The Mo Egger Show -- 6/26/26

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Cincinnati Reds are entering the final weekend of June
five games under five hundred thirty seven and forty two.
This is not just a disappointing season. Hi, my name's Moegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. It
is awesome to be back, even if somewhat temporarily. My

(00:26):
thanks to Chad Brendle for pinch hitting the last four days.
I feel like I missed a lot. I feel like,
in what is ordinarily not a very newsy time of year,
there was a lot going on, much of it related
to the angst we all feel about the Cincinnati Reds.
We have a lot of ground to cover, and I

(00:47):
think that's the problem. By the way, show preview is
available on Twitter at Moegar. You can watch it now
thanks to share Facts Credit Union. Here's what I suggest
you do. Go to share facts dot org, learn about
the benefits of membership, and then swing by your nearest
share Fax branch and become a member just like me. So,

(01:07):
the Reds have had a terrible week. Terry Francona has
had a terrible week. The Reds have had a terrible
last two months, the good vibes and positive feelings of
the twenty and eleven start completely and totally out the window.
They just got swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. Not the
big market, high spending Milwaukee Brewers, but the small market,

(01:31):
relatively cheap Milwaukee Brewers that continued to run circles around
the Reds, that continued to make appearances in the postseason.
While we sit here and wonder when are the Reds
going to finish higher than third place for the first
time in nearly a decade and a half. This is
a disappointing season. And I think there's a lot of
different things that are frustrating about a disappointing season. Right now,

(01:52):
it feels like there's no way out of this. I mean,
it genuinely does. And maybe we're all wrong, but I
can't find anybody who who really believes the Reds are
going to be good enough, well constructed enough, or even
lucky enough to play themselves out of this hole. They're
not winning the National League Central, They're probably not making
the postseason. They're gonna have to be nine over five

(02:14):
hundred the rest of the way just to equal last
season's win total of eighty three, and my money is
on eighty three wins not being good enough to get
back to the playoffs. And by the way, despite the
fact that their series against the New York Yankees is
in the rearview mirror, and despite the fact that they've
played one series against the Milwaukee Brewers, they still have

(02:34):
the toughest remaining schedule in all of baseball. This is
a bad season. This is a season that, quite frankly
to me, has taken on the same feel of the
twenty twenty five Bengals season. Just abjectly miserable, not fun.
And I think more than anything else, what made last
season so frustrating is you thought, by then, you know

(02:57):
Joe Burrow in his prime, the Bengals will be consistent
league competing four championships, consistently appearing in the postseason. Not
that they'll make it every single year, but year six
of Joe Burrow was not supposed to be a third
consecutive non playoff year. Last season was just miserable. This
season is just miserable. And it's not just because so

(03:18):
far the losses outweigh the wins. It's not just because
the Reds have had some bad luck. It's not just
because the Reds have had a lot of guys have
disappointing seasons. I think what makes this season unique is
this was supposed to be the payoff. This is not
just a year. Really good organizations have disappointing seasons. Ordinarily

(03:41):
well constructed teams have disappointing seasons. There are injuries, they're
guys who want to perform. Maybe there's a whole bunch
of teams that are just better than expected and they
have their way with you. Whatever. There are disappointing seasons.
But then there are years like this twenty twenty and
I would throw twenty twenty five in it. This was

(04:02):
supposed to be the culmination of years of building a team.
And if you're a fan waiting, hell, we can go
back to any point in recent Reds history. I'll go
back to twenty thirteen. Why not like to illustrate to
an outsider why this franchise and why this particular baseball

(04:24):
team is so frustrating. Let's go back twenty thirteen, the
last time I think you could say the Reds were
objectively good. Won ninety games, made the postseason, lost in
the wildcard that came on the heels of winning ninety
seven games and blowing a two to oh series lead
against the San Francisco Giants that offseason from twenty thirteen

(04:46):
to twenty fourteen, and chances are you don't need a
history lesson. I'm not gonna waste a ton of your time.
But yeah, they fired Dusty Baker, Shinsu Chew Leaves, and
then I think the front office took like the rest
of the winter off didn't do anything to make a
good but flawed team any better. The results the following
season were predictable, as were the results of the next

(05:07):
four years, which were ninety four more loss ninety four
losses or more every single year from twenty fourteen through
twenty twenty one. The Reds never finished higher than third place.
They made the postseason once in the drive through season
of twenty twenty and then they were briefly escorted out

(05:28):
of the postseason by the Atlanta Braves, who never gave
up a run in the best of three series. Then
they hit the reset button in twenty twenty two. They
create they didn't necessarily tank, but it's not like they
really tried to win. They kind of intentionally lost. They
unloaded pretty much anybody, Jesse Winker, e Juhaniosuarez, Sonny Gray,

(05:51):
Tucker Barnhardt. Later on that season, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mallley
and put us through just a season of misery. They
were three and twenty two when the season was over
before Mother's Day. They lose one hundred games for just
the second time in franchise history. But there's like this
implied message, right, it's we've got a plan, right, there's

(06:14):
And some of it was more than implied. Remember we
don't want peaks or valleys, something that never made a
lot of sense to me because I think peaks are
pretty good. But still there was this implied message, Hey,
things are gonna suck right now, and things are gonna
be rough right now, and things are gonna be miserable
right now, and just hang with us. Remember where else
you're gonna go now? A lot of people went somewhere else.

(06:37):
Nobody went to Reds games that year, a lot of
folks tuned out the team before the season even started.
But there was this implied message of hey, yes what
we're doing is painful, and yes what we're doing is unpopular,
but what we're doing, if we do it right, it's
gonna result in a payoff. And that payoff is gonna
come not in like twenty thirty two, not in twenty two,

(07:00):
twenty nine, but sometime give us three or four years. Well,
here we are four years later. This is the payoff. This,
This is the payoff watching Dane Meyers bat third. That's
the payoff watching a manager who doesn't know what kind
of hitters can hit against Sam Mall. That's the payoff.

(07:22):
Thirty seven and forty two, five games under five hundred
going into the final weekend of June. This, this is
the payoff for that. For those who's stuck through one
hundred losses, for those who have stuck through more than
a decade of basically never really competing for anything, for
those who have stuck through three decades of not advancing
in the postseason. With over the last couple of years,

(07:44):
the implied message from the Cincinnati Reds being hey, hang
with us, and then twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six,
then there we're gonna your patients will be paid off.
This this is the payoff for that. Really, So like,
from an outsider's perspective, I guess it looks like, all right,

(08:05):
they're having a crummy season. That happens. They're having a
crummy season, and let's be honest, not like that. Many
people thought the Reds were gonna be really really really
really really really really good, which could also be part
of the problem. But this is it. This isn't the
first time I've talked about this, and I'm not the
only person to have talked about this. I go back
to three years ago, man, three years ago, three years ago.

(08:29):
At this time, the Reds had just won twelve consecutive games.
They had vaulted into contention. They had this fun core
with a brand of baseball that was intoxicating at times,
and it felt like they re energized the fan base.
And yeah, man, that team had flaws. It's starting pitching stunk.
But who among us in the summer of twenty twenty
three didn't think not so much about the fall of

(08:50):
twenty twenty three, but what the summer of twenty twenty
five and twenty twenty six could look like. Fast forward
three years later. This is what it looks like. I'm
sure you agree with me. I would be willing to
bet you agree with me. This is so incredibly frustrating

(09:15):
and disappointing, and it leaves you feeling helpless and hopeless.
Like it's one thing to talk about all the stuff
that has gone wrong this season, it's one thing to
talk about all the stuff that hasn't gone right since
that summer of twenty twenty three. It's I guess, one
thing to talk about how frustrating it is that this

(09:38):
is the payoff to that season just four years ago
when they lost one hundred games. But it's something else
entirely to have a complete and total lack of faith
in anybody with that organization that a turnaround, either in
the short term or long term is possible. And I

(09:59):
think that's that's part of the problem, right. It's one
thing to sift through the carnage of a bad season.
It's one thing to kind of lament all the stuff
that didn't go your team's way. But as we watch
this with half a season to go, and we talk
about the next what eighty three games, and then when

(10:22):
we start to flip the page to next season and
the rest of the second half of the decade, it is,
at least from my perspective, almost impossible to imagine that
the people who have taken what felt like a pretty
promising situation three years ago and driven it into an iceberg.

(10:46):
It's hard to put much faith in those people overseeing,
being in charge of and engineering a meaningful turnaround. And
yes that includes the manager. So there's a lot there.
I don't know, and I am all ears today. Why

(11:08):
should any of us think that this is going to
get dramatically better? And I could frame that from the
perspective of twenty twenty six the rest of this season,
because I'm I'm sure, I'm sure there's someone within the
sound of my voice right now who is going to
point to the calendar and point to Hunter Green coming
back and Emilio Pagan coming back, and hey, there's time, mode,

(11:31):
don't worry, They've got time. It's still we're not even
really to the halfway point yet, which they will arrive
at this weekend in Pittsburgh, or we can make it
about beyond twenty twenty six. Why should any of us
believe that things are going to get dramatically better with
this franchise, either this year, next year, the year after that,

(11:53):
anytime this decade, or really at any point in the future.
When you have been patient and when you have as
many have not all. But when you have nodded along
with all the pleas for patients and bear with us
and hang in there, and we got to do some
things that in the short term are gonna hurt, but

(12:15):
there's promise of a new day not that deep into
the future. And you continually not pay off your plans
or your pleas for patients, you get to a point
where nobody's gonna believe that things are going to get
better anytime soon. And you could tell me if I'm wrong,
but I think that's how most of us feel right now.

(12:36):
It's certainly how I feel. If you feel different, good God,
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. You can
pump some hope into me. You can pump some hope
into this fan base. I don't know where the hope
comes from, quite frankly. And if that sounds like an
overreaction to thirty seven and forty two, fine, but it's not.

(12:56):
It's an overreaction to thirty years years, thirteen years, four years.
You pick at mugger on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta Dental, oh dot com. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty will get you in. We are very wide

(13:18):
open today. We've got some Bengal stuff a little bit
later on the latest twist in the Brendan Soorsby situation.
Now the CFL has told him, yeah, hard patch or
not coming north at a border. So I don't know
if the Arena Football League or the ia L or
any of the I don't know if there's a Mexican
Football League. Maybe there's a chance Brendan Soorsby could play

(13:39):
football somewhere, but it's not going to be in Canada
at twenty twenty six, ain't going to be in the
NFL either. I do have some thoughts on that. We'll
get to a little bit later. On nineteen after three o'clock,
I want you to play a game of pretend. I
want you to play a little bit of a game
of make believe, the same game we played with Joey Vada.
Will play it with Terry Francona next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffics o Agar. Thank you
so much for listening today. Hopefully your weekend is off
to an awesome start, I felt like in I was
out of town for the early part of this week,
in town for the last couple of days, listening to
Austin on since he three sixty and listening to Lance

(14:29):
and following along on social media. I felt like, since
Terry Francona became the manager of the Reds, that this
was the week where he has gotten the most amount
of scrutiny, heat, criticism, whatever word you want to use.
And you could certainly understand why. And I don't know
that we need to re litigate all of the decisions
that Tito made in the Brewers series, but I want

(14:52):
you to do this. Man. We used to do this
with Joey Vado. Joey Vado toward the end when he
was not putting up Joey Vado numbers. In fact, he
was not putting up numbers that you would find passable
for anybody. I used to say, like, pretend look at
the numbers. Just look at him like a corporate being

(15:15):
counter does a spreadsheet. Just look at the numbers. Forget
who the guy is, Forget what you know about the guy,
forget your history with the guy, forget the fact that
you own his jersey. Look at the numbers. Is is
that really somebody that should be playing every day? Is
that really somebody that should have a roster spot? Is
that somebody that you really want to extend the relationship with.

(15:36):
And it's hard to do that, I admit it's it's
hard to do that. It's it's I think it's harder
to do with players that are beloved. It's certainly hard
for me to do. It was hard for me to
do with a guy like Joey Vado, who's one of
my five favorite Reds of all time. But let's do
something similar. Let's do this with with Tito. Still it
with Terry Francona. Let's pretend. Let's pretend that. Let's let's

(15:58):
not even pretend that we don't know about his Let's
pretend his resume is entirely different. Instead of a two
world series with the Red Sox and the the al
Pennant where they came this close to winning one with
the Guardians, I think they were still the Indians then,
But regardless, Let's let's pretend like it's not even Tito's
first managerial job. Let's let's pretend he had a managerial

(16:19):
job somewhere. He was the manager of like the Twins,
and he was there for like four and a half
years and got bounced, and maybe he made the postseason once.
But he's not this beloved figure in the game. He
doesn't have a Hall of Fame resume. Let's let's pretend
that's who he is. Let's pretend he's got David Bell's
managerial resume, which before he came to Cincinnati, his managerial

(16:39):
resume was of the Louisville Bats, and he had been
a coach and it worked at a front office. Let's
let's pretend that we don't have this resume to fall
back on. And you watch or listen to the Reds
on a daily basis, would you think the Reds are
getting great managing? Because I feel back, I feel like
for a lot of folks is well, I'll defer to

(17:03):
Tito because of his resume. And I understand like when
people who have track records, they get the benefit of
the doubt more than people who don't. But at some point,
like you have to be judged on the job you're
doing in the present, right, So let's strike from the equation.
Everything we know about Tito, beloved figure in the game,

(17:24):
fun guy to listen to by all accounts, legitimately great
dude and a guy whose managerial resume has him fast
tracked to Cooperstown. If you knew nothing about that, if
this was a guy in his first managerial job or
a guy in his second managerial job but the first
stop was forgettable, would you look at the work the

(17:45):
Reds are getting out of the dugout and think, man,
the manager's doing a great job. I'm not gonna ignore
what many have told me about the role that Tito
had in last year's quote success. And I use quotes
because they won eighty three games. But I've talked to
enough folks who have said, like the guiding hand through

(18:06):
all of those stretches where it felt like the season
was teetering on the brink had a positive impact. I
will absolutely acknowledge that. I think it's true. But this
team this year, as you've watched, this is not an
overreaction to a couple of questionable moves on Wednesday Night.
As you've watched this season, do you think the Reds
are getting great managing. I don't believe the Reds are

(18:28):
gonna fire Terry Francona. If anything, he's gonna fire them
and I don't know if that's gonna happen at the
end of this season. I have no idea. It's unfair
to speculate, but like if if what's gonna make him
immune to criticism is what he did with the Boston
Red Sox nearly two decades ago, or what he did
in Cleveland. I think that's a little bit unfair to

(18:52):
the job that he's doing right now. And I'm not
sure that the job that he's doing right now. Like
I'm usually very quick to, I don't know, deflect criticism
of a manager, but there have been many occasions this year.
I can only speak for myself where I've been left
scratching my head. And this is not just about bunting

(19:14):
on Wednesday night. If you're wondering about that, I didn't
like it. Don't understand why you bunt to either take
the bat out of your best hitters' hands or try
to advance a slow runner at second base. But whatever,
I feel like there have been a lot of heads
scratching moves this season, whether it's lineup construction which the
manager is not entirely responsible for, or just some in

(19:37):
game decisions. But what I don't think we could use
as a disqualifier to even have the conversation is what
he did with the Boston Red Sox twenty two years
ago or what do you did with the Cleveland Guardians.
I judge him on how he's performing now. I don't

(19:59):
know that you could argue that the Reds are getting
great work out of their manager this year. And by
the way, the job, the job that he took, is
the job that he has. And I will make that
make sense coming up in the four o'clock hour right now,
though we have folks waiting patiently, we'll open things up
five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty after sports
Headlines on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Traffic from the sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
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from their family to yours for life, kelseyshev, dot Com,
Reds and Pirates. First of three in Pittsburgh tonight Andrew
Abbott Paul Skens on the Hill six forty this evening
on seven hundred WLW. Your Red starting lineup tonight, duns

(20:47):
and center Dela Cruz plays short and bats second JJ
Bledean left. Sal Stewart plays first, low as Dhing Suarez
at third, bat six Steer and Wright Stevenson behind the plate.
Matt McLean second base and bats ninth. Tony Santion headed
to the injured list with an oblique strain. Zach mccambley,
who sounds like a children's book character, is up from Louisville,

(21:10):
Florence y'all is hosting Evansville tonight. The CFL has said
to its teams, none of you can sign former UC
quarterback Brendan Sorosby. And I am not exceptionally well versed
in international soccer, but I think I am watching the
single greatest individual performance I've ever seen. So France and
Norway are playing for the top spot in Group I,

(21:33):
and Uzman Dembele already has a hat trick and we're
less than thirty eight minutes into the game. He plays
for France, who leads Norway by a score of three
to one. It's the second fastest hat trick in World
Cup history. Elite uniform matchup very good, Yes, you're right, Austin,

(21:54):
very good uniform matchup. Norway and France. These are two
top notch unis. What do they call it. If a
guy gets four goals, it's two goals. Two goals as
a brace. Three is a hat trick? What's four? Is
it a grand slam?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
I'm looking it up.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Get back to me on that, and uh and we'll
update the audience. A hall, it's a hall. If you
get four goals, it's a hall. It's called a hall. Okay,
what's five?

Speaker 4 (22:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Has anybody ever scored five goals in the game that
wasn't like a game between eight year olds. Probably my
daughter played in a soccer game this year and some
kid on the other team I think had nine goals.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
It's unbelievable, this says a I don't even know if
I could just say this a glut. A glut six
is a double hat trick.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Okay, it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Glut seven is a touchdown, so goal brace, hat trick,
hall glut, double hat trick.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
All right, Well, this dude scored a goal in the
seventh minute, the twentieth minute, and thirty second minute, and
that's been extraordinarily entertaining. And now there's a guy from
Norway on the ground crying. All right, let's talk to
some other folks. Been in northern Kentucky. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Hi Ben, how are you? Hey?

Speaker 5 (23:11):
Moe? Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I can hear you? Can you hear me?

Speaker 6 (23:14):
Fantastic weekend, man, the phones are working off to a
good start.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Weekend is off to an amazing start. Thank you.

Speaker 6 (23:22):
Hey, great. So I enjoyed, you know, the Reds piece there.
I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts, you know,
And I don't know if it's Tito. I just feel
like it's been a series of, you know, bad decisions
that have been probably more you know, regular than an outlier,
you know, over the last dozen and a half dozen years.
You know, what's the fix?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Though?

Speaker 6 (23:41):
You know? I can I can remember back, you know,
I'm a long time listener, first caller. I can I
can remember you saying the last couple of years, you know,
do you trust these people? Do you trust them to
get it right? I think a resounding amount of callers
and fans, longtime Reds fans, would feel like that trust
has definitely been tested and you know, perhaps on the side.
But what's what's the fix? Like, how do I know

(24:02):
We're not going to be just sitting here next summer
having this conversation or three summers from that. Like what
I know, you speak with your dollars, but people around
here you know a lot of the Reds. And no
matter what you know, I'm one of those. I take
my kids, I go over there a handful of times
a year, and I watch and listen every night.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
So how do we fix it?

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Mos?

Speaker 6 (24:19):
I don't, I don't know, I don't. I have no answer.
I just want your thoughts on how does it get
any better?

Speaker 2 (24:24):
I'll get off and they have to and this is
this is a cop out answer, Thank you, Ben. They
have to get good at something like what are the Reds?
Is an organization good at? What do you identify them with? Like,
drafting is not a short term fix, but it's never
been more of a short term fix because I feel
like the path to the big leagues has never been easier, right,

(24:46):
and not easier, it's never been quicker for for for
guys who are already I feel like guys get caught
up sooner than they used to. And that's a very
inarticulate way of putting it. But I mean we did
this two weeks ago. Look at their look at their
their track record of drafting in the second, third, fourth,
and fifth round, and frankly, even with some of their
first rounders, they've got to get really good at developing.

(25:07):
Like Nick Krawl has talked about, we want to do
something that's sustainable. Okay, fine. They've also acknowledged they're not
going to be like the biggest players in free agency,
going after the absolute top guys, and maybe there's a
change in baseball's economic model that makes it easier for
them to do that. So they're gonna have to be
a team that is consistently good at a couple of
different things. Drafting, developing, consistently cranking out players through the

(25:31):
minor league system that get to the big leagues ready
to contribute. They're gonna have to be really good at
turning over rocks to find hidden gems. They're gonna have
to be really good at like the Brewers. This week,
Joe Koonel closed out two games against him. Now, I
don't know if you remember Joe Knell pitching in Cincinnati
and an era of six across multiple seasons at Dudes,

(25:52):
pitching in high leverage situations for a first place team
against his former club. I don't know if they have
permanent he fixed him, He's only pitched in seven games.
He was cut loose by the A's this year. But
is there a small example of like, Hey, here's this
guy who is no good elsewhere and he shows up
in Milwaukee and they fix him. Can the Reds get
good at that?

Speaker 6 (26:13):
Like?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
What are they good at? Organizationally, the identity of the
Reds is what are they good at? They trade guys
and they sell high and they get a lot in return,
and those players gives them years of quality. Like I

(26:34):
don't think you would say the Reds are good at that.
At flipping established players for really good prospects. Are they
great at free agency? Are they great at making trades?
Are they great at player development? Are they great at drafting?
I don't think the answer to any one of those
questions is yes. It doesn't get fixed until they get

(26:57):
good at something. You know, we did this two weeks ago,
and it's easy to do that. It's easy to do
now because the Brewers just played here and played a
relatively crisp brand of baseball that you don't necessarily identify
with the Reds. I did this topic two weeks ago,
and I said, if I if I were Phil Castellini,

(27:19):
or Bob Castellini. The question that I would have for
Nick Crawl would be why are they always good? And
I would ask it again, and maybe with different terms
after what happened this week at GABP. Why can we
never beat them? Why do we never finish higher than
them in the standings? Why are we always losing head
to head against them? Why are they always in the playoffs? Now?

(27:45):
I don't know that you could wave a magic wand
and suddenly get good at what the Milwaukee Brewers are doing,
but man, that'd be the first place I looked. Team
with quote limited resources, a team that is constantly losing
and often in trades some of their best performing players,
and they're still good. Every year. You could throw at me, mo,

(28:06):
they never advance in the postseason, they never get to
the World Series. Okay, cool, They're gonna make the postseason
this year for the eighth time in nine years. If
you told me right now the Reds will be in
the postseason and eight of the next nine years, I'll
take my chances with October and I'll take that right now.
What are they good at? And if you like research

(28:26):
or read anything about the Milwaukee Brewers, there's a few
different things. They're good at getting a lot out of
players that maybe didn't give their previous teams a lot.
It feels like they have a manager who has zero
tolerance for mistakes. Read about Pat Murphy, Like when you
read about Pat Murphy, you'll read you'll read something that

(28:50):
you'll say to yourself, like I want to read this
about Terry Francona. Just an unwillingness to accept mistakes. So
it feels like they're good at developing. Feels like they're
good at getting some value from the players they do
trade away. They don't bat a thousand, no team does.
But they're good. They're good at baseball. They're good at
at having a an organizational identity. What's the reds? What

(29:17):
are I good at? When you're not good at anything,
I cannot trust you, man, Like the quick fix is okay,
we'll fire a bunch of people and put new folks in.
There may be a lot of validity to that, whether
it's Nick Crawl's job, Brad Meher's job, Terry Francona's job,
the job of director of pitching slast pitching coach, any

(29:38):
one of the coaches they have, Like fine, swap some
people out mass firings, but like, where are you gonna
be hiring from. I'd be hiring from Milwaukee, I'd be
hiring from Cleveland, I'd be hiring from the Tampa Bay Rays.
I'd at least be looking into those organizations to see
if I can get people to fill different roles here
that could perhaps give us a chance to emulate to

(30:00):
success they have in the cities that I just mentioned.
Gotta get good at something, gotta have some sort of
organizational identity. You know, for years we used to complain that,
you know, Sports Illustrated ten twelve years ago had on
the cover of the magazine the Cardinal Way, and this

(30:24):
was kind of at the height of like everybody here
hating the Cardinals, and it was, yeah, we didn't like
it here, but like, okay, cool, what's the reds Way?
What is the Reds Way? Do they consistently crank out
players by the time they get to the big leagues
they don't need to go back.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
I don't feel like the answer is yes.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
I read for you two weeks ago the long, long,
long list of second, third, fourth, and fifth round draft
picks that ever either never got to the big leagues,
got to the big leagues and had a cup of coffee,
or when they got to the big league and had success,
they were elsewhere. What are they good at? So my answer,

(31:09):
and it sounds like a get good at something. Get
good at drafting, Get good at development, get good at
identifying the right free agents, get good at acquiring the
right players in trades. Get good at selling high on
guys who maybe you're not going to resign to get
prospects for them. Like, get good at something. I'm not
talking about the non baseball stuff. You know, Austin focused
on this this week. You know, the the idea. It's

(31:32):
not the idea, it's the reality. They're good at everything
but baseball. They're good at giveaways, good at the ballparking experience,
good at the Hall of Fame, good at the community
fund like awesome at all that stuff, community outreach, alumni events, concerts,
ballpark experience. Ten out of ten across the border. They're
good at all that stuff. The baseball stuff, the stuff

(31:53):
that's measured in wins and losses, the stuff that is
reflected by looking at the standings. What are they good at? Consistently?
What are they good at? There are minor successes here
and there. You know, you could you could point to
this year as roster and say, well, golly ge Nick
Crawl did a good job in getting JJ bledeh. Okay,
like if the biggest feather in your cap is JJ bleda,

(32:14):
that's a problem. Or hey, Nathaniel Lowe was a nice pick.
Oh okay, fine, But like the macro stuff, big picture stuff,
what are they good at organizationally? As long as the
answer is nothing, or as long as I keep having
to ask the question, there's no fix In the offing
nine from four, This is ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (32:31):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
You know, if you missed this show, or if you
missed the person who hosted it the previous four days
this week, you could always go back and listen on
the iHeartRadio app. That's where we put stuff. We put shows,
we put interviews, we put segments not just this show,
but since e three sixty where Austin el Moore has
had on Ben Baby and Tom Gala on the World

(33:00):
Cup and Mike Florio on the Brendan Sorosby situation. You
can find all of that and more on the iHeartRadio app.
And of course you could Listen to ESPN fifteen thirty
twenty four to seven wherever you go on the iHeartRadio app.
Podcasts of this show are a service of long neck
sports grilling. Awesome place to watch the Reds this weekend,
the World Cup, or whatever may suit your fancy. It's

(33:21):
coming up on four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station Hot Org. That's US seven after four,
ESPN fifteen thirty. Moeger, I hope you're having an awesome
Friday afternoon. Thank you so much for listening today. Brendananda
Jones on baseball later on this hour. By the way,
I mentioned during sports headlines Tony Santion headed to the

(33:44):
injured list. Elaboration on that from our guy Charlie Goldsmith,
who was on with Austin earlier today as well. Terry
Francona says that the issue that Santion is dealing with,
which is an oblique, the MRI showed a significant injury,
so excuse me, he is going to be out a while.
Tito also, and this had been reported on or bandied about,

(34:08):
as we say, earlier this week, but Tito telling reporters
in Pittsburgh that he's told Matt McClain it wouldn't hurt
for you to take some fly balls in center field.
The quote, just have some fun with it. Look, when
you're not a great offensive player, and Matt McLain hasn't

(34:29):
been a great offensive player in quite a while, though
he's had some nice stretches, I understand it. It helps
you to be able to do as many things as possible.
Matt McLain's a good defensive infielder, and I think has
proven that when he's been forced to play shortstop because
of the lle injury, when he's been a major leaguer
at second for Quat. It is a quality defensive player.

(34:52):
And sure, maybe it wouldn't hurt to have him available
to play center field when needed. But how about this,
Go get a center fielder next year, like a centerfielder
who's like a legitimate, legitimate offensive threat who could legitimately
play the position and has big league experience playing center field,

(35:15):
or at least a lot of experience at the professional
level playing center field. I mean, this has kind of
been a thing for a while. Go back to go
back to Nick Senzel, hell if you want, and it
worked out because he ended up being awesome. Go back
to Billy Hamilton early twenty tens when they made him
a short store. He was a shortstop and they made

(35:36):
him a centerfielder, and to Billy's credit, to their credit,
he turned into one of the best defensive center fielders
the Reds have ever had. But I feel like in
the outfield there's a few too many instances of trying
to try a guy who's not played the position out
at a position where he's not best suited to play.

(35:57):
I don't know. Maybe they're just trying to expand Matt
mc clane's versatility. That wouldn't be bad for him. You know,
they do have to figure out long term what they're
going to do at third base because Key Brian Hayes,
remember him, is still part of the organization, still had
to let Edwin Royo get established as a big leaguer.
But I don't know, man, I've watched him try to
convert noel Vee Marte into an outfielder that really hasn't

(36:19):
taken off. How About at some point we go find
actual centerfielders to play centerfield. How about that look on
the Terry Francona criticism that he gets ends You can
do this over the course of a season with every
manager in the sport, every manager, even the most successful ones,
even the ones that are held with the highest amount

(36:42):
of regard, where you could take a game and pick
apart a move or two that either didn't really make sense,
that sort of flew in the face of what the
stats would tell you to do, that completely backfired. Like
I used to do this when Dusty Baker was the manager,
where we would talk about Dusty's work on a MAC
and somebody might mention, well, you know, last Tuesday, he

(37:04):
took out Tony Singrani and he put in Sam Lequere
and he should have left Singrani in because Sam gave
up a two run Homer. I'm not doing that to
pick on Sam, and I would say, like, look in
every city that the manager gets that wrong. Sometimes it
does feel like for a manager of Terry Francona's experience

(37:28):
and acclaim that there have been an inordinate amount of
instances where it feels like he's making a little bit
of a questionable move, like constructing a lineup and then
making decisions that resulted in Dane Meyers getting a sixth
plate appearance with the game hanging in the balance. On

(37:51):
Wednesday Night, a one run game of the ninth inning,
after the questionable decision to allow Edwin Arroyo to bunt,
they load the base is Myers is at the plate.
Tito after the game talks about how good Dane Myers
is and not hitting into double plays, when in fact
he's actually got a pretty high propensity for hitting into

(38:11):
double plays. It feels like there's been a lot of that,
and that stuff comes into focus a lot more when
you have a team that's got a very small margin
for error. That kind of stuff comes into focus a
lot more when there's a premium on the manager hitting
the right buttons. It's interesting, man, Like, I remember when

(38:32):
Tito got hired. We all do great hire. I mean,
if you were looking at like, who's the best available,
who's got the best resume, the answer was Tito Francona.
I'm not even sure there was another name worth even considering.
But if you remember then there was this this narrative

(38:54):
that built and it was born out of hope more
than anything else. But the narrative was, well, Tito came
out of retirement because he knows he knows that the
Reds are going to change how they do things. And
I bet you Tito's pretty excited about all that money
that the Castelledis are gonna spend it at Tito wouldn't
come to Cincinnati if he didn't think, you know what,

(39:16):
they're gonna do everything they can financially to give him
the best possible to you and I remember that, right.
And this is not a criticism of what ownership has
or hasn't spent, but I think there was this belief
that Tito would come out of retirement only to come
work for the Reds because the Reds were going to
do things a hell of a lot differently than they

(39:36):
had been. And my take on it was, actually, I
bet you Tito has taken the gig because he misses managing,
but also he likes what the Reds have and he
thinks he can win with the way the Reds do things.
And he understands, you know, there might be some growing
pains with some individual players, but he believes he can
provide the guidance that can bring the those guys to

(40:01):
a level where they are established big leaguers. Not he's
taken the job because suddenly they're going to spend a
billion dollars in free agents. But he likes what the
Reds have. He thinks he can be a positive impact
on the players the Reds have, and he believes that
within the framework of how the Reds can do business,
he can get the job done. The job that he

(40:23):
is doing, or the job that he has, is the
job that he took. He was always going to be
overseeing a team with youngish guys, unproven guys. He was
always supposed to be the guy to provide the guiding
hand that help those players get better, to become established.

(40:45):
I would be unfair if I didn't account for Tito's
role in helping Elie Dela Cruz become a more well
rounded player. But aside from him, does it feel like
that's happened. There's a long line of guys who have
been here, either for all of Terry Francona's two hundred
and forty one games or for the overwhelming majority of them.

(41:08):
How many of those guys are significantly better than they
were prior to the start of the twenty twenty five season.
The job that Terry Francona took was always going to
be won where he managed a team where holes were
not going to be filled with high priced, established free agents,
established stars. They were going to be filled by cheaper players,

(41:35):
bargain basement guys, players who maybe were slightly past their
prime or a year or two remove from their best seasons.
They were never going to have an overwhelming talent advantage.
That was true in October November of twenty twenty four.
The job that Tito had was going to ask him
to win with what the Reds gave him. Is he

(42:00):
doing that job well? Does it feel like he's doing
that job to the best of his abilities? And again,
I cannot emphasize this enough. This is not merely a
reaction to how he managed the game on Wednesday. I
will admit, and I was at the ballpark on Wednesday night.
I didn't understand a lot of it. I didn't understand

(42:22):
letting Andrew vaugh hit against Sam All the other night,
there was a lot of conformation about that, Like none
of it made a lot of sense. None of the
moves against the Milwaukee Brewers made a lot of sense.
But it's like there are a game under five hundred
since he became the manager. Is that all of his fault?
Of course not, is that all of any one person's fault. No,

(42:45):
but the job that he has, Like if you're gonna say, well,
you know and Nick Krawl hasn't given to you, no, no, no.
We sort of knew what Tito was going to be
working with, right, We knew the type of players, We
knew the profile of the type players they were going
to be work he was going to be working with.
And some injuries have obviously unfolded and that's that's not

(43:05):
helping out anybody. But the job that he has is
the job that he signed up for, and so it
is completely fair to judge him on the results he
achieves in the job that he has so far, the
results he has achieved in the job that he had,
which is the job that he signed up for. One
game under five hundred, not over forty games, not over

(43:29):
one hundred and sixty two games, but a year and
a half. That's a pretty good sample size, one under
five hundred. So, like I remember the Fall of twenty
twenty four, the winner of twenty twenty four to twenty
twenty five, if you if you came to the reality
or came to the realization that all right, well, just
because they hired Tito Francona doesn't mean that suddenly the

(43:51):
Reds are going to be doing a roster construction in
a way that is completely and totally different. Okay, fine,
And then Tito's genius, Tito's tactical acumen, Tino's death touching
the dugout, Tito's guiding hand with the younger players is
going to be the difference between what the Reds were

(44:13):
under David Bell in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty
four and what they're going to be moving forward. For
the most part, don't the Reds feel pretty much the
same under Terry Francona as they did under David Bell.
Maybe the answer is yes, because the job that David
Bell has is the exact same one that Tito Francona has.

(44:36):
Eighteen minutes after four room for you at five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight six six
seven oh two three seven seven six. Uh, it is
absolutely now or never for the Bengals. You can't roll
your eyes when I read to you what I'm about
to read to you next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (44:56):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty to traffic is.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
About thirty minutes away. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moleger.
Appreciate you listening today's sports headlines in ten minutes, Reds
and Pirates tonight Andrew Abbott versus Paul Skeins. A lot
more on the Reds coming up here in just a bit,
because there's a lot there. There's a lot to discuss,
and I think that's kind of part of the problem

(45:22):
that coming up a little bit later on. And I
have a wish and I would I would venture as
much to say a suggestion for former Bearcats quarterback Brendan Sorosby,
who is being locked out of the Canadian Football League.
I saw this make the rounds on social media where
ESPN does a series called Reaction Overreaction, and the thesis

(45:48):
of the piece and the theme of the piece is
the authors of it. In this case, Dan Graziano throws
out a premise about an NFL team, and then the
question is is that a reaction, an overreaction or not
an overreaction? And as it relates to the Bengals, the
premise is it's now or never for this version of
Joe Burrow in the Cincinnati Bengals. And I'm not going

(46:10):
to read the whole thing. You can go read it
at ESPN dot com. But the verdict is the verdict
of that statement is not an overreaction, and the last
paragraph for the passage reads this way, Cincinnati has spent
a ton of money to keep the offense together the
way Burrow wants it, and the front office has stretched
its resources this offseason in uncharacteristic ways to try to

(46:33):
fix the defense. With all of the other three teams
in the AFC North in transition phases under new head coaches,
the opportunity is there for the Bengals to return to
the top of the division and compete for an AFC championship.
If they do not, you're going to once again hear
people on the outside wonder how long Burrow will want
to be there. And next offseason could bring more significant
roster and staff changes than we've seen in Cincinnati in

(46:54):
a while. Now, this gets written and it's thrown out
there on social media, and it gets aggregated, and a
lot of folks here roll their eyes and go, not
this again, or some version of that. Here we go
again with this narrative, and I'm the first to admit
that storyline can be fatiguing. Joe Burrow seems energized, reinvigorated.

(47:19):
I think Joe Burrow is a higher profile version of you,
and I I think most of us as Bengals fans
this offseason, we have been reinvigorated by the offseason They've had,
the player editions, the Dexter Lawrence trade, free agency. Joe
seems re energized, and that is awesome. But this isn't
all in season. They did something that was dramatically different

(47:43):
than almost anything they've ever done before, where they traded
away cheap labor and a long term solution for more
expensive labor and somebody who provides more of a short
term solution than Dexter Lawrence. It isn't all in the year.
And yes, a lot of the decisions about Jamar Chase
and t Higgins and the money they're paying them and

(48:04):
even the Joe Burrow contract have been aimed at like now.
And so you take all of that with the amount
of rope that Zach Taylor has been given, the fact
that not a lot of head coaches get free or
four coaching staff changes, coaching staff overhauls where Joe is
in his career, the fact that I'm sure the Bengals

(48:25):
would love to sit down with him sometime soon and
talk about not just a contract restructure, which they've done,
but a long term contract extension. There will be fallout
if this season doesn't work. That's part of what makes
it so interesting. It's part of what makes it so exciting.
It's part of what makes it risky. What the Bengals
have done this year, all in without results, comes with fallout.

(48:50):
What that fallout is, Man, your guess is as good
as mine. My guess is it will cause Zach Taylor
his job. Maybe it doesn't result to Joe Burrow trying
to force a trade out of Cincinnati, but maybe it
compels him to pause on a long term contract here.
Maybe I don't know. Your guess is as good as
mine as to how that may unfold. But I think

(49:15):
we're kidding ourselves if we're gonna push back against the
notion that this is kind of put up or shut
up or now or never for this version of the Bengals.
Not that they're going to move on from Joe Burrow
at the end of the season, but not succeeding in
a season that they've pushed their chips toward. That comes

(49:35):
with some fallout more than just you know, this player leaves,
or they move on from this guy, or they swamp
out this position coach. The fallout is probably pretty substantial.
The fallout could include loss of job, reassignment, player discontent,
player getting traded, players having getting cut with years left.

(49:57):
I don't know, but yeah, man, there's reasons for extreme optimism.
I can't wait for this season. I'm sure you feel
the same way. And you know, Danna and I talked
about this this morning on his podcast, which, because of
his vacation, is going to come out next week. The
re energized Joe Burrow. I'm here for the reinvigorated Joe

(50:18):
Burrow is I think really scary and really dangerous. But
if their goals aren't met, I think, first of all,
if they fail to win a championship, it's just it's
one more missed opportunity. The Joe Burrow era, however long
it lasts, really only works to the degree that everybody
expected in twenty twenty when they drafted him. If they

(50:39):
win a title, his career is not going to last forever.
His contract is not going to last forever. If they
don't win it this year, it's one less opportunity remaining.
It's one more opportunity missed. But even if it's not
necessarily Super Bowl or bust, for everybody involved, having another
season like last year, having another non playoff year, having

(50:59):
another winning season comes with fallout, and probably extreme and
far reaching fallout. That's not a lazy narrative. It's the
reality of going all in. It's the reality of having
a coach who's been here for a very long time,
a quarterback who's judged almost solely by how much do
we wins, an expensive roster with a lot of expensive

(51:21):
players that they retained not to sell tickets, but to
win championships with falling short is going to come with
pretty big damages. What they are Your guess is as
good as mine, and I certainly hope we never go
down the road where we're talking about those things being reality.
But you'll read this a lot as training camp gets closer,

(51:44):
and you'll read it and hear it a lot once
training camp starts to unfold, which is a little bit
more than a month away, you're gonna hear a lot
about you know, it's put up or shut up, it's
now or never. This version has to win now or else.
Those you make get tired of it. You may not
like it, but part of what makes this team in
this season so interesting is what happens if it doesn't work.

(52:10):
Because I can almost assure you this, if it doesn't work,
that's not going to be met with a shoulder shrug
and everybody's still content and happy, and Gotaligi will try
to get him next year. That is, even for this franchise,
probably not going to be the case. Twenty eight from
five o'clock, Brandon Sorosby will not playing, will not be
playing against the Bengals this year, and now he's not

(52:32):
going to be playing with her for teams like the
Saskatchewan Roughriders, Montreal Loettes, or Toronto Argonauts. A simple wish
and suggestion for the former Bearcat quarterback coming up on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 7 (52:46):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
The UC Health Traffic Online.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
Oh no, man, what.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
You're not here for my show every day? But you
know the rule?

Speaker 5 (53:03):
Right?

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Is this pit bull?

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
I honestly did not know that. It says Moe Bumper. Yeah,
this is like in the system, is one of yours?

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Okay, that's fine, doesn't mean it gets aired doesn't mean
it should play. Delete it. I'd delete it right now,
take it out of the system.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
Honestly, God, I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
You're not allowed to. I mean that you can know
the rule. You know the rule. You know the rule.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
I know the rule.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Anything post nineteen ninety one Will Smith and Pitbull, the
rest of the entire musical catalog of all time completely inbounds.
Play whatever you want. I do not care.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Okay, I'm gonna delete that right now. My apologies.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Sports headlines are a service a Kelsey Chevrolet home of
lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot Com, Reds
and Pirates. Tonight in Pittsburgh, Andrew Abbott will throw for
Cincinnati against Paul Skens. It's six forty first pitch the
night the game is live on seven hundred wl W.

(54:03):
Red's embarking, as they say, on a seven game roadie,
three in Pittsburgh and then four against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Tomorrow's game is a four oh five first pitch, then
the one thirty five tilt. On Sunday, you're starting lineup
for it. Tonight's game, Blake done Elie de la Cruz,
JJ Blede Blade is playing left field. Stewart's at first,

(54:23):
low DH Suarez the third, Spencer Steer plays right field,
Tyler Stevenson behind the dish. Matt McClain plays second. Although
maybe today is the day he took some fly balls
out there in Pittsburgh in center field and he'll he'll
be starting in center field soon. I have no idea,
you know what.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
The other part of that quote from Terry Francona was
that nobody has a crystal ball. But that's not true.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
I have one.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Back to you.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Elsewhere. Oh, Tony Santien is going on the injured list.
He's got a pretty severe obleaque injury. Zach mccambley is
up from Louisville, Florence after a twelve game road trip
or home tonight for Evansville. The Canadian Football League is
not allowing any of its teams to sign Brendan Soresby,
the latest league to tell him thanks, but no thanks

(55:12):
for the former UC quarterback. France leads Norway three to
one as they enter the seventy eighth minute. This game
will decide the winner of Group I. There's also a
game unfolding between Senegal and Iraq. Senegal leads that game
for nothing to keep. Assuming they win this game, they
will keep their knockout stage hopes alive. The Brendan Soorsby thing,

(55:37):
I probably and I was thinking about this over the
weekend and earlier this week when I was off. I
probably devoted more time to the Brendan Soorersby story than
I should, because much of it is not a UC story.
I think it's a fascinating story because I think it's
I think it's it's fascinating when you have somebody here

(55:57):
with so much upside, who was held in such high
regard by so many people, who has at least temporarily
thrown away a pro football career. Now I hope for
his sake there's a next chapter or it becomes a
UC story. Is when his agent says, well, blame Cincinnati.
They knew, and I said this on this show over
a week ago. Let's see the evidence, and so far

(56:21):
nobody has done that. I went to the Reds game
on Wednesday night and somebody stopped me and said, and
they weren't being jerks about it, but they were like,
do you really think UC knew nothing about Soresby? And
I said, I'm going to guess that the fact that
the NCAA hasn't, you know, put in a satellite office
in Cincinnati in the two months that we've seen this

(56:42):
story unfold, I'm I'm going to guess that the NCAA
is satisfied with what they have come to find out
about UC's knowledge of Brendan Soresby's gambling, and that the
NCNBLA is satisfied that I'm satisfied. And this dude kind
of gave me this like a skew look, and I go, look, man,
if you believe Brendan Sores' agent, it became abundantly clear
to me. And this was not a UC fan like cool,

(57:04):
Let's see the evidence. There's show me the concrete evidence
to suggest that you see is culpable here that they
did something wrong, that they did something that would rise
to the level of NCAA issues for the athletic department
and for the school. So the while I was gone, though,

(57:24):
the supplemental draft is now not going to happen. The
NFL has told Brendan Soresby, no, and maybe yes, twenty
twenty seven draft, you're eligible to enter. We'll let our
teams have their way with you, and maybe you'll get drafted,
and maybe you have a successful pro football career. And
by the way, that's the outcome that I'm rooting for.
I take no pleasure in watching someone's downfall, but I

(57:48):
also believe in accountability, and my sincere hope is and
it's not just a hope, but it's also a suggestion
for Brendan. The CFL now has told you know, the
NFL has told you no. We'll see how much that
gets challenged. But spend the next i don't know, nine

(58:10):
months working out, working on your craft, but also looking
in the mirror, and I think at some point publicly
demonstrating some level of remorse or at least understanding that
you are in the position you are in solely because

(58:31):
of your actions. I have seen, not as Brendan Sorosby's camp,
but I've seen a lot of folks make excuses for Brendan.
Point the finger at schools, point the finger at legalized gambling.
I've heard people point the finger at folks who do
commercials for gambling companies. By the way, I'm one of them.
The sole party who is responsible for this is the

(58:58):
former quarterback at the University of Sinna. And I think
what has been frustrating about this is it feels like
there's a refusal by Brendan Sorosby, or at least his representation,
to acknowledge that. And my suggestion for him would be
in a public forum somewhere, just own what you did.

(59:19):
I hope it's not a football death sentence for him.
I'm not convinced that it has to be. I also
cannot blame a pro sports league for not wanting to
employ somebody who's an admitted gambling addict who just got
done with the rehab program, who has seemingly not shown
any inclination to accepting one hundred percent of the responsibility here.

(59:43):
I hope this isn't the end of his football travels.
I sincerely do, and I think that's what we should
all be rooting for if we care about human beings
at all. But it's hard to root for somebody who
doesn't accept responsibility for what they do. And I don't
know that he has done that. He certainly hasn't come
out out and done that, as far as I'm concerned.
Once you accept responsibility, Americans are pretty forgiving people, man.

(01:00:06):
I mean, as people go like we're One thing we
are is forgiving, but I think we start to forgiveness
when there's like actual responsibility. You are where you are
not because of the Big Twelve, not because of the
nc DOUBLEA, not because of the University of Cincinnati, not
because there's a ton of gambling commercials, not because of

(01:00:27):
your addiction. You are where you are because you chose
to do something that you were told is not legal
by the letter of the NCAA rules. You are where
you are because you willingly and knowingly broke rules. And
I think until there is a very public, very effusive

(01:00:48):
acknowledge of that, then it is hard to root for
the guy. And you're going to have a lot of
folks who want a stiff arm I mean not see
him play, including pro sports teams, maybe an entire pro
sports league. So like the next step should be not
a courtroom, not a legal filing, not an attempt to
play in the Arena Football League three or the IAAL

(01:01:08):
or some semi pro league, but like, sit down, maybe
do this with yourself, look in the mirror, and accept
responsibility for what you did, and then express to the
rest of the world, not through your agent, not through
your attorney, not in a court case express using some vehicle.
You know what, I fed up. I am the reason

(01:01:31):
why this happened, and I want it to be a
cautionary tale for others. But I accept the responsibility. This
is my problem. I created it. I'd like the opportunity
to solve it. I'm gonna do my best and hopefully
that gives me a chance to play pro football. And
then once that happens, if he gets a chance to
play pro football, good luck. Hope it works out. But

(01:01:55):
the just striking lack of just person on a responsibility
really makes it hard to be on his side, and
it makes it hard to argue that anybody should give
him a job in pro sports. The next step, right now,
the only step is publicly express that you have done
something that it doesn't seem you've done yet. That's accept

(01:02:16):
responsibility for your own actions. Brandanman and Jones on Baseball is.

Speaker 7 (01:02:20):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:02:26):
Owns on Baseball brought to you in part by on
Core Technologies.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
On ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 9 (01:02:33):
Thirty Tracy, many times we delve into post playing career
and what people do after their days of honor and
glory or over on a baseball or any sports field.
And I thought about something that I think you would
make a fortunate being. And this is a word that

(01:02:55):
just came into existence or to the public awareness over
the last number of.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Years through the internet.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
Right, an influencer.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Oh, you think I could be?

Speaker 9 (01:03:06):
What definition person who builds an audience and can affect
what people think by watch, where, eat, and believe.

Speaker 10 (01:03:16):
But here's the problem with this? What problem is it? Well,
I like to refer to this as a slippery slope.
I mean, what would I influence? I could talk about money,
being a financial advisor, Okay, I could talk.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Talk about baseball.

Speaker 10 (01:03:31):
Experience, well, a travel a travel right, because I've been
to a lot, I've been.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Around the woral people.

Speaker 9 (01:03:36):
You're sure you would not, But I tell you what
I'm really on, what people wear.

Speaker 10 (01:03:41):
Go ahead, I tell you what I would influence relationships.
I think I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Really good at it, Martie.

Speaker 10 (01:03:49):
I think I've got some experience. I think I would
be extremely helpful for those people and how they're doing
in their relationship. I would give advice and I'd be
straight up, and I think it would be perfect.

Speaker 9 (01:04:05):
We'll be back with more in a moment a possible
future career of being an influencer, and you touched on
how good you thought you would be in talking about
relationships based on experience.

Speaker 10 (01:04:18):
Obviously, yes, you have more experience than that than I do. Well,
I wasn't going to go there, but I will go
there now.

Speaker 9 (01:04:27):
First, wait a minute, as I tell groups when I speak,
the road to matrimonial bliss has been a very expensive
one for me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
But I hit the jackpot.

Speaker 10 (01:04:38):
I know, I know with Amanda.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
I know, all right, So go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
I know you're dying to say.

Speaker 10 (01:04:43):
I wasn't even going to touch on it, but since
you broke it up, brought it up, I would advise
anyone who is married right now, any guy, to get
a divorce, even if you're happy, because the second marriage
will be better. I've been married two times. I'm looking
forward to my third marriage. Marty, on the other hand,

(01:05:03):
is number three.

Speaker 6 (01:05:04):
Marty.

Speaker 10 (01:05:06):
Tell everyone how happy you are with your third marriage,
and tell everyone that should get a divorce from wife.

Speaker 9 (01:05:13):
Running to the words you just uttered as a means
of recommending something, you need to get a divorce right
now because the second marriage will be better.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
I can't believe you'd say something like that.

Speaker 9 (01:05:28):
You got people listening to this show who are happily
married and never even thought about that word.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Because they have no clue.

Speaker 10 (01:05:35):
You think you're happy until you get a divorce. You
go to the second when you're thinking this is great,
I love this. People get a divorce again and then
you go in like Marty for his third and now
he's super, super happy, has a great wife and Amanda.
You're not thinking about a number four, are you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
I am not.

Speaker 8 (01:05:55):
You've been listening to Brenneman and Jones on Baseball, presented
by United Jerry Farmer, brought to you in part by
your Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Toyota dealers on ESPN fifteen thirty.
This is fifteen thirty w CQME on NADDI, the fifty thousand,
orange and black home of the Cincinnati called Cincinnati's ESPN

(01:06:18):
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Traffic from the UC Health traffics right on that. What's up,
mullig or ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening. Hopefully you're
having an awesome Friday afternoon with a good start to
the weekend. It has been ugly outside for most of
this Friday afternoon. We got a promise that I'm going
to hold somebody to coming up in about forty minutes.
And the meeting that should have taken place yesterday all

(01:06:46):
day long, a gabp that coming up in just a
few We have a poll question. I threw it out
just a few minutes ago thanks to United Heartland Insurance.
Here's something you can do this weekend. Do it with
your spouse, do it with your family. Take a look
at what you're paying for insurance, because chances are at top,
at the top of your head, off the top of
your head, you have no idea. See what you're paying

(01:07:08):
for insurance. Then on Monday, go to uhi ns dot
com and see if my friends at United Heartland Insurance
can help you pay a lot less and maybe get
better coverage. Go to uhi ns dot com. The pole
question is about Tito, Tito the Magnificent Terry Francona. Is

(01:07:28):
Terry Francona doing a good job? Four choices? Vote now
on Twitter or x or x at moe Egger. This
feels like the first week where Terry Francona's in game
decision making has gotten the most scrutiny and understandably. So

(01:07:52):
I would be willing to bet that Tito understands the
criticism or scrutiny that comes with in game decision made.
This guy has grown up in baseball. This guy's been
a major league manager for over a quarter of a century.
He's managed in Boston, He's managed in some of the
highest stakes and most famous games ever. Like he's a

(01:08:14):
big boy, he can handle it. But it feels like
this is a week. And I was off the first
four days of this week and not a huge participant
on social media because you know, sometimes you do need
a break. But in my idle moments, I did have
some I kind of watched folks go at each other
about the Reds on social media and from a place

(01:08:36):
of passion and love but also deep deep frustration. And
I think that's where all of us are coming from, right,
deep deep frustration with the fact that the Reds by
now are supposed to be good and they go into
the final weekend of June five hunder five hundred. That's
not good enough. And so you know how this works, right,
especially on social media, but oftentimes on shows like this

(01:08:57):
as well. It's just what we just take turns blaming something,
and so it's you know, it's it's the manager. Well no, no, no, no, no,
it's it's Nick Crawl and no, no, no, no, no no,
it's it's ownership. Well you know, I mean it's it's
the fault of the players. Actually, no, it's I've seen
some blame fans which I will never understand. Or hey,
it's baseball's economics. There's the problem is there's not just

(01:09:22):
one thing. If if it was just one thing, then
I think this would be an easy fix. Like if
there were if there was just one thing plaguing the Reds,
if there was just one issue, one problem, one person,
one department to blame for why the Reds are in

(01:09:43):
this unending cycle of mediocrity, of not winning, of not
paying off people's patients, of not advancing in the postseason,
of not seriously contending for a championship. If it was
just one thing, then the the fix would be pretty simple.
Right now, some of those fixes might be easier than others,

(01:10:04):
Like you could say, well, ownership's to blame. It's not
like you can force ownership to sell the team. They're
probably not going to do that, although they would make
an insane amount of money. It's not just one thing
that that's the problem. Like, are the Reds five games
under five hundred because Terry Francone is a bad manager? No?
But does it feel like they're getting great work from

(01:10:27):
the manager?

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Nick Krawl may be hamstrung by the parameters that the
Red's ownership sets forth for him to work within. Okay,
we'll acknowledge that perhaps, But does it feel like with
the resources he's been given that he's made the most
of them.

Speaker 11 (01:10:52):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Does it feel like the organization's plan and we could
obviously fold a lot of folks under Nick Crawl when
we talk about the organization, Does it feel like the
organization's plan to build something that's sustainable is working.

Speaker 7 (01:11:11):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Does it feel like they're great at minor league development?
Does it feel like they have a farm system that's
really really good at consistently cranking out big league ready players. No.
Does it feel like the department that oversees drafting is consistently,
you know, hitting on a number of players year after

(01:11:36):
year after year. Not just guys like Chase Burns who
are relatively easy to identify, or Hunter Green, but like,
you know, the guys that you get in the lower rounds,
not even talking about like the last rounds, rounds two
through five or two through seven. Does it feel like
the Reds are really good and have been really good
for a long time at getting players in those rounds

(01:11:57):
that can contribute for a long time as big leaguers here. No,
Like it's it's not just one thing. It's like I
I fatigue easily. I admit this. It's maybe one of
my weaknesses as a baseball fan, as a sports fan,
and maybe as a sports talk radio host. I fatigue
when it comes to, hey, we got to spend time

(01:12:19):
equally on all the things we need to blame, Like
it's it's one big thing. And so yeah, man Tito
has gotten his fair share of scrutiny and criticism because
of some in game moves, some decisions he's made, lineup construction,
who hits where, which picture to use in a certain situation.
Maybe the tip of the iceberg was the Wednesday game
against the Brewers, to bunt to not bunt? Like all right, fine,

(01:12:43):
but if it was as simple as well, they need
a new manager. Okay, move on from Terry Francona. Tell
them see in Cooperstown, go get a new manager. I
think we've seen it's not quite that simple, Like the
issues are deep here. And I know, as an outsider,
you know, you could look at this and go, Okay,

(01:13:04):
well they're five hundred five hundred and all hope is
not lost to me. Come on, there's still more a
little bit more than a half a season to go. Like,
sometimes you have a disappointing season and you do man,
And I don't know about you, but me, I'm I'm,
I'm typically I could overlook a disappointing season. They happen
even the best and most well constructed sports organizations. You know,

(01:13:27):
sometimes players that you're counting on don't perform. Maybe there's
bad luck, maybe there's injuries, maybe the rest of the
league got better, whatever it is. But I think, and
I think this is this is easy for us as
Reds fans to understand. This isn't just about twenty twenty
six being so far a down season. It's about what

(01:13:48):
we were expecting four years ago, three years ago. It's
about what we're told to continue to expect every single year.
And this goes back well over a decade. You know,
since twenty thirteen, the Reds have not finished higher than
third place. That's kind of hard to do in a

(01:14:09):
five team division, right nearly a decade and a half,
And so like, there's the just unending just ninety four,
ninety five, ninety eight lost seasons in the twenty tens,
and you know, whatever may or may not have happened
with the twenty twenty season because of COVID, there's what
they chose to do at the end of the twenty
twenty one season, and at the end of the twenty

(01:14:30):
twenty one season, while it may have made, while it
may have made all the sins in the world to
hit the reset button, you're kind of sitting there in
the fall of twenty twenty one going win a minute. Really,
So you stunk every year fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
you stunk a little bit less than twenty nineteen, and
all the waiting and all the patients. The payoff was
the twenty twenty one season where they barely finished above

(01:14:52):
five hundred, where they didn't really get better at the
trade deadline. That's the payoff. But then in twenty twenty
two they decide to be really bad. And I don't
love tank because tank means you're intentionally losing baseball games.
But may they didn't exactly try to get good. They
traded away understandably so perhaps Sonny Gray. They don't bring

(01:15:12):
back Nick Castianus, which they never were, and they trade
away Suarez, and they trade away a Winker, and they
move on from Tucker Barnhardt, and then later on they
trade away Castillo and Mally and they lose one hundred
games and it's miserable. It's abjectly just miserable. But you
either abandoned it or you kind of nodded along and said,
all right, then there's got to be some payoff for this.

(01:15:36):
And admittedly, man, in twenty twenty three, it felt like
the payoff was coming. Ellie was here, McLean was here,
Abbott was here, Hunter Green fully established Nick Lodolo on
his way like it won twelve straight games June of
twenty twenty three, and there was this sense that it's coming, man,
middle of the decade, it's coming. This is it, This
is the payoff. This is like waiting for two hours

(01:15:57):
at a fancy restaurant to get your table and you
finally sit down and you look at the menu and
the server comes over and it takes forever to get
the meal, and you've been sitting and you're starving, and
they put the meal in front of you, and it's rubbish.
That's what this is like. You've waited forever for a
payoff that was supposed to be coming around now, and
this is it. This is what it looks like. Dane

(01:16:19):
Meyer's batting third. Is that Terry Francona's fault. No, but
he's complicit. Is it solely Nick Crawl's fault. No, but
he's complicit. Is it totally ownership's fault. No, But they've
owned the team now for two decades. Is it the
fault of a handful of players that we were counting
on to be really good bye now? Sure? Is it
the fault of the farm system not continually cranking out

(01:16:42):
really good players. Sure, it's a lot of different things.
No one's blameless, No one gets all the blame. But
I think the problem is there are so many issues
and so many areas where they're deficient that it feels
almost impossible to believe that, at least in the short term,

(01:17:03):
that things can change all that dramatically, where they can
go from this unending cycle of mediocrity to something resembling
true genuine contention. And I think you're being fair if
you ask if by now true genuine contention isn't here,
especially with a lockout looming in twenty twenty seven, When

(01:17:23):
will it ever get here? Eighteen after five phone calls
are next. This is ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (01:17:30):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
The promise that I plan on holding someone to coming
up in just about twenty five minutes five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. And I was going to go
to Richard, but he went away, so instead we'll talk
to Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
Hi, Mike, I'm mol How was your trip?

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
It was delightful. It was refreshing, was relaxing. I'm tanned,
rested and ready to take two more days off Monday
and Tuesday.

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
Wealth Life, bro, Wealth Life.

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
You got load management seat?

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
Yeah, yeah, I got you pictured on the boat. Huh
So you discovered boats? Now good? I can picture you
on the boat? Kick back feed up. Did you go fishing?

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
No, no interest in fishing, although my wife caught a
fish with her bare hands.

Speaker 5 (01:18:34):
That's pretty cool, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Yeah, pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:18:37):
That's pretty masculine. I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
My wife is a lot of things. Masculine is not
one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:18:43):
Well, she could arm rustle you maybe and whipped your boat,
but anyway, probably Hey, I could see you sitting on
the fantail of the boat with your feet up, or
on the forolcastole of the boat with your feet up,
just to looking up at the sky and relaxing. Sounds great, No,
I heard. I watched as wait. Oh my godness, I
don't know how long ago, but I remember it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
It's beautiful, It is very nice, very relaxing, and I
can't wait to go back.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
So Austin had a little piece at the end of
his show. Huh about photographs, right, Austin with photographs with
famous athletes with a possible autograph, and he said the
brunching photos now with the autograph were going for over
nine hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
Yeah, no, I mean, Austin, you were talking about fanatics
fast correct.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
Yeah, you pay like eighty bucks to get in, and
then you got to pay nine hundred and thirty five
if you want a picture with Jalen Brunson.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
There is not a human being alive I would pay
money to be in a picture.

Speaker 5 (01:19:48):
With not for nine thirty five, not.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Even Bruce Springsteen.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
I went and saw Bruce Springsteen at a book signing
and I had to buy the book. And the book
was great and I got my picture with him at
Joseph Beth as a result of buying the book, and
the book caused like thirty bucks. So no, but I
got a book out of it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
Yeah, he did that, And was it a good book?
I heard about it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
It was a terrific book.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
Yes, I'm sure it was interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
And he signed the book.

Speaker 5 (01:20:18):
My favorite time frame for Bruce Springsteen was when he
did his and video with.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
Oh my Gosh.

Speaker 5 (01:20:30):
No no, no, no, no no. The famous guy that
did h oh my God, that wore the sunglasses and
had the bangs with the black hair, Roy Orbison, Roy
Orbison who wrote many famous songs and and Bruce was
real young and he was playing rhythm guitar for the thing, gotcha,
and man he was he was so into it, dude.

(01:20:51):
Well he looked up to Roy Orbison.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
I'm sure he did. Is Is is there anything that's
not related to Bruce Springsteen or Roy Orbison that you
would like to talk about today? No?

Speaker 5 (01:21:01):
Not the Reds too much Okay, you didn't much to
talk about with them, No, but we already that was Chad.
I talked to about the depth of the offensive line,
but we determined that every offensive line has that problems
in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
That is correct, and Austin agreed.

Speaker 5 (01:21:18):
Yeah, that's all.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
I got.

Speaker 5 (01:21:20):
Kind of a lazing one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
So you called the radio show but didn't have anything
in mind you wanted to discuss. You called the radio show,
but there was nothing that struck your fancy that I
said over the last two and a half hours that
you felt a need to either add to challenge, respond
to question, or anything of that nature.

Speaker 5 (01:21:42):
Well, the red stuff is just barked up. I mean,
we're all bart. We don't know where to go. Tito's
Tito's you know, I don't know what to think about Tito.
He guess he's dealing with the hand he's been dealt.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Do you think Tito is a better Voddo or a
better manager?

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
There? Manager? Right, Okay, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
You think Tito is a better a better manager or
a better mid eighties good guy professional wrestler Tito Santana.

Speaker 5 (01:22:17):
I'll take him as a manager.

Speaker 2 (01:22:19):
Do you think Tito is a better baseball manager or
member of the Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:22:23):
Five, member of the Jackson squad.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
I think we're on the same page. Mike, have a
good weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
Yeah you too.

Speaker 5 (01:22:31):
Sorry I didn't have the LAMA today. I'll talk to
you later. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
You know, typically in this uh, in this forum, this
talk radio forum, when when folks call the radio station,
it's uh, it's to do one of two things. It's
to tell the producer to tell the host something which
I can assure you never happens. I've I've worked in
this business for twenty nine years, and callers who call

(01:22:56):
the producer to tell the host are winless and getting
the message conveyed to the host. It never happens.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):
Normally I'm down the hall producing another show at this time,
and that happens constantly, Yes, constantly.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
You know, in years of producing for Mike McConnell and
Bill Cunningham and Jim Scott, for years, I would answer
phones and there was always you tell him, and I
would say, I'm not telling him, Like, if you want
to tell him, I will put you on hold. I'll
put your name on the screen and you could tell him.
But that's not how this works. So people call the
radio station for in this day and age for one
of two reasons. One to tell the producer to tell

(01:23:33):
the host something, which never works. Number two, to respond
to something the host just said, or you get a
phone call like that one.

Speaker 3 (01:23:39):
Uh, can I tell the host something?

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Emelio Pagan pitching today for the Louisville Best. How stoked
are you? Rehab assignment? The Bats had a double header
today in the midst of one. He started the game,
pitched one inning through six pitches, got all three batters out.
He's done for the day. Efficient pitches, four strikes. Emilio Pagan.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
Are they gonna have him take fly balls in centerfield
two while he's at it?

Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
That's a good question. Huh, that's a great question. By
the way, Will Benson didn't start for him today? Yeah?
TJ Friedo one for three.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:24:14):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
I feel like if you play the infield for the Reds,
unless you're Elie Della Cruz, you will be asked to
take fly balls in centerfield. As it said, is how
it works here. They should try that with Keith Ryan Hayes.
My interview with NBA champion Deuce McBride is next.

Speaker 7 (01:24:33):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
O bleak issue. Zach mccambley is back up to be
the savior for the Reds as they take on the
Pirates tonight Abbotts versus Kien six forty on seven hundred WLW.
If you have listened to this show for any amount
of time, you know that beyond being a big Cincinnati
sports fan, I am also a fan of the New
York Knicks, the current NBA champion New York and what

(01:25:00):
has made watching them win a championship. Among the things
that has made watching them win a championship so much
fun is they've got a local guy and somebody that
over the last few years has always been kind enough
to join our show, going back to when he was
in the G League, you know, struggling to just establish
himself in the NBA. Duce McBride, Miles Duce McBride from
Mohler High School, who started playoff games for the next

(01:25:24):
this year, won a ring and so when the Knicks
won the title, my producer, Tarren Bland, knew there was
one thing I wanted. I wanted Deuce on and ideally
we could get him from the parade, but logistically that
wasn't going to be able to happen. So we reached
out to Deuce's people and his handler says, we can
do it. We can do it on Friday, the day

(01:25:45):
after the parade. Unfortunately, I was off last Friday, so
I didn't have a show. But if that was going
to be my one chance to interview Duce McBride fresh
off an NBA Championship with the Knicks, I was still
going to do the interview on Friday, and so I
talked with Deuce last Friday morning. This was the day
after the NBA Championship parade. The entire interview is on

(01:26:08):
the iHeartRadio app but here is a portion of it.
And I started by asking Deuce to describe what it
was like to be in the middle of that immense
championship celebration last Thursday in New York City.

Speaker 11 (01:26:22):
Besides the birth of my daughter, I would have to
say I was one of the best days of my life.
I mean to see the love and support from that
how many people just knowing that what we did for
the city will you know, ring throughout history forever.

Speaker 4 (01:26:40):
It was such a cool thing to see. Truthful.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
You know, you you enter the NBA and you're just
trying to make it right. You're trying to establish yourself
on an NBA roster, and you get to New York
and you're just trying to stick with the Knicks, and
you know, meanwhile they're building a team that ultimately, you know,
has become a perennial postseason team and now obvious see
an NBA champion. But at what point did you realize, like,

(01:27:03):
if we're actually able to pull this off, this is
what New York is going to do.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
I mean, I think.

Speaker 11 (01:27:13):
When those I'm not sure if you saw those videos
that started coming out when when we first made the
playoffs and people were just outside going crazy because you know,
I missed the playoffs my first year.

Speaker 4 (01:27:25):
And then you know, we signed JB.

Speaker 11 (01:27:29):
And we make it that second year, and man, those
those first playoff wins, I'd never seen anything like it,
and then beating Boston last year, I mean, they just
continue continue to take it up another level, and uh,
you know, as long as nobody gets hurt, it's it's uh.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
Well, it did feel like everybody yesterday was was well behaved.
So from from last Saturday before the parade, what's the
coolest thing that's happened to you? What's the coolest thing
that you've had a chance to experience as an NBA champaign.

Speaker 11 (01:28:05):
I mean, wow, I think I think yesterday is just
something that can't be topped. I mean, I'm still out
of loss for words, like looking at videos and pictures.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
I don't know if it doesn't justice just because you.

Speaker 11 (01:28:25):
Know, people were there at literally two days ago just
to get a spot for the parade.

Speaker 4 (01:28:32):
People are getting up at two, three, four in the
morning and.

Speaker 11 (01:28:35):
Then by six am people got turned away, you know,
like to have an atmosphere like that, it's just such
a blessing.

Speaker 2 (01:28:46):
Truthfully, what do because I know you were signing jerseys right, so,
like you you see fans face to face and I'm
sure like long time hardcore fans who have been suffering
with this team forever. What is it like when they
tell you what this title has meant to them?

Speaker 11 (01:29:03):
Yeah, I think it's such a beautiful thing. You know
what sports can do and being here in the MECA,
you know, of art culture, you know sports, I mean,
and for people to say, you know this is you know,
people have done so many great things. You know, I've
been able to meet so many cool people, and you know,

(01:29:25):
when they say, Hey, I've stayed with the team through
all the struggles, through all the ups and downs. Like,
you know, I wasn't alive when the last time the
Knicks were in the finals.

Speaker 4 (01:29:38):
And you know, I'm I'm a huge fan of.

Speaker 11 (01:29:43):
A lot of things, so I know what it is,
what it's like to live and die, you know, with
with wins and losses, and just to hear people and
see the videos of them crying and just I mean,
it's it's such a cool feeling.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
So you guys win the title ins Antonio on Saturday night,
and obviously there were you know, a million Knicks fans
there there. There's what we get to watch on television,
right you guys embrace hug. You're running around looking for
people to hug. Right after the game, you guys go
in the locker room, You're pouring beer and champagne on
each other. But like, walk me through what those hours
were like in the immediate aftermath of you guys winning

(01:30:18):
the title that maybe you know, we didn't get a
chance to see.

Speaker 4 (01:30:22):
Yeah, I mean, it was a it was a long
night to celebrate, for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:30:28):
We did end up flying back to New York around
three in the morning, but we honestly had a good
bit amount of media. But we uh, I mean, have
you seen some of the pictures of you know, we
were smoking cigars on the court.

Speaker 4 (01:30:50):
I mean it was it was like what our fans do.

Speaker 11 (01:30:54):
What we do is we come in and we take
over arenas and that was that encapsulated to see Game four.

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
You guys are down twenty seven and a half now,
not be honest with me, whether it's in the locker room,
on the bench, I mean, are you really telling each
other that you guys can come back and win that game?
What are you guys saying to each other?

Speaker 11 (01:31:15):
Yeah, yeah, we're We're We've won a lot of done
a lot of comebacks. And you know when you have
you know, leaders that you know they don't break, you know,
they might bend, you know, we get down. But we
were just thinking we were just giving them, you know,
a lot of easy things. So I think we never

(01:31:37):
panicked because we knew we just needed to get a break,
get an adjustment, and then just you know, fire on
all the cylinders, and you know, that's what we did.
So truthfully, I think that's what made us a championship team,
is just going through those trials and tribulations, not just
this regular season, but playoffs, past seasons past, and understanding

(01:31:59):
that is really over until it's over.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
The the comebacks are awesome. I enjoyed it more when
you would curbstomp teams and close out games. Yeah, Atlanta
was awesome, But like the Sunday afternoon, you guys are
in Philadelphia, it sounds like MSG and you close out
the sixers and you go off, I think, what six
of seven in the first half from behind the arc?
Seven of nine for the game. And look, you've had

(01:32:24):
awesome shooting games, You've had big games, but in a
close out game in that environment. Have you ever experienced
anything remotely close to that?

Speaker 11 (01:32:34):
I can't. I can't say I have. You know, it
was a It was a great opportunity, you know for me.
I started started that game, and you know, my mindset
really for this postseason was just to make an impact.

Speaker 4 (01:32:49):
I had.

Speaker 11 (01:32:50):
I had that uh surgery you know, the middle of
the year and got back right before the playoffs, so
I was playing through a good amount of pain and
you know, to have the game like that was such
a you know, relief and just made me feel so
good that I knew I could just help the team
in so many ways, and you know, I'm just I'm glad.

Speaker 4 (01:33:11):
I was thankful to God that he helped me through it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:14):
Yeah. And by the way, not just shooting it great,
but like you were guarding Tyrese MAXI, I can't even
imagine what it's like to try to pick him up.
I mean, he's he's absurd. But you mentioned the injuries
because I think there's folks who maybe don't realize you
missed time early in the season with an ankle, then
he had the hernia, and I remember the night you
came back, you had to leave the game against Oka
See and I remember that going like, I don't know

(01:33:35):
if Deuce is going to get to the postseason. Were
you ever worried that you would have to sit out
once the playoffs got here?

Speaker 11 (01:33:41):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean, hernie is is a nice
way to put it. You know, the service that I had,
it was a it was a tough process, but you know,
our training staff did great, because you know I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
There was some games where I was really really struggling.

Speaker 11 (01:34:00):
But you know that's the great thing about this organization
or coaching staff, training staff is they're just like you know,
even if you're not scoring a lot of points, I
can impact the game in a lot of ways. And
you know, obviously the name of the game is to
score the ball, but to have, you know, a belief
that we just want you out there is such a

(01:34:21):
tremendous feeling. And that's what really pushed me, because some
games I just man, I didn't have it. I mean,
it was it was painful, but you know, I'm just
thankful for my teammates and everybody just helping me get
through it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
If I'm not mistaken, you are the second longest tenured Nick.
It's Mitchell Robinson then yourself, And so you know, when
you got to New York, obviously you were you were
just trying to establish yourself. But as as you've done that,
they've built this team and they've brought in guys and
I guess most notably Jalen Brunson. But but what has
it been like watching from your perspective how they've assembled

(01:34:59):
the team and doing so in a way that like
you guys took steps. I mean, you know, I remember
when you lost to Miami in twenty three, it was
like all right, fine, and then you know, the next year,
all the injuries against Indiana lost in seven, and then
last year and you you were kind of enough to
join us shortly after that series. It just to me,
it felt like these are the steps you have to take,
and meanwhile they're just adding pieces. From your perspective team building,

(01:35:22):
watching it, what's it been like?

Speaker 11 (01:35:24):
Oh man, it's uh, it's been It's been great. I
mean you people don't see all the highs and lows
of it, you know, from a team perspective, from like
you said, in my perspective, and the conversations, you know,
the meetings, you know, if you lose three in a row,
where you win eight in a row. I think the

(01:35:45):
special thing was the people that came into our team.
They were about the same things as guys that left,
you know, and we give a lot of creditude to
the guys, you know r J. Beart, Manuel Quickly, Evan
for Julius, you know, all those guys that really helped
build a winning culture, you know Obie Topping, like they're

(01:36:07):
still doing great things. And I mean Leon Rose just
man killer killer, you know. I mean, you know he
took a kill like me, and you know I had
to wait my chance but I think just having those
open conversations of like when I'm young, like we still

(01:36:28):
believe in you.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
You know, just keep working, keep trusting the process, and
it'll all work out.

Speaker 11 (01:36:32):
And I think, you know, fans they get a little antsy,
you know, if we lost a few in the regular season,
they thought the world was going to end.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
I'm guilty of that. I'm guilty of it. Yes to
one against Atlanta, I was, you know, the walls were
closing in. I'll admit that.

Speaker 11 (01:36:47):
Yeah, And that's what I mean when your leadership and
you keep a lot of things in house, when when
it's you know, really solid, you know, you end up
making it through the fire of making it through.

Speaker 4 (01:37:01):
And each year was a great step in it shows
now that we're champions.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
That's Miles Deuce McBride, the Moller High School alum who
won an NBA championship with the New York Knicks just
under two weeks ago. That entire conversation we aired about
half of it. It's roughly twenty minutes long. It's available
on the iHeartRadio app. I did not air this part
of it. At the very end of the interview, I
asked him do NBA players get a chance to do

(01:37:28):
what hockey players get a chance to do with the
Stanley Cup. Hockey players win the Stanley Cup, they get
a chance to take it wherever they want on vacation.
Many of them bring it to their hometowns. Do NBA
players get to do that with the Larry O'Brien Trophy?
And Do said yes. So then I couldn't help but
ask is he bringing it to Cincinnati? And he said yes?

(01:37:48):
And then I pressed it and said can we get
an in studio visit from you and the Larry O'Brien Trophy?
And he said yes, So we will be hold holding
him to that. My thanks to Tarren Bland for booking
that interview on very short notice. We're done on Monday
and Tuesday of next week. I am off, I'm exhausted

(01:38:09):
from working one day this week, so Austin Elmore will
host this show three to six on Monday and Tuesday.
I will be back on Wednesday of next week and
looking forward to it. Anything you might have missed go
find on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks to long Next. Sports
Girl Tony is back on Monday for since E three
sixty at noon and so have a great weekend. And

(01:38:32):
talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. Thanks to
Austin for filling in for Tarran today. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 7 (01:38:39):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the u SEE
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