July 14, 2026 • 38 mins
It's a Power Hour of Cincy Sports Talk with Chad Brendel and Richard Skinner
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've done Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I number two. Here we go the Moegar Show. I'm
not Moegar, Chad Brenda, Bearcat Journal filling in FROMO All Week,
the best of weeks to be on sports radio. When
you look at your calendar, thank you for choosing me.
(00:37):
When you look at your calendar every year you go
Man All Star Week. That's peak sports talk radio. So
I thought one of the big stories in local media
recently is the announced retirement of a mentor of mine,
(00:58):
somebody that has uh. We we shared a microphone together
at one point. It was didn't share it, but we
were in the same way. We use different microphones. Yes, uh,
a little more specific, that would be weird if we
shared a microphone like correct, correct, although at that place
it wouldn't have been. It wouldn't have been out of
(01:18):
the question. But we were radio partners in a in
a different radio existence. Somebody that I've always admired because
they've rolled with the punches better than just about anybody
I've ever seen in sports media, sometimes not by their
own volition, but very few people have done radio, print TV,
(01:42):
all in different capacities, all in different eras, you did bowling.
I believe did.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Bowling for Cable one of Northern Kentucky. Ted Bushman's group
the best. Yes, there was nobody better than Ted bush
was my favorite.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Man. Did you ever do any of the Thomas Morgan Oh?
I absolute.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Jeff Pacorro and I were the first voices of Thomas Morris.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Did I pick up after you probably well know that
the inside the basketball games when they had that uh
studio quote unquote, I use a loose term in like
a hallway closet. Yes, that just had all the like
Ted just collected TV equipment. No, we we did.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I say we did the games at Dixie Heights High School. Yes, okay,
that's where. And it was me Corro and a guy
who was in this business for a while. He's now
in I believe, a lawyer, Dennison Killer. Oh yeah, we
were the three person team for Thomas Moore.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Football, man I did. I did Thomas Moore basketball for
a while, and then we would do the Kentucky Ohio
All Star Game, and then I did some games for
Ted and Ted had the bus at one point time. Man,
rest his soul. He was the best, a true one.
Like a lot of people claim to be one of one.
He was one of one. There was no other depth
(02:54):
social communications right at the airport.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I mean a kind job, not yeah that, but he
did all this stuff on the side, and he worked
so hard at it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And I remember they did.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
A testimonial for him Lack of Better tournament of Florence
Shall's game.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
They had a suite and also did games for him
at the Florence Shalls.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And I just remember I had to walk up and
I almost cried to tell him how much he meant
to me, give me a start, like I was at
nobody from nowhere. I was working for his wife at
the Recorder newspapers and one time he just goes, do
you know how to broadcast? I go, kind of what
I want to do. Sure, I'll give it a shot,
and he throws me in there and off we go. Yeah,
he did that for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yes he did. Like that's you know because you miss
the introduction on Richard Skinner. But Richard Skinner formerly of
the Post, the Inquirer, the Recorder, this radious radio station,
that radio station. Yeah, correct, Homer.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I did some sports talk on w CVG radio and
twelve thirty and Covington in the day.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Wow, how about that? I remember that tower? They had
the tower? Yeah right there.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Did play By played to the first NKU Division One
game in San Diego. So i've if you'd have looked
at eighteen, well, I graduate high school in seventeen, seventeen
year old graduating from Dixie Heights High School. Richard Skinner
and said, here's where your career is gonna go. You're
gonna be able to work in your hometown for the
vast majority of your career, and you're gonna be lucky
enough to cover all these things. And I going, Ah,
(04:18):
you're funny. You're a funny, funny person. It's been incredible.
I mean I got a chance to, as I mentioned,
work at the Recorder. It was a great place to work.
Pat Crowley, the late pack Rally, became a He was
in my wedding, one of my best friends, and we
worked together and I drew work ethic from him because
nobody I've ever been around in my lifetime worked harder
than Pat did. Got a chance to finally get a
(04:40):
daily newspaper job. I remember in the classifieds in the Inquirer.
One day I looked and I saw that Maysville Ledger
Independent in Maysville, Kentucky had an opening for a sports editor.
I thought, why not now the time my wife worked
for American Airlines here and she said, well, we're not
moving there, You're gonna drive.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'm like, okay.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
So I made the commute every day to amaze little
Kentucky and back before there was the double a highway man,
it was Route eight, Route fifty two. Always a forty
ouncer on the way back always. But I had great
editor there. Bob Hendrickson was the editor and publisher Lawnie Caponi,
who's who's passed away. He was the editor news editor
of the paper. But he also used to be a
(05:19):
sports guy to the best guys. I mean they just
let me. They basically just said, here's your territory, buddy, go.
And I was able to go everywhere in that region
to cover sports, and it was a great way to
understand if you're gonna do something, you better hustle your
butt off to do it. And finally then got a
chance to get back up here when I'm in nineteen
ninety one, thanks to my soon to be radio partner,
Tom Gamble's gooviies.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It sounds how was that for how many ever years?
We did it for twelve years.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
What he is, truly, and you know him well enough,
I do one of the funniest intentionally and unintentional socio
paths I have ever known. So when we did the show,
he was working three different jobs. He had a sports
marketing company which he still has to this day, he
was doing the radio show, and then he was a
professoral and literally every day I would walk in. So
(06:06):
we we did a four hour show, but we did
in three hour shifts. He would do six to nine
because he had to go teach. I would do seven,
eleven to ten. I would come in like seven minutes
late every every day, and it always made him man.
But it was just kind of the way I did
it because I was working a second job too, But
I always, uh, we always overlapped him. Literally every time
I came in, he was quitting one of his three jobs.
(06:27):
I can't do with this job. You know, I don't
need to teach anymore. Well, you know what I think,
If I just teach her, it's just a funny. I
get a call every morning. In fact, I didn't get
a chance to call him back to day. I get
a call every morning from him, it's a job eight
eleven am. No, it's just complaining about something that There's
some mornings I'm like, I do want to hear this
for comedic relief, and there's some mornings where you know
how Y are just somewhere You're like, I just can't today,
(06:47):
I can't. We went to the IHM Festival in Northern
Kentucky together on on Saturday. I had a few beers
at a few laughs. He's he's one of the he's
one of the truly funny people. Because a lot of
people in this business are stick right. I mean, I
get it. I appreciate those people. I could never be
that that person. It's just not my personality. Whenever I
said I believed, didn't mean you had to agree with it.
Didn't mean anybody ever did agree with it, but you
(07:09):
had to be true to yourself. And that's the funny
part about him. As much as he came off a stick,
he believed the stupidest stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He would say.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
He is literally the only time I ever cursed on
the air was I cursed at him and I said,
I through my headset and told him, you are so
full of blank threw my headset at him and I went, oh, crap,
I just cursed on the air.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How did I just do that?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
It?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You know, it was a minor.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Curse word, but yeah, you can't curse on the air.
It's part of this business man.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
He's you guys, because that was I wasn't young at
that point in time, but I always wanted to get
into radio, and and you guys kind of shaped the
way that I were. You well, but I agree a
thousand percent. Look I said earlier, my mentors really were
you Vogel and Decorsi? Wow? Correct, one of three. Mike
(07:57):
is the right guy to half listening to you guys?
You were You were funny, but not you weren't going
out of your way to be funny. Like it was.
It was a natural part of your friendship and your
relationship and the way that you spoke to each other
that was humorous. Sports are supposed to be fun. People
(08:17):
forget that. I think, No, you're right, I'm guilty of
that a lot of times myself. Sports are supposed to
be fun. This medium is supposed to be fun. So
you guys taught me a lot in terms of like,
it doesn't have to be stuffy and boring and today.
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
The one thing is, and I told Moe this once
when he and Greg Doyle did a show. Yeah, it's
extraordinarily talented. He's one of the most crazy and crazy
as all get out on one of those ties at
the Indianapolis Star now is are commis and it's been
there for a while. But Greg's extraordinarily talented guy. And
when they started doing a show is after I got
done doing a show. I think I told Moe one day,
I said, you know, you both don't have to be
(08:54):
funny all that one of you has to kind of
be a straight guy. And I tried to play that
with time, like I can. I think I got a
pretty good sense of humor, I really do. That's that's
sounds like a lot of self worth, But I do
think I got a good sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You do.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I can laugh at a lot of things. I can
laugh at myself as much as anybody. But at some
point you have to go, he's the funny guy, you're
the straight guy. Doesn't mean you can't be funny, doesn't
mean he can't be serious, but you got to kind
of have that that, Yeah, play back and forth.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, then there has to be a chemistry.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Then there was you. You also have gone out of
your way over the years to help younger guys getting
into the business. Was that people helped you, Like you've mentioned,
you had a bunch of mentors and they helped you.
And it's like, Okay, I've tried to do the same.
I'm not always the best at it, but I've tried
to do the same.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
And honestly, I mean, I'm I'm a I'm a high
school basketball coach. I like the coach I do. I
like I like to see people.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You like to stomp. I do like to stomp. I
am a stomper and I'm a screamer. I'm a nut.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
But I appreciate anybody that wants to hustle and shows hustle.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Don't don't give me that.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I want to get in the business and then not
hustle to get into the business yourself. Rick Boring, who
I do the podcast with, I always you guys always hustled,
not just in radio but to do other stuff, and
I always appreciated that. And to your point of mentors,
you know, I can think of the early days at
the Post even while even through my career at the
Post Bill Cook, who covered U see for a long time,
became a columnist, was an outstanding mentor to me, and
(10:15):
he protected me in so many ways.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I'll give you a quick story.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So this is I was in the sports director of
the Kentucky Post at the time. I had to I
was a writer, but I also was the person in
charge of laying out the paper, in charge of what
we were covering. And it was a Thursday night during
high school football season, when normally football games or a
Friday night, and they used to give you, you didn't
know your news hole or that's paper talk about for
those that don't know what I'm talking about from back
(10:41):
in the day until you got in that day. And
usually you at least get a page. Sometimes you get
two pages. And I was hoping, and I think I
had requested for two pages that night because we had
a rare Thursday and I had three high school football
games and I was gonna send stringers to all three.
I was I could have gone and covered with myself,
and like, got other stuff to do. I had a
story to write, a feature, right. So this is a
day when when newspapers wanted big art in the middle
(11:03):
of a page, like it didn't matter anything. You just
gotta throw a big piece of big photograph in the
middle of the page. The rest of the news hold
me down. Well, I had one page that day, and
I'm spending money on these stringers. I sent them out
covering games, and so I put a small piece of
art on the page. I lay it out, and then
another sports editor who was one rung above me, came in.
He goes, Oh, you're gonna have to change that. I said,
(11:24):
We're not changing, I said, I I already cut these
stories to shreds. I said it's gonna stay. As in,
if you do anymore, you're gonna cut it even more shreds.
It would have been worth sending these guys up. Gotta
have that's the edict. I go, I don't care about
the dagon edict. I said, I'm just telling you just
I said, just don't change it, okay, I said, this
is my this is my product, Just don't change it.
Of course, I get the paper that day it's changed.
I called him up and I literally told him, you
(11:44):
come in tonight, I'm gonna kick your blank. I said,
I'm literally gonna kick your blank. And you think I'm
kidding walk in that door and find out because I'm
gonna drop you where you stand. And so he of
course calls people above me. They call me, They get
mad at me, of course, and rightfully so. And so
that night I decided I'm I'm done. I'm going in.
So we used to have this instant messenger, and on
the instant messenger, I sent something to the not the
(12:06):
sports editor, but the executive end of the newspaper of
you guys are a joke.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Here's why I did what I did. Blank you. I quit.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And Bill, standing over my shoulder, he goes, you're not
gonna send that. I go, oh, you don't think I am.
And I, of course I wish he hadn't said that,
but let me just I'll give you. I'll give it.
So I went ban, I hit, I went yep, I'm fired.
And I just kind of said, I said I'm done
for the night, manic locked out, went home, came back
the next day.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I come in.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm like waiting if somebody say, come in the office,
you're firing. And Bill sits quietly at his desk. He goes,
come here, we're going downstairs and there's another former sports writer.
He became the it guy Enis Pennington, and he said,
you need to thank Enis. I said, for what he
goes he caught it, he caught it, and he took
it out of the system. I went, Oh, it was
(12:49):
like one of those ones like, you know what, thank
you for saving me for myself. I mean, that's and
you know you gotta hit people, you really do in
your lifetime. We all need somebody like that at some point.
We've all hit somebody like that, I would hope and
Bill was that for me at that point in time.
Like I was done and if I'd have gotten punted,
then I have no idea where my and I was
doing radio at the time, but still I own nowhere.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I was working post was like.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Two full time jobs and two full time incomes, and
my wife was a stay at home ife at that
point and stayed home mom at that point, and so
I needed a second income. I'm like, I'm gonna get
she's gonna kill me. I'm gonna just And Bill saved
me from my soda enus too. God love him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
God, that's great. Let's take a break. When we come back,
I want to I want you to tell stories about
your favorite Bengal ever Carl Pickens. Yep, got a minute
Carl More after this Cincinnati's ESPN thirteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Cincinnatis w CKY, Cincinnati, and iheard radio station Garanteed Human
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I heard radio Damn. It feels good to outro type.
I really wish that thing got more of a chance.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
It's one of my five favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Off the Space is incredible. It's incredible. This scene from
it's one of my favorites. It's incredible. I wish we
would have gotten football to at least one.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's funny because we got through baseball season and we
had a guy for a Rents pitcher, Joe Price, who
was outstanding.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I lost love doing stuff. Lance had him on. He
did like two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Joe's great. Joe moved to Florida. I didn't know that,
but Joe with Joe was great. He was terrific. Great stories.
And I'm with you because football does carries the day.
I mean, especially now this town, it has to carry better,
carry better. What will Oh yeah, Tom's former partment. Oh crap,
(14:48):
Andron complete like he Will Chambers.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
He's in He's in Dallas. He's looking ready on Dallas
off and on for a period of times. I haven't
heard his name in the ages. That was that was
good times. They broke up the at the fan Fan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
In fact, that's where I heeartz own Sarah at least
got her start as the fangirl.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And Rickyuchino, that's correct, he was doing sports. We had
a good cruise crew. Didn't have a sales staff, no,
but we had a crew. If we would have got
a chance, I think we could have stuck her ound
for so too. That's neither here nor there. What's been
your favorite beat her job of all the things you've done.
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I did enjoy covering the University of Kentucky for five
years football and basketball. It didn't hurt that it's my
alma mater, but you have to cover it as a professional.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You're a Kentucky football guy.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I am more of a Kentucky football guy, though I
did like Tubby's Tubby I was when Tubby Smith was
the head coach, and Tubby was a great guy to
deal with, and I'll tell you what kind of a
dude he was. So I would do my radio show
in the morning here and like a lot of places,
you have the press conference the day before.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You have no other access, no like you might.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's a little bit different access that you see in football,
but you don't have much, right But so it's the
day before press conference. Players, that was your access. You
write your preview story, cover the game.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And I would hold you know what every day from
here to get down, to get home, to take a
quick shower, get dressed, drive the lectioning as fast as
I could, because it was always a one o'clock press
conference that always started like one twenty three.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And you get off the air at eleven, yes, no, ten, ten, ten, but.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It was again, it was always scheduled for one, and
I'd always sweat that I got to get there by one,
and i'd get there like twelve fifty eight. I'd roll
in and one twenty three Toby would show up. And
so we started making fun of it, calling it tubby time.
And so come tournament time, Mandy Polly, who was an
assistant sports information director at the time, I said, and
she kind of was the basketball liaison at the time,
(16:41):
I said, Manny, if you could ever get him to
show up right on time for his press conference, I'll
buy you all the beers were on the road in
March in tournament time, and she kind of smiled at me.
I went serious, I'm serious about this. I'll literally from
the SEC tournament to Kentucky's knocked out. I said, I
owe you all drink. It's on me if you can
get it. I says, God be by one o'clock. So serious.
So I get there, rolled in like twelve fifty eight,
(17:03):
sit down, huffing him, puffing thing, and he shows up
right at one o'clock and he points right at me.
He goes, you owe her beer. And I'm like, well,
I mean he did that for her. Think about a
coach at that time of the year to do that
for somebody in sports every man.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I thought, that's a pretty good dude. You and Cal
didn't have the best relationship. I didn't. I didn't cover Cal,
I was. I just wasn't a Cal fan. I just
didn't like the way Cal did business.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And honestly, as goofy as it sounds, I always thought
it was going to end with him wrecking the program,
and he almost did.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
He came close.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Now I'll give him credit for what he's done at
Arkansas or resurrected and do the things he's done and
put together, the rosters he's putting together, Kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The dude still can get it done. He knows how
to find the right guys, he sure does. Whatever it
is that he looks for.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Whether it's Worldwide West or whomever else he needs to find,
he finds.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But everybody thinks they've got the right guy. That's correct.
He finds the right guys, he does. Carl Pickens, is
that your most disliked athlete of all time? Probably give
us the zenith of the Carl Pickings story.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Give you the Ken Griffy Junior story here at some
point too, when he got mad at Tom and I
mostly probably Meg, but I didn't think I was wrong
at the time, but I didn't dislike Junior. Junior was great.
So this is in the Jeff Blake hey Day. Like
Jeff had popped on the scene, but he'd been around
for a few weeks. And I think Todd Jones who
worked in Columbus at the end, but he covered Xavier
for a long time the podcast. Yes, I believe. So
(18:27):
Todd was the main beat guy, but I was the
backup guy. So when Todd would have a day off,
I would go down there. So my day to go
that was a I think it was a random Thursday,
a game week, and my sports htter said, let's just
finally do a big takeout on Jeff Blake, a big
feature on why Jeff Blake's effective, what the receivers all
think of him. How about we do that. I'm like, okay, sure,
it sounds simple enough. And this was in a day
(18:48):
when there was there was not nine. It's funny the
Bengals beat has grown so exponentially. Back then, it was
like both newspapers and occasionally TV would go down to
get a sound body. But it's not as structured as
to day like this a Wednesday Quarterback coach Day and
Thursday JM. R.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Chase Day.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
This was like you just go down the locker room
and you go find your dudes and nobody would swarm
you and you kind of have one on ones.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So first guy I.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Go to about Jeff other than Jeff was Carl Pickens,
and I did that. We all do this, and shame
on me for being I guess this. That's probably how
old was I probably thirty years old. I've been in
the business long enough, thirty two years old, and I
just said, Carl, you got a minute. And he looks
down at a fake watch, no watch on his hand,
just looks at R and goes fifty nine, fifty eight
fifty seven. I said what. He goes fifty six, and
(19:32):
he just kept counting. I go, you're giving me a
literal minute. He goes fifty three fifty. I go, blank you, Carl,
I said, blank you, and I walked away. And so
the other receivers was Darnay Scott, Tony McGee was the
tight end. They are just having a hoot that I
blanked Carl to his face and Carl didn't come after me.
Carl goes, oh, no, man, you got I said, no,
you know what, there are other receivers in this room.
We're gonna get me better quotes than you. Anyway to
(19:53):
blank with you, I'll talk to them. And then Tony goes,
you go talk to me, Go talk to him, Go
talk to Darnay, Go talk to Jeff bl And I
have a story with I'll Carl pickens in and I'm like,
he doesn't care, but I don't care either.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
My guy. Did did you ever talk to him again?
Probably after a game here or there.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I mean, he was just I mean, he turned on
Jeff Hopson at one point Jeff was working for Bengals.
He said, don't ever call my house. And he was
just a bad dude, just a honestly as much. If
you gave me top five worst Bengals of all time,
I can probably give you two Montees berfect than him.
That was about it. Yeah, most the other ones, Yeah,
you got some issues with Like pac Man would get
crazy on occasion, but pac Man at the he would
(20:35):
literally walk up to you like two weeks ago, hug
you go.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I respect Joe like you, and he don't know who
I am basically, but okay.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Guy sure appreciated buddy. What's the Junior story?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
So this was towards the end of Junior, after Junior
gotten hurt a bunch of times, and I didn't want
to see him end up like Willie Mays. I was
a kid in New York when Willie Mays got traded
to the Mets, and it was a disaster when he
was at the end, like he looked a mess. He
was dropping fly balls and just couldn't now. Junior wasn't
the Willie was in his early forties. But I'm like,
I don't want to see him end up like that.
(21:07):
So I just thought, because he's taking such a pounding.
I think this was actually after he had the Hams
major hamstring issue, I think it would behoove him and
the Reds to move him to a corner outfield spot.
That's literally all I said was, I think he'd be
better off and left or right than trying to roam
at the center anymore. I I just don't think he
can do it, and I don't want to see I think,
I said, I don't want to see him end up
like Willie Mays. That was probably the worst thing I
(21:28):
probably know, and somehow, I don't know how he heard
about it, but it got misconstrued where we were and
he literally called us out by name. So that that morning,
I remember, I walk in Tom's doing his hour. I
actually got there on time for a change, and I
start looking some stuff up. The interwebs were a thing
at that point, not by my remember. Newspapers, dot com.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
They were the thing.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So I started looking around and see Date Daily News
has a story that he's mad at a U. I said,
Junior's mad at somebody, and Tom goes, he's mad at us.
I go for what and they started reading the story
of that dude, what is your delio? And his whole
thing was that I guess we weren't down there to
be accountable for saying something. I'd be more than happy
to be down there to be accountable if I felt
(22:09):
like I said something wrong.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I think, I.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Thought, dude, I'm just thinking it's best for everybody that
you moved to a corner outfield spot. I didn't say
to bench you trade or career for a lot of
guys like centerfielders. Eventually, if they can't cover ground anymore
they get older, you're not keeping them in center field
any longer.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You're gonna put him.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
To a corner outfield spot or d HM or put
him at at first base or something. But he didn't
like that. But he was a junior.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Was great.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
I mean he he You talked about guy that had
some stories man and could really poke. You talk about
a guy that could needle people in the locker room.
That guy was amazing at it.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
My only real interaction with him, I was managing the
radio shack at ninth in Maine, Okay, and he came in.
They were putting I guess an off. He had gotten
an office down down there and they were putting in
like a video system for him to watch tape. Okay, uh,
And it was like I think we opened at nine
(23:01):
and it was like nine oh two in the morning
and the I'm in the back doing paperwork and I
was the manager of a radio shack. Illustrious career. Really
picked a good company there, and uh, the the bell
dings and I see him walk in the front door
and I'm like, no, I probably had too many beers
(23:22):
last night, but is that Yeah. I walked out and
it was him. He came in like seven times that
day because he was the errand boy for the it guy.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
The only other great story sports related there. I was
filling in at Carew Tower radio shack and we had
a line. There was thirty people in the line and
I'm just ringing them out, ringing up trash eighties. Just
do do do do do do do do do do,
And uh, we had to do like the name, what's
your name? What's your address? Deal? I said, what's your name?
(23:54):
And I hear this voice say, you know, don't worry
about that, and the voice instantly Tony gwinn Oh why
the Padres were in town? He was getting video equipment
to watch tape up in his room. So I've got
a Tony Gwinn story for you there. So among the
other things I did was the post.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I was back up Red's guy for a while, backup
Bengals guy for a while, did Kentig, did a bunch
of different stuff, as you know, everything everything, and Tony
Gwynn and the padres came to town and my sports
that Iver knew how much of that was a huge
Tony Winn Like I had a Tony. I don't have
a jersey of anybody other than Tony gwyn I literally don't.
I just fell in love with I went I watched
him when he was came up in eighty two, went
to spring training. Actually my wife and I were dating
(24:33):
at the time. We went to Phoenix for spring for
spring break when we were in college our senior year,
and I said better junior year, and I talked to
him to actually going to a podres A's exhibition game
was the here the Padre's actually went to the World
Series and just loved everything the way Tony Gwinn played
the game, and so he knew how much I liked him.
And this will tell you how things are different today
at that point in time. Sometimes when a guy would
(24:54):
come into town, you'd do a story on somebody on
the opposing team. He's like, I know how much you
like him, because once you go some kind of just
feature on Tony Gwynn and what why he continues to
be so successful. So I go in the Pottery's clubhouse
don't know soul obviously right, and I see him. I said, hey, Tony,
I'm done it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
H I said, you got him in.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
He goes, let me go get something to eat.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
He goes, I'll bring it back to the locker, will talk.
I said, no, if you're busy.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
He goes, no, no, I'll bring it back to the locker, will talk.
He has a piece of fried chicken and a roll
sits down the locker and I'm thinking, I'm gonna get
like five minutes with this cat or whatever? Do we
roll for thirty minutes? And he didn't bad a nye
like he never gave you like the glance of like, dude,
I'm done, I can't do this anymore. He was so
amazing to me, and I wrote it. I thought a
pretty good story about him, and he actually the next
(25:36):
day I went in the locker room and he thanked
me for it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So I tell you what a guy he was.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I didn't talk to him long, but like he I
think when I looked up like he was like he
does have that he did. I shouldn't say does he
passed away?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Unfortunately he did have that voice, that very distinct, very
distinct voice.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And we locked eyes and he's like, okay, he knows. Yeah, yep.
And we chatted for a second and I rung up.
I think he was getting a couple like y cables
to to hook up to his video system whatever it
was he was he was. That was one of the
few times I've been like yep, no, well him and right.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Ryan Sandberg came to town after he had had an
injury that might have cost him the first few months
of a season. So he was just coming back and
so I was sent down to do a story on him.
He was equally as the lie like you know, you're
thinking this is some super and he was a super star.
But I remember the best part of that because it
was around derby time, so I guess he missed the
first month of the season.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I remember this.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Is it's gotta be I don't know eighty no to
take like ninety two, ninety three, something like that.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Anyway, they were doing a derby pool.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
The players one thousand dollars a blind draw, and I
just sat there going a thousand dollars you give me,
I do ten bucks on a blind draw, I'm not,
And I like corsery. I'm not doing thousand, but thousand
that like there was nothing and they sure enough, dude,
they only got wads of cast thrown in this big
hat for the blind draw of taking derby ors.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow, it's a different stratosphere. Man, Thank god. What's that
guy's name that slapped somebody for Fantasy Baseball? Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh no, no, no, I know you're talking about. Oh
my gosh, almighty, I'm joining a blank I know exactly who's.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Talking for the Reds. Tommy fa Yeah, Tommy Faan Yeah,
not him, No, don't invite him in thousand dollar him
or Matt Miller from Matt Miller at all. Let's take
another break. When we come back, I'll ask any an
important question. Are the Reds fixable? Or is this I've
got a plan. It's a crazy plan. I'm fascinating more
(27:32):
after that. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from u S Health Traffic Center.
That He's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Welcome back to Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, The Mel Laggers Show.
Chad Brendel filling in all week and today we're talking
to a legend in Cincinnati. But you are You've been
here so long, You've done so many things. I have
I have.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I have worked in sports meetia in this city for
thirty six years now.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, so there you go. Guess it's a long time.
It's a legend.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So what I what I always feel like I am
was like a jack of all trades, maybe master of none.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
So you're like the like the really good utility guys.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
That's kind of what I was in high school baseball,
Like I would play different spots where the guys pitch
that day, I tell your spot. I've always felt like that.
That's my strength is you just keep moving to the next.
I will raise two kids.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Say to your.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Point, I will say, I can't manage a lot of
people in this town have worked for both major newspapers
at one point, did a radio show, did some TV
anchored sports, did a radio show, I just can't.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
They do good for you, and for those that did
one broadcast high school games did.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
One thing way better and many of you did good
for you. But I I'm I'm glad, I because it's
really so. When I went to college, I wanted to
teach and coach, and my mom said, no, I knew
need to do something different than that. I'm like, no,
I want to teach him. I want to coach baseball
and basketball in high school and just teach. That's what
I want to do now. So I was an accounting
(29:11):
major for a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Believe me, and I can see it. I can say, kay,
I did. I had a three five GPA.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
But the one course that I finally got to was finance,
and finance just killed me and I went, I can't
do this the rest of my life. Well, my uncle
was a sports writer in town. Those that he covered
he covered Oscar Robertson, believe it or not, back in
the day at UC and the Royals. He worked at
the Cincinnti Timestar, which worked into the Post eventually, and
(29:39):
he always kind of tried to steer me towards that,
and I'm like, you know, I like sports. I like
to write. I don't mind doing that. I know I
can talk. I used to, like we all did.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
As a kid.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I did all kinds of play by play into my recorder.
I was a kindosur of play by play voices Van
Vance who did Kentucky Colonel's games. And I grew up
with Marty and Kaywood Leadford. I mean about growing up
with listening to guys that were like dudes. Kay would
let for Marty Brenneman. I mean to try to emulate
those guys. You're like, I'm emulating the best when I'm
trying to do this. And so I thought midway through
(30:10):
my sophomore year, I'm gonna switch to journalism, and I
somehow got it done in the next two and a
half years, and off I went. I But, like I said,
that was not where I was going with the career
path in it initially.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I mean, you know, sometimes it does. That's no, right,
that's right, I'm sure right. Correct and Lance were doing
the only two radio. Yeah, how do I do my own?
Figure something else out real quick? No, I'll be honest.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
One of the shows I admire a lot, and I'm
sure you listen to them some too, even though they're
out of market, well they're in Marke because they're actually
syndicated at night here Kentucky Sports Radio. I mean that
that was an internet only show at one point into
their credit they morphed it into almost an empire. To
their credit. I credit anybody. I don't have to like
their show. Credit to the show correct, correct, Yeah, but
you got to like hustle like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You're like, good for you man. You said I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Gonna do this and you went and did it three
or four times, correct and correct away, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
That's that's one of the things I would tell Anyboddy
Young getting into it is you better be able to
pivot well.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
And don't There is another part of the don't turn
anything down. You don't anything like the stuff I did
for Ted Busherman was free. I literally did that story
the same stuff, but I wanted to get experienced doing it.
I had a job at the time, so I was
willing to do it for free. Now, at this point
in my career in life, I'm not doing anything for free.
Primarily it has to really be out of the kindness
(31:37):
of my heart. But at those point in times, there's
nothing too small like don't. Don't assume that I'm doing this,
and just do it. And if you think you want
to do something like this for a living, or anything
for a living, go do that for free at some
point to decermon whether or not you can do it.
A B make whatever mistakes you're gonna make, because you're
(31:57):
gonna make them, and learn from those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And there's it's the old thing in theater right. There's
no small parts. There really aren't. I remember doing a
swim meet at Scott High School for TV and cash.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Sure, dude, I did a obstacle course race at the
Florence YMCA. Went outside, they put the hall yep, they
put me in a golf cart and I went through
the guard. I would literally follow people around this obstacle course.
I get a police pistol shooting thing out of the airport.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
On are you Are you still going to be open
to doing high school? Oh? Yeah, for sure? I still. Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Rob Ebel, who's a friend of mine, runs ESP media.
We do ESPX, so I do a lot of Saint
Xavier sports, not all of them because it's kind of
a student thing.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
But there's something students don't do. Aren't capable?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Really of doing or don't want to do, and I
fill in those kind of gaps and then try to guide.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Them along the way.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And that's been really rewarding because we've had a couple
of kids that have gone on some really good things
out of that, out of that ESPX circumstance. And you know,
a lot of them like to do baseball, but they
don't really fully grasp the play by play portion of baseball.
So I do almost all the baseball games with them
as a color guy. I let him do a handful
of innings so they can kind of listen to me
look at how I do things from like even getting
(33:08):
lineups and score sheets to and one of the kids
he came last year and after like a couple of times,
he's just kind of showing up going got the lineup.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
He would then see.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
What I did, and he put his little lineup card together,
go get the lineup, come back and.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Started getting a little bit better and better at play
by play. And that's always rewarding to see that. It
really is. I enjoy seeing that. It's a it's a
I missed doing some of the high school stuff. I
don't miss doing all of it, but I do miss
like Friday nights. I love Friday. Yeah, getting out and
doing Northern Kentucky high school football games. Some of the
funnest stuff I ever did, Skinny was the old Ryles
Sports Fest.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh yeah, I did. I did that a few times
with myself.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Absolutely. Brian Brom played in that. Warren Central, who I
contend was the best high school team I've ever seen
out of Indianapolis beat out. And that's the one great
part about around here.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I mean, whether you're in Cincinnati, I've covered sports on
both sides of the rear. I mean, honestly, how I
got to learn a lot of Cincinnati. Like I'm going
out out to you know, Batavia one day, right, Batavia
was until I found Batavia way back then. But the
cover sports on both sides of the river, I mean
that that gives you a great base. It really does.
Like you've got that now. Okay, now I'm morphed into
maybe pro or college and eventually morph into that. I'm
(34:17):
so glad I got to do all that stuff because
I made a lot of friendships over the.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Years to doing that. What's next? What do you think
is next? Do you not know what's next to you?
I don't you know, like you said, I study.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
We're right around the corner from fall sports season starting
for high school, so I'm gonna broadcast some of that.
I coached high school basketball Beachwood High School. In fact,
today was one of our kids camp days. And then
we're gonna have an open gym here at six o'clock tonight,
so I'll leave to go do that. And eventually I'd
like to be a head coach of a program. And
I've seen how much time guys have to put into running.
Like now I'm the JV head coach and an assistant
(34:49):
varsity coach. I just got to coach basketball. I gotta
do nothing else. I like to help run some things.
But I see how hard our head coach works at
all the other ancillary stuff of equipment purchasing and you know,
jims ands and gym time and all of the incite
long for gym time. Matt Long's a good coach coach
at Beachwee. He's done great things. But yes, to some degree,
(35:09):
there's that because we have two gyms, but one of
our gyms now because they're reconstructing rooms. All this stuff
is in there for the summertime, so we don't have
a second gym h for for our camp. But so
I do want to do that Eventually. I'm probably running
out of time close to that, but maybe not. Maybe
somebody looks and goes, yeah, you you don't look as
old as you are.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Maybe I do. Maybe I look older. Maybe they need
a guy who's older.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I don't know, but I I still I love doing
that and I love devoting a lot of time to that.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
You're there. You're the media guy, though, so you know
you can get him some some some airtime, rustle up
some feather, you know Tom Gamble, I.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Do know Tom gamb I do PA events for him.
And uh, I've got a couple of people reach out
to me about doing freelance stuff. So yeah, I'll be busy.
Trust me, I'm not one of the listen. I've seen
this happen with people like they retire, Like when Joe
Paturner retired, he died almost instantaneously.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
It feels like sometimes when you retire and you just go,
you just that's probably not a good way to be.
I I like being busy, but I also like not
having something hang over my head, like I know, for
what you do, recruiting season hangs over your head. Then
the sort of falls camp. It hangs over your head.
It's great to be busy and have all those things,
(36:20):
that's how you're in your living. But you're like, Okay,
I've got this week before the next thing starts, but
you know what's coming. The next week's about to come.
Like before last Wednesday, I literally was thinking, gosh, three
weeks from now, training camp starts.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And I know it's it.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I don't dig ditches for a living, I get that,
but training camp.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Just I don't have to go to higher ground anymore.
I know that that's a that's a win for you.
That's a lot of a lot of driving. Well. I
I just want to say thank you for coming in
one and I appreciate it over the years, and it
took you know, and you've.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Been the buffer between me and the UC fans who
hate me, and they rightfully do.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I mean, you did say at one hiring Rick Mentor
would be the end of the program.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I did say close to they wasn't specifically that, but
I said, I think what I says, you're not going
to be able to hire a head coach better than
Rick Minter. And maybe what I should have said was
you're not gonna be able to hire a head coach
better than Rick Minner that you can hang on to
for a long period of time, because that would have
been accurate. That but what I said at the time,
and what I said was completely an accurate because they
did pretty well with a lot of hires after that.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
I mean, it didn't it didn't go too bad.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
But I will say the year that they went to
the BCS, I said, all they have to do is
beat Notre Dame, and I swear they're going to and
nobody wanted to believe that, Like they had to run
the table when you but beat Notre Dame man and
do the rest. And I thought they could do it.
And so I'm not always a UC. I I wrote
it hard for that team because I really liked that
team to watch team, and I was glad that they
(37:43):
ended up doing what they did because they deserve to
be where they went that year.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Well, thank you for being a friend, Thank you being
a mentor. I know this is says retirement. I don't
think you can stop. I probably can't. I probably can't,
so next time, but I retire stop for now. Okay,
that's that's gonna wrap up. The hour, thanks again to
Richard Skinner. He is a legend, even if he doesn't
want to admit it. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from
You've done Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I number two. Here we go the Moegar Show. I'm
not Moegar, Chad Brenda, Bearcat Journal filling in FROMO All Week,
the best of weeks to be on sports radio. When
you look at your calendar, thank you for choosing me.
(00:37):
When you look at your calendar every year you go
Man All Star Week. That's peak sports talk radio. So
I thought one of the big stories in local media
recently is the announced retirement of a mentor of mine,
(00:58):
somebody that has uh. We we shared a microphone together
at one point. It was didn't share it, but we
were in the same way. We use different microphones. Yes, uh,
a little more specific, that would be weird if we
shared a microphone like correct, correct, although at that place
it wouldn't have been. It wouldn't have been out of
(01:18):
the question. But we were radio partners in a in
a different radio existence. Somebody that I've always admired because
they've rolled with the punches better than just about anybody
I've ever seen in sports media, sometimes not by their
own volition, but very few people have done radio, print TV,
(01:42):
all in different capacities, all in different eras, you did bowling.
I believe did.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Bowling for Cable one of Northern Kentucky. Ted Bushman's group
the best. Yes, there was nobody better than Ted bush
was my favorite.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Man. Did you ever do any of the Thomas Morgan Oh?
I absolute.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Jeff Pacorro and I were the first voices of Thomas Morris.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Did I pick up after you probably well know that
the inside the basketball games when they had that uh
studio quote unquote, I use a loose term in like
a hallway closet. Yes, that just had all the like
Ted just collected TV equipment. No, we we did.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I say we did the games at Dixie Heights High School. Yes, okay,
that's where. And it was me Corro and a guy
who was in this business for a while. He's now
in I believe, a lawyer, Dennison Killer. Oh yeah, we
were the three person team for Thomas Moore.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Football, man I did. I did Thomas Moore basketball for
a while, and then we would do the Kentucky Ohio
All Star Game, and then I did some games for
Ted and Ted had the bus at one point time. Man,
rest his soul. He was the best, a true one.
Like a lot of people claim to be one of one.
He was one of one. There was no other depth
(02:54):
social communications right at the airport.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I mean a kind job, not yeah that, but he
did all this stuff on the side, and he worked
so hard at it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And I remember they did.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
A testimonial for him Lack of Better tournament of Florence
Shall's game.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
They had a suite and also did games for him
at the Florence Shalls.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And I just remember I had to walk up and
I almost cried to tell him how much he meant
to me, give me a start, like I was at
nobody from nowhere. I was working for his wife at
the Recorder newspapers and one time he just goes, do
you know how to broadcast? I go, kind of what
I want to do. Sure, I'll give it a shot,
and he throws me in there and off we go. Yeah,
he did that for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yes he did. Like that's you know because you miss
the introduction on Richard Skinner. But Richard Skinner formerly of
the Post, the Inquirer, the Recorder, this radious radio station,
that radio station. Yeah, correct, Homer.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I did some sports talk on w CVG radio and
twelve thirty and Covington in the day.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Wow, how about that? I remember that tower? They had
the tower? Yeah right there.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Did play By played to the first NKU Division One
game in San Diego. So i've if you'd have looked
at eighteen, well, I graduate high school in seventeen, seventeen
year old graduating from Dixie Heights High School. Richard Skinner
and said, here's where your career is gonna go. You're
gonna be able to work in your hometown for the
vast majority of your career, and you're gonna be lucky
enough to cover all these things. And I going, Ah,
(04:18):
you're funny. You're a funny, funny person. It's been incredible.
I mean I got a chance to, as I mentioned,
work at the Recorder. It was a great place to work.
Pat Crowley, the late pack Rally, became a He was
in my wedding, one of my best friends, and we
worked together and I drew work ethic from him because
nobody I've ever been around in my lifetime worked harder
than Pat did. Got a chance to finally get a
(04:40):
daily newspaper job. I remember in the classifieds in the Inquirer.
One day I looked and I saw that Maysville Ledger
Independent in Maysville, Kentucky had an opening for a sports editor.
I thought, why not now the time my wife worked
for American Airlines here and she said, well, we're not
moving there, You're gonna drive.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'm like, okay.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
So I made the commute every day to amaze little
Kentucky and back before there was the double a highway man,
it was Route eight, Route fifty two. Always a forty
ouncer on the way back always. But I had great
editor there. Bob Hendrickson was the editor and publisher Lawnie Caponi,
who's who's passed away. He was the editor news editor
of the paper. But he also used to be a
(05:19):
sports guy to the best guys. I mean they just
let me. They basically just said, here's your territory, buddy, go.
And I was able to go everywhere in that region
to cover sports, and it was a great way to
understand if you're gonna do something, you better hustle your
butt off to do it. And finally then got a
chance to get back up here when I'm in nineteen
ninety one, thanks to my soon to be radio partner,
Tom Gamble's gooviies.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It sounds how was that for how many ever years?
We did it for twelve years.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
What he is, truly, and you know him well enough,
I do one of the funniest intentionally and unintentional socio
paths I have ever known. So when we did the show,
he was working three different jobs. He had a sports
marketing company which he still has to this day, he
was doing the radio show, and then he was a
professoral and literally every day I would walk in. So
(06:06):
we we did a four hour show, but we did
in three hour shifts. He would do six to nine
because he had to go teach. I would do seven,
eleven to ten. I would come in like seven minutes
late every every day, and it always made him man.
But it was just kind of the way I did
it because I was working a second job too, But
I always, uh, we always overlapped him. Literally every time
I came in, he was quitting one of his three jobs.
(06:27):
I can't do with this job. You know, I don't
need to teach anymore. Well, you know what I think,
If I just teach her, it's just a funny. I
get a call every morning. In fact, I didn't get
a chance to call him back to day. I get
a call every morning from him, it's a job eight
eleven am. No, it's just complaining about something that There's
some mornings I'm like, I do want to hear this
for comedic relief, and there's some mornings where you know
how Y are just somewhere You're like, I just can't today,
(06:47):
I can't. We went to the IHM Festival in Northern
Kentucky together on on Saturday. I had a few beers
at a few laughs. He's he's one of the he's
one of the truly funny people. Because a lot of
people in this business are stick right. I mean, I
get it. I appreciate those people. I could never be
that that person. It's just not my personality. Whenever I
said I believed, didn't mean you had to agree with it.
Didn't mean anybody ever did agree with it, but you
(07:09):
had to be true to yourself. And that's the funny
part about him. As much as he came off a stick,
he believed the stupidest stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He would say.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
He is literally the only time I ever cursed on
the air was I cursed at him and I said,
I through my headset and told him, you are so
full of blank threw my headset at him and I went, oh, crap,
I just cursed on the air.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How did I just do that?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
It?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You know, it was a minor.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Curse word, but yeah, you can't curse on the air.
It's part of this business man.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
He's you guys, because that was I wasn't young at
that point in time, but I always wanted to get
into radio, and and you guys kind of shaped the
way that I were. You well, but I agree a
thousand percent. Look I said earlier, my mentors really were
you Vogel and Decorsi? Wow? Correct, one of three. Mike
(07:57):
is the right guy to half listening to you guys?
You were You were funny, but not you weren't going
out of your way to be funny. Like it was.
It was a natural part of your friendship and your
relationship and the way that you spoke to each other
that was humorous. Sports are supposed to be fun. People
(08:17):
forget that. I think, No, you're right, I'm guilty of
that a lot of times myself. Sports are supposed to
be fun. This medium is supposed to be fun. So
you guys taught me a lot in terms of like,
it doesn't have to be stuffy and boring and today.
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
The one thing is, and I told Moe this once
when he and Greg Doyle did a show. Yeah, it's
extraordinarily talented. He's one of the most crazy and crazy
as all get out on one of those ties at
the Indianapolis Star now is are commis and it's been
there for a while. But Greg's extraordinarily talented guy. And
when they started doing a show is after I got
done doing a show. I think I told Moe one day,
I said, you know, you both don't have to be
(08:54):
funny all that one of you has to kind of
be a straight guy. And I tried to play that
with time, like I can. I think I got a
pretty good sense of humor, I really do. That's that's
sounds like a lot of self worth, But I do
think I got a good sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You do.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I can laugh at a lot of things. I can
laugh at myself as much as anybody. But at some
point you have to go, he's the funny guy, you're
the straight guy. Doesn't mean you can't be funny, doesn't
mean he can't be serious, but you got to kind
of have that that, Yeah, play back and forth.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, then there has to be a chemistry.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Then there was you. You also have gone out of
your way over the years to help younger guys getting
into the business. Was that people helped you, Like you've mentioned,
you had a bunch of mentors and they helped you.
And it's like, Okay, I've tried to do the same.
I'm not always the best at it, but I've tried
to do the same.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
And honestly, I mean, I'm I'm a I'm a high
school basketball coach. I like the coach I do. I
like I like to see people.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You like to stomp. I do like to stomp. I
am a stomper and I'm a screamer. I'm a nut.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
But I appreciate anybody that wants to hustle and shows hustle.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Don't don't give me that.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I want to get in the business and then not
hustle to get into the business yourself. Rick Boring, who
I do the podcast with, I always you guys always hustled,
not just in radio but to do other stuff, and
I always appreciated that. And to your point of mentors,
you know, I can think of the early days at
the Post even while even through my career at the
Post Bill Cook, who covered U see for a long time,
became a columnist, was an outstanding mentor to me, and
(10:15):
he protected me in so many ways.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I'll give you a quick story.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So this is I was in the sports director of
the Kentucky Post at the time. I had to I
was a writer, but I also was the person in
charge of laying out the paper, in charge of what
we were covering. And it was a Thursday night during
high school football season, when normally football games or a
Friday night, and they used to give you, you didn't
know your news hole or that's paper talk about for
those that don't know what I'm talking about from back
(10:41):
in the day until you got in that day. And
usually you at least get a page. Sometimes you get
two pages. And I was hoping, and I think I
had requested for two pages that night because we had
a rare Thursday and I had three high school football
games and I was gonna send stringers to all three.
I was I could have gone and covered with myself,
and like, got other stuff to do. I had a
story to write, a feature, right. So this is a
day when when newspapers wanted big art in the middle
(11:03):
of a page, like it didn't matter anything. You just
gotta throw a big piece of big photograph in the
middle of the page. The rest of the news hold
me down. Well, I had one page that day, and
I'm spending money on these stringers. I sent them out
covering games, and so I put a small piece of
art on the page. I lay it out, and then
another sports editor who was one rung above me, came in.
He goes, Oh, you're gonna have to change that. I said,
(11:24):
We're not changing, I said, I I already cut these
stories to shreds. I said it's gonna stay. As in,
if you do anymore, you're gonna cut it even more shreds.
It would have been worth sending these guys up. Gotta
have that's the edict. I go, I don't care about
the dagon edict. I said, I'm just telling you just
I said, just don't change it, okay, I said, this
is my this is my product, Just don't change it.
Of course, I get the paper that day it's changed.
I called him up and I literally told him, you
(11:44):
come in tonight, I'm gonna kick your blank. I said,
I'm literally gonna kick your blank. And you think I'm
kidding walk in that door and find out because I'm
gonna drop you where you stand. And so he of
course calls people above me. They call me, They get
mad at me, of course, and rightfully so. And so
that night I decided I'm I'm done. I'm going in.
So we used to have this instant messenger, and on
the instant messenger, I sent something to the not the
(12:06):
sports editor, but the executive end of the newspaper of
you guys are a joke.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Here's why I did what I did. Blank you. I quit.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And Bill, standing over my shoulder, he goes, you're not
gonna send that. I go, oh, you don't think I am.
And I, of course I wish he hadn't said that,
but let me just I'll give you. I'll give it.
So I went ban, I hit, I went yep, I'm fired.
And I just kind of said, I said I'm done
for the night, manic locked out, went home, came back
the next day.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I come in.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm like waiting if somebody say, come in the office,
you're firing. And Bill sits quietly at his desk. He goes,
come here, we're going downstairs and there's another former sports writer.
He became the it guy Enis Pennington, and he said,
you need to thank Enis. I said, for what he
goes he caught it, he caught it, and he took
it out of the system. I went, Oh, it was
(12:49):
like one of those ones like, you know what, thank
you for saving me for myself. I mean, that's and
you know you gotta hit people, you really do in
your lifetime. We all need somebody like that at some point.
We've all hit somebody like that, I would hope and
Bill was that for me at that point in time.
Like I was done and if I'd have gotten punted,
then I have no idea where my and I was
doing radio at the time, but still I own nowhere.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I was working post was like.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Two full time jobs and two full time incomes, and
my wife was a stay at home ife at that
point and stayed home mom at that point, and so
I needed a second income. I'm like, I'm gonna get
she's gonna kill me. I'm gonna just And Bill saved
me from my soda enus too. God love him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
God, that's great. Let's take a break. When we come back,
I want to I want you to tell stories about
your favorite Bengal ever Carl Pickens. Yep, got a minute
Carl More after this Cincinnati's ESPN thirteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Cincinnatis w CKY, Cincinnati, and iheard radio station Garanteed Human
ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I heard radio Damn. It feels good to outro type.
I really wish that thing got more of a chance.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
It's one of my five favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Off the Space is incredible. It's incredible. This scene from
it's one of my favorites. It's incredible. I wish we
would have gotten football to at least one.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's funny because we got through baseball season and we
had a guy for a Rents pitcher, Joe Price, who
was outstanding.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I lost love doing stuff. Lance had him on. He
did like two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Joe's great. Joe moved to Florida. I didn't know that,
but Joe with Joe was great. He was terrific. Great stories.
And I'm with you because football does carries the day.
I mean, especially now this town, it has to carry better,
carry better. What will Oh yeah, Tom's former partment. Oh crap,
(14:48):
Andron complete like he Will Chambers.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
He's in He's in Dallas. He's looking ready on Dallas
off and on for a period of times. I haven't
heard his name in the ages. That was that was
good times. They broke up the at the fan Fan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
In fact, that's where I heeartz own Sarah at least
got her start as the fangirl.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And Rickyuchino, that's correct, he was doing sports. We had
a good cruise crew. Didn't have a sales staff, no,
but we had a crew. If we would have got
a chance, I think we could have stuck her ound
for so too. That's neither here nor there. What's been
your favorite beat her job of all the things you've done.
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I did enjoy covering the University of Kentucky for five
years football and basketball. It didn't hurt that it's my
alma mater, but you have to cover it as a professional.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You're a Kentucky football guy.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I am more of a Kentucky football guy, though I
did like Tubby's Tubby I was when Tubby Smith was
the head coach, and Tubby was a great guy to
deal with, and I'll tell you what kind of a
dude he was. So I would do my radio show
in the morning here and like a lot of places,
you have the press conference the day before.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You have no other access, no like you might.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's a little bit different access that you see in football,
but you don't have much, right But so it's the
day before press conference. Players, that was your access. You
write your preview story, cover the game.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And I would hold you know what every day from
here to get down, to get home, to take a
quick shower, get dressed, drive the lectioning as fast as
I could, because it was always a one o'clock press
conference that always started like one twenty three.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And you get off the air at eleven, yes, no, ten, ten, ten, but.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It was again, it was always scheduled for one, and
I'd always sweat that I got to get there by one,
and i'd get there like twelve fifty eight. I'd roll
in and one twenty three Toby would show up. And
so we started making fun of it, calling it tubby time.
And so come tournament time, Mandy Polly, who was an
assistant sports information director at the time, I said, and
she kind of was the basketball liaison at the time,
(16:41):
I said, Manny, if you could ever get him to
show up right on time for his press conference, I'll
buy you all the beers were on the road in
March in tournament time, and she kind of smiled at me.
I went serious, I'm serious about this. I'll literally from
the SEC tournament to Kentucky's knocked out. I said, I
owe you all drink. It's on me if you can
get it. I says, God be by one o'clock. So serious.
So I get there, rolled in like twelve fifty eight,
(17:03):
sit down, huffing him, puffing thing, and he shows up
right at one o'clock and he points right at me.
He goes, you owe her beer. And I'm like, well,
I mean he did that for her. Think about a
coach at that time of the year to do that
for somebody in sports every man.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I thought, that's a pretty good dude. You and Cal
didn't have the best relationship. I didn't. I didn't cover Cal,
I was. I just wasn't a Cal fan. I just
didn't like the way Cal did business.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And honestly, as goofy as it sounds, I always thought
it was going to end with him wrecking the program,
and he almost did.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
He came close.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Now I'll give him credit for what he's done at
Arkansas or resurrected and do the things he's done and
put together, the rosters he's putting together, Kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The dude still can get it done. He knows how
to find the right guys, he sure does. Whatever it
is that he looks for.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Whether it's Worldwide West or whomever else he needs to find,
he finds.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But everybody thinks they've got the right guy. That's correct.
He finds the right guys, he does. Carl Pickens, is
that your most disliked athlete of all time? Probably give
us the zenith of the Carl Pickings story.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Give you the Ken Griffy Junior story here at some
point too, when he got mad at Tom and I
mostly probably Meg, but I didn't think I was wrong
at the time, but I didn't dislike Junior. Junior was great.
So this is in the Jeff Blake hey Day. Like
Jeff had popped on the scene, but he'd been around
for a few weeks. And I think Todd Jones who
worked in Columbus at the end, but he covered Xavier
for a long time the podcast. Yes, I believe. So
(18:27):
Todd was the main beat guy, but I was the
backup guy. So when Todd would have a day off,
I would go down there. So my day to go
that was a I think it was a random Thursday,
a game week, and my sports htter said, let's just
finally do a big takeout on Jeff Blake, a big
feature on why Jeff Blake's effective, what the receivers all
think of him. How about we do that. I'm like, okay, sure,
it sounds simple enough. And this was in a day
(18:48):
when there was there was not nine. It's funny the
Bengals beat has grown so exponentially. Back then, it was
like both newspapers and occasionally TV would go down to
get a sound body. But it's not as structured as
to day like this a Wednesday Quarterback coach Day and
Thursday JM. R.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Chase Day.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
This was like you just go down the locker room
and you go find your dudes and nobody would swarm
you and you kind of have one on ones.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So first guy I.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Go to about Jeff other than Jeff was Carl Pickens,
and I did that. We all do this, and shame
on me for being I guess this. That's probably how
old was I probably thirty years old. I've been in
the business long enough, thirty two years old, and I
just said, Carl, you got a minute. And he looks
down at a fake watch, no watch on his hand,
just looks at R and goes fifty nine, fifty eight
fifty seven. I said what. He goes fifty six, and
(19:32):
he just kept counting. I go, you're giving me a
literal minute. He goes fifty three fifty. I go, blank you, Carl,
I said, blank you, and I walked away. And so
the other receivers was Darnay Scott, Tony McGee was the
tight end. They are just having a hoot that I
blanked Carl to his face and Carl didn't come after me.
Carl goes, oh, no, man, you got I said, no,
you know what, there are other receivers in this room.
We're gonna get me better quotes than you. Anyway to
(19:53):
blank with you, I'll talk to them. And then Tony goes,
you go talk to me, Go talk to him, Go
talk to Darnay, Go talk to Jeff bl And I
have a story with I'll Carl pickens in and I'm like,
he doesn't care, but I don't care either.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
My guy. Did did you ever talk to him again?
Probably after a game here or there.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I mean, he was just I mean, he turned on
Jeff Hopson at one point Jeff was working for Bengals.
He said, don't ever call my house. And he was
just a bad dude, just a honestly as much. If
you gave me top five worst Bengals of all time,
I can probably give you two Montees berfect than him.
That was about it. Yeah, most the other ones, Yeah,
you got some issues with Like pac Man would get
crazy on occasion, but pac Man at the he would
(20:35):
literally walk up to you like two weeks ago, hug
you go.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I respect Joe like you, and he don't know who
I am basically, but okay.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Guy sure appreciated buddy. What's the Junior story?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
So this was towards the end of Junior, after Junior
gotten hurt a bunch of times, and I didn't want
to see him end up like Willie Mays. I was
a kid in New York when Willie Mays got traded
to the Mets, and it was a disaster when he
was at the end, like he looked a mess. He
was dropping fly balls and just couldn't now. Junior wasn't
the Willie was in his early forties. But I'm like,
I don't want to see him end up like that.
(21:07):
So I just thought, because he's taking such a pounding.
I think this was actually after he had the Hams
major hamstring issue, I think it would behoove him and
the Reds to move him to a corner outfield spot.
That's literally all I said was, I think he'd be
better off and left or right than trying to roam
at the center anymore. I I just don't think he
can do it, and I don't want to see I think,
I said, I don't want to see him end up
like Willie Mays. That was probably the worst thing I
(21:28):
probably know, and somehow, I don't know how he heard
about it, but it got misconstrued where we were and
he literally called us out by name. So that that morning,
I remember, I walk in Tom's doing his hour. I
actually got there on time for a change, and I
start looking some stuff up. The interwebs were a thing
at that point, not by my remember. Newspapers, dot com.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
They were the thing.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So I started looking around and see Date Daily News
has a story that he's mad at a U. I said,
Junior's mad at somebody, and Tom goes, he's mad at us.
I go for what and they started reading the story
of that dude, what is your delio? And his whole
thing was that I guess we weren't down there to
be accountable for saying something. I'd be more than happy
to be down there to be accountable if I felt
(22:09):
like I said something wrong.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I think, I.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Thought, dude, I'm just thinking it's best for everybody that
you moved to a corner outfield spot. I didn't say
to bench you trade or career for a lot of
guys like centerfielders. Eventually, if they can't cover ground anymore
they get older, you're not keeping them in center field
any longer.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You're gonna put him.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
To a corner outfield spot or d HM or put
him at at first base or something. But he didn't
like that. But he was a junior.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Was great.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
I mean he he You talked about guy that had
some stories man and could really poke. You talk about
a guy that could needle people in the locker room.
That guy was amazing at it.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
My only real interaction with him, I was managing the
radio shack at ninth in Maine, Okay, and he came in.
They were putting I guess an off. He had gotten
an office down down there and they were putting in
like a video system for him to watch tape. Okay, uh,
And it was like I think we opened at nine
(23:01):
and it was like nine oh two in the morning
and the I'm in the back doing paperwork and I
was the manager of a radio shack. Illustrious career. Really
picked a good company there, and uh, the the bell
dings and I see him walk in the front door
and I'm like, no, I probably had too many beers
(23:22):
last night, but is that Yeah. I walked out and
it was him. He came in like seven times that
day because he was the errand boy for the it guy.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
The only other great story sports related there. I was
filling in at Carew Tower radio shack and we had
a line. There was thirty people in the line and
I'm just ringing them out, ringing up trash eighties. Just
do do do do do do do do do do,
And uh, we had to do like the name, what's
your name? What's your address? Deal? I said, what's your name?
(23:54):
And I hear this voice say, you know, don't worry
about that, and the voice instantly Tony gwinn Oh why
the Padres were in town? He was getting video equipment
to watch tape up in his room. So I've got
a Tony Gwinn story for you there. So among the
other things I did was the post.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I was back up Red's guy for a while, backup
Bengals guy for a while, did Kentig, did a bunch
of different stuff, as you know, everything everything, and Tony
Gwynn and the padres came to town and my sports
that Iver knew how much of that was a huge
Tony Winn Like I had a Tony. I don't have
a jersey of anybody other than Tony gwyn I literally don't.
I just fell in love with I went I watched
him when he was came up in eighty two, went
to spring training. Actually my wife and I were dating
(24:33):
at the time. We went to Phoenix for spring for
spring break when we were in college our senior year,
and I said better junior year, and I talked to
him to actually going to a podres A's exhibition game
was the here the Padre's actually went to the World
Series and just loved everything the way Tony Gwinn played
the game, and so he knew how much I liked him.
And this will tell you how things are different today
at that point in time. Sometimes when a guy would
(24:54):
come into town, you'd do a story on somebody on
the opposing team. He's like, I know how much you
like him, because once you go some kind of just
feature on Tony Gwynn and what why he continues to
be so successful. So I go in the Pottery's clubhouse
don't know soul obviously right, and I see him. I said, hey, Tony,
I'm done it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
H I said, you got him in.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
He goes, let me go get something to eat.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
He goes, I'll bring it back to the locker, will talk.
I said, no, if you're busy.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
He goes, no, no, I'll bring it back to the locker, will talk.
He has a piece of fried chicken and a roll
sits down the locker and I'm thinking, I'm gonna get
like five minutes with this cat or whatever? Do we
roll for thirty minutes? And he didn't bad a nye
like he never gave you like the glance of like, dude,
I'm done, I can't do this anymore. He was so
amazing to me, and I wrote it. I thought a
pretty good story about him, and he actually the next
(25:36):
day I went in the locker room and he thanked
me for it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So I tell you what a guy he was.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I didn't talk to him long, but like he I
think when I looked up like he was like he
does have that he did. I shouldn't say does he
passed away?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Unfortunately he did have that voice, that very distinct, very
distinct voice.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And we locked eyes and he's like, okay, he knows. Yeah, yep.
And we chatted for a second and I rung up.
I think he was getting a couple like y cables
to to hook up to his video system whatever it
was he was he was. That was one of the
few times I've been like yep, no, well him and right.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Ryan Sandberg came to town after he had had an
injury that might have cost him the first few months
of a season. So he was just coming back and
so I was sent down to do a story on him.
He was equally as the lie like you know, you're
thinking this is some super and he was a super star.
But I remember the best part of that because it
was around derby time, so I guess he missed the
first month of the season.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I remember this.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Is it's gotta be I don't know eighty no to
take like ninety two, ninety three, something like that.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Anyway, they were doing a derby pool.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
The players one thousand dollars a blind draw, and I
just sat there going a thousand dollars you give me,
I do ten bucks on a blind draw, I'm not,
And I like corsery. I'm not doing thousand, but thousand
that like there was nothing and they sure enough, dude,
they only got wads of cast thrown in this big
hat for the blind draw of taking derby ors.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow, it's a different stratosphere. Man, Thank god. What's that
guy's name that slapped somebody for Fantasy Baseball? Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh no, no, no, I know you're talking about. Oh
my gosh, almighty, I'm joining a blank I know exactly who's.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Talking for the Reds. Tommy fa Yeah, Tommy Faan Yeah,
not him, No, don't invite him in thousand dollar him
or Matt Miller from Matt Miller at all. Let's take
another break. When we come back, I'll ask any an
important question. Are the Reds fixable? Or is this I've
got a plan. It's a crazy plan. I'm fascinating more
(27:32):
after that. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from u S Health Traffic Center.
That He's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Welcome back to Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, The Mel Laggers Show.
Chad Brendel filling in all week and today we're talking
to a legend in Cincinnati. But you are You've been
here so long, You've done so many things. I have
I have.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I have worked in sports meetia in this city for
thirty six years now.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, so there you go. Guess it's a long time.
It's a legend.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So what I what I always feel like I am
was like a jack of all trades, maybe master of none.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
So you're like the like the really good utility guys.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
That's kind of what I was in high school baseball,
Like I would play different spots where the guys pitch
that day, I tell your spot. I've always felt like that.
That's my strength is you just keep moving to the next.
I will raise two kids.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Say to your.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Point, I will say, I can't manage a lot of
people in this town have worked for both major newspapers
at one point, did a radio show, did some TV
anchored sports, did a radio show, I just can't.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
They do good for you, and for those that did
one broadcast high school games did.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
One thing way better and many of you did good
for you. But I I'm I'm glad, I because it's
really so. When I went to college, I wanted to
teach and coach, and my mom said, no, I knew
need to do something different than that. I'm like, no,
I want to teach him. I want to coach baseball
and basketball in high school and just teach. That's what
I want to do now. So I was an accounting
(29:11):
major for a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Believe me, and I can see it. I can say, kay,
I did. I had a three five GPA.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
But the one course that I finally got to was finance,
and finance just killed me and I went, I can't
do this the rest of my life. Well, my uncle
was a sports writer in town. Those that he covered
he covered Oscar Robertson, believe it or not, back in
the day at UC and the Royals. He worked at
the Cincinnti Timestar, which worked into the Post eventually, and
(29:39):
he always kind of tried to steer me towards that,
and I'm like, you know, I like sports. I like
to write. I don't mind doing that. I know I
can talk. I used to, like we all did.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
As a kid.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I did all kinds of play by play into my recorder.
I was a kindosur of play by play voices Van
Vance who did Kentucky Colonel's games. And I grew up
with Marty and Kaywood Leadford. I mean about growing up
with listening to guys that were like dudes. Kay would
let for Marty Brenneman. I mean to try to emulate
those guys. You're like, I'm emulating the best when I'm
trying to do this. And so I thought midway through
(30:10):
my sophomore year, I'm gonna switch to journalism, and I
somehow got it done in the next two and a
half years, and off I went. I But, like I said,
that was not where I was going with the career
path in it initially.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I mean, you know, sometimes it does. That's no, right,
that's right, I'm sure right. Correct and Lance were doing
the only two radio. Yeah, how do I do my own?
Figure something else out real quick? No, I'll be honest.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
One of the shows I admire a lot, and I'm
sure you listen to them some too, even though they're
out of market, well they're in Marke because they're actually
syndicated at night here Kentucky Sports Radio. I mean that
that was an internet only show at one point into
their credit they morphed it into almost an empire. To
their credit. I credit anybody. I don't have to like
their show. Credit to the show correct, correct, Yeah, but
you got to like hustle like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You're like, good for you man. You said I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Gonna do this and you went and did it three
or four times, correct and correct away, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
That's that's one of the things I would tell Anyboddy
Young getting into it is you better be able to
pivot well.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
And don't There is another part of the don't turn
anything down. You don't anything like the stuff I did
for Ted Busherman was free. I literally did that story
the same stuff, but I wanted to get experienced doing it.
I had a job at the time, so I was
willing to do it for free. Now, at this point
in my career in life, I'm not doing anything for free.
Primarily it has to really be out of the kindness
(31:37):
of my heart. But at those point in times, there's
nothing too small like don't. Don't assume that I'm doing this,
and just do it. And if you think you want
to do something like this for a living, or anything
for a living, go do that for free at some
point to decermon whether or not you can do it.
A B make whatever mistakes you're gonna make, because you're
(31:57):
gonna make them, and learn from those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And there's it's the old thing in theater right. There's
no small parts. There really aren't. I remember doing a
swim meet at Scott High School for TV and cash.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Sure, dude, I did a obstacle course race at the
Florence YMCA. Went outside, they put the hall yep, they
put me in a golf cart and I went through
the guard. I would literally follow people around this obstacle course.
I get a police pistol shooting thing out of the airport.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
On are you Are you still going to be open
to doing high school? Oh? Yeah, for sure? I still. Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Rob Ebel, who's a friend of mine, runs ESP media.
We do ESPX, so I do a lot of Saint
Xavier sports, not all of them because it's kind of
a student thing.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
But there's something students don't do. Aren't capable?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Really of doing or don't want to do, and I
fill in those kind of gaps and then try to guide.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Them along the way.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And that's been really rewarding because we've had a couple
of kids that have gone on some really good things
out of that, out of that ESPX circumstance. And you know,
a lot of them like to do baseball, but they
don't really fully grasp the play by play portion of baseball.
So I do almost all the baseball games with them
as a color guy. I let him do a handful
of innings so they can kind of listen to me
look at how I do things from like even getting
(33:08):
lineups and score sheets to and one of the kids
he came last year and after like a couple of times,
he's just kind of showing up going got the lineup.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
He would then see.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
What I did, and he put his little lineup card together,
go get the lineup, come back and.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Started getting a little bit better and better at play
by play. And that's always rewarding to see that. It
really is. I enjoy seeing that. It's a it's a
I missed doing some of the high school stuff. I
don't miss doing all of it, but I do miss
like Friday nights. I love Friday. Yeah, getting out and
doing Northern Kentucky high school football games. Some of the
funnest stuff I ever did, Skinny was the old Ryles
Sports Fest.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh yeah, I did. I did that a few times
with myself.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Absolutely. Brian Brom played in that. Warren Central, who I
contend was the best high school team I've ever seen
out of Indianapolis beat out. And that's the one great
part about around here.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I mean, whether you're in Cincinnati, I've covered sports on
both sides of the rear. I mean, honestly, how I
got to learn a lot of Cincinnati. Like I'm going
out out to you know, Batavia one day, right, Batavia
was until I found Batavia way back then. But the
cover sports on both sides of the river, I mean
that that gives you a great base. It really does.
Like you've got that now. Okay, now I'm morphed into
maybe pro or college and eventually morph into that. I'm
(34:17):
so glad I got to do all that stuff because
I made a lot of friendships over the.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Years to doing that. What's next? What do you think
is next? Do you not know what's next to you?
I don't you know, like you said, I study.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
We're right around the corner from fall sports season starting
for high school, so I'm gonna broadcast some of that.
I coached high school basketball Beachwood High School. In fact,
today was one of our kids camp days. And then
we're gonna have an open gym here at six o'clock tonight,
so I'll leave to go do that. And eventually I'd
like to be a head coach of a program. And
I've seen how much time guys have to put into running.
Like now I'm the JV head coach and an assistant
(34:49):
varsity coach. I just got to coach basketball. I gotta
do nothing else. I like to help run some things.
But I see how hard our head coach works at
all the other ancillary stuff of equipment purchasing and you know,
jims ands and gym time and all of the incite
long for gym time. Matt Long's a good coach coach
at Beachwee. He's done great things. But yes, to some degree,
(35:09):
there's that because we have two gyms, but one of
our gyms now because they're reconstructing rooms. All this stuff
is in there for the summertime, so we don't have
a second gym h for for our camp. But so
I do want to do that Eventually. I'm probably running
out of time close to that, but maybe not. Maybe
somebody looks and goes, yeah, you you don't look as
old as you are.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Maybe I do. Maybe I look older. Maybe they need
a guy who's older.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I don't know, but I I still I love doing
that and I love devoting a lot of time to that.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
You're there. You're the media guy, though, so you know
you can get him some some some airtime, rustle up
some feather, you know Tom Gamble, I.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Do know Tom gamb I do PA events for him.
And uh, I've got a couple of people reach out
to me about doing freelance stuff. So yeah, I'll be busy.
Trust me, I'm not one of the listen. I've seen
this happen with people like they retire, Like when Joe
Paturner retired, he died almost instantaneously.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
It feels like sometimes when you retire and you just go,
you just that's probably not a good way to be.
I I like being busy, but I also like not
having something hang over my head, like I know, for
what you do, recruiting season hangs over your head. Then
the sort of falls camp. It hangs over your head.
It's great to be busy and have all those things,
(36:20):
that's how you're in your living. But you're like, Okay,
I've got this week before the next thing starts, but
you know what's coming. The next week's about to come.
Like before last Wednesday, I literally was thinking, gosh, three
weeks from now, training camp starts.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And I know it's it.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I don't dig ditches for a living, I get that,
but training camp.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Just I don't have to go to higher ground anymore.
I know that that's a that's a win for you.
That's a lot of a lot of driving. Well. I
I just want to say thank you for coming in
one and I appreciate it over the years, and it
took you know, and you've.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Been the buffer between me and the UC fans who
hate me, and they rightfully do.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I mean, you did say at one hiring Rick Mentor
would be the end of the program.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I did say close to they wasn't specifically that, but
I said, I think what I says, you're not going
to be able to hire a head coach better than
Rick Minter. And maybe what I should have said was
you're not gonna be able to hire a head coach
better than Rick Minner that you can hang on to
for a long period of time, because that would have
been accurate. That but what I said at the time,
and what I said was completely an accurate because they
did pretty well with a lot of hires after that.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
I mean, it didn't it didn't go too bad.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
But I will say the year that they went to
the BCS, I said, all they have to do is
beat Notre Dame, and I swear they're going to and
nobody wanted to believe that, Like they had to run
the table when you but beat Notre Dame man and
do the rest. And I thought they could do it.
And so I'm not always a UC. I I wrote
it hard for that team because I really liked that
team to watch team, and I was glad that they
(37:43):
ended up doing what they did because they deserve to
be where they went that year.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Well, thank you for being a friend, Thank you being
a mentor. I know this is says retirement. I don't
think you can stop. I probably can't. I probably can't,
so next time, but I retire stop for now. Okay,
that's that's gonna wrap up. The hour, thanks again to
Richard Skinner. He is a legend, even if he doesn't
want to admit it. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from
Mo Egger News
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