts at share
(01:14):
facts dot org, or swing by any share branch. I
swung by my share Fax branch today. I made a
very small deposit and I got a free soft drink Cateemy.
So can't beat that. Does your financial institution give you
a free soft drink?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
No? No, no, I'm guessing the answer is no.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We're gonna get an in studio visit from the Lockdown
Reds guys looking forward to that coming up in just
about one hour. It's a lot of fun to talk
about baseball. It's a lot of fun to talk about sports.
And I don't mean, you know, professional, although it's a
lot of fun to have this job. But it's it's
fun to talk about baseball. It's fun to talk about strategies,
(01:56):
and baseball I think lends itself to that a little
bit more than some of the other sports. Strategies in
baseball I think are relatively simple, even if some of
the data that we use to determine what sound strategy
can be kind of complex. But it's fun to debate
strategy with your friends. It's fun to set at a
ballpark perhaps and while you're having a cold one, you know,
(02:18):
talk about what the manager is doing, pitching changes, leaving
a starter in, bunting, lineup construction.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
It's fun to do that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I badly wish that when we talk baseball that we
actually talk about baseball, because last night, last night would
have been a fun opportunity to do so. Because last
night's game, last night's game was quick moving, very fun
to watch, tremendous pitching duel. Brady Singer amplified his trade
(02:52):
value with a really good start. Unfortunately for the Reds,
Jesus LIZARDA was even better. And you, unfortunately you and
I know the past, and they score a bunch of
runs one night, they score next to none or none
the next, and that's exactly what happened last night. But
last night, in the ninth inning, was was a situation
where I think you could have a good discussion about
(03:12):
baseball strategy. First and second, nobody out, tying run and
scoring position winning run at first base, a Euhanio Suarez
at the plate. So do you leave Geno in to hit,
try to see if he could hit a three run
homer to end the ballgame? Do you have him bunt?
Do you call somebody off the bench, do you have
a pitcher try to bunt. Do you ask Matt McLain,
(03:33):
who's gone on the injured list today, do you have
him try to bunt like it's I am as a
general rule with exceptions, with exceptions. I'm sort of anti
bunt because I'm pro math, and there's nearly a century
and a half of data to suggest that bunting is
mathematically a bad strategy. It can work. Lots of things
(03:56):
that the odds don't favor can work, and last night
it would have been one of those situations where it
would have been fun, maybe if you're at the ballpark
or texting with your buddies or hosting a call in
show after the game to discuss the merits of what
Tito decided to do, which was to have Geno swing away,
versus what Tito didn't do, which is ask Geno to bunt,
(04:19):
or replace him with another player on the bench who
might be better at laying down a bun. As it
turns out, Gino strikes out, rest of the inning unfolds
rather predictably, and the Reds lose a one nothing game.
Here's the problem. It doesn't matter they lost last night.
(04:40):
They're forty two and fifty. The careening towards their relevance continues.
The careening toward the trade deadline and the sell off
or the fire sale or the next rebuild or whatever
you want to call it, is continuing. It doesn't matter.
I used to say this about the Bengals, and this
is not the case this offseason. But back in the
day the Bengals didn't really do anything in free agency
(05:02):
when they kind of sat out most of the offseason.
You know, we used to say, like, the Bengals don't
give us a chance to really enjoy the fun part
of the offseason, the transactions, free agency, thinking about players
who may fit. That has changed, and it's certainly not
the case this year this offseason because they've done a
lot of stuff. The Reds, with exceptions, the Reds don't
(05:25):
let us enjoy the fun parts of the actual season.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The fun parts of the actual season are the.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Actual baseball games and what comes with the baseball games
are supposed to be fun discussions about, you know, roster
construction and who should hit war who should playwear, managerial decisions.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Those are things that.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Matter a lot more and that we have a lot
more fun discussing when the team matters. But when you
have seasons like this, and unfortunately, over the last quarter century,
thirty years, whatever it's been, unfortunately, seasons like this are
the rule and not the exception. In the middle of
the summer, right when baseball occupies all the real estate,
(06:09):
it really doesn't make much sense to dwell on whether
or not the Red should have had their hitter bunt
with a two on and nobody out in a one
run game, because there are a billion games at a
first place, there are a thousand games outside of the wildcard.
They're going nowhere. And so when that's the case, the minutia,
(06:32):
the micro the fun stuff unfortunately doesn't matter. You know,
in twenty twenty three, which was an uber fun season,
it was an uber fun season until the trade deadline,
when Nick Crawl and company basically said at.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Work, don't not look at a try. We just worked.
We got a fun team.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It just don't care if we build a better team
than when we have the twenty twenty three it was
a fun summer.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It was fun year. Man, this time three years ago
the Red were in first place.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Then I said often that what I loved so much
about that team is they enabled us to talk about
baseball when we talked about baseball, because the year before
had been abjectly miserable, and most of the years leading
up to it, with exceptions, objectly miserable. You know, when
(07:22):
the Reds were just you know, dragging us through those
seasons fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen, right the last decade.
You know, I would say all the time, like, regardless
of who the manager was, Brian Price or David Beller, whoever,
if the manager decides to leave his pitcher in too
long and they lose the game and they go from
(07:46):
twenty one games at a first place to twenty two
games at a first place, doesn't really matter. Then in
twenty twenty three, for the first time in a very
long time, we talked about baseball when we talked about baseball,
because the year before it was all about why folks
aren't going to games, why you hate Phil Castellini, why
they should sell the team, how much longer you're going
(08:09):
to tolerate sitting through a rebuild. We didn't get into
the ins and outs of the games themselves, and this
season is taking on a similar feel. No, this team
is not as bad as that one In twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
But like last night was a fun a fun situation.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm listening to Lance last night extra innings, and he
led his show by talking about the ninth inning and
did so in a way that was entertaining and compelling.
And I could hear the angst in his voice, and
I could hear the disappointment that continued frustration that he
has to feel as a fan who has to talk
about that team immediately after the game every single night.
And he launched into this thing about why it would
(08:52):
have been a bad decision to bunt, and he took
some phone calls, including from a guy who was angry
that Lance doesn't like onions and mustard on his conies.
And he took a phone call from a guy who
suggested they should bunt. And if Gino can't lay down
a bunt, ask a pictuer to bunt. Even though pitchers
don't hit anymore, they're probably less equipped a bunt than
at any point in baseball history. And I'm listening to
(09:12):
this and this is no knock on Lance at all.
Who is the best at what he does. But I
said to myself out loud as I'm driving, who cares?
Who cares. If they bunt and they score two runs
and they win the game, yippie, then they're only six
hunder five hundred. They chose to do what they chose
(09:35):
to do and three consecutive outs were made against a
terrific closer, and they're eight games under five hundred. Yeah,
maybe a frustrating loss, but let's be honest not it
can't be at this point that emotionally impactful of a
loss didn't do any real damage to their postseason hopes.
(09:55):
I'm not sure anybody feels any different about the Reds
today than they did yesterday based on the result, and
had they won the game, I'm not sure anybody would
feel that much better about the Reds than they do
right now. If you love the Reds, if you love
the sport, I would have to imagine that part of
(10:16):
the fun part of being a fan for you is
discussing the team, discussing the things that the manager decides
to do, and having fun and the key there is fun,
disagreements about strategy and personnel decisions, who should play where,
who should bat wear, whether or not. Last night, Brady
(10:40):
Singer was left in too long spoiler alert. He was
not who the first guy out of the bullpen should be,
what the deployment of relievers should be? None of those
things seem to matter because the Reds have ruined baseball.
Here yet again, another summer where it seems to make
(11:02):
really no sense, as fun as it is to discuss
actual baseball, and what takes the place of talking about
actual baseball when we do talk about baseball is the
same tire drumbeat of who should get fired, who should
be blamed, who should be held accountable?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Why did this go wrong? Why should we believe.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
This franchise when they say things are going to be
better down the road, And it's just so tired and frustrating.
If you listen to two shows in other markets, and
I do, And I was in Milwaukee early last week
and I listened to the Brewers postgame shows, and man,
that's the stuff they're talking about actual baseball because their
(11:45):
baseball team actually matters. They do that in a lot
of places. We've had a chance to do that here occasionally,
but we don't get a chance to do it enough.
So I don't know, Man, Maybe you feel strongly about
bunting or not bunting, and maybe if feel like last
night's ninth inning, the season hinged on that, and had
they successfully executed the ninth inning in whichever way you wish,
(12:06):
they scored two runs, win the ballgame, and the season
takes off from here. Maybe maybe, But I think for
most of us there's this real sense of who cares.
It's an empty feeling, and I don't know man as
a fan of a sport, it's sort of frustrating when
it makes no sense to actually talk about the games
(12:28):
themselves because the games themselves seem largely irrelevant because of
the team's placement in the standings. It would be one
thing if that was the exception here. Unfortunately, for a
very long time, that's become the rule. Sixteen after three o'clock.
Your perspective on any number of things has always welcome
(12:50):
at five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty eight
six six seven h two three seven seven six works
as well. You could also send me a tweet or
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(13:13):
of the Delta Dental oh dot com. Do the Bengals
have one of the worst five offensive lines in the NFL.
That's that's that's what we're going to talk about during
baseball season. Next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Then you see how traffic lock.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger. Anything you may have
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(13:54):
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You got the one in One, you get the one
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Four k TVs all over the place, great plays to watch.
Whatever you want to watch. Could be the Reds this weekend,
(14:16):
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Twenty three after three o'clock, we have the guys from
(14:38):
the Lockdown Reds podcast going to join us in studio,
Jeff and Steve. Steve in town, so they'll visit us
in studio, will go through a whole slew of Reds
related issues. By the way, we are now nineteen days
away from our first training camp broadcast of the year
on ESPN fifteen thirty, so stoked for it. Mentioned this yesterday.
(14:59):
We he started doing this last year and it had
been a wish of mine since basically the first year
I hosted this show to get a chance to broadcast
from Bengals training camp. And we started last year and
we'll continue this year starting on July the twenty ninth.
We'll have all the practices that you could attend, and
then we'll have some of the practices that nobody could attend.
(15:21):
It will be your eyes and ears speaking of the Bengals.
Was a very good website. Warren Sharp Sharp football Analysis,
somebody that we've never had the pleasure of actually talking
to on this show, and maybe we should change that.
But it's less season, it's ranking season. There's not a
lot going on, and so people who cover and write
(15:43):
and talk about football come up with lists. Warren released
his rankings of the thirty two NFL offensive lines, and
he has the Bengals twenty eighth.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Here's what he writes.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Cincinnati decided to run it back with the CENTI the
same offensive line as a season ago, only adding rookies
Brian Parker and Connor Loo. When the primary five starters
were on the field together, Bengals running backs average one
point four yards before contact per attempt, which ranked thirtieth
out of forty eight qualified offensive line combinations.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You can go read.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
More at Warren's website sharp footballanalysis dot com. That doesn't
necessarily take into account that the offensive line was good
at keeping Joe Flacco and then when he came back
Joe Burrow upright. I think anyone who watched and I
don't claim to be an offensive line play expert, but
(16:41):
I've watched enough football that I could tell you, and
I've watched enough Bengals offensive lines that were terrible. I'm
experienced enough to be able to tell you when an
offensive line is good or when it's not. Last year's
offensive line toward the end of the season. Wait, pretty well,
top five offensive line, no top ten offensive line, probably
not bottom five. The unit that I watched at the
(17:02):
end of the season last year is not a bottom
five offensive line. So going into this season, I'm gonna
go ahead and say they're not a bottom five offensive line.
They will benefit from continuity. I think a Marius Mims
has a chance to be one of the very best
players at his position. Dylan Fairchild can make a year
two leap. You know, we'll see if Parker and Lou
(17:23):
if they're ready to play. And one thing I do
worry about relative to last year is last season the
Bengals enjoyed relatively good health on the O line one
year to the next. That often doesn't carry over, and
so maybe their depth is a little bit more tested
this year. And can they pass the depth test with
two offensive linemen that they took in the draft this
(17:45):
year and Lou and Parker.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
We will see.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think, though we have to acknowledge this, maybe it's
not a bottom five offensive line. Maybe it won't play
like a bottom five offensive line. I would put it
somewhere middle of the pack. And maybe if we're being
totally honest toward the lower part of the middle of
the pack, but not bottom five. There is, however, a
(18:13):
pretty low floor for this offensive line. Look, there were
times even last season when the rest of the guys
upfront were playing pretty well. There were moments last year
where Orlando Brown looked like a player whose age had
kind of caught up to him. He may have a
(18:35):
terrific year this season, but I don't know if it
would be a major shock if, like Orlando Brown, wasn't
very good this year. He is thirty years old. Ted
Carris a beloved player and deservedly so, and maybe still
a very good player. And one of the interesting things
will be to see how the team eventually transitions from
(18:56):
Ted Carris to Connor Loo. But Harris is thirty three
years old. He got two starting offensive linemen who are
in their thirties.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
The flip to that is a Marius Mims. I said
the other day, I think Amrius Mims is a candidate
to be a not just a Pro Bowl player, but
an All Pro player this year. And we'll see, but
I think there's every reason for excitement for a Marius Mims.
And you know, Dylan Fairchild. We're looking for a year
or two leap Dalton Reisner. The easiest move of the
(19:32):
offseason was one of the first ones they made, which
was just go ahead and ensure that that guy is
still here. There is continuity. There's a unit that played
well toward the end of the season last year.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
It is.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
The best offensive line that Joe Burrow has played behind
as an NFL player. That is as much of a
statement about the offensive lines that he used to play
behind as much as it's a statement about the one
they have now. But still it's a statement. But I
don't know that it would be stunning. You look at
position groups through this lens. High ceiling, high floor. The
(20:05):
ceiling for the Bengals quarterback is through the roof. The
ceiling for the Bengals wide receivers is through the roof.
The ceiling for the skill guys is through the roof.
Maybe the ceiling for the offensive line is still really good.
But I don't believe it's a bottom five offensive line.
I do think though, that the variance the spread between
(20:28):
its best and its worst pretty wide. I think the
floor is pretty low. And by the way you look
at these rankings and they're folding into it like backups,
depth and so there's you know, maybe a question about
Cody Ford, who was not in shape at training camp
last year, a little bit of a question about him.
There are two rookies who seem like pretty good bets
(20:50):
to make the team, but they are rookies. We're all,
you know, pretty excited about what the unit could be,
and there's continuity, which is certainly, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
In their favor.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But I do believe relative to some of the other
position groups that it is fair to say that while
they might not be the twenty eighth best offensive line
right now, that it is still a unit that there's
at least more questions about it than some of the others.
We'll see, but I do think the floor is pretty low.
(21:25):
Floor is always not the most likely outcome. Three point thirty,
ESPN fifteen thirty five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty Sports headlines are coming up. We mentioned yesterday the
college basketball exhibition event that is coming to the Lindner
Family Tennis Center, the care Source Classic, which I.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Think is really cool.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I guess there's pushback to it, and I don't really
understand it. Maybe somebody can help me understand it. Next
on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
From the UC Health Traffic Center, a.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family, the Yours for Life
Kelsey Show dot Com. First of three tonight at GABP.
It's the Reds and Cubs and for losing the opening
series of this homestand to the Phillies final three games
(22:23):
before the All Star Break, Hunter Green will throw against
Shota Inman. August seven to ten is tonight's first pitch
on seven hundred WLW. Matt McClain headed to the IL
with a calf injury. Key Brian Hayes is back and
he is in the starting lineup tonight. Your starting lineup
for Cincinnati this evening. Eli Dela Cruz at short Soule
started first base, Spencer Steers in center field, JJ Bledean left,
(22:48):
Uhaneo Suarez is dhing. Tyler Stevenson catches Noelve, Martes and Wright.
Edwin Arroyo plays second base, and Hayes is at third
base and he is batting ninth. Florence Yawl's on the
road against Joliette FC. Cincinnati plays a friendly against against
English side Burnley FC World Cup quarterfinal happening right now
(23:13):
in La Spain and Belgium, and Spain has a one
nothing lead there in the thirty seventh minute. Unlike the
American team, the Spanish team doesn't stand around and watch
in awe of Belgium like they're kicking the ball to
each other. They're moving, looks like they have a plan
of attack. They're being somewhat aggressive. Unlike the United States
(23:37):
when we played Belgium, we just stood there and watched
and hey, we know, like an international incident almost unfolded
over this guy over here, but we're not gonna kick
him the ball. One nil Spain in front of Belgium.
We will keep you up to date as that game unfolds.
We mentioned this yesterday and our friend Rick Boring was
(23:57):
the first that I saw to report. The exhibition event
happening at the Elender Tennis Center on October seventh, the
care Source Class at College Basketball event, which is gonna
be a doubleheader, an exhibition doubleheader, a preseason doubleheader that
features two tilts, one featuring Xavier taking on Dayton and
(24:19):
the other being Cincinnati battling Ohio State. These are preseason
games and I'm guessing I don't need to remind you
what preseason means, but they're games that don't count. And
my general takeaway was, man, it would be great if
we were in a world were those schools played against
each other in games that count. Now, for what it's worth,
(24:42):
you see does play two of the other three schools involved,
and obviously Xavier plays in the regular season.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
One of the other schools involved.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You see in Xavier play against each other Skyline Chili
Crosstown shootout, which I believe is December fifth, and you
see in Dayton play against each other. That game is
going to be a the arena that is, I believe, Saturday,
November the fourteenth. But sure, man like, ideally those schools
would play, and they would play on a regular basis,
and they would play in games that counted, and they
(25:12):
would play in the other team's home floor, or maybe
there would be a four team event like this that
you know, sort of rotated around the region. And yes,
we have beaten that into the ground for decades, all
the area schools that you could have in some sort
of make believe MTE, but those things never come to
fruition in the absence of regular season games being played.
(25:38):
Give me some exhibition games like college basketball is needless
to say, it's it's different. But you know, I'm old
enough to remember from a UC perspective when they would
play athletes in action. I'm old enough to remember watching
them lose to athletes in action and then might play,
you know, another traveling team or play a Division two team,
(26:00):
something like that. I think it's great that D one
teams are allowed to play other D one teams to
prepare for the season. And sure you watch those games thinking, man,
it would be cool if these were regular season games.
Ohio State came to Cincinnati a couple of years ago,
they played an exhibition game.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Cincinnati won.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You see, played at Michigan last year, won that game,
played at Arkansas last year, and got boat raced. To
what degree those games helped coaches get their teams ready
for the regular season, I'm sure the answer to that
is anecdotal. I'm sure some coaches get great, you know,
(26:41):
value out of those games and others do not. As
a fan, yes, we all wish there are regular season games.
But I'm gonna go ahead and play some audio because
I saw this last night. This is Rick Browing of
Musketeerreport dot com and The Skinny Podcast, which unfortunately they
put out the final episode of the Skinny Podcast earlier
(27:02):
this week, and we'll get to that a little bit
later on. But here's Rick, who, again was the first
that I saw on the internet. This was on his
message board at musketeer Report dot com, the first that
I saw kind of putting this out there that this
event was gonna happen. I guess there's pushback. I guess
it's loud in some corners. Here's what Rick had to
(27:22):
say about the pushback to this event taking place that
is an exhibition event, not a regular season event.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Here's my thing. I know there's a big push now.
This has become a really InVogue thing. National media members
are really pushing it. So then the fans push it
as like when something like this gets announced that they
immediately poop poo in and go oh an exhibition gross,
make these games matter. You guys are cowards for not
making these games matter. And I get that to an extent,
like they are using this new exhibition rule where you're
(27:52):
allowed to play exhibition against D one's to make them
public as a way to play rivalry games that they're
otherwise not playing, or regional games that they're otherwise not
playing during the regular season.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
But my thing is this.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
You haven't been getting these games during the regular season regardless.
It's not like they're going You guys are acting like
these are replacing the regular season matchups. They're not that
toothpases out of the tube. They scheduled the way they
schedule because they want to give themselves their best chance
of making the Ansully Tournament. You're not going to change that.
It's big money at this point for them. They're doing
what they feel is best for them. But this is
(28:24):
still better than the alternative. Never seen them play a
dating or you see playing in Ohio State and them
not doing some cool double header event that's outdoors.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like, I get it. Fans love to complain.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's kind of become part of sports fandom in our
country for some reasons, like you gotta act like you're
miserable at all times, but complaining about a cool exhibition
event that's unlike anything we've really seen involving a bunch
of teams that we've all been clamoring for these teams
to play each other in an event like this. Getting
upset about that is just stupid, Like this is a
cool event. Be happy about it.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes, yes, yes, it is cool event. Would it be
better if it was regular season? And then, of course,
of course it would be Who disagree with that? Nobody
who would would? But it's it's not gonna be And
there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, one
of like the the go to a night you know
is a sports talk radio nerd growing up, One of
(29:13):
the go to topics in the nineties was exactly this, like,
wouldn't it be cool if you can get all these
schools together to play a regular season event? And uh,
you know, wouldn't it wouldn't it be wouldn't it be
neat if if instead of playing some of the by
games that these schools are involved in, they played more
regional teams? Of course, yes, in an ideal world there
(29:33):
would be no by games at all, and all the
really big time schools would play a whole bunch of
other big time schools.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Like that's who disagrees with that?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
And yeah, man, it's more fun to play regional schools
because you know, fans of those schools versus some of
the schools they play. You see, is gonna play a
home and home against Minnesota, which is fine, it's a
Big ten school.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
But would it be more fun.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
To play Ohio State now, given what happened the last
time they played a home and home from avera perspective,
maybe the answer is no. But sure, right, more interest,
more eyeballs, you know, more Ohio State fans. I'm sure
if you're a UC fan, then you know Minnesota fans.
But in the absence of that, which these things weren't happening,
or at least weren't happening on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Anyway, if this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Is like a cool secondary option, awesome, and yeah it's
you know, there's a little novelty to it. They're gonna
play in a tennis venue. You know, I'm curious as
to how that's gonna work. But it's different and unique
and at least gives us a taste of a traditional
(30:37):
rivalry like Xavier and Dayton, which look, man, I wish
those teams played every single years at UDLM. I loved
those games. I loved the games more when they would
be played at ud Arena. But I love those games,
and I wish Ohio State would play some of the
schools in Southwest Ohio in the absence of it, like
it's as Rick said, it's not replacing games that were
already happening. If the options are these schools are never
(31:01):
going to play, or they will play, but they're only
going to play. And when it doesn't count. In an
environment where you're allowed to play preseason games, cool, play
some preseason games and you could.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Do what you want with them.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You could do what you want with the results of them.
And you know, if playing against competition the caliber of
Xavier for Dayton, or Ohio State for UC, or vice versa,
helps them get ready for the season a little bit
better than playing the sort of you know, hidden exhibition
games or hidden scrimmages, secret scrimmages or exhibitions against D
(31:34):
two schools they were playing, then even better. And by
the way, you don't have to watch and you don't
have to go. So if you don't want to watch
or if you don't want to go, and I would
assume there's gonna be radio coverage, I certainly hope. So
if there is radio, don't listen, don't watch, don't go, Like, okay,
pick up the season when it begins with the games
that actually counts. But you know it, if I have
(31:58):
a choice, Yes, if I was in charge, if I
was sports zar, which I should be named sports Zar,
absolutely these schools would play against each other and other
area schools would be folded into the conversation into an
event like this in the absence of it. Great play
some preseason games. It'll be unique, it'll be fun, it
(32:20):
will benefit an amazing organization. There'll be some novelty to it.
If it goes poorly, it'll never happen again. And if
it goes well, maybe we'll get another version of it.
If you don't want to watch, don't watch fourteen away
from four o'clock. By the way, speaking of college athletics,
NK used new ad Mike Odom was on our show yesterday.
(32:44):
If you missed that conversation, go listen to it on
the iHeartRadio app thirteen from four o'clock. He locked on
Red's podcast, Guys will join Us excuse me in studio
in the four o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Then fifteen thirty on Olegar The Lockdown, Reds Guys are
with Me in studio and we'll chat with them at
four five. They brought beer, which I'm excited about. As
you can tell, I got like two and a half minutes. Mike,
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Oh, thank you mom, very time. Hey. The reason I
called today was I'm really excited about what Mick Cronin
is doing with the UCLA basketball For a rip, he
got the number one international recruit Nicole of Costa Rica
out of Serbia, and this guy is proposed now to
(33:49):
possibly be the number one pick in the twenty eight
NBA draft. He's seventeen, so next starting for two years
for sure. And he got another guy out of the
International League named Gunner Gris something but he's highly acclaimed too.
But this Nicole guy and he's got he hammered the
(34:10):
Francefurt Portal did a great job. Their outlook is tremendous.
And also this young guy was voted the best defensive
player in the Tiva seventeen year old tournament where the
Serbian defeat the hell out of the United States.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah, no, they you're You're exactly right. They've added Trent Perry,
They've kept a lot of guys. They have continuity. But
I've noticed this and I don't know when I looked
at this CBS Sports, they're way too early conference projections.
And the Big Ten is awesome, we know that, But
CBS Sports still had UCLA middle of the pack in
(34:50):
the in the Big Ten.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
Yeah, that surprises me. So we'll see. But you know,
it's a couple of guys that he got through the portal.
The main stress, the real strengths that a couple of
them have are the typical Cincinnati defense, A tough minded guy.
So I'm really excited for Mick because he's he's had
(35:13):
a you know, he walked into such a big time
job there low with such big as you know, I
got to give him credit. Man, he went in with
a lot of pressure and he's had eight good seasons there,
and I think the best is yet the coach.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, I just hope he spends last time this season
complaining about stuff because unfortunately, and I'm a big fan
of his. I'm a big fan of his and so
I hope u ce La does well. But I but
I feel like what sort of undermines his success and
what dominates the conversation are the things that he complains
about almost endlessly, whether it's travel, whether it's being in
(35:50):
the league that he's in, whatever it is. It felt
like every game last year in the post mortem, instead
of talking about what was happening on the floor, it
was something he was complaining about. And like, we all
complain about stuff, but when you complain about something every
single time there's a microphone in front of you, A,
it sort of obscures what your team is accomplishing or
in some cases not accomplishing, and b it eventually starts
(36:12):
to ring hollow. I'm a huge fan of Mick, I'm
not a fan of the almost NonStop complaining, and I
hope we get less of that, and maybe we will
with a better team this year.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Mike, I have a run.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
Man, I lost you.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I'm sorry. Well, have a great weekend. I don't know,
not the first time I've been lost, Mike, Have a
great weekend. The Locked On Reds Guys in Studio with
Me coming up next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Keep your golf game sharp,
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. What's up, Mulleger,
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thanks for listening, hook, You're having an awesome Friday afternoon,
maybe with your weekend already off to a great start.
So the Bengals have one of the worst five offensive
lines in football. I have not ranked all the NFL
offensive lines. But there's an analyst, pretty good, well respected
analyst who says, yes, I don't think I agree, but
(00:32):
there's a butt and I'll give you the butt coming
up at about fifteen minutes. I bet you can't wait
for that show. Preview is available. You can watch it
right now on Twitter. I'm gonna go on vacation next week.
Here's my promise to you. Ok, I'm going to go
on vacation next week, and when I come back, I
promise I will start to call it X.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But right now it's Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you can watch it thanks to a share Facts
credit Union Share Facts credit Union, there is there was
no greater financial institution in the United States of America,
and certainly no greater financial institution in the greater Cincinnati area.
So what you should do is learn about shareff Facts.
I'm become a member, learn about share Facts at share
(01:14):
facts dot org, or swing by any share branch. I
swung by my share Fax branch today. I made a
very small deposit and I got a free soft drink Cateemy.
So can't beat that. Does your financial institution give you
a free soft drink?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
No? No, no, I'm guessing the answer is no.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We're gonna get an in studio visit from the Lockdown
Reds guys looking forward to that coming up in just
about one hour. It's a lot of fun to talk
about baseball. It's a lot of fun to talk about sports.
And I don't mean, you know, professional, although it's a
lot of fun to have this job. But it's it's
fun to talk about baseball. It's fun to talk about strategies,
(01:56):
and baseball I think lends itself to that a little
bit more than some of the other sports. Strategies in
baseball I think are relatively simple, even if some of
the data that we use to determine what sound strategy
can be kind of complex. But it's fun to debate
strategy with your friends. It's fun to set at a
ballpark perhaps and while you're having a cold one, you know,
(02:18):
talk about what the manager is doing, pitching changes, leaving
a starter in, bunting, lineup construction.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
It's fun to do that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I badly wish that when we talk baseball that we
actually talk about baseball, because last night, last night would
have been a fun opportunity to do so. Because last
night's game, last night's game was quick moving, very fun
to watch, tremendous pitching duel. Brady Singer amplified his trade
(02:52):
value with a really good start. Unfortunately for the Reds,
Jesus LIZARDA was even better. And you, unfortunately you and
I know the past, and they score a bunch of
runs one night, they score next to none or none
the next, and that's exactly what happened last night. But
last night, in the ninth inning, was was a situation
where I think you could have a good discussion about
(03:12):
baseball strategy. First and second, nobody out, tying run and
scoring position winning run at first base, a Euhanio Suarez
at the plate. So do you leave Geno in to hit,
try to see if he could hit a three run
homer to end the ballgame? Do you have him bunt?
Do you call somebody off the bench, do you have
a pitcher try to bunt. Do you ask Matt McLain,
(03:33):
who's gone on the injured list today, do you have
him try to bunt like it's I am as a
general rule with exceptions, with exceptions. I'm sort of anti
bunt because I'm pro math, and there's nearly a century
and a half of data to suggest that bunting is
mathematically a bad strategy. It can work. Lots of things
(03:56):
that the odds don't favor can work, and last night
it would have been one of those situations where it
would have been fun, maybe if you're at the ballpark
or texting with your buddies or hosting a call in
show after the game to discuss the merits of what
Tito decided to do, which was to have Geno swing away,
versus what Tito didn't do, which is ask Geno to bunt,
(04:19):
or replace him with another player on the bench who
might be better at laying down a bun. As it
turns out, Gino strikes out, rest of the inning unfolds
rather predictably, and the Reds lose a one nothing game.
Here's the problem. It doesn't matter they lost last night.
(04:40):
They're forty two and fifty. The careening towards their relevance continues.
The careening toward the trade deadline and the sell off
or the fire sale or the next rebuild or whatever
you want to call it, is continuing. It doesn't matter.
I used to say this about the Bengals, and this
is not the case this offseason. But back in the
day the Bengals didn't really do anything in free agency
(05:02):
when they kind of sat out most of the offseason.
You know, we used to say, like, the Bengals don't
give us a chance to really enjoy the fun part
of the offseason, the transactions, free agency, thinking about players
who may fit. That has changed, and it's certainly not
the case this year this offseason because they've done a
lot of stuff. The Reds, with exceptions, the Reds don't
(05:25):
let us enjoy the fun parts of the actual season.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The fun parts of the actual season are the.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Actual baseball games and what comes with the baseball games
are supposed to be fun discussions about, you know, roster
construction and who should hit war who should playwear, managerial decisions.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Those are things that.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Matter a lot more and that we have a lot
more fun discussing when the team matters. But when you
have seasons like this, and unfortunately, over the last quarter century,
thirty years, whatever it's been, unfortunately, seasons like this are
the rule and not the exception. In the middle of
the summer, right when baseball occupies all the real estate,
(06:09):
it really doesn't make much sense to dwell on whether
or not the Red should have had their hitter bunt
with a two on and nobody out in a one
run game, because there are a billion games at a
first place, there are a thousand games outside of the wildcard.
They're going nowhere. And so when that's the case, the minutia,
(06:32):
the micro the fun stuff unfortunately doesn't matter. You know,
in twenty twenty three, which was an uber fun season,
it was an uber fun season until the trade deadline,
when Nick Crawl and company basically said at.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Work, don't not look at a try. We just worked.
We got a fun team.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It just don't care if we build a better team
than when we have the twenty twenty three it was
a fun summer.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It was fun year. Man, this time three years ago
the Red were in first place.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Then I said often that what I loved so much
about that team is they enabled us to talk about
baseball when we talked about baseball, because the year before
had been abjectly miserable, and most of the years leading
up to it, with exceptions, objectly miserable. You know, when
(07:22):
the Reds were just you know, dragging us through those
seasons fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen, right the last decade.
You know, I would say all the time, like, regardless
of who the manager was, Brian Price or David Beller, whoever,
if the manager decides to leave his pitcher in too
long and they lose the game and they go from
(07:46):
twenty one games at a first place to twenty two
games at a first place, doesn't really matter. Then in
twenty twenty three, for the first time in a very
long time, we talked about baseball when we talked about baseball,
because the year before it was all about why folks
aren't going to games, why you hate Phil Castellini, why
they should sell the team, how much longer you're going
(08:09):
to tolerate sitting through a rebuild. We didn't get into
the ins and outs of the games themselves, and this
season is taking on a similar feel. No, this team
is not as bad as that one In twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
But like last night was a fun a fun situation.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm listening to Lance last night extra innings, and he
led his show by talking about the ninth inning and
did so in a way that was entertaining and compelling.
And I could hear the angst in his voice, and
I could hear the disappointment that continued frustration that he
has to feel as a fan who has to talk
about that team immediately after the game every single night.
And he launched into this thing about why it would
(08:52):
have been a bad decision to bunt, and he took
some phone calls, including from a guy who was angry
that Lance doesn't like onions and mustard on his conies.
And he took a phone call from a guy who
suggested they should bunt. And if Gino can't lay down
a bunt, ask a pictuer to bunt. Even though pitchers
don't hit anymore, they're probably less equipped a bunt than
at any point in baseball history. And I'm listening to
(09:12):
this and this is no knock on Lance at all.
Who is the best at what he does. But I
said to myself out loud as I'm driving, who cares?
Who cares. If they bunt and they score two runs
and they win the game, yippie, then they're only six
hunder five hundred. They chose to do what they chose
(09:35):
to do and three consecutive outs were made against a
terrific closer, and they're eight games under five hundred. Yeah,
maybe a frustrating loss, but let's be honest not it
can't be at this point that emotionally impactful of a
loss didn't do any real damage to their postseason hopes.
(09:55):
I'm not sure anybody feels any different about the Reds
today than they did yesterday based on the result, and
had they won the game, I'm not sure anybody would
feel that much better about the Reds than they do
right now. If you love the Reds, if you love
the sport, I would have to imagine that part of
(10:16):
the fun part of being a fan for you is
discussing the team, discussing the things that the manager decides
to do, and having fun and the key there is fun,
disagreements about strategy and personnel decisions, who should play where,
who should bat wear, whether or not. Last night, Brady
(10:40):
Singer was left in too long spoiler alert. He was
not who the first guy out of the bullpen should be,
what the deployment of relievers should be? None of those
things seem to matter because the Reds have ruined baseball.
Here yet again, another summer where it seems to make
(11:02):
really no sense, as fun as it is to discuss
actual baseball, and what takes the place of talking about
actual baseball when we do talk about baseball is the
same tire drumbeat of who should get fired, who should
be blamed, who should be held accountable?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Why did this go wrong? Why should we believe.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
This franchise when they say things are going to be
better down the road, And it's just so tired and frustrating.
If you listen to two shows in other markets, and
I do, And I was in Milwaukee early last week
and I listened to the Brewers postgame shows, and man,
that's the stuff they're talking about actual baseball because their
(11:45):
baseball team actually matters. They do that in a lot
of places. We've had a chance to do that here occasionally,
but we don't get a chance to do it enough.
So I don't know, Man, Maybe you feel strongly about
bunting or not bunting, and maybe if feel like last
night's ninth inning, the season hinged on that, and had
they successfully executed the ninth inning in whichever way you wish,
(12:06):
they scored two runs, win the ballgame, and the season
takes off from here. Maybe maybe, But I think for
most of us there's this real sense of who cares.
It's an empty feeling, and I don't know man as
a fan of a sport, it's sort of frustrating when
it makes no sense to actually talk about the games
(12:28):
themselves because the games themselves seem largely irrelevant because of
the team's placement in the standings. It would be one
thing if that was the exception here. Unfortunately, for a
very long time, that's become the rule. Sixteen after three o'clock.
Your perspective on any number of things has always welcome
(12:50):
at five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty eight
six six seven h two three seven seven six works
as well. You could also send me a tweet or
an X at moegar thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental
is building healthy and smart and vibrant communities for all
(13:13):
of the Delta Dental oh dot com. Do the Bengals
have one of the worst five offensive lines in the NFL.
That's that's that's what we're going to talk about during
baseball season. Next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Then you see how traffic lock.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger. Anything you may have
missed on this show, you could listen to anywhere anytime
on the iHeartRadio app, which is free and very easy
to use. Podcasts of this show our service of Long
Next Sports Grill. You know a cold one sounds good
(13:54):
right now? You know a good place to get a
cold One's Long Next Sports Grill. You got to three locations.
You got the one in One, you get the one
in Hebron which is brand new, and you get the
one in Richwood. And you know what goes great with
a cold one, a good meal. If you haven't had
the wings at Long Next, what are you waiting for?
Four k TVs all over the place, great plays to watch.
Whatever you want to watch. Could be the Reds this weekend,
(14:16):
could be the World Cup, could be could be really
whatever you want. Long Necks Sports Grow. I guess you
know just one of those places. Just go to the
bartender and say give me the remote I mean, you
can watch gun Smoke if you want to, doesn't matter.
Twenty three after three o'clock, we have the guys from
(14:38):
the Lockdown Reds podcast going to join us in studio,
Jeff and Steve. Steve in town, so they'll visit us
in studio, will go through a whole slew of Reds
related issues. By the way, we are now nineteen days
away from our first training camp broadcast of the year
on ESPN fifteen thirty, so stoked for it. Mentioned this yesterday.
(14:59):
We he started doing this last year and it had
been a wish of mine since basically the first year
I hosted this show to get a chance to broadcast
from Bengals training camp. And we started last year and
we'll continue this year starting on July the twenty ninth.
We'll have all the practices that you could attend, and
then we'll have some of the practices that nobody could attend.
(15:21):
It will be your eyes and ears speaking of the Bengals.
Was a very good website. Warren Sharp Sharp football Analysis,
somebody that we've never had the pleasure of actually talking
to on this show, and maybe we should change that.
But it's less season, it's ranking season. There's not a
lot going on, and so people who cover and write
(15:43):
and talk about football come up with lists. Warren released
his rankings of the thirty two NFL offensive lines, and
he has the Bengals twenty eighth.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Here's what he writes.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Cincinnati decided to run it back with the CENTI the
same offensive line as a season ago, only adding rookies
Brian Parker and Connor Loo. When the primary five starters
were on the field together, Bengals running backs average one
point four yards before contact per attempt, which ranked thirtieth
out of forty eight qualified offensive line combinations.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You can go read.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
More at Warren's website sharp footballanalysis dot com. That doesn't
necessarily take into account that the offensive line was good
at keeping Joe Flacco and then when he came back
Joe Burrow upright. I think anyone who watched and I
don't claim to be an offensive line play expert, but
(16:41):
I've watched enough football that I could tell you, and
I've watched enough Bengals offensive lines that were terrible. I'm
experienced enough to be able to tell you when an
offensive line is good or when it's not. Last year's
offensive line toward the end of the season. Wait, pretty well,
top five offensive line, no top ten offensive line, probably
not bottom five. The unit that I watched at the
(17:02):
end of the season last year is not a bottom
five offensive line. So going into this season, I'm gonna
go ahead and say they're not a bottom five offensive line.
They will benefit from continuity. I think a Marius Mims
has a chance to be one of the very best
players at his position. Dylan Fairchild can make a year
two leap. You know, we'll see if Parker and Lou
(17:23):
if they're ready to play. And one thing I do
worry about relative to last year is last season the
Bengals enjoyed relatively good health on the O line one
year to the next. That often doesn't carry over, and
so maybe their depth is a little bit more tested
this year. And can they pass the depth test with
two offensive linemen that they took in the draft this
(17:45):
year and Lou and Parker.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
We will see.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think, though we have to acknowledge this, maybe it's
not a bottom five offensive line. Maybe it won't play
like a bottom five offensive line. I would put it
somewhere middle of the pack. And maybe if we're being
totally honest toward the lower part of the middle of
the pack, but not bottom five. There is, however, a
(18:13):
pretty low floor for this offensive line. Look, there were
times even last season when the rest of the guys
upfront were playing pretty well. There were moments last year
where Orlando Brown looked like a player whose age had
kind of caught up to him. He may have a
(18:35):
terrific year this season, but I don't know if it
would be a major shock if, like Orlando Brown, wasn't
very good this year. He is thirty years old. Ted
Carris a beloved player and deservedly so, and maybe still
a very good player. And one of the interesting things
will be to see how the team eventually transitions from
(18:56):
Ted Carris to Connor Loo. But Harris is thirty three
years old. He got two starting offensive linemen who are
in their thirties.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
The flip to that is a Marius Mims. I said
the other day, I think Amrius Mims is a candidate
to be a not just a Pro Bowl player, but
an All Pro player this year. And we'll see, but
I think there's every reason for excitement for a Marius Mims.
And you know, Dylan Fairchild. We're looking for a year
or two leap Dalton Reisner. The easiest move of the
(19:32):
offseason was one of the first ones they made, which
was just go ahead and ensure that that guy is
still here. There is continuity. There's a unit that played
well toward the end of the season last year.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
It is.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
The best offensive line that Joe Burrow has played behind
as an NFL player. That is as much of a
statement about the offensive lines that he used to play
behind as much as it's a statement about the one
they have now. But still it's a statement. But I
don't know that it would be stunning. You look at
position groups through this lens. High ceiling, high floor. The
(20:05):
ceiling for the Bengals quarterback is through the roof. The
ceiling for the Bengals wide receivers is through the roof.
The ceiling for the skill guys is through the roof.
Maybe the ceiling for the offensive line is still really good.
But I don't believe it's a bottom five offensive line.
I do think though, that the variance the spread between
(20:28):
its best and its worst pretty wide. I think the
floor is pretty low. And by the way you look
at these rankings and they're folding into it like backups,
depth and so there's you know, maybe a question about
Cody Ford, who was not in shape at training camp
last year, a little bit of a question about him.
There are two rookies who seem like pretty good bets
(20:50):
to make the team, but they are rookies. We're all,
you know, pretty excited about what the unit could be,
and there's continuity, which is certainly, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
In their favor.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But I do believe relative to some of the other
position groups that it is fair to say that while
they might not be the twenty eighth best offensive line
right now, that it is still a unit that there's
at least more questions about it than some of the others.
We'll see, but I do think the floor is pretty low.
(21:25):
Floor is always not the most likely outcome. Three point thirty,
ESPN fifteen thirty five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty Sports headlines are coming up. We mentioned yesterday the
college basketball exhibition event that is coming to the Lindner
Family Tennis Center, the care Source Classic, which I.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Think is really cool.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I guess there's pushback to it, and I don't really
understand it. Maybe somebody can help me understand it. Next
on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
From the UC Health Traffic Center, a.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family, the Yours for Life
Kelsey Show dot Com. First of three tonight at GABP.
It's the Reds and Cubs and for losing the opening
series of this homestand to the Phillies final three games
(22:23):
before the All Star Break, Hunter Green will throw against
Shota Inman. August seven to ten is tonight's first pitch
on seven hundred WLW. Matt McClain headed to the IL
with a calf injury. Key Brian Hayes is back and
he is in the starting lineup tonight. Your starting lineup
for Cincinnati this evening. Eli Dela Cruz at short Soule
started first base, Spencer Steers in center field, JJ Bledean left,
(22:48):
Uhaneo Suarez is dhing. Tyler Stevenson catches Noelve, Martes and Wright.
Edwin Arroyo plays second base, and Hayes is at third
base and he is batting ninth. Florence Yawl's on the
road against Joliette FC. Cincinnati plays a friendly against against
English side Burnley FC World Cup quarterfinal happening right now
(23:13):
in La Spain and Belgium, and Spain has a one
nothing lead there in the thirty seventh minute. Unlike the
American team, the Spanish team doesn't stand around and watch
in awe of Belgium like they're kicking the ball to
each other. They're moving, looks like they have a plan
of attack. They're being somewhat aggressive. Unlike the United States
(23:37):
when we played Belgium, we just stood there and watched
and hey, we know, like an international incident almost unfolded
over this guy over here, but we're not gonna kick
him the ball. One nil Spain in front of Belgium.
We will keep you up to date as that game unfolds.
We mentioned this yesterday and our friend Rick Boring was
(23:57):
the first that I saw to report. The exhibition event
happening at the Elender Tennis Center on October seventh, the
care Source Class at College Basketball event, which is gonna
be a doubleheader, an exhibition doubleheader, a preseason doubleheader that
features two tilts, one featuring Xavier taking on Dayton and
(24:19):
the other being Cincinnati battling Ohio State. These are preseason
games and I'm guessing I don't need to remind you
what preseason means, but they're games that don't count. And
my general takeaway was, man, it would be great if
we were in a world were those schools played against
each other in games that count. Now, for what it's worth,
(24:42):
you see does play two of the other three schools involved,
and obviously Xavier plays in the regular season.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
One of the other schools involved.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You see in Xavier play against each other Skyline Chili
Crosstown shootout, which I believe is December fifth, and you
see in Dayton play against each other. That game is
going to be a the arena that is, I believe, Saturday,
November the fourteenth. But sure, man like, ideally those schools
would play, and they would play on a regular basis,
and they would play in games that counted, and they
(25:12):
would play in the other team's home floor, or maybe
there would be a four team event like this that
you know, sort of rotated around the region. And yes,
we have beaten that into the ground for decades, all
the area schools that you could have in some sort
of make believe MTE, but those things never come to
fruition in the absence of regular season games being played.
(25:38):
Give me some exhibition games like college basketball is needless
to say, it's it's different. But you know, I'm old
enough to remember from a UC perspective when they would
play athletes in action. I'm old enough to remember watching
them lose to athletes in action and then might play,
you know, another traveling team or play a Division two team,
(26:00):
something like that. I think it's great that D one
teams are allowed to play other D one teams to
prepare for the season. And sure you watch those games thinking, man,
it would be cool if these were regular season games.
Ohio State came to Cincinnati a couple of years ago,
they played an exhibition game.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Cincinnati won.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You see, played at Michigan last year, won that game,
played at Arkansas last year, and got boat raced. To
what degree those games helped coaches get their teams ready
for the regular season, I'm sure the answer to that
is anecdotal. I'm sure some coaches get great, you know,
(26:41):
value out of those games and others do not. As
a fan, yes, we all wish there are regular season games.
But I'm gonna go ahead and play some audio because
I saw this last night. This is Rick Browing of
Musketeerreport dot com and The Skinny Podcast, which unfortunately they
put out the final episode of the Skinny Podcast earlier
(27:02):
this week, and we'll get to that a little bit
later on. But here's Rick, who, again was the first
that I saw on the internet. This was on his
message board at musketeer Report dot com, the first that
I saw kind of putting this out there that this
event was gonna happen. I guess there's pushback. I guess
it's loud in some corners. Here's what Rick had to
(27:22):
say about the pushback to this event taking place that
is an exhibition event, not a regular season event.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Here's my thing. I know there's a big push now.
This has become a really InVogue thing. National media members
are really pushing it. So then the fans push it
as like when something like this gets announced that they
immediately poop poo in and go oh an exhibition gross,
make these games matter. You guys are cowards for not
making these games matter. And I get that to an extent,
like they are using this new exhibition rule where you're
(27:52):
allowed to play exhibition against D one's to make them
public as a way to play rivalry games that they're
otherwise not playing, or regional games that they're otherwise not
playing during the regular season.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
But my thing is this.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
You haven't been getting these games during the regular season regardless.
It's not like they're going You guys are acting like
these are replacing the regular season matchups. They're not that
toothpases out of the tube. They scheduled the way they
schedule because they want to give themselves their best chance
of making the Ansully Tournament. You're not going to change that.
It's big money at this point for them. They're doing
what they feel is best for them. But this is
(28:24):
still better than the alternative. Never seen them play a
dating or you see playing in Ohio State and them
not doing some cool double header event that's outdoors.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like, I get it. Fans love to complain.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's kind of become part of sports fandom in our
country for some reasons, like you gotta act like you're
miserable at all times, but complaining about a cool exhibition
event that's unlike anything we've really seen involving a bunch
of teams that we've all been clamoring for these teams
to play each other in an event like this. Getting
upset about that is just stupid, Like this is a
cool event. Be happy about it.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes, yes, yes, it is cool event. Would it be
better if it was regular season? And then, of course,
of course it would be Who disagree with that? Nobody
who would would? But it's it's not gonna be And
there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, one
of like the the go to a night you know
is a sports talk radio nerd growing up, One of
(29:13):
the go to topics in the nineties was exactly this, like,
wouldn't it be cool if you can get all these
schools together to play a regular season event? And uh,
you know, wouldn't it wouldn't it be wouldn't it be
neat if if instead of playing some of the by
games that these schools are involved in, they played more
regional teams? Of course, yes, in an ideal world there
(29:33):
would be no by games at all, and all the
really big time schools would play a whole bunch of
other big time schools.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Like that's who disagrees with that?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
And yeah, man, it's more fun to play regional schools
because you know, fans of those schools versus some of
the schools they play. You see, is gonna play a
home and home against Minnesota, which is fine, it's a
Big ten school.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
But would it be more fun.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
To play Ohio State now, given what happened the last
time they played a home and home from avera perspective,
maybe the answer is no. But sure, right, more interest,
more eyeballs, you know, more Ohio State fans. I'm sure
if you're a UC fan, then you know Minnesota fans.
But in the absence of that, which these things weren't happening,
or at least weren't happening on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Anyway, if this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Is like a cool secondary option, awesome, and yeah it's
you know, there's a little novelty to it. They're gonna
play in a tennis venue. You know, I'm curious as
to how that's gonna work. But it's different and unique
and at least gives us a taste of a traditional
(30:37):
rivalry like Xavier and Dayton, which look, man, I wish
those teams played every single years at UDLM. I loved
those games. I loved the games more when they would
be played at ud Arena. But I love those games,
and I wish Ohio State would play some of the
schools in Southwest Ohio in the absence of it, like
it's as Rick said, it's not replacing games that were
already happening. If the options are these schools are never
(31:01):
going to play, or they will play, but they're only
going to play. And when it doesn't count. In an
environment where you're allowed to play preseason games, cool, play
some preseason games and you could.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Do what you want with them.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You could do what you want with the results of them.
And you know, if playing against competition the caliber of
Xavier for Dayton, or Ohio State for UC, or vice versa,
helps them get ready for the season a little bit
better than playing the sort of you know, hidden exhibition
games or hidden scrimmages, secret scrimmages or exhibitions against D
(31:34):
two schools they were playing, then even better. And by
the way, you don't have to watch and you don't
have to go. So if you don't want to watch
or if you don't want to go, and I would
assume there's gonna be radio coverage, I certainly hope. So
if there is radio, don't listen, don't watch, don't go, Like, okay,
pick up the season when it begins with the games
that actually counts. But you know it, if I have
(31:58):
a choice, Yes, if I was in charge, if I
was sports zar, which I should be named sports Zar,
absolutely these schools would play against each other and other
area schools would be folded into the conversation into an
event like this in the absence of it. Great play
some preseason games. It'll be unique, it'll be fun, it
(32:20):
will benefit an amazing organization. There'll be some novelty to it.
If it goes poorly, it'll never happen again. And if
it goes well, maybe we'll get another version of it.
If you don't want to watch, don't watch fourteen away
from four o'clock. By the way, speaking of college athletics,
NK used new ad Mike Odom was on our show yesterday.
(32:44):
If you missed that conversation, go listen to it on
the iHeartRadio app thirteen from four o'clock. He locked on
Red's podcast, Guys will join Us excuse me in studio
in the four o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Then fifteen thirty on Olegar The Lockdown, Reds Guys are
with Me in studio and we'll chat with them at
four five. They brought beer, which I'm excited about. As
you can tell, I got like two and a half minutes. Mike,
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Oh, thank you mom, very time. Hey. The reason I
called today was I'm really excited about what Mick Cronin
is doing with the UCLA basketball For a rip, he
got the number one international recruit Nicole of Costa Rica
out of Serbia, and this guy is proposed now to
(33:49):
possibly be the number one pick in the twenty eight
NBA draft. He's seventeen, so next starting for two years
for sure. And he got another guy out of the
International League named Gunner Gris something but he's highly acclaimed too.
But this Nicole guy and he's got he hammered the
(34:10):
Francefurt Portal did a great job. Their outlook is tremendous.
And also this young guy was voted the best defensive
player in the Tiva seventeen year old tournament where the
Serbian defeat the hell out of the United States.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah, no, they you're You're exactly right. They've added Trent Perry,
They've kept a lot of guys. They have continuity. But
I've noticed this and I don't know when I looked
at this CBS Sports, they're way too early conference projections.
And the Big Ten is awesome, we know that, But
CBS Sports still had UCLA middle of the pack in
(34:50):
the in the Big Ten.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
Yeah, that surprises me. So we'll see. But you know,
it's a couple of guys that he got through the portal.
The main stress, the real strengths that a couple of
them have are the typical Cincinnati defense, A tough minded guy.
So I'm really excited for Mick because he's he's had
(35:13):
a you know, he walked into such a big time
job there low with such big as you know, I
got to give him credit. Man, he went in with
a lot of pressure and he's had eight good seasons there,
and I think the best is yet the coach.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, I just hope he spends last time this season
complaining about stuff because unfortunately, and I'm a big fan
of his. I'm a big fan of his and so
I hope u ce La does well. But I but
I feel like what sort of undermines his success and
what dominates the conversation are the things that he complains
about almost endlessly, whether it's travel, whether it's being in
(35:50):
the league that he's in, whatever it is. It felt
like every game last year in the post mortem, instead
of talking about what was happening on the floor, it
was something he was complaining about. And like, we all
complain about stuff, but when you complain about something every
single time there's a microphone in front of you, A,
it sort of obscures what your team is accomplishing or
in some cases not accomplishing, and b it eventually starts
(36:12):
to ring hollow. I'm a huge fan of Mick, I'm
not a fan of the almost NonStop complaining, and I
hope we get less of that, and maybe we will
with a better team this year.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Mike, I have a run.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
Man, I lost you.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I'm sorry. Well, have a great weekend. I don't know,
not the first time I've been lost, Mike, Have a
great weekend. The Locked On Reds Guys in Studio with
Me coming up next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Keep your golf game sharp,
Mo Egger News
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