The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 8/12/26

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Down Bang.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's the first game of the preseason and be Bengals
are looking to Stuart Fast to do it. They need
to defeat Detroit can the Orange and Black Cane. The
Lions get the call live from Dan Horden Dave Lampa.
Coverage begins tomorrow at five thirty pm. Stream for free.
Are the new it improved iHeartRadio app for ESPN fifteen thirty,

(00:23):
The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Romo is not accurate anymore. It's not just Dan and laugh. Sorry,
tell that dude with that voice. He's got to recut
that thing. It probably airs again later on this hour,
so he's got a hurry, good afternoon on my legger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you very much for listening.
I hope in all sincerity, because I have been told

(00:47):
sometimes I sound like I lack sincerity. We're at the
Cincinnati Open and we're gonna get to that in a second.
Twenty four hours ago, while we were on the air,
all hell was breaking loose with the weather in Greater Cincinnati,
and it's not exactly nice today. It doesn't seem as
severe as it was yesterday. And I said this to
Tony and Austin on Sincy three sixty. You know, sometimes

(01:10):
when you're in a radio studio and you're doing sports,
you know, you kind of lose sight of some of
the stuff that's happening in the real world. And that's maybe,
I don't know, an indictment against me. There have been
lots of times where like I'm in my little sports
bubble for three hours and something huge is happening in
the news, and I have to get caught up at
six o'clock. While we were on the air yesterday, it

(01:33):
was abundantly clear because of eas alerts and what we
saw on television that weather was wreaking havoc across the
Tri state area. And then I got home last night
and you know, I saw that like one hundred and
fifty thousand people were without power. We fortunately were not
among them. And then I had to run some errands
on the west side of Cincinnati with my daughter this morning,

(01:54):
and I'm driving through some neighborhoods and there's trees down,
and the damage to holmes that I saw seem minimal.
But that's easy for me to say because none of
those were my home. So if you incurred any storm damage,
Hopefully everybody's cool. Everybody's fine, you know, and safe, and

(02:14):
you know, a busted fence or a busted roof can
be fixed, but that doesn't mean it's not a pain
in the neck as it happens, and so hopefully you
were safe. Hopefully all is good from that perspective. We're
broadcasting from one of my favorite events. This is a
ten pole event on the Cincinnati sports calendar, the Cincinnati

(02:35):
Open World Class Tennis. They've made this tournament bigger and
better and longer, and we have the men's side and
the women's side. Unfortunately, we don't really have tennis today
because here in the Mason area it has rained NonStop
pretty much all day, as it has I believe throughout

(02:56):
much of Cincinnati, and so the gates are open. But
we're broadcasting from this top deck bar. There's a bar
right next to us. Nobody is manning it right now,
but it would be great if they would, and I'd
have a cold one. But you know, maybe that's something
we can explore a little bit later on. But Number one,
we thank the folks at the Cincinnati Open for hosting us.

(03:19):
They are extraordinarily hospitable. Today's an unfortunate day for them
because there is no tennis today, but over the next
week and a half you're gonna have world class tennis.
And this is I always say this is a great
event even if you're not a hardcore tennis fan, right
or maybe if you like tennis and you follow the tour,
but you don't want to watch hours and hours and
hours of tennis, watch a game, watch a set, watch

(03:42):
a match, then post up at one of the I
don't know bars, eating establishments. There's tons to do. I
also say this every year I attended. I went to
the US Open in New York in twenty twelve. That
was the year I decided I'm crossing stuff off my
bucket list, and the first one I did was the
US I'm wearing the jacket I got at the US
Open fourteen years ago, and it was awesome. This event

(04:05):
is better. The layout is fan friendlier, it's easier to
get to. Normally it's very easy to get to, but
it's easy to get to right off I seventy one
across I seventy one from King's Island, and you meet
people from around the world. You meet people who come
to this event from other parts of the world, and
they also go to the US Open, and they kind
of make their holiday, if you will, a trip to

(04:28):
the US to watch them tennis, and so we love
this event. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating, but over
the next week and a half, if you can get
up here, especially if you've never been, I'm telling you
you will love it. I've come to this event and
I'm I'm a casual tennis fan. And when I say casual,
tennis and hockey are the two sports. Were like, if

(04:49):
I chime in with a take, a hardcore fan will
yell at me. So I'm like, sometimes uncomfortable talking about tennis.
But I'm a big fan of Ben Shelton, who's been
on this show. I'm a big fan Madison Keys, who's
had an okay year in the Grand Slams, won the
Australian at the beginning of twenty twenty five, had gone
through a lot of injury setbacks in majors. So both

(05:10):
those players participating in this event. But I've brought people
to this event who aren't hardcore tennis fans, and every
single time they're like, dude, I had no idea. That
is awesome. So if you can get up here, Get
up here, because it is terrific. We have a lot
to get to Red's win last night. Bengals have a
preseason game tomorrow. Tony Pike is going to join us

(05:30):
in thirty five minutes with the first of three live
training camp reports. Here's how dedicated he is to his job.
There is no training camp today, yet he's gonna give
his live training camp reports. And this is why we
saw today that Tony has added to his responsibilities the
duties of being an analyst on the Bengals Radio network.

(05:51):
The Bengals announced this about forty minutes ago that Tony
is going to be joining Dan Hord and Dave Lapham
in the Bengals Radio Network boot starting tomorrow night. And
he's also gonna be involved with Bengals Line with Lance
and they're expanding their coverage during the week. Joe Daneman
is going to join Dan for that Bengals pep rally

(06:11):
show that gives me Fridays off in the fall. Joe
is the best, the dean of Cincinnati television sportscasters. I
say it all the time. His and Fox nineteen's Friday
night high school football show is the gold standard for
anything produced on television in Cincinnati Sports. But Tony's my guy,
and I mean this sincerely. I'm thrilled for him. I

(06:33):
know how much this opportunity means to him, and I
know how much he's gonna kill it. I feel like
we've spent a lot of time over the last year
so having to say a bunch of really nice things
about Tony because either he goes into the UC Hall
of Fame, or he gets fired, or he gets rehired,
or he assumes the responsibilities of the late great Jim

(06:55):
Kelly in the UC broadcast booth, or now working with
Dan Horden, Dave Lapham and Dan and lapp are the best.
Dan horde I mean, what else can you say. He's
an amazing college basketball broadcaster. He's an amazing college football broadcaster.
He was a terrific television sportscaster, and he's obviously incredible

(07:17):
as the radio voice of the Bengals. And so Dan
could do the games by himself and they would be terrific.
And then you know there's Dave Lapham. Dave Lapham who
you know, Alan Cutler years ago gave him the nickname
Mister Bengal because that's what he is. His association with
the franchise goes back what fifty two years now. He
was a good player, played in a Super Bowl. But

(07:40):
and especially for those of us who are old enough
to remember what it was like when we had blackouts
and if they were at home and they weren't on
TV and you didn't have a ticket to the game,
your only way of consuming the Bengals was the radio.
And I remember during the nineties, you know, I have
money to go to Bengals games as a high school kid,
college kid. When they were on TV, yeah, maybe I

(08:04):
wasn't quite listening to lap or whoever his play by
play guy was, but when they were at home, I
had listened to Dave Lapham. And those were years where
it kind of felt like you didn't have many allies
if you were a Bengals fan, but you had one
in Dave Lapham. And so I have revered Dave Lapham
since I was a kid, and obviously I hold Dan
Horde an extraordinary esteem. But to take those two and

(08:28):
pair them together, which they did fifteen years ago, it's
an amazing radio broadcast. The only way you could conceivably
make that radio broadcast better would be if you added
somebody like Tony Pike, and I know I said this
a few minutes ago when he was here. We added
Tony to UC Radio broadcast on the sideline on a

(08:49):
full time basis. I think it was twenty fifteen, because
Tommy g had been the sideline guy for a while
and before him, Scott Springer and both did a terrific job.
We added Tony in a different perspective as a former
player or quarterback, somebody on the field who was going
to provide maybe a little bit more in the way
of analysis than reporting. But I remember his first game,

(09:12):
and it might have been before twenty fifteen, but his
first game was at Yukon at Renschler Field. Whether it
was like it is today, Renschler Field is one of
the four or five most miserable places I've ever seen
a sporting event at and Tony was on the sideline,
and I think, with no prior broadcast experience, we throw
it down to him and it was instantly, instantly clear

(09:37):
that he was a natural when it comes to breaking
down football, talking about football, explaining in terms that the
listener could understand, here's what's going on. And so I
remember that day thinking like this, guy's got a future.
I didn't know it would turn into doing a talk show.
I didn't know it would turn into the things that
it is turned into. But you know, he got thrust
into and it was extraordinarily or obviously, we lost Jim

(10:01):
Kelly early during the football season last year. Jim passed
away in late September early October, and after a handful
of games Jim stepped away, Tony stepped into that seat
next to Dan for UC broadcast, and it was like, Yep, Okay,
this is exactly how I thought he would do. He
was and is a natural, and so it's just made sense.

(10:22):
I not that I've ever thought, God, they're gonna ask
Tony to join Dan and Lap in the broadcast booth,
but he's awesome at that and as a listener, as
a Bengals fan, as a radio nerd, and as a
friend of Tony Pike's, I could not be happier for him.
And he's absolutely gonna kill it. So by all means,

(10:43):
reach out to Tony on social media and many have already,
and say a word of congratulations to him, because this
is an opportunity extraordinarily, extraordinarily well deserved, and it's one
that I am sure he is going to take full
advantage of sixteen after three. Now that means I just
I had like six minutes worth of nice things about
Tony when he joins me in about thirty minutes. We

(11:04):
could talk about the game tomorrow right like we don't know.
Congratulations three training camp updates, and congrats Tony yet again
you're the man, you know anyway, in all seriousness, congrats
to Tony and congrats to Joe Daneman, the dean of
Cincinnati Sportscasters, for expanding his responsibilities with Fox nineteen and

(11:25):
their partnership with the Bengals. Here we're at the Cincinnati Open.
We have a we have a lot of great because
Austin Elmore is still sitting here. You know, sometimes like
you'll you'll meet people in the business and you'll do
a show somewhere and somebody will just sort of loiter
and you finally say to him, like you want to

(11:46):
come on. I think that's what Austin's doing. So hell,
we'll visit with him next why not? Right well, Dennis
players talk to It's sixteen seventeen minutes now after three o'clock.
We're at the Cincinnati Open day before the Bengals taken
on to the Detroit Lions. Don't forget our pregame coverage
starts with a pregame sports talk at three o'clock. I'm
doing it from the stadium tomorrow. You know, not a

(12:07):
press release for that. Mooe's gonna be broadcasting his show
from our booth. No, No, Tony and Joe get all
the glory. Seventeen minutes I'm joking. Seventeen minutes after three o'clock.
We're at the Cincinnati Open. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
No one covers the Bengals training camp like the official
Hall of the Bengals. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Twenty ten minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on Moegger broadcasting today from the Cincinnati Open. Here
in Rainy Mason. There's no tennis happening right now, but
you know, there's a radio show. And I think that's
really the highlight of the experience for the folks who
volunteer at this event. Since he three to sixty was

(12:53):
broadcast from here. And I don't know if it's because
he doesn't want to walk in the rain, or if
it's because he has something to say. Austin Elmore is
still here and figured we put them to work. Well.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
The thing is, the thing about the Cincinnati Open is
you get to see greatness up close.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
And when I saw you sit down and put on
the headset, I was like, this is why people come
to Mason, that is just see greatness up close. And
so that and I also was hungry, so I got
some food and didn't want to eat in the rain fair.
I'm still here and you said do you want to
talk to me? And the answer to that is always yes.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
That's that's what I was in the market for a
you know, a girlfriend, right, That's what I would say,
sit around and say do you want to talk to you?
To talk to me? Usually the answer is not what
you gave me. Yeah, this is your first time here? Yes, yea.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Walking in this morning was the first time I've ever
been close, right, honestly, And I think it's cool and
obviously there's nobody here, but like it's easy to see
why people rave about it even with nobody here.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
You gotta come back. You gotta come back on a
day where you don't have to work and where you
could just like walk the grounds, get something to eat,
and like some of the side courts here, you could
just like here where we are center court assigned seating,
but you go to some of these other like grand
stand courts or whatever, just walk in, find a place
to PLoP down and enjoy yourself.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Everyone tells me it's a sport that is similar to soccer,
whereas you don't really appreciate it until you see it
in person. Yeah, and that's I mean, I would love,
obviously to experience that.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I'll definitely be back. I may come back this
weekend or next week or whatever it might be. So yeah, yeah,
you gotta come back. Well, that's that's good. How about
our guy say some nice things about him? Yeah, I
love Tony And as I told him on the air,
he's been through a lot of crap over the last
several months and he needed a win, and he's so.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Good at this. I think it's what he's best at.
I've told him that, and as somebody who much like
him has grown up listening to the radio broadcasts their
whole life, and like, I remember a game that Brad
Johnson and Dave Lapham did, I think against the Tennessee
Titans that I was listening to with my dad in
the car, and it just instantly made me fall in

(15:09):
love with sports on the radio. And a lot of
people in this town think of that as the Reds
and Marty and Joe, and I get that, but for me,
it was that moment listening to a Bengals Titans game,
and so it means a lot to me. And so
seeing him, and much like you said, when he filled
in last year and stepped in at U See, it
was just.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Like it's not supposed to be that easy.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
And he and Dan it was like they'd worked together forever.
And so they're obviously their chemistry is obviously really good,
which I think will go well into what Dan and
Lapp already have. And so I'm I'm seriously, I'm so
proud of him.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and he deserves it, and I know he'll make
the most of it. He's gonna make the most of it.
He's gonna make a great broadcast already even better. I
do hope whoever is producing the games compiles somewhat of
a blue Berreal for us until we could use on Mondays.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah, the big thing will be and I don't know
if you know, I try to tell Tony a lot.
You know, there's words that he doesn't know how to pronounce.
There's words that he doesn't know what they mean, need
to He just kind of throws him out there and
I try to help him, and I don't think he wants.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
My help anymore.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
So I'm that this now falls on Dan Hord and
so it'll meet a lot coming from Dan. He'll be
a pretty good yea. So Dan can handle that from
here on out. But in the meantime, you know, I
know Tarrean does a lot of our Bengals games. Tarren
is smart. He'll he'll have ready for us.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Ye yes, we're We're definitely, We're definitely going to need it.
What are you What are you excited about for the
big football game tomorrow that you'll be on until I
think about three thirty in the morning talking about.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Eleven thirty pm. Okay, so one am all right? So
really not bad at all? No, what am I most
excited about? I'm most excited about what the Bengals actually
run on offense, because we know that the whole shotgun
and it's fine and do this and do that thing,
and that's cool. But at the same time, it's like

(17:00):
they've been emphasizing this new part of their offense. Are
they actually gonna run that because they haven't run it
very well?

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Right?

Speaker 4 (17:06):
And are they gonna do it now? They're probably gonna
go with second third team of the Detroit Lions. But
also it's like, how important is it to run those
schemes and those motions and those run especially the run
plays against a different team and a specific look and
what can you clean from that while also trying to
protect your quarterback?

Speaker 5 (17:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (17:25):
Which is which is we talk about everything. It's still
the most important.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Thing, no doubt. I feel similarly because I feel like
a lot of times in sports, what what are themes
of the preseason? Like you'll hear it in baseball sometimes
we're gonna runs still a lot of bases and the
games start, you know, like, oh, we're not gonna have
one closer, We're gonna have bullpen by committee and the
game start and amelia. But now right, So and football

(17:49):
is similar as far as you know, like oh we're
gonna go really up tempo on the game start, it's like, nah,
they're still huddling. And so I do wonder if some
of the things we have seen in training camp are
gonna be what we see once September gets here, and
maybe a good glimpse into that answer is going to
be tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
The other thing for me yesterday when Zach talked, he
said he was asked to describe camp and he said physical.
That's not a word you would use to describe Bengals
training camp for most of his tenure. And I think
he's trying to find the middle ground between who he
was at the beginning and who Dan Campbell is with
the Detroit Lions. The Lions are tackling, They're bringing people
to the ground. They're one of the most physical teams

(18:26):
in football. They're also one of the most hurt teams
in football for the last three years. And so I
think Zach is trying to find the middle ground. And
is it the Mike Tyson quote everybody has a plan
till you get punched in the face. Well, let's see,
are the Bengals actually physical? Can they take it to
a team who prides themselves on physicality and obviously not
just the starters, but the whole team. Can they be physical?

(18:47):
And I think that's important for this. I think if
you're gonna do a Mike Tyson quote. Uh huh, you
have to do it in a Mike Tyson voice.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
I'm not very good at that. Let's see, that's the
best I go. It's not very good. That's pretty good.
That was better than I can do. But like this,
I don't know. That was better than anything I have.
Here's what I am most interested in during the preseason.
Everything is going well. See this is the glass half
empty part. Everything is going well. It's been an awesome offseason.

(19:16):
The vibes are great so far. They've gotten through training camp.
I think with minimal injury issues. There's still a lot
of time between now and the thirteenth September. Thirteenth September third,
I mean a month or a month why, there's still
a lot that can happen in the preseason. The period
that is most likely to have something happen are those
games I'm waiting for the other shooter to drop. And

(19:39):
that is that is forty plus years I mean rooting
for this franchise. That's you know, whatever it is. Everything
is so good right now. The vibes are great. You
and Tony were talking about the connectivity, the messaging from
the players, the health, the continuity. What happens over the
next month, that water all over it from And so

(20:02):
I just want to hit the fast forward button.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
From Ken Griffy Junior to Carson Palmer to Hunter Green.
You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I
hate that about us. Well, but it's a part of
our store. Stuff will happen in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Fine, Like that's that's the beauty of sports is how
do you overcome the stuff that happens in the regular season.
We're almost to September thirteenth, right, this long off season
of positive news, no distractions, no contract ugliness, everything's been great.
Are things still going to be great at one o'clock
on Sunday September the thirteenth? What happens when you know

(20:35):
what hits the fan? How do they react?

Speaker 4 (20:38):
And so yeah, and that's why part of me kind
of wants to see the physicality of the Lions. Even
though this game means nothing, that can still set a
tone for the rest of your preseason. And there have
been plenty of coaches that have been angry with the
way that their teams have played in preseason games, and
it might be a reflection of things they need to
change your fix.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
But yeah, I hate it because.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
You do always think that way, like something bad is
going to happen, how do we react to it? But
that is life, and that's sports, and let's football in
this town.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, uh well, I'm sorry. You're probably not gonna get
to see any tennis today. That's all right.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
You know I was here. I gave everything I had.
You did and at the end of the day, effort is.
I can't be questioned from you at all. Without question
from me every single day. I don't know the verocity
with you came up this flight of stairs early.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
I came in hot. Yeah, I came in that to me,
that was the physicality. I came in an umbrella down.
You set the tone. I came in for the next
three and a half hours, little aggressive. That's all right.
I don't have too much time left. I gotta go.
I gotta catch a bus. So Sports Sports head Austin,
thank you. Sports Headlines are next. We're broadcasting from the

(21:46):
Cincinnati Open today. By the way, yes, we're We're doing
the show on Twitter. You could watch it and YouTube
as well. This wait, there you go. This is a
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Cincinnati's ESPN Traffic.

Speaker 5 (22:02):
From the uc Hell Traffics.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Hot down at Bengal. It's the first game of the
preseason and the Bengals are looking to Stuart Fast. To
do it, they need to defeat Dedroit. Can the Orange
and Black Cane The Lions get the call live from
Dan Horden Dave Leavitt. Coverage begins tomorrow at five thirty pm.
Stream for free. Are the New It improved iHeartRadio app

(22:25):
or ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati
Bengals has.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Deep Boys Guy gone the memo It's not just Dan
and laugh anymore? Can we can? We should have been
note tell them got to update the promo. Sports headline
service a Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guarantee credit approval from their family to yours for life
kelseyshev dot Com. Bengals not practicing today because they have

(22:53):
a football game tomorrow. Bengals and Lions at seven o'clock
tomorrow evening from the venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium.
Pregame coverage starts at three o'clock countdown to kickoff at
five thirty. But despite the fact that it's kind of
an inactive day on the field for the Bengals. They
have made a pretty significant announcement that they are adding

(23:16):
Tony Pike to their radio team along with Dan Horde
and Dave Lapham. Tony will also be a part of
Bengals line with Lance and our buddy Joe Daneman from
Fox nineteen also being seeing an expansion of his role
with the Bengals in Fox nineteen, He's going to be
a part of the Pep Rally Show, which airs on
ESPN fifteen thirty Fridays between three and six. Meanwhile, tonight,

(23:40):
on the South Side of Chicago, Reds and White Sox
continue their three game series after last night's It's a
Fun Ball Game last night, which we'll spend a little
bit more time on here in a second. After last
night's come from behind went over the Socks, Rhet Louder
throws against old friend Luis Castio seven tonight, seven hundred
WLW RED will start play tonight, five and a half

(24:02):
games out of the last wildcard spot. Florence will host
Lake Erie tonight, and best of luck to the Hamilton
West Side All Stars Little League Baseball, a berth in
the Little League World Series Up for graft tonight is
Hamilton West Side takes on Kentucky North Oldham. I think
when you watch those games on TV, it just says

(24:22):
like Ohio versus Kentucky, it's North Oldham. This in the
Great Lakes Regional Championship game A berth and Williamsport up
for grabs. I caught these two teams played a few
days ago, and man, I admit I don't really watch
a lot of Little league baseball, but the Hamilton West

(24:44):
Side All Stars that is a juggernaut. It feels like they're,
if not in the College World Series, at least playing
for a berth in the College World Series almost every
single year. And so I do you know, check in
to see how they're doing. So I think this was
Monday night, might have been Sunday. It was ten to three,

(25:05):
and one of the plays in that game they went
to replay. Do we need replay in little league baseball?
I don't really believe we need it in professional baseball?
But you know that's that toothpaste ay and being put
back in the two do we need do we need replay?
That might be the poll question today? What the hell

(25:26):
do we need replay? In Little League Baseball, making myself
a note the Cincinnati Open. We're broadcasting from the Cincinnati
Open and right now here in Mason. The site remains closed.
The latest announcement said that play is actually no. Play
is not going to begin before four o'clock. That's twenty

(25:48):
minutes away and it is still raining, so the grounds
are closed. But we'll keep you up to date. Hopefully
they can get some tennis in tonight, twenty minutes away
from four o'clock. Chicago White Sox made some mistakes last night,
and the Reds pounced, and that's what you have to do.
They strung together some hits, they played little ball, they

(26:10):
found ways to score and involving methods that don't involve
the home run. And if you look at the line score,
you're not going to be impressed with how Nickolodolo pitched
last night. He gave up the three homers, he gave
up the two out hit that brought Chicago's fourth run
to the plate, and frankly, with the way the Reds

(26:31):
have been hitting, four nothing felt like fourteen to nothing
last night. But if there was one takeaway from Nicklodolo's start,
it's that his breaking ball actually looked really, really good,
and that matters because he's been experimenting with a new
grip because of all the blisters that he's had. That's
significant because, look, let's be honest about this, the Reds

(26:55):
chances aren't great. We can get into the mathematics of it.
What fangraft says, what Baseball Reference says, what Baseball Perspectives says,
what Vegas says. They've got a leapfrog a bunch of
teams in a short amount of time. They have the
toughest remaining schedule in the sport. Their offense right now stinks. Also,

(27:17):
they don't have Hunter Green, which amplifies the importance of
all those other dudes, including Rat Lauder, who pitches tonight.
Nicko Lodolo is one of those other dudes. They badly
need him to stay healthy over the final whatever it
is six to seven weeks of the season, and if
you're looking ahead to next year, it certainly feels like

(27:38):
there's a very distinct possibility that Hunter Green misses most
of twenty twenty seven. If not all, remember a month ago,
many were wondering Dia trade Nicolodolo in part because of
the depth of your starting pitching. That depth has already
been cut into and they have a lot of guys
who are always hurt. Nicko Lodolo's importance to this team,

(27:59):
which it's been something we've talked about for a while,
is now amplified, and so anything he can do to
help ensure that the blisters don't keep reoccurring pretty important.
Last night, the breaking ball looked pretty good. If the
new grip on the breaking ball prevents blisters, that's cool.
But if it prevents blisters and helps him throw a

(28:21):
good breaking ball, that's even better. And despite him being
touched with three solo homers last night, that pitch when
he used to excuse me, looked pretty good. Tyler Stevenson
had a big knock that drove in a couple of runs.
We got to talk about Tyler Stevenson's future at some point.
We'll spend some time on Hunter Green as well. Ends

(28:42):
I know what I sounded like talking about the Bengals
preseason game with Austin a few minutes ago. I know
what I sounded like, but that's not a reflection of me.
It's actually a reflection of seven really great months. We'll
get to that coming up in the four o'clock hour
as it relates to the Bengals. Brendan and Jones on
Baseball on the four o'clock hour as well, but Tony Pike,

(29:04):
we'll talk about tomorrow night's pre season opener next on
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 5 (29:14):
UC Health Traffic Center. Don't wait for answers for a
cancer diagnosis at the UC Cancer Center Rapid Diagnostic Clinic.
You could be seen within two days. Called five eight
five you see SEC traffic on.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
South USPN Alright, Team thirty with the latest from Bengals
training camp, brought to you by Camber Credit Union on
your official home of the Cincinnati Vengos, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
We're broadcasting from the Cincinnati Open where it's right now
rating harder than it is since I got here about
two o'clock. No Bengals practice today because they have a
game tomorrow hosting the Lions. You'll hear it live on
ESPN fifteen thirty with Dan Horde, Dave Lapham and making
his Bengals Radio Network broadcast debut. Our Guy Tony Pike.

(30:06):
We do three of these reports. Do I have to
spend all three of them congratulating.

Speaker 6 (30:11):
You no mode, because, like many things in life, were
humbled quickly in this world, and I could not have
been any more humbled over the past hour to wrap
up our broadcast from the Cincinnati Open and proceed to
walk a half mile to my car in pouring down
rain with no cover, no umbrella, backpacks, soaked shirts, soaked

(30:38):
stots or soaked and there's nothing you can do about it.
There's no shuttles, there was nothing. It was the worst
half mile walk I've ever made.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
So was your reaction by the time you got to
your car the same as my reaction when I walk
from my car to where you guys were broadcasting from.

Speaker 6 (30:56):
Your reaction was more than justified. I mean stuff, as
soon as I got in the car, I've slammed stuff down.
I think I'm just now getting feeling back in the
other parts of my body. Yeah, it was an interesting walk,
and it was a humbling walk.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Mo.

Speaker 6 (31:12):
Yeah, it was a roller coaster as that last ten
months have been.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well, I understand, and I'll say this often today, but congratulations.
I want you to I want you to expand upon
something you were talking about with Austin today and that's connectivity,
because whether it's been listening to players talk with other reporters,
go on other people's shows, or that certainly the players
that you and I have had a chance to talk
to during training camp shows. One thing that does stand

(31:37):
out is there is like a consistency with the message,
which tells me that, especially among the new guys dudes
are brought.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
In, every message is the same. Everyone's rowing in the
same direction. There's not players talking about their contracts, there's
not players talking about individual goals and individual achievements. It's
one vision. It's a super Bowl, it's a championship, and
it's an intensity and a focus and an understanding that

(32:04):
you and I talked about on day one of training
camp where the player said that Zach Taylor got up
the night before and wrote six and eleven on the whiteboard.
And every player has bought into that. Every player has
spoke to that and the locker room and the star
power that they have in it, but also the focus
and it does we say this a lot, We've said

(32:26):
it a lot during camp. Something about this camp and
this team right now feels different.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, And I think to get the new guys to
kind of buy in. Like, this is something you see
with college football a lot, because there's so many players
who come from other programs every single year. To kind
of get them to understand the mission that all the
returning players are on isn't the easiest thing to do.

Speaker 6 (32:50):
And you've got all types of players, free agents who've
made a lot of money already and now coming and
making more money. You've got rookies that are trying to
prove themselves, You've got veterans. I think one of the
biggest things for the Bengals is the Joe Burrow leadership aspect, because,
no doubt on that roster, he's who everyone looks at
and says, that's the dude that's very well the best

(33:12):
quarterback in the league. If he's doing it, if he's
pulling in this direction, then so are we. Like, if
you're a young player on this team and Joe Burrow
and Dexter Lawrence are setting the examples or Jamar Chase,
what excuse do you have not to set the same
example and hold yourself to the highest standard. I think
that permeates through the whole locker room right now for
the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
All right, Tony, we'll talk again in about an hour.
Thanks so much, Thanks Mall. Tony Pike joins is for
hourly training camp reports right around three fifty, right around
four fifty, and right around five fifty, and again tomorrow night.
He will be in the broadcast booth with Dan Horde,
Dave Lapham, and Wayne box Miller. Bengals and Lions countown
to cookoff at five thirty. Our pregame coverage begins at

(33:55):
three oh five. So one theme of the offseason has
been connectivity. One theme has been lack of controversy. Obviously,
a huge theme has been player acquisition. Now I've got
a theme for the next month. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty,
when employers like seven hundred WLW and sent down Bengal.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
It's the first game of the preseason and the Bengals
are looking to Stuart Fast. To do it, they need
to defeat Detroit. Can the Orange and Black Cane The
Lions get the call live from Dan Horden Dave Labat.
Coverage begins tomorrow at five thirty pm. Stream for free
are the new and improved iHeartRadio app for ESPN fifteen thirty,

(34:41):
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Right there you go. It's four oh four. This is
ESPs fifteen thirty mon name Smoager. Thank you so much
for listening today. Hopefully you are staying dry. We are
staying dry. We're at the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament, which
it has been wet and rainy all day long, so
no tennis. The verbiage in tennis is not before six o'clock,

(35:08):
and so not before six o'clock is what they're saying
it is. The rain has been steady. I think about
twenty minutes ago it was pretty much as hard as
I had seen it all day long. And it's a bummer.
You know. They've expanded this event to cover two weeks,
and so today is this afternoon has at least been

(35:30):
a wash. Hopefully tonight is not. But nonetheless, it is
awesome to be here at this facility. The grounds look
amazing despite the weather, and this is gonna be packed
a lot over the next week and a half. World
class tennis, world class food, world class accommodations. We're next
to a bar. You know, I think they could have

(35:53):
had somebody here manning the bar for us so we
can have a cold one. But nonetheless, we always appreciate
the hospitality provided by the folks at the Cincinnati Opened
by the way. You know, we started this about three
weeks ago, and I don't know if it's I don't
know if we're still calling this the beta, but you know,
now we do video. We're like a real, live, twenty

(36:15):
first century radio station. We have video of the show,
so you could you could actually watch me sit here
and talk. It could not be more boring. But you know, nonetheless,
everybody else is doing it, so we're not exactly setting
a trend. Sometimes, because he is very busy, like I
think this happened during one of the breaks yesterday. Sometimes
Tarn will leave the video feed on during a break.

(36:38):
Usually it has like the logo the show, or like
a beat right back message, but sometimes a lot going on.
He's gonna talk to people on the phone. He's producing
a radio show, and so he'll leave the camera on occasionally.
It is a shame for those of you who are
watching that he did not leave the camera on during
the last break, because had you been watching, you would

(36:58):
have seen me in hand two slices of l Rose's pizza.
I mean, I wasn't shy about it. Inhaled it. It
would not have been a good look, and so my
thanks to Tarren for cutting the video feed during the break.
Brendanman and Jones on baseball later on this hour. Speaking
of baseball, let's talk about Tyler Stevenson ends. Don't let

(37:21):
the Hunter Green things scare you. I'll make that make
sense a little bit later on. Plus another check in
with Tony Pike and I think the big Bengals news
other day and we repeat it because I think we're
all so excited. I'm excited as Tony's friend. I'm excited
as a fan of Tony. I'm excited as a Bengals fan.

(37:41):
I'm excited as somebody who works for the flagship radio
station of the Bengals. Tony is going to be joining
Dan and Lapp in the booth this season, starting tomorrow night.
The last seven months have been awesome. I mean, legitimately,
if you're a Bengals fan, could you disagree with that?
Not that there haven't been things here and there. You know,

(38:06):
I still wish there was another linebacker as impressive as
Demetrius Knight has been in camp, and as I think
it as promising as Barrett Carter has looked in camp,
like I think we'd all agree, like still be cool
if there was like another linebacker, and there's some legitimate
roster questions, maybe some of them start to get answered
Tomorrow night Swing Tackle. It feels like things are trading

(38:28):
in the right direction. It's lock corner, but you know,
let's see it in games. But the last seven months
have been a dream player acquisitions, trades, kind of a
reimaging of the franchise based on the Dexter Lawrence deal,
no contracts, squabbles. It is interesting that things have been
kind of quiet as it relates to players like DJ

(38:50):
Turner and Dax Hill. But quiet's good. No grand standing,
no holdouts, no hold ins. Everybody is healthy right now,
and I I shouldn't say everybody because Shamar Stewart is not.
BJ Hill is not. But we're not. We haven't watched
training camp and you know, through the lens of holy crap,
did another guy get hurt? Is another guy going to

(39:11):
miss time? They've had extraordinary continuity. The most important person
who wears a Bengals uniform, the most important person who
gets a paycheck from the Bengals, seems rejuvenated and re energized.
That's obviously Joe Burrow. Everybody seems to be bought in.
They had maybe not unanimous, but felt like pretty damn

(39:35):
close to unanimous participation during the offseason program like the schedule.
The schedule release didn't make anybody mad. It's been a dream.
But the last seven months, if you're a Bengals fan,
have been have been a dream. Now not as good
of a dream as you know, winning the Super Bowl
or getting the one seat or anything like that. But

(39:55):
I don't know. I don't know that you could have
imagined a better offseason when we met at the end
of last year Tony and Moe Football Show, or when
we talked about what lied ahead at the end of
the twenty twenty five season. I don't think any of us,
in our wildest dreams, could have imagined that the offseason
would unfold the way it has. Where's the controversy gonna

(40:17):
come from? Who are they gonna wiff on in free agency?
Are they really gonna be aggressive? What are they not
gonna do? Like all things we wondered? And so the
preseason starts tomorrow and mechanically, yes, there's stuff. There's players
who have shown some promise in camp. How do they
look in the preseason. How does some of the lower

(40:41):
on the depth chart roster battles play out. Do we
see continued dominance from the defensive front, does the offense
take a step forward? How does Joe Burrow look? But
to me, and maybe this is forty one years of
being a Bengals fan, that is influencing me too much.
The storyline for the next month is what can dump

(41:04):
cold water on all that we have just watched unfold
over the last seven months. What could go wrong? I
know how that sounds right, it sounds pessimistic. It's it's
not meant to be. It's it's kind of based on
like at every turn there's been a quality free agent signing,
a franchise just altering trade, a draft that like the

(41:31):
the early returns on the draft picks and it's they
haven't played a game yet, but the early returns on
the draft picks have been good. There's not a not
a not a controversy out there. So what happens over
the next month that shakes that up. That's it's maybe
the incorrect lens through it to watch the next three
football games, But that's it for me because I'm obviously

(41:53):
talking about injuries. I said on the show yesterday. What
the Bengals have going for him right now that is
better than maybe anything else, is relatively good health. It
is arguably the most important variable in this sport. Health.
Sometimes not the best team that wins, sometimes the healthiest.
Right now, they have really good health. Shamar Stewart and

(42:14):
bj Hill would object to that, and maybe Dax Hill
would object to that, but so far, really good health.
What happens over the next three games, and that the
practices in between, and they have a joint practice a
week from tomorrow with the Bears. But what happens in
the next thirty two days that changes that even just

(42:37):
a little bit, because right now, I think I don't
know that you can find many who care about this team,
And those who care about this team were maybe looking
at it through We're not looking through through an objective
lens when we talk about this team. But I think
all of us are expecting the playoffs. I think most
of us are expecting this team to at least compete,
seriously compete for a division title. I think if Burrow

(42:59):
plays seventeen games, they win a division title. I've got
him at like eleven and six. I'm trying to talk
myself into twelve and five. That's doubling your win total
from last year, which is really hard to do. But legitimately,
like these preseason games, eh, yeah, there's some stuff to
work on. But what happens in those games that sort

(43:24):
of deflates things a little bit because I don't know
how if you're as excited about this seasons as I
think all of us are, I don't know that there's
anything that's gonna happen over the next few weeks that's
gonna amplify that. If you think the Bengals are gonna
go fourteen to three, I heard a talkbacker today on
three sixty talk about this team going fourteen to three.
If you think the Bengals going fourteen to three, ain't

(43:45):
nothing gonna happen over the next month. That's gonna make
you think they're gonna go fifteen to two and eate.
Nothing's gonna happen over the next month. That's gonna make
you go, you know what, They're not gonna be that
good except a significant injury. That's it. That's the storyline.
That's the storyline, and it maybe is this storyline every year,
and maybe it's the storyline every year for every team,

(44:05):
But this offseason has been awesome from a talk show perspective,
And I know I've joked about this a lot. There's
been a little bit of a lack of content late
May June July, with you know, no contract controversy, but
as a fan, around every turn, there has been something positive,
something good. And you know I've said this about Joe Burrow.

(44:27):
I think he mirrors how most of us feel right now.
He seems re energized, rejuvenated, he seems psyched, he seems stoked,
seems refreshed. I think as fans we can all relate
to that what happens, and I know, mechanically like we
can dive into the nuts and bolts I do. I'm
gonna talk about this with Tony at four forty five,
like do they go vanilla in the preseason or do

(44:51):
we see some of the same things we've seen so
far during these practices. So, but more than anything like
I watched last year or during the preseason through a
different lens, it was Okay, they're gonna play Joe in
the preseason. Let's see how that looks. Let's try to
imagine how that's gonna translate to success early in the season.
Let's see if some of these pieces on defense who

(45:12):
we wish they wouldn't have brought back in twenty twenty five,
Let's see how they operate like this is this is
the the end of an offseason where there's been nothing
but good news. Does that somehow continue over the next month?
And if the answer is yes, the excitement for Game
one against the Bucks is gonna be absolutely through the move.

(45:33):
Fourteen minutes after four o'clock. By the way, we could
take phone calls even though we're not on site and
we're not in the studio today, not gonna be in
our studio till next week. Five win three seven four
nine fifteen thirty is our phone number? Eight six six
seven oh two three seven seven six. By the way,
for what it's worth, I believe they have canceled play

(45:54):
entirely for tonight. If I'm not mistaken, did I did
we get that message handed to us? So there will
be no tennis today? That's cool, We're still here. Does
that mean they're not going to open that bar due
to an ongoing inclement weather? Session two today is Session

(46:17):
two canceled out of an abundance of caution. For our fans,
gates will not be open today. Thank you for your
understanding and patience that according to the folks here at
the Cincinnati Open, that's a bummer because I wanted to
watch them tennis today. But you know what, come back
and watch them tennis later on this week or perhaps
next week. Sixteen minutes after four o'clock, Hunter Green's injury.

(46:42):
We haven't had a lot of time to talk about
hundred Green's injury. Let's talk about it, but not so
much about Hunter Green. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Is ESPN fifteen already, Moeger, thanks for listening today, Thanks
for watching. Huh uh Tony Pike. In about twenty minutes,
latest training camp update, and Brendaman and Jones on baseball.
We we had a few guests. We're at the Cincinnati
Open today where today's session has been canceled. Does that
mean where they're gonna lock us in? Like we're done

(47:21):
at six o'clock, they're closing the joint? Are they gonna
Are we gonna be stuck inside here? Are we gonna
be like you know, having to spend the night here. Also,
I'm told all the players are back in their lounge.
My favorite tennis player is Madison Keys. If they're not playing,
is there any reason why we can't get somebody to
see if Madison will come on the show with me?
But Ben Shelton two years ago, big fan of his

(47:42):
two anyway, or somebody send a tweet to Madison Keys
and tell her to come to the top deck bar
so I could talk to somebody fun. Uh five point
fifteen thirty Reds win. Last night, Hunter Green's having surgery.
Tyler Stevenson had a big hit. We got to talk
about extending him, but first let's take a fall. It

(48:02):
is a it is a call in show, after all,
Brian and Fort Thomas. You're on est afternoon.

Speaker 7 (48:10):
Yeah, I mean so it's a good day to be
at Duck.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yes, so good day on a pair of goloshes. Go ahead,
what's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (48:26):
So I'm a I'm a I'm I'm a fi Bengals
fan and and I'm uncomfortably optimistic about this year. And
it's it's it's it's uncomfortable. I feel so good and
it's so confident about this team. I feel it'd be
a disappointment not to win the division, assuming Joe stays
stays healthy. And no, they don't lose like a whole

(48:49):
slew dudes during the season. Like if if there's not
injury and they don't win to the vision, I don't
know how. I don't know what could happen. And we
had Joe say earlier, this earlier in training camp or
this year house from oton of LSU, how they had
everything they needed to win and that was one of
the hardly the best teams in college football history. I

(49:13):
just it's it's uncomfortable. It is.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Yeah, No, I'm not. I felt really I felt really
optimistic in twenty twenty two because of what they had
done the year before. But you know, they're coming off
a six win year this time. They haven't made the
playoffs each at the last three. I am. I am
often optimistic. I'm not as irrationally optimistic as I think

(49:40):
I am right now. And part of that is and
maybe you agree, I'm not buying the Baltimore Ravens now
week to week. They're gonna be hard to play. Lamar Jackson,
Derrick Henry, you know, Madawek is healthy and Trey Hendrickson
added to that team, maybe their past rush is better.
I'm not entirely convinced their offensive line is going to
be significantly better, or I don't know if Lamar has

(50:01):
enough weapons. But I'm not as I'm not as bullish
on Baltimore as I think a lot of people are.
And and that adds. You know, if you're not as
bullish on Baltimore, you can't then say, well, I feel
good about the Browns. They're not there. I don't know
anybody who feels great about the Pittsburgh Steelers. So what
about the team that returns an intact offense, an MVP

(50:23):
caliber quarterback and made upgrades on its defense. It's it's Cincinnati.
It's it's irrational optimism to the point that I just
keep waiting, And I think this is how we are
all unfortunately wired. You just you keep waiting for what's
behind the corner, What's what's around the corner, what's behind
door number two? You keep waiting for the other shooter job,
whatever verbage you want to use. And unfortunately that's that's

(50:45):
the lens through which I look at this preseason.

Speaker 7 (50:48):
Yeah, it's and I feel like Baltimore can take to
step back. I just think they they took a they
took a minus on the coaching staff. I don't know
here thinks that the coach was the issue in Baltimore
in the the past five years. I mean that they've
been propertial good and you know, one of the best
teams in the league. And I don't I just don't
think they're gonna be I think they're gonna be worse.

(51:09):
I just I don't see anybody. I don't see any
reason other than help that could really, you know, stop
this team from winning the division. And I mean I
don't want just want the reason I want to. I
want to get to buy. I went all like, yeah,
you know, we we we watched. You know, these these
long term these long these uh long, these long running

(51:31):
stands of like not winning the title, they come to
an end. I mean, the White, the the Red Sox
want to title a number of years ago after not
you know, after their curse. I just think it's our time.
I think we deserve the city as a fan base.
It's it's time to have parade.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
I can't wait. I hope it happens, you know, and
like the New York Knicks, of course, fifty three years.

Speaker 7 (51:53):
I mean you just felt, you just felt it. I mean,
I've done I felt winning a playoff game was one
of the greatest sme with in my life, other than
my child being being born. I can't imagine where it's
title winning is. I mean, it's gonna be, it's gonna
be awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
It would be, it would be insane. And I think
the remarkable thing is eight months after the conclusion of
a six win season, we're actually entertaining that possibility, and
that that scares me. Brian, I appreciate the the phone call.
I hope, I hope you stay dry like that. The
Baltimore thing for me, I understood why they moved on
from John Harball. He had been there for a long time.

(52:28):
He's probably gonna have a lot of success in New York.
But like if you look at how they lost so
many games over the last couple of years, there are
times when it feels like, even for a great coach,
that it's time. And I think they I like Jesse
Minter because of where he's from. That Jesse Minter been

(52:51):
hired by the Cincinnati Bengals. If they had a vacancy,
I think we'd all be pretty happy. But it often
takes a little time for new coaches, So I just
I'm not as bullish on Baltimore. It would be unsurprising
if they made the playoffs. It would be unsurprising if
they were a bear to play. But I do I
feel like with the Cincinnati roster, and we haven't seen

(53:14):
the pieces work on defense yet, but man like even
the training camp practices that training camp practice on Sunday
with the offense and defense trading blows is exactly what
you want. Beyond that, we all went into training camp
wondering can some of these rookies contribute? So far, so good.
We all went into training camp wondering, all right, well

(53:37):
are the changes they've made up front, getting after the quarterback?
Are they gonna pay off? So far they have. Again,
I'm not We were optimistic coming into training camp. I
said eleven wins four or five weeks ago. Nothing about
training camp has done anything to dissuade anybody who thought
the Bengals were gonna be good from continuing to think
the Bengals are gonna be good. How does the preseason

(54:01):
change that? And the maybe not the only answer, but
obviously the biggest answer would be injuries. And so you
always you always watch preseason games kind of threw your
hands wondering, like, all right, you know, Burrow and the
starters are out there, get them out, let's let's move on.
But man, a little bit more so now, because I

(54:21):
do think a fully intact team if they can if
they can get to the post second Sunday of September
and be as healthy as they are now, and that
might be asking a bit much. I think it's game on.
I'll take my chances. Said this all along. If Burrow
plays seventeen, I think they win the division. And I
do think eleven will win it. And by the way,
I've had people telling me eleven sounds pessimistic to me.

(54:44):
It's like, beyond eleven, you're asking them to double or
more than double their win total. And I do think
that's a little bit of a tough ask. But we'll
see first world problems. Twenty eight after four o'clock, you
can send a tweet anytime at moegar thanks to Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart and vibrant communities for all.
Good to Delta Dentaloh dot com. We got to talk

(55:06):
about the hero of last night's Red's win next where
the Cincinnati opened. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 5 (55:19):
From the uc Hell Traffic Center. Don't wait, you know
what I miss?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
But first of all, Terrence playing Will Smith music. I mean, look,
i know I'm not in studio, I know I'm not
there with you, but this is this is just inexcusable.
And I'm gonna have to have a talk with management
now about Tarran producing the show because he just keeps playing,
you know, Will Smith music. You know what I really

(55:44):
miss beyond coming out of breaks, not hearing willon miss summer?
Summer was fun, right summer when it was sunny and
hot and to be outside doing stuff. It was just
a couple of days ago. The rain is unending here
in Mason. Sports headlines are a service a Kelsey home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their

(56:05):
family to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com. Bengals prepping
for tomorrow night's preseason opener against the Detroit Lions kickoff
at seven o'clock. Pregame Sports Talk. That's gonna be our
show tomorrow five not five thirty three o'clock from the
stadium on ESPN fifteen thirty, there is Bengals News. However,

(56:29):
congratulations to our friend and colleague Tony Pike, who was
being added to the Bengals Radio Network broadcast booth alongside
Dan Horden Dave Lapham in the game. Tony is also
going to be hosting Bengals Line this year. And also
give it up to our guy Joe Daniman, who is
gonna expand his portfolio when it comes to the Bengals

(56:49):
and be a part of shows like Bengals pep Rally,
which is on ESPN fifteen thirty Fridays at three Fridays
at three at Why this guy's off on Fridays. Meanwhile,
now the Reds are in Chicago's South Side for the
second and three against the White Sox. Rut Louder against
former Red Luis Castillo seven tonight on seven hundred WLW

(57:12):
Yours starting lineup against a guy who has one of
the best change ups I've ever seen, La Dela Cruise
in short south Stewart's dhing Blede isn't left, Suarez plays
third totally is at first. Rodriguez in right field Travino
catches tonight. TJ friedlan center, Matt McClain plays second, and
bets ninth. Red's come in to play tonight. Five and

(57:32):
a half games out of that last wildcard spot. Florence
will host Lake Erie tonight. I suppose weather permitting best
of luck tonight to the Hamilton West Side All Stars
who take on North Oldham from Kentucky in the championship
game of the Great Lakes Region. Winner advances to Williamsport
and play here at the Cincinnati Open. Never got underway

(57:55):
and it will not get underway. They're not going to
play tennis today or tonight. They'll try again tomorrow. But
that's not stop. This show is so good, such a
well oiled machine. We can do a broadcast from an
event that's not even happening. Have we found out if
Madison Keys is coming by, however that would be? That
would be nice. Brendivan and Jones on Baseball is about

(58:16):
fifteen minutes away, and Tony's gonna join us again for
the latest on the Bengals as we get set for
tomorrow night the ballgame. Last night, Red's come back from
down four against the White Sox on the South side
of Chicago on Pope had Night and when the ballgame
in extra innings one of the key moments of the game,

(58:37):
and there were many that's a fun game last night,
including Amelio Pagan surviving a fourteen pitch battle to close
out the ballgame in the tenth inning last night, but
a big two run hit by Tyler Stevenson. Tyler Stevenson
was not traded, and a lot of people thought Tyler
Stevenson was going to be traded at the deadline. Tyler

(59:01):
Stevenson the day before the deadline looked like a guy
who thought he was going to be traded. Now, the
Reds don't have a great history of letting players get
to free agency and then re signing him. I think
the last guy they had who like even got to
free agency like a player who played six years for
the team and then hit free agency and then left

(59:24):
before being traded with Zach Cozard. So there's not a
very long history of players getting those first six years
and then even hitting free agency. But they obviously don't
have a very good track record of players hitting free
agency and then retaining them. They didn't trade Tyler Stevenson.
Now you could argue if you want. And by the way,
it's worth mentioning both the Phillies and Diamondbacks are losing

(59:46):
this afternoon, Philadelphia seven to one of the Cardinals as
they head to the ninth inning in Saint Louis, and
the Diamondbacks trail the Rockies six to one in Phoenix.
As Arizona gets set to come to the plate in
the bottom of the fourth, argue, well, they kept Tyler
Stevenson around because you know they're going to try to
get to the postseason this year. And okay, we'll see
if that works. Who are you going to have next

(01:00:09):
year behind the plate that's better than Tyler Stevenson. Now
what he would cost, I haven't even begun to done
to do the math. And frankly, if I was Tyler Stevenson,
I've earned the right to hit free agency. I now
have an opportunity to play among the teams that are
that are courting me. I have a chance to pick
the one that I want to play for. But if

(01:00:31):
you're the Reds, you do have Alfredo Junio in this system.
He's still just twenty years old. As much as everybody
is real high on him as a prospect, I really
can't find anybody who believes he should catch one hundred
and ten games at the big league level next year.
He gots better than Tyler Stevenson. And he's got his deficiencies.
I get it. He's not great at throwing out runners.

(01:00:53):
He has often been a work in progress behind the plate.
He's obviously become a weapon with his success rate and
challenging calls via the abs. He has swung a really
hot bat these last two and a half months. Maybe
that's skewing my my thinking a little bit, but I
don't know, dude, next year's primary catcher, are they going

(01:01:14):
to be better than Tyler Stevenson. If the answer is no,
how do you not try to resign him? And maybe
Tyler's looking for something unreasonable where it's like, y'all take
a seven year contract, yeah for a catcher. We're not
doing that. It's a hard pass. But wouldn't you prioritize
over the next two months trying to figure out a

(01:01:37):
way to lock him in for at least next year
and hopefully beyond, at least a little bit before he
hits free agency. If you weren't gonna trade him, and
if you weren't in this with the market just you know,
a lot of catchers went and not Tyler Stevenson. If
you're gonna hang on to him, don't you at least try.

(01:01:57):
Don't you at least take advantage of the fact that
he's still it works for you, and thus you have
exclusive negotiating rights with the guy to try to get
something done. I would, because I don't know, man, he's
not yet thirty years old. I don't know who you're
gonna have next year who's better. And if, by the way,
if Duno comes up next year and slides Tyler down
the depth chart, then okay, fine, there's worse things than

(01:02:21):
having Tyler Stevenson on your team. He never hit enough
to be a first baseman. He never hit enough to
be a left fielder. We went through that five six
years ago. But as a catcher, his offense is fine.
It's fine enough. It's trending in the right direction because
of the ABS system. Now you have found like this

(01:02:41):
thing that didn't exist that he's really good at. And
if not Tyler, if the prospect isn't ready, what do
you got that's better. I don't think there's an answer.
If there is, you could tell me. At five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty. Watching Bengals training camp practice.
We have seen coordinators on both sides of the ball

(01:03:02):
move guys around. Practices haven't exactly been vanilla. Well, tomorrow
night's game be vanilla. Tony Pike, who's non vanilla, tells
us next. We're broadcasting today from the Cincinnati Open. The
Cincinnati Open is anything, but it's actually the Cincinnati Closed
because weather has postponed play today. But we're here nonetheless

(01:03:23):
at the Lender Tennis Center. Brendanman and Jones on baseball.
Also coming up this hour eighteen from five o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the ucl E.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
USPN fifteen thirty with the latest from Bengals training camp,
brought you by Hollywood Casino, Lawrenceburg, on your official home
of the Cincinnati Bengos. ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Tony Pike is back with us. Hopefully he has dried
off over his walk from our broadcast location here in
Mason to his car. Bengals and Lions. Tomorrow, Tony in
the broadcast booth, making his Bengals Radio Network debut with
Dan Horde and Dave Lapham. You and I have talked
a lot during a training camp about how they're experimenting

(01:04:14):
and trying different things. We're watching a lot of motions
and shifts on offense, which I know you're a big
proponent of. We've seen Al Golden try some different things
with how he's utilized players specifically in the front. Now,
preseason games typically are vanilla. You don't want to put
a lot on tape, But could that change tomorrow night.

Speaker 6 (01:04:34):
I think to an extent, I don't think we need
to see Joe Burrow under center, dropping back play action
or rollouts because we've seen some blocking miscues from this
team throughout training camp on those. But one of the
things that I don't think we're able to gauge at
all in camp is under center run success because they're

(01:04:55):
just not tackling live. I think they should go under
center and work on the run game, especially with Joe
Burrow when he's in the game. Let's see some Chase
Brown runs from under and I do think it would
help them to mix it up a little bit. Formations, motions,
different things that would just make other teams watching in
future opponents. Just another thing that they've got to prepare

(01:05:17):
for during the week, because you only get a limited
amount of time to prepare as much as you can
put out there early that they're going to have to
take notice of and have a game plan for. I
think you help yourself out a little bit in that sense.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Anything similar on defense, I.

Speaker 6 (01:05:32):
Think defense is different. I think defense you just want
to be base and allow guys to go play fast
and make plays offensively. What kind of advantages can I
gain defensively. We've seen them moving all around throughout training camp.
I'm okay with that. I want to see some base defenses,
and I want to see guys win one on one
battles and see guys make plays when they're in space.

(01:05:55):
If they can accomplish that tomorrow night, I think you're
in a pretty good spot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
We'll talk again in about an hour. Thank you very much.

Speaker 6 (01:06:04):
Thanks well.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Tony Pike joins us every hour with live training camp reports,
and he'll be on the call tomorrow with Dan and
Lap Bengals Alliance seven o'clock tomorrow night on ESPN fifteen thirty.
We're broadcasting from the Cincinnati Open in Mason. Brendanman and
Jones on Baseball is.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
Next, someone had a hot down Bengal. It's the first
game of the preseason and the Bengals are looking to
stand fast. To do it, they need to defeat Detroit
can the Orange and Black Cane. The Lions get the
call live from Dan Horden Dave Labat. Coverage begins tomorrow
at five thirty pm. The stream for free are the

(01:06:44):
new and improved iHeartRadio app for ESPN fifteen thirty, the
official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Right here we go, we are broadcasting today from the
Cincinnati Open. The Cincinnati Open is closed. No tennis today. Unfortunately,
as one would have it, like we've had, Tony said
this to me since he three to sixty was broadcast
from here. Before. Tony and I had the show on
Friday from the stadium and it was supposed to be

(01:07:12):
a two hour outdoor practice. Rain got in the way.
Rain screwed it up, and so we had a lot
of fun doing a four hour and forty five minute show,
but we didn't get a chance to watch much football.
Then yesterday Tony and Mode training camp show lasted five
minutes before rain moved us out of the way. And
today we've been fine We've been on the air all afternoon.
Unfortunately no tennis because it's been raining all day. I

(01:07:35):
will never be as accomplished or as good of a
broadcaster as the late great Jim Scott, the greatest on
air personality in the history of Cincinnati radio. But I
will I will channel him for just a bit because
we had NonStop rain yesterday. We've had NonStop rain in
Cincinnati today. If he were on the air right now,

(01:07:57):
do you know what he would say. He would say,
thirty eight more days. We're gonna have to build an
arc or something of that nature. So just you know,
you know, just it's not my line, it's his. Anyway,
we're broadcasting from the Cincinnati Open, and despite the fact
that there's no tennis today, the gates are closed. If
you have tickets for tonight, don't come. I still get

(01:08:19):
so excited for this event every year. I love tennis,
and I will never talk about it. I'm really not
comfortable talking about tennis because I feel like there's always
people who know so much more about it than me
than will yell at me because I didn't, you know,
watch the Canadian Open or something. But like, as a sport,
it's probably the second sport I loved, as like the

(01:08:41):
first sport I fell in love with was baseball, and
then I think the second sport that I fell in
love with was tennis because the French Open and Wimbledon
were on during the week and as a kid, when
there's sports on in the morning during the week, like
that's it, and so I like the sport. I have
an affinity for this event. They're always so kind to us.
If you haven't been up here, come on a nicer

(01:09:02):
weather day. But the grounds here are spectacular. Every year
this tournament gets bigger, it gets better. It's extraordinarily family friendly,
and if you like meeting folks from other parts of
the world or other parts of the US, this is it, man,
because you find people who come from other parts of
the world that they follow a favorite player from their

(01:09:24):
country and don't come here, and then they'll go to
New York for the US Open in a couple of weeks.
And the people watching here is terrific. I love this
event and it's a bummer that we couldn't watch any
tennis today. But if you have tickets, hopefully you have
better weather later this week or next and ideally if

(01:09:46):
you don't have tickets, you come check it out for
the first time. Because world class tennis, world class events,
and they are extraordinarily awesome to us here every single year.
Here's how awesome they are. They're letting us broadcast on
a day where there's no tennis, Like if the Reds
can their game, guess what broadcast is over Bengals training camp. Yes,

(01:10:09):
Bengals have been very, very good to us. No training camp. Sorry,
you gotta go not here. So we love coming up here.
And the folks with the Cincinnati Open have been terrific
over the years. And the other thing I also say
this every single year. You can go to a Reds
game and you'll have a blast. But you can't go
up to the batting cage and watch Sal Stewart take

(01:10:30):
batting practice. You can't do that. You can't go to
a Bengals game and stand on the field while Joe
Burrow is throwing with his receivers. But you can come
to this event and stand behind the practice courts and
watch some of the best players in the world practice
and then work their way among the crowd. It's this

(01:10:52):
event is terrific. Speaking of terrific Bengals and Lions tomorrow.
No major news today as it relates to the Bengals,
no practice obviously, but they did make an announcement today
that makes us at iHeart very very happy. Certainly makes
me very very happy, and that's the expansion of their

(01:11:12):
radio broadcast booth to include our friend and colleague Tony Pike.
Bengals made this announcement at two thirty today and it's
extraordinarily well deserved. I've felt for years that, boyd, it
would be hard to make the Bengals radio broadcast any
better with the iconic Dan Horde, the legendary Dave Lapham.

(01:11:35):
But maybe the only way you could make it better
would be at to add somebody the person and the
broadcast or the caliber of Tony Pike. And I don't know,
I don't know if he has ever I know he
has never sat down and told me, hey, one day
it would be cool to be in the Bengals radio
broadcast booth. But if you're somebody like him, with his

(01:11:56):
level of knowledge and expertise, you're off that opportunity. You
say yes, and nothing is going to change. As it
relates to Tony doing his show, Tony being a part
of my show, on Monday's Tony and Mo Football Show.
He's still going to be on UC broadcast. Dude's going
to be busy. I told this story earlier in the show,
and it bears repeating if you weren't here for it.

(01:12:18):
When Tony started doing broadcasting work, it was on the
sideline for UC football, and it, as I recall, it
wasn't a full time thing. I think he was filling
in for Tom Goaletter, who was the sideline guy, and
then he had to fill in doing a game for
Dan Horde, and I believe we were in Connecticut for

(01:12:38):
a UC Yukon football game. This would have been like
twenty thirteen twenty I think it was twenty fourteen. We
were at Wrenschler Field, which is a dump and obviously
new Tony from his days playing at UC, was a
huge fan, almost got him declared ineligible for selling Pike
to Pike for Heisman t shirts, and so he needed

(01:13:00):
a sideline reporter, and somebody's idea was let's use Tony.
And I remember the first game, the first report he
did on the sideline, and he was a little bit
more of a sideline analyst than a reporter. But I
remember thinking like Okay, this guy's a natural. And not
that you know any broadcaster, certainly myself, there aren't some

(01:13:21):
rough edges to be smoothed out, but the ability to
see and explain in a way that wasn't over the
listener's head. That's a unique skill, and it's a unique
skill to have if you've been working at it your
entire life. I remember saying day one, like, okay, he's
good at that. He could do that, and his obviously

(01:13:45):
his broadcast portfolio has expanded. He's been a part of
our station I think since twenty eighteen, with the exception
of the one week that he was let go last August,
and that was the result of a moron making a
bad decision. But you know, he stepped in when Jim
Kelly fell ill last year on UC football broadcast, and

(01:14:06):
obviously we lost Jim Kelly not soon thereafter, and and
that was devastating and it hurt and it was so
bad on so many levels. But Tony slid into Jim's
chair and instantly it was like, Yep, he's fine, this
broadcast will be okay because Tony is a natural, and

(01:14:27):
so what he's going to end to that broadcast starting
Tomorrow night is going to be tremendous insight, humor, and
the cool thing about it is, you know, you got
somebody as good as Dan, and somebody as good as
Lap and and somebody as good as Tony, like they'll
figure out a way to make it work very very quickly.
And so I'm extraordinarily happy for Tony as a friend.

(01:14:49):
I'm extraordinarily happy for us as you know, where the
flagship home of the Bengals. It makes the broadcast better.
I'm thrilled as a Bengals fan that the broadcast is
going to be even better. But in a very i
don't know, small way, very proud of Tony because I've
I've watched his career start from day one and watched
him blossom and grow and carve out certain niches and

(01:15:12):
deal with certain setbacks. And as good as he is
doing this the Sincy three to sixty show, and he
is awesome. Let's be honest. He's a football guy, and
so a football guy belongs on a football broadcast, and
the Cincinnati Bengals are one of thirty two NFL broadcasts,
so it's a pretty elite company that he is joining.

(01:15:33):
And we're stoked for him, and he's gonna kill it
and already great broadcast is gonna be made even better.
So tomorrow night pregame at five thirty. We start coverage
at three oh five, the game at seven o'clock. Bengals
and Lions on ESPN fifteen thirty with Dan Horde, Dave
Lapham and Tony Pike. We got to talk about a

(01:15:56):
Hunter Green in just a bit, but first let's talk
about this event with a guy who I think is
in charge of it. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:16:04):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:16:09):
Traffic from the UCLL Traffic Center.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
ESPN fifteen thirty Moegger broadcasting from the Cincinnati Open, and
the weather. I can't see the top of the Eiffel
Tower across I seventy one. That's that's the sort of
dense clouds we're dealing with here, But nonetheless awesome to
be here. The grounds look great. We are set for
a terrific two weeks of men's and women's tennis at

(01:16:34):
the highest level. Pete Holtzman, what is your job title now?
Media director, media director or other duties? Has a same
I believe in the last twelve years. This is the
tenth time we've been able to broadcast from here. You're
always so copa right, Yeah, well wonder you you guys
were in New York for the COVID year and then
I think there was another year where my schedule just
we didn't make it happen. But I think it's ten

(01:16:56):
out of twelve. It's awesome to be here. He's great
to have you out.

Speaker 8 (01:16:58):
Yes, you know, wish there was a little more activity
to be uh showing you today, but glad you're out here.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
Nonetheless, you know I was able to get some pizza. Good,
so if that me a little right, and uh, you
know we're dry, so we're good.

Speaker 8 (01:17:10):
Yeah, you know we're gonna we're gonna have a lot
of tennis over the next ten to twelve days. So yes,
you need to come back, definitely. You're here early now,
come back often, definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Yeah. And that's to me the cool thing about the
expansion of a of a two week event, right, there's
multiple opportunities, whereas it for me used to be like, man,
it's a week. I gotta find time and a little
bit more time to pick some time to come.

Speaker 8 (01:17:31):
Yeah, and you know it's gonna be great, because yes,
we're getting a little backed up here with the weather,
but yeah, we'll be able to catch up. And you know,
by Monday this I'll be in the rearview mirror and
we'll be like smooth sailing, hopefully touching woods here. But
you know, I think it's it's gonna be a great
couple of weeks of tennis. We've still got three hundred
matches to play. We got a lot of players here
who are eager to get on the court now because

(01:17:51):
they haven't they haven't struck a tennis ball to day.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
I described coming here last year as the same but different,
you know, so if you last came out here four
years ago, much of it is the same, much of
it's different. You know.

Speaker 8 (01:18:07):
It's funny because we actually when we were talking about
how to talk about what we were doing, we were
really intention about using the word transformation, right because it
wasn't just a remodel, it wasn't just a renovation.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
It was truly transforming it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:20):
But at the core, we wanted to keep it what
it was, and the key in that is accessible and intimate,
and worked really hard to maintain that so that you
can get close to the practice courts, you have the
opportunities to get that jumbo tennis ball signed. Like those
are the hallmarks of this event year over year over
year that not only do the fans love, but the
players love when they come here and they get that

(01:18:42):
energy from all these great fans who were out here.
So we definitely wanted to maintain that while needing to
expand to accommodate a bigger tennis Maybe four.

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
Years ago, I remember broadcasting from here and I didn't
have a great feeling about it. It like it felt
like we might not be doing this and so to
go from then, and like that was my sense, and
I just I remember talking with folks and they were
sort of putting a brave face. But I'm like, this event,

(01:19:11):
as we know it is maybe not going to continue
to go from how I felt four or five years
ago when that was to what's happened now. It's remarkable.

Speaker 8 (01:19:19):
Yeah, and you know it's everybody's responded so positive to it,
and you know, from all our partners on the government side,
to the business side, to just the.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
Fans in general.

Speaker 8 (01:19:28):
And I think one of the great things is how
awesome this event is for the Tristate region. Yeah, we
had more than half of our attendees last year came
from outside this region. This is great to bring all
these people in and that's why we've created such a
park to come and hang out in all day, because
if you've driven down from Chicago or flown in from
another country, you're gonna be here. You're gonna be here
all day. You're gonna watch as much tennis as you can.

(01:19:50):
You're gonna go all over the grounds to find that
practice session that they'd said, tie break, where's the best action?

Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
That's where I want to be. I feel like both
tours are a pretty decent place right now.

Speaker 8 (01:19:59):
Yeah, and I think the there's a lot of excitement
about the up and coming group. And I think, you know,
it's funny to say up and coming because they're not here,
But Carlo Salakerz and the Center are not old men.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
They're still pretty young.

Speaker 8 (01:20:10):
Like they're looking at twenty five ahead of them, not
behind them.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
So there's a huge future.

Speaker 8 (01:20:15):
But the next wave, when you talk about like lerner
t On, this young American lefty who's into the semi
finals up in Canada, Ben Shelton, is so exciting. He's
a little bit older, but he's so exciting to watch.
He'll tell you how good he is doing.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
You had the chance to yes, jo fon Sek Arthur Fees.
You know, there's this next wave coming on the men's side,
and Rafa Hoda I got him as well. And then
on the women's side, same thing, and you got the
excitement of an Alexiyala coming on. And you know, by
the way, Coco Goff's not exactly up there in age either.
So there is a lot of tennis left for these

(01:20:50):
players to play, and it's really exciting to see them
as they're emerging, and the.

Speaker 8 (01:20:54):
Future is so bright. It's going to be exciting to
see these rivalries develop over the years.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
What do players tell you they like most about this event?

Speaker 8 (01:21:02):
Oh, it's hard for them to narrow it down. It's
just comfortable. They love the facilities, they love what's happened here.
Thirty one courts. That's precedented at an event like this,
so you're not struggling to find an opportunity to get
on in practice. The food, they rave about the food
and just in general the hospitality.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
They love it.

Speaker 8 (01:21:22):
And like I said, they do feed off the energy
of the great crowds we get out here practices them
in community weekend. Put several thousand people out here on
Saturday watching practices or kids getting rackets in their hand
figuring out how to.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
Play this sport. Yeah, you mentioned the practice accessibility, and
I say this every year. You can go to a
Reds game. You can't stand behind the batting cage and
watch Eli Tech batting practice. You can't go to a
football game and watch Joe Burrowthrow passes before the game.
You could stand right behind some of the best players
in the world and be mere feed away from them
as they practice their craft.

Speaker 8 (01:21:55):
And not only on these practice days, but then when
they come out to warm up for their matches. Yeah
you know, Hey, they're gonna play in like three hours,
and you can be right there watching them warm up,
figure out what they do.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
And especially if you're a player. Yeah, like I swing
at tennis record.

Speaker 8 (01:22:09):
I'm not a player, but I can learn a little
bit by being around it, seeing what they're doing, and like, oh, yeah,
you should hit the ball in front of you. I
hear that all the time when I take a clinic,
but I'm seeing it here, you know. So if you're
trying to get better at playing, great opportunity to learn.

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
Right what happens to the schedule because of a day
like today.

Speaker 8 (01:22:27):
Yeah, you know, and are you in charge of that?
I am not, thankfully, thank goodness. Yeah, we're we're we've
lost some tennis from yesterday. We had eight matches we
didn't even get on the court yesterday and then one
was suspended, so we kind of came into day eight
and a half matches behind. We're going to try to
get as much tennis as we can tonight. Unfortunately, we're

(01:22:49):
not going to be able to have spectators in at
this point. It's just been too long a day and
so many different lightning delays and everything. So we hope
to play some tennis still though, and see how close
we can get beat. If all goes well, maybe we're
only a handful of matches behind going into tomorrow. But yeah,
that is the other thing with the longer event is
everybody's got some built in off days, so if we

(01:23:11):
get behind further, we can condense and maybe you don't
have an off day where you might have had an
off day, but you're at least, you know, not having
to double up, so we have room to play with.
And the good thing is, look, these are all professionals,
both on the tour organization side and on the playing side. Right,
we chase summer around the globe. Everywhere we go. It's summer,

(01:23:32):
it's wather. You deal with this. So we've seen this before,
the tour seen this before. They know how to make
it work so that it's fair for everybody, no competitive
advantage or disadvantage. Give everybody the best chance to come
out play their best tennis, and keep us on schedule.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
Get us back on schedule as soon as we can't
have a weather daylight today when we come back to
play basketball here in October.

Speaker 8 (01:23:53):
Yeah, that's we are definitely relying on a lot of
help to make sure October seventh is the best day ever.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
That's gonna be awesome though. That's gonna be so cool.
And the fan bases, I mean, what great stuts to
come in here the bases. That is going to be
such an exciting event. They're actually doing one.

Speaker 8 (01:24:09):
So the same group that puts on this tennis tournament
owns a tennis tournament in Charleston, South Carolina. They're doing
a similar thing at their outdoor tennis venue down there,
South Carolina College of Charleston.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
We know some people there. Sure, Yeah, they're gonna be
playing in that one. So cool to get that.

Speaker 8 (01:24:23):
I mean, it's just such a unique experience to see
basketball outdoors. Indian Wells did it once with the Phoenix
Suns in the preseason, and then the New York Liberty
once played in Arthurs Stadium at US Open. So yeah,
so we've seen a few of these outdoor games. The
footprint's perfect, right, Yeah, tennis court and the basketball court
pretty similar in size. So it's a it's a great opportunity.

(01:24:44):
And yeah, absolutely hoping that the weather is dialed in.

Speaker 1 (01:24:46):
That's three o'clock in the afternoon is when that's gonna start.
If I'm not mistaken really focused on tennis, right, I
get it, I understand. I just the fact that you've
got people at those four schools to agree on the
same cause I was, you know, that's that's not insignificant.

Speaker 8 (01:25:01):
And the history that those programs all have with each other,
you see, and I don't know how we stay it
having played for the national championships against each other, and
obviously Blackburn McCafferty, you know the Xaviorer. You see, rivalry
is number one for the Musketeers, but that Xavier Dayton
Rovalies right there. Yeah, so huge opportunity for those schools,
those fan bases.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
You've got folks listening to this right now who don't
watch tennis, right, but they hear us, they know about
the event, they thought it might be cool to visit,
but they haven't checked it out outline, like what a
day at this event for them should look like. I
think the key thing to know is you're not gonna
come and sit in that one chair for the two
three hours and then get up and leave. Right You're

(01:25:40):
gonna be able to go all around this campus. We've
got thirteen restaurants that we're looking at from our vantage
point here. We got three food trucks around the venue.
There are all those practices. We're gonna play matches on
ten courts. That's twenty one courts of practices. So you
can get up, go around, move around all day, check
out so many different things.

Speaker 8 (01:25:56):
We've got a great retail shop over here with all
kinds of beautiful merchandise.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
There's just a ton to do. Take the kids out,
let them try some kids' activities, some speed serve and
I think as far as the competition, you know, no sport,
I think is really done justice on television. Yeah, but tennis,
the power, the movement, the spin of the ball, the
way it's bouncing and moving, the way the athletes are

(01:26:20):
getting side to side, how quick they're moving that sneaker squeak.

Speaker 8 (01:26:23):
It's just it's incredible and it really is something when
you see it in person. And as we were talking,
you can see that up close here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
You know, it's interesting. I was watching the Netflix dock
on Martina Navertilov and Chris Evertt and their rivalry. I
watch it this weekend. It's it's beautifully done. But there's
a lot of footage of them playing against each other
in the seventies and early eighties, and those are marvelous.
Those are legends in the sport. But I'm watching it Covin,
you know, as graceful and as fast as Chris Everett was.

(01:26:54):
The players now just in terms of the amount of
ground they cover and the power that they're hitting with.
It's it's night and day. Yeah, the game has changed
so much. You were talking a little bit about it.

Speaker 8 (01:27:04):
Stadium three over here we just renamed for Tony Treybert,
great great player and gentlemen from Cincinnati. Grew up in
bond Hill and went on to be number one, be
one of the greatest players. It's nineteen fifty five season
was incredible, right, He won three Grand Slams in that season.
He I think played one hundred and thirteen singles matches.
He won eighteen titles in one season. Yea, Like nobody's

(01:27:28):
playing one hundred matches in a season now. It's just impossible.
And that's because of the physicality. Some of that's the
racket technology. The way these athletes now are training. Was
talking earlier with Tony and Austin. You know, the recovery
to play one day, come back play the next day.
There's just so much that goes into it to really
be able to maintain that level of physicality. And it's
amazing when you get some matches where there's bruising. I

(01:27:50):
mean Shelton's won. You get out there like that's a
physical match.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
Yeah, that is.

Speaker 8 (01:27:54):
You know, it's not serve and volley is very much
on a death store here. We're not seeing a lot
of that because it's just too hard coming back at
you too fast.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
You're always so hospitable to us and can't thank you enough.
Love coming out here and let's do it again next year. Yeah,
and let's hope you get back out here watch a
lit the tennis. I will that's the plan. Yeah, we're
gonna have a ton of tennis. We have so much
tennis to come. We have so many great players. You know,
Serena and Venus Williams m hm never played doubles here before.
They're gonna do it this year.

Speaker 8 (01:28:24):
Yeah, they've played, They've won fourteen Grand Siams together, right,
but they never teamed up here. We've seen her both
in singles. Serena's won the singles title a couple of times,
but this will be the first time they're playing doubles here.
So that'll come up probably sometime over the weekend, maybe Monday,
but we'll we're looking forward to that one. Djokovic is
getting into town. We got a lot of great players still,
Coco Goff's playing. My favorite player is Madison Keys, Maddie
Keys actually Midwest.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
Yeah. Yeah, I watched her in major events get hurt, slip,
like if it could go wrong, it did, and then
she won Australia and I just I was so happy. Yeah,
I was like, the last time I think you had
to retire? Might have been might have been Wimbledon, Who's
US Open the year before, and it's like, I don't
know if it's gonna happen. She came back and won

(01:29:06):
a major and just the gracefulness that she handled herself
with I just I'm a fan.

Speaker 8 (01:29:11):
So she's awesome and here to watch her. It was
cool because it was a well received win in the
locker room. When you saw social media especial like way
to go, man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
You love to see that. You could tell that somebody's
beloved in their sport. That like all the players men
and women, were like so stoked for it had been
such a long, hard road and so I've never seen
her play in person, right, So we're gonna change that.

Speaker 8 (01:29:32):
Yeah, absolutely, I will make sure to text you as
soon if you get the schedule of a reserve you seat, there.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
You go, Thanks as always. Awesome to have you stop
by and great to be here. And you know it's
it's stopped raining, so I could see the top of
the Eiffel Tower. It's clear moving in the right direction. Open.

Speaker 8 (01:29:48):
We're hoping fingers across tomorrow hopefully a lot better. Hope
to see a lot of people out here. We should
have some first round matches going alongside some qualifying matches.
By the way, you got to tell people to come
up here too, because this is cool. Top deck were
So we're tucked under the east side of the stadium.
We're overlooking the commons with the food, all of the
restaurants that are out here. There's a Doball activation Ryan

(01:30:09):
Geist up here, so you've got some great spots to
hang out. There's table tennis around the corner right six
oh one. You want, okay, I'll take you on. I
haven't played.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
We call it ping pong, right, well, affair, we haven't played.
I haven't played table tennis in a few decades. So
I get a one side. I get a bonus every
time I say tennis. That's why I get it. Yeah,
I got it. Okay, very good, Pete, thanks so much,
Thank you, appreciate you. Broadcasting from the Cincinnati Open. It's
twenty five from six o'clock. Sports headlines are next on

(01:30:39):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
Servis a Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life.
Kelseyshev dot Com off day for the Bengals before tomorrow
night's preseason but are against the Detroit Lions, a game
you'll hear live on ESPN fifteen thirty with Dan Horde
and Dave Lapham and Tony Pike. Bengals announced today they

(01:31:10):
have added Tony to their radio broadcast crew for the
upcoming season, also adding responsibilities to A. Joe Daneman's Bengals coverage,
including he'll be co hosting Bengals pep Rally three to
six Fridays on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's the day of
the week during the football season when the three to

(01:31:30):
six show is at its best, the day that I'm
not on. Meanwhile, the Reds are in Chicago tonight because
they played there last night and they play there tomorrow,
so it stands the reason they'll play a baseball game
this evening. Rhet Lounder and Luis Castillo on the bump
seven forty tonight's first pitch on seven hundred WLW. Your

(01:31:50):
Reds starting lineup tonight, La de la Cruz at short,
Sal Stewart, DH's J. J. Blede and left field. Are
you Haneoss who hit a meatball? For a home run
that made it for to one last night. He is
betting clean up and playing third. Michael Toley is at first.
Hector Rodriguez is in right field, betting sixth. Travino catches

(01:32:13):
Freedo play center, Matt McClain plays second base, and bat's ninth.
Reds are entered today five and a half games out
of the last wildcard spot, but they've they've had some
some results go in their favor Cincinnati in the wildcard.
Hunt is currently you could tell him looking this up right,

(01:32:35):
I'm not fooling anybody. The Phillies lost today, so the
Reds gain a half game on them. Arizona's trailing the
Rockies six to two. That game is headed to the
top of the seventh inning with Colorado getting set to
come to the plate. The Reds are also five and

(01:32:56):
a half behind the San Diego Padres and they're playing
the Brewers this afternoon. They trailed that ball game to one,
headed to the top of the sixth inning in San Diego.
Lots of daytime action happening today. Florence will host Lake
Erie tonight, whether permitting. Hamilton West Side All Stars take
on Kentucky's North Oldham in the Great Lakes Region Championship.

(01:33:18):
Game winner advances to the Little League World Series and
the Cincinnati Open. They're gonna try to squeeze some tennis
in tonight, but nobody's allowed to see it because of
the inclement weather. Hopefully that changes for tomorrow, seventeen away
from six o'clock we have on this show. Because it's

(01:33:39):
been a lot going on, we haven't had a ton
of time to talk about Hunter Green's surgery, his injuries,
scheduled to have surgery today. I've not seen a release
suggesting it was successful. Hopefully, hopefully it was. You can't
make plans for the Reds right now that involve Hunter Green.
You can't, I mean, and so that that may change

(01:34:02):
or impact how you view Andrew Habit, what to do
with him, Nicoladolo, what to do with him, how they
what they do with Brady Singer, how they approach pitching
in the free agency market. Like I hate to say this,
because injuries are not a character flaw, but you cannot
plan on Hunter Green being a part of your team

(01:34:24):
next year. I don't know that you could plan on
Hunter Green being a part of your team at any
point in the coming years because he is always hurt.
It sucks. It stinks for Hunter, it stinks for the Reds.
What shouldn't happen here, though, is that you worry about
incurring some risk with some of these other guys because

(01:34:45):
of what happened to Hunter Green, because I've seen it, suggested,
see waste of money. Never should have paid them, never
should have signed him, Never should have given him the
contract that he's working under right now. Unfortunately it's baseball.
Unfortunately it's pitching. If you make investments, you try to
invest in the right guys. I'm always gonna bet on talent,
and sometimes it's gonna work. Hopefully it works with Chase Burns.

(01:35:08):
It hasn't entirely worked with Hunter Green. You cannot allow
that to keep you from taking on some degree of
risk when it comes to the guys who are worth
taking risks on financially, like Sal Stewart. Look, the reality
is this. We've talked about this with Sal Stewart, Chase Burns.
The ship has probably sailed. As it relates to Elie

(01:35:30):
Dela Cruz. If the Reds are ever gonna keep their
own guys beyond those first six years, they're gonna have
to lock into them early, and if they're ever gonna
have payroll flexibility under the current set of rules, they're
gonna have to have their best guys cost control. Cost
control matters for every franchise. It really matters for the

(01:35:51):
ones that are operating with a smaller budget. Now you
might want to argue the Reds have more money to
spend than they actually spend. That's a different conversation. I
Unfortunately there is risk involved. You're just never gonna sign
one of your own guys. You're just never gonna invest
in them. You're just never gonna buy out arbitration years.
You're just never gonna try to keep them. You're just

(01:36:11):
never gonna try to get your best guys under cost control.
Because Hunter Green got hurt. That strikes me as awfully
short sighted. You know who's not short sighted, Tony Pike.
We're gonna talk about a quarterback and tomorrow night's preseason game,
but it's not Joe Burrow. Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:36:38):
From the uc Hell Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Don't wait for the USPN fifteen thirty with the latest
from Bengals training camp, brought to you by Skyline Hillie
feeling good. It's Skyline time on your official home of
the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
One. More check in Tony Pike Live Trendy gam before it,
even though there is absolutely no tam in today Bengals
A Lions Tomorrow night. We've talked a lot about Joe Burrow,
his participation in the preseason, the pros, the cons of it,
all the other starters. Here's my question for you. Does
Joe Flacco have to play in these games?

Speaker 6 (01:37:19):
Man? I don't think he needs to, and I don't
think he would want to. I think Joe Flacco is
perfectly fine where he's at. Like, there gets to be
a point in your career, I feel like you kind
of check the boxes, like this guy's been a Super
Bowl MVP, He's been at the highest level of the game.
He performed great last year. I don't think at this

(01:37:40):
stage in his career Joe Flacco gets much out of
preseason games anymore. I get if you want to get
him in the huddle and get into the line of
scrimmage and to see some things live. Maybe a series,
maybe two, max, But I can assure you you know
Joe Burrow openly wants to play in the preseason. I
don't think Joe Flacco would so that. I think he's

(01:38:00):
good on preseason snaps.

Speaker 1 (01:38:02):
I also think you can make the argument that he's
the best backup quarterback in the NFL, and others would
have something to say about that, But like, all right, Burrow,
you're trying to work out timing. I don't know that
I want to talk about the twenty twenty six season
without the best insurance policy arguably in the NFL and
Joe Flacco.

Speaker 6 (01:38:21):
Yeah, and measuring the backup quarterback is so much more
than just what they can come in if needed. And
do I mean think about what Joe Burrow has had
since he's been a Cincinnati Bengal. And I'm not talking
about on the field. I'm talking about off the field,
in the meeting room things like that. And I'm not
just trying to knock former guys that have been here,
but there hasn't been a ton of experience, especially game experience,

(01:38:45):
in that quarterback room outside of Joe Burrow. Now, the
wealth of knowledge he can gain on a practice field,
on the sideline, during the game, in the film room,
that to me makes Joe Flatco even more valuable than
what he is on the field, and he is valuable
on the field, but for a team that has loaded
at skilled players, if you've got to turn to Joe Flacco,

(01:39:09):
you feel comfortable that you could still operate at a
high level. But it's it's to me what he brings
to the Bengals and to Joe Burrow off the field
that is extremely, extremely valuable.

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
That's our guy, Tony Pike, who will be on the
call tomorrow night with Dan Horden, Dave Lapham. Bengals and Lions.
Pregame coverage starts with our show at three ZHO five
countdown to kickoff at five thirty and the game seven
o'clock from the venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium
on ESPN fifteen to thirty. That is going to finish

(01:39:41):
our show. Last than ideal circumstances to do a show
from an event when the event doesn't happen, But that's
nobody except Mother Nature's fault. So we thank the folks
here at the Cincinnati Open for their hospitality, for them
inviting us to do our show from here. I'm going
to send a special show out out to our guy,
Mike Mills, the greatest broadcast engineer in the world, for

(01:40:05):
holding it down today for six hours between Sincy three
sixty and our show, and of course Tarren Bland back
in Kenwood tomorrow. This show will emanate from the broadcast
booth at pay Course Stadium. Have to say it by
its proper name. They're letting me do my show from
in there, so looking forward to that. We'll set the
stage for the first preseason game tomorrow. We are looking

(01:40:26):
forward to that. Between now and then, have a great night.
We'll talk to you tomorrow at three oh five. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Need life insurance,
but have

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