04-05-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
That's right. How about them Rockies? Welcome to it. Kind of an
amalgamation of shows. Here we gotKawa Sports, myself, Alfred Williams,
we got bit all Bright, NickFerguson with you here for a little bit.
But the Rockies and a comeback win. It shouldn't have been a comeback
win, but it was a comebackwin and it was legendary. Ryan McMahon

(00:21):
with that Grand Slam walkoff was certainlya thing of beauty. Alfred Williams,
my friend, now are you man, what a fantastic day? I mean,
fellas, I can't imagine a betteropening day. The drama, the
intensity, the excitement, the disappointmentand then the elation at the end.
Man, it was exactly what youwanted in an opening day. And then

(00:45):
to see, you know, ChrisBryan actually came through for us. I
know it was a tough and inthe night in the ninth you know,
it would have been nice if thatwas Chris Bryant with the walk off.
But I'm telling you, man,all in all, man, what a
fantastic day. Great job for Gomberto fight through man and battle for those
four and you know they had somebodyup in the first inning, Uh,

(01:07):
thinking that, you know, itwas gonna get out of control, but
he settled down. Man, itwas a fantastic baseball day. Weather was
agreeable, Ryan, we were downtown. It just made for the most amazing,
terrific day. Now, I'm gonnapush back on one thing. I
don't know if I needed the dramalike you you say, oh, it
was great. No, I'm sorry. I didn't need five five runs given

(01:29):
up in the night ending. I'mgood with that, Ben, What did
you think about the game? Theyfound a found a way to pull it
out. They were they were outhit, outfielded, out, base ran,
you know, and and and theRays were playing small ball. But
the Rockies found a way to gutit out. And good for them.
But you know, I'd like tosee them have some consistency, put it
together to where we're seeing this thismore consistently. But uh, you know,
only found a way to gut itout in front of the fans.

(01:51):
And I think the fans will appreciatethat an opening day after a one and
six start to the season. Nick, I mean that, listen, this
is one you could not you couldn'tlose, right, I mean, And
the fact is you're up six totwo in the ninth there's nothing easy for
the Rockies. Well, we're allvery aware of that. We've watched enough
Rockies baseball to know even a fourrun lead in the ninth inning is really

(02:14):
not that safe, which is abrutal spot to be it as a Rockies
fan. But to OL's credit,it was a legendary moment. And the
Rockies may not have a lot ofthe this year, but right now the
vibes are very immaculate. You know. The first thing he reminded me of
was the Lion King. Right.The reason why I reminded me of Lion

(02:35):
King because when McMahon made that error, Yes, after the world came through
and he smashed all mfasa and thenyou go back to the ending of the
movie, you fast forward, andthen it was something really you know,
golding and something that's really special.So that's the first thing they came into

(02:58):
my mind. This was just likethe Disney movie I've ever I've ever watched.
I feel like I'm Timoan in thisanalogy. R dude, So to
live inside your world. Listen,I like Disney movies. I have little
kids. I get it. UhNo, I don't this felt more like
a horror film. In the ninthending, for me, I all of

(03:21):
suddenly was like, how are Rockiesfans going to get past this? Alfred?
I was thinking in terms of thebecause we were downtown and just I
mean that everybody was just so firedup. Me. It didn't matter that
it was one in six and andRockets fans know, they know what this
is. Fifty thousand people filled inthe course field expecting a show. And
to that credit, it wasn't quitea Disney movie, but it really was.

(03:46):
It really was a special Disney movie, because Disney movies start off bad,
but they have a great ending.And that's what it was. The
guy, the guy who somewhat destroyedit with the guy who came out to
be the triumph, the hero.That's the Disney movie right there. Well,
well I'll tell you the you know, I think that the fan base,
just to be totally honest with you, man, you know, going

(04:08):
into the to the ninth ending,I think everybody was just out of there.
You know, like when you lookat the at the at the game
and you see the fans starting toempty out, I don't think they were
emptying out because they thought the Rockieswere gonna lose. I think, like
Ryan, everybody thought the game wasover. You know, you're up for
you know, let's get out ofhere and get downtown and continue this party.

(04:31):
But instead what ended up happening wassomething that was totally different. And
I think that the resolve Man,the patients at the plate, uh you
know, you know, and andonce again, man, you know,
it may just be me, mayjust be me, But there is something
to be said about having a clearand defined strike zone, you know what

(04:51):
I'm saying, where all strikes areconfirmed with the computer or some kind of
visual aid. Because there were alot there were a lot of iffy calls
there, and I mean, it'sjust baseball. But if it wouldn't have
went our way, I certainly wouldhave been on the other side of this
saying we have to have it.Yeah, I like you. The umpire
the other day it had twenty threemissed calls in the Pirates game. It

(05:14):
was I thought that this was kindof like a Disney movie, but it
was more like up for me,you know, We're like, oh,
this is cute. We're going intothe ninth with the and then all of
a sudden, tragedy and then you'rebawling after that. I was thinking,
then, you know, yeah,and then Ryan McMahon saw a squirrel on
that throw and you know it wassinging m Night Shyamalan. Sorry spoiler,
you don't know which movie I'm talkingabout. Could be any of them,

(05:36):
but no, I mean, listen, that's the thing for the Rockies,
as we've already figured out, it'sgoing to be like this the roller coaster
of this team. But we'll look, we'll take these out these outcomes.
And the fact is, Nick,they scrapped for it like they they very
well. And you you played professionalsports, right. I mean, it's
like the Baltimore Ravens versus the Broncos. Joe Flacco hitting that touchdown takes the

(06:00):
entire air out of the stadium.Everybody's sitting there going like what just happened?
And to the Rockies credit, theydidn't give up. You know,
to be fair, guys, basedon how the Rockies season actually started,
and no one will be giving theRockies a chance to kind of win more
than fifty nine games this season.The idea is, you sometimes you need

(06:24):
to win games like this. Nowwas the defense and the ninth inning what
it needed to be. No,probably not. But the fact is that
I think about is that they wonthe game and how they won the game.
Now, will they be in moregames like this down the road?
Absolutely, But Black can always goback to this game and say, look,
we show that we can go tothe nail with people. Sometimes things

(06:45):
are not going to be perfect,but we know that we can win in
the ninth inning when it counts.So for me, I'll take that's my
biggest takeaway. Five six, sixniney zeros are ka common spirit health text
line. Right now, they'll callit number five three or three seven one
three eighty five eight callor five threeor three seven and three eighty five eighty
five is gonna win a four packof tickets to the Rockies and raise this
Sunday at Course Field. The nextchance to win is gonna be coming up

(07:09):
with Broncos country to night this eveningwith Ben and Nick for right now calling
number five three or three seven onethree eighty five eighty five is gonna win
a four pack of tickets to thegame on Sunday, And hey man,
the Rockies have a chance well totomorrow to win the series. But do
you have a chance over the weekendto win their first series of the season.
Sorry, I was just putting myticket in for the Rockies to the

(07:30):
World Series. Oh is that inthe Vivees? Are that IMAXI just just
putting that ticket in real quick?Okay? Hey, hey, seriously,
though, seriously, I think ifthis, if this is how the season
would have started with Game one,I think we'd have more excitement about what's
happened. I mean, true,still only with two wins of the on
the year, But I think it'sthe of time, the timing of when

(07:51):
it happens, and I think itdoes matter something a little different because Ryan,
we had this conversation today, youknow, like, hey, look,
man, you know, when arewe going to get back to just
having these power hitters where we canget back to the Blake Street Bombers.
And that's the way that we win. And we haven't really won around here
because of great pitching for long stretches. It's been the loan ball that's been

(08:13):
our friend here in Colorado. Soman, welcome back, Welcome back,
longball. Looks like Nolan Jones bat'skind of waking up a little bit.
Finally, that's something that's good couldbe a big plus for this team.
And you know if he goes,if that bat goes silent's that's a big
hole. Yeah, and you wantto see Chris Brian. I mean again,
he had the home run, whichwas fantastic to put him up six
to two, but then he's strikingout in the ninth inning, like he's

(08:37):
going to find some kind of consistency. Like we talked about him earlier today,
Alfred, because I was the guywho said, hey man, this
guy needs to find a way toput this team on his back at moments.
You remember all those times with Troyto Ulwitzky or even Nolan Arnado,
time moments needing those guys to comeup with a clutch play and especially at
the plate, and they sometimes didn'tcome through. So Chris Bryant came here.

(08:58):
He's got a lot of money.Big home run today, I thought
the sixth run when he ended upplaying that, I thought that was gonna
be enough, of course, andthen you get the bases loaded there in
the ninth and you could be thehero again. But again, it's also
great to have Ryan McMahon do thatbecause he's also a guy that can struggle
with some consistency as well. Nick, Yeah, that's true. Just like

(09:18):
I look at the Denver Nuggets,right, you just can't have just one
good player. I mean watching theNuggets play and then I know they lost
against the Clippers, But my wholepoint is that you need multiple people that
can score at any time. That'show you become dangerous. You go back
to Super Bowl fifty with the Broncosand the No Fly Zone. They have
multiple guys in the secondary at anymoment. Those guys can make game changing

(09:41):
plays. So if you're above Black, you're looking said, well, yeah,
you wanted Chris Bryant to be thatguy. It had been a great
moment if he was that guy,but he wasn't. So now you have
Ryan McMahon who's building that confidence thathe too can be that guy in important
situations. Nolan Jones started the seasontwo of twenty four with what was an
eleven strikeouts something like that, thenover the last two games only one strikeout.

(10:03):
He's three for eight hitting. Imean, and again he was the
Rockies biggest threat on the base padlast year too. He's got to wait
that bat up and get a base. So the game kind of had a
little bit of all for us tosay the game had a little bit of
everything, because we also had someof the young guys like Ezekiel Tovar with
the two run shot. Yeah yeah, yeah. But I think the way
that it all happened, you know, with Charlie Blackman leading off man,

(10:24):
you know, just just getting everythingstarted, just settling everybody in and let's
play baseball. You have to flyover. You got the fans going nuts,
and you know we were in thegame. We were in the game
after one inning. I mean,that's all I think, that's all we
wanted to see as fans, isthat we are still in the game after

(10:46):
such a I think we had.I think we had. I think Gombra
had like sixty one pitches after twoinnings. Man, Listen, it was
not looking great, but he's battledonce again with those seven strikeouts, and
it just felt like we were watchingsomething. You know, it was it
was a marathon, you know whatI'm saying. This wasn't a sprint,
was a This was a marathon ofemotions for Rockies fans and anybody who was

(11:11):
there at the stadium to be partof something this glorious. Man, Man,
congratulations, good job you work yourass off to save enough money to
go to that game, and yougot You've gotten exactly what you wanted out
of an opening day moment that youcould tell for the rest of your life
again five six six nine zeros areKWA Common Spirit Health text line. If
you want to sit a sea messagesreaction if you were down at the game,

(11:35):
we certainly would love to hear fromyou. What were some of the
things, the sites of sounds,everything. We obviously were down there a
little bit earlier. Was really reallyfun meeting a lot of our listeners.
We do appreciate that. And areminder again, I'm Ryan Edwards, Alfred
Williams, Dave Logan. KWA Sportswill be back on Monday at three o'clock
obviously to talk about this series alittle bit more Broncos Country tonight. They're
going to continue through the rest ofthe evening all the way tonight until eleven

(11:58):
o'clock, so you want to stickaround for that, So maybe some opportunities
for the more reaction to the Rockiesas well. But but listen, my
final thoughts and then I gotta go. My final thoughts on this thing is
is I thought, to the exampleyou guys have talked about of kind of
seeing everything that happened in this game. What was an illustration of in a

(12:20):
lot of ways, who the Rockiesare. You had some of your veterans
coming up with some big time moments, you had some of your young guys
doing that, and you had someinconsistency with pitching. But it's to your
point out if Austin Gomber can beyour solid, rock, solid two,
right, I don't need him tobe the ace of this team. I
need him to be a two.I need him to be a three.
If he can be that, thenthen you can find something to build on.

(12:41):
I think that the toughest thing Nickfor me to start this thing off
was that nobody sort of stepped intothat opportunity, right her mod Marquez is
out right, I mean you're you'rewithout him and Antonio Sintel. You're without
two of your top starting pitchers,and without those guys in the rotation,
you needed somebody to say that Igot this, and every single outing,

(13:07):
I don't know, you never sawanybody really take the reins and that that
bothered me. Yeah, I justunderstand why it bothered you, because for
me to start the season, Ithought you know, Kyle Frielan had a
great you know, spring training,and I thought that he was going to
get off to a great start,but that didn't prove beneficial for him.
And I wonder even now what isconfidence level is. But when you have

(13:30):
a guy like Gomber and you knowthat he can go in, he could
pitch maybe four to six innings,that that saves you and he can get
a couple of k's. Because whenyou look at the beginning of the season
for the Rockies, they were unableto do that. They couldn't get any
strikeouts, their bats were dead.And I was joking with the Ben during
that during that time that series,and I was saying, well, they

(13:52):
need a little bit of a jobul. They helped war on their bats up.
So the hometown cooking can give youthat. So I don't know what
happened in the clubhouse, if itwas Joe Bull, if it was something
elb doesn't travel, whatever it is, they need to continue to do that.
So great home win from them andfor in front of their home crowd.
So you're saying that instead of sacrificinga live chicken, we should have

(14:15):
brought in a bucket of chicken.No, No, that was the opposite.
It was actually that and voodoo maybemaybe that is Hey, listen,
whatever has to work, right Ben, I mean you've been that kind of
guy most of your career. DidI'd used voodoo to stay in employee?
Just whatever works, I mean thatworks? Yeah? Yeah, sure?
Why not? Uh afro this dollwith the pins in it? Right?

(14:37):
Yeah, it's like out what wasthat? No, listen out really quickly
here man from this and again,as a guy that played professional sports,
is there is there some kind ofspark that you sort of anticipate and then
getting You know, always are thingswe look in the rear view and say,
oh, well that was the moment. But but what can the way

(15:00):
they found a way to win thisgame? What can that do for this
team? Well? I just thinkthat you want everybody to know that when
you play in Denver, Colorado,the long ball is in play, like
you really want to intimidate every pitcherso that he's thinking about, you know,
every pitch at every moment, sothat you know they can feel the

(15:24):
same kind of stress that our pitchingstaff has to feel. And it's it's
something that we live with on anormal basis. But you know, to
see that the Rockies had not beenhitting the ball really well, and for
them to come home and produce,you know, the way that they had
was it ten ten ten runs manfor a team you know that's been struggling.

(15:46):
Just putting the bat on the ball, man is crazy. I mean,
it's the offensive production in your firstgame home. So you got to
imagine everybody's looking at this. It'snot just just one game against the Rays.
Listen, their entire pitching staff tomorrowknows it. They got to go
back out there tomorrow and face thesesame guys and the same unfair advantage of

(16:10):
the ball flying, and then ontop of that, throw a little wind
in there to help get the ballout the stadium. Yeah, man,
Jason gmbi's g string. Yeah,it works. At a fifth question like
this, Oh my goodness, Ididn't even think we could get that reference
in here. You guys want tostick around. We got two more four
packs of tickets to give away tothis Sunday's game. If you enjoy the

(16:32):
game today or if you missed thechance to go to the game today,
we got two four packs to giveaway to Sunday's game coming up in the
next hour. You know, Al, I don't know how sustainable ten runs
every game is, but this issort of what they'd envisioned when they put
this thing together. Nolan obviously's bathas not been what they wanted so far,
Chris Bryant's batt not been what theywanted so far. But Ry McMahon
has been red hot to start thisseason. Now he's hitting three seventy five,

(16:53):
and you know, he comes through, comes through in the clutch after
maybe making the gaff that that couldhave cost him. Yeah, you know,
And and that's that's the part Fellasthat is uh surprising to me,
right, we we we had wehad great disappointment and the way that this
sises started because of our defensive output. The eras man, they've just really

(17:17):
killed us. And then in thatmoment, Ryan Roy McMahon you know,
had his and I'm like, well, listen, man, we don't have
the kind of talent that that cansurvive you know, bad fielding eras or
missed opportunities for out and giving upextra at bats against opponents. We we
talk about that all the time.Dave Logan is fantastic with pointing out you

(17:40):
know, our era, our marginfor era against Major League Baseball competition is
not good. But then you say, hey, man, you know the
Colorado Rockies actually had the best recordcoming out of spring training. You say,
well, who cares about that?Well, all of that kind of
goes up into the into your confidence, right, It goes into confidence and
making sure that you are you know, you're doing everything the right way.

(18:04):
Man. Like most people don't payattention to spring training or preseason games,
but the players know exactly, andyou could talk to this nick. The
players know exactly when they're playing good. And maybe it wasn't official, but
you know when you're playing good.And the Rockies came out of spring training

(18:26):
playing great, So we just needto build on this. Well, for
me, the spring training and howthe Rockies play the spring training that was
great, But for me there hasto be carryover, right, You just
can't say. It's almost like ifyou look at a preseason for any any
sport, and this is one ofthe reasons albe why no one usually pays

(18:47):
that much attention to it, becauseyou say, well, that's a part
of the game that is not goingto count in the regular season. It's
not going to count when it comesto chasing the pennant. No, it's
not. So you have to havea little care. That's why when you
look at how the Rocky started thisseason, they started the season on the
row and it wasn't a great showingon the role. That's why I'm thinking.

(19:07):
This is just me thinking that maybetoday's win, maybe that will kind
of joke them out of that kindof down depths type of feeling you know,
bad for themselves and self loathing,where it may push them forward because
you know this, man, we'veall had some of those games as a
team, as a player where wedidn't perform our best, but then we

(19:32):
just needed one little tackle here,one little win there, no matter if
it was winning by a field goalor touchdown, that kind of pushed us
over the top. This is whywhen you look at the Ryan McMahon situation,
and this is the one thing Ilove about sports. You can go
from being you know, the worstthat everyone wants or the guy that everyone
wants to criticize, to now beingthe guy that everyone elevates. All it

(19:56):
takes is one particular place. Somaybe this is the game right that moment
was what they needed to move themforward, and we'll see what happens tomorrow
and how they battle back. Youknow what fellas, you know what I've
always what I've always appreciated about,you know, pro athletes, college athletes,
high school athletes, you know,even the kids that are as young

(20:21):
as twelve and thirteen years old.When you make a GAF and you make
a mistake, listen, it's it'sthe one thing that you always remember,
right as a parent, you rememberit, As a teammate you remember it,
and certainly as the athlete who hasthe gath okay, you think about

(20:42):
it all the time. And Iwas one of those guys, you know,
when I was a player that ifI had something bad happen to me,
I knew I had to make upfor it, right like I was,
just couldn't wait to make up forit. And when Ryan McMahon man
first pitch, you know, Grandslam Man that you can't you can't ask

(21:03):
for a better redeeming moment for aguy who probably felt like trash, you
know there in the ninth inning,you know, but also you gotta think,
you gotta think Austin Gombert once againhad the same kind of night,
you know, or day, shouldI say, where where things didn't go
well early, but he was ableto pull it together and give us a
chance there. I mean, yougotta you gotta show resolve. I guess

(21:26):
that's the word that you that youneed. And and and you know,
these defensive lapses, these defensive lapsesis almost unforgivable for major League baseball players.
We talk about guys that are goldglovers or close to it, and
and and we we know Nolan isis is transitioning over to right field.

(21:52):
But still, this is major leaguebaseball. You should be able to make
the standard play. It's a standardplay. And every time you see it
happened, you just cringe. Man, as a former athlete that got paid
to play sports, you kreans atthe routine played not being routine. Yeah.
Absolutely, But the Rockies do pullout the win. Jalen Beaks gets

(22:15):
to win his first Pete Fairbags takesthe loss for Tampa. Rockies win ten
seven. Alfred, we appreciate youtaking some time and look forward to talking
to you on Monday. Man.Man, way to go Colorado Rockies.
And I am so so in lovewith this moment. I want a bunch
of them. We do two Rockiesdo the series right, well, two

(22:36):
and six, we're off to thestart. We've got a big show for
you tonight coming up at the nexthour. Thomas Harding from MLB dot com.
I'm gonna join us, talk alittle bit about the game. Brian
Ralph, senior national writer for heCheck College Basketball, talk a little bit
about the final four and the Ladies'Final four coming up as well. This
is de Broncos Country tonight right hereon Kaway. Welcome back to in Brocos

(23:15):
Country tonight. But been all bran, Nick Ferguson, Michael Cooper, you
guys want to stay tuned. Wedo have four pack of tickets. We
have two four pack of tickets togive away to the Rockies. Rais'd be
giving those way here some pretty shortlyRockies win the home opener, gets Tampa
Bay. Ray's been talking about thata little bit. Ten to seven.

(23:37):
Off to now a two and sixstart, not exactly the starts of the
Rockies head envisioned, but maybe beinghome and getting a couple of wins under
the belt might get some confidence.It gets the ball rolling forward. I
know it would do that for me. One thing about being professional with athletes,
I mean, just like everyone else, I mean, we have our

(23:59):
own thing is that we are usedto doing. And when you start the
season on the road and you aretraveling and you're in hotels, you're eating
hotel food, you just don't reallyseem like yourself, right, you really
don't. And it's not me justkind of making excuses for how the Rocky
season has started thus far. ButI just know how it is. I

(24:19):
mean, we are all creatures ofhabit, especially us being athletes. Being
able to sleep in your own bed, being able to get a home cooked
meal, being able to walk intoyour own ballpark. I mean that means
something and knowing as though, LikeI mean, obviously we are a couple
of games into the season, butthis is like opening day for the Rockies,

(24:41):
and no one is okay. Youget a chance to start anew everything
that happened before coming to Coursefield today. I mean, I know this,
we can't really wipe it from therecord, But if I'm but Black,
I'm telling my team we're gonna dismissall of that. All season starts now
in front of our home crowd,and with baseball, you've got enough games

(25:03):
that you can make that up andkind of kind of do that. If
you're two and six. In football, you're halfway through the season. Oh
you you cooked, you cooked over. I was going to ask you what
you could do to stay in it, but I apparently no longer VI in
football because the season is so short. At that point. If you're two
and six, front office is alreadylooking to see what who who can we

(25:25):
watch for draft picks? Right?Who can we trade off to acquire draft
picks for the following season. Inbaseball, you don't really have that.
And this is the crazy thing aboutbaseball. I mean, I don't know
how you feel, but in thatCOVID year, I thought baseball was so
exciting when the games were reduced,right, because every game mattered. But
when you have long seasons like theyhave in hockey, in basketball, in

(25:49):
baseball, it's just like we canlose the first fifteen and we'll be all
right. Yeah, Well, there'sno a sense of urgency because urgency,
right. I tend to agree thatfive, six, six, nine.
He was the text line, youguys want to get involved in the conversation,
Somebody from the seven one nine says, I was looking up and see
if as possible for the Rockies tominimize the effects of altitude with an indoor

(26:11):
stadium. Apparently a pressurized dome isthe solution, but the sudden change of
pressure from inside outside could injure orquite literally kill someone. Yeah. Look,
I'll say this, uh Arizona hasthe second highest altitude stadium and they
don't seem to have a problem.Now. Their stadium is a dome,
but it's a retractable roof that opensup, and I certainly don't see anybody's

(26:32):
getting sucked out the uh sucked outthe roof there. So I think there,
I think there's a way to dothis. I'm not sure. I
mean, I don't like baseball ata dome. I saw that, uh
when I was when I lived inTampa, we used to drive to Saint
Pete and and you know, watchthe games there in the Saint Petersburg dough.
It's just it's just it's a differentvibe. Man. I don't like

(26:52):
football on a dome either, tobe honest with you, I don't.
I like the outdoor. It justdoesn't. It doesn't feel right when you're
inside a dome. I would say, look, I saw the Rams playing,
you know, on the Edver JonesDome, and it was loud,
but it wasn't it didn't feel right. I guess when you look at things
from from that viewpoint, like thefans in Green Bay, they would never
want a dome because that's part ofthe mistake of playing in Green Bay where

(27:18):
you know, here it is thefrozen tundra, right, and we talked
about the idea of not being ableto say the frozen tundra. But this
is why you don't want to havea dome, just like here in Denver.
I wouldn't want the Denver Broncos whoever have a dome never because it's
the elements that add to the gameitself. It added to the football atmosphere.

(27:41):
And now I would say, andI'm sure the players and the coaching
staff would agree with me. Beingback home a course field, beautiful field,
seventy five degree weather opposed to whatthey had to endure in Chicago is
so much better. And once again, that's the thing that kind of uplifts

(28:03):
you. It's just kind of thesmall things, right, just the little
small things. Yeah, you know, I think that one of the things
that has bothered me was maybe theMomford comments. Was it last week where
he said, well, we triedeverything, nobody has any new and I'm
like, that doesn't seem right,That doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like
you could just make that statement thatnobody from the outside is going to offer

(28:23):
new solutions. As far as thatgoes, I just think that you know,
they're trying the fourth round of kindof the same thing, and we'll
see if that works. We'll seeif that they're able to build off that
going forward. Certainly a big wintoday, But the idea that that nobody
from the outside could have some newidea or know how to tackle the problem

(28:44):
with playing baseball at altitude does notdoesn't sit right with Okay, well,
what would you offer that is that'sdifferent opposed to what have been has been
tried before as to ways to getthe Rockies as a whole to play better.
The altitude is what it is,right, and your problem is getting

(29:06):
pitchers to come here. You eitherhave to develop them and then overpay them
and hope they stay, or tryto overpay free agent pitchers to come here.
And a lot of them aren't goingto come here because they're gonna have
an easier time pitching somewhere else,right, So that's that's what you have
to solve I mean, you're gonnaget you know, power bats and all
that kind of stuff. They've solvedthat. We've seen the we've seen the
hitting over the years. The Rockieshave had plenty of hitting. That's that's

(29:26):
not been the issue. So whatare you gonna do to solve it?
Well, statistically, I'm looking atgroundball pitchers. I'm going i mean back
in the day Dallas, Kikeele wasa you know, was that guy,
you know, so many years ago. I'm looking for ground ball pitchers,
maybe a knuckleball er to add tothe staff. And we're finding different pitching
methodologies to keep opponents from being ableto power the ball out at altitude.
I mean, while that is agreat strategy, and I do believe that

(29:49):
pitching is a key part of anyorganizations of success in baseball, but having
power hitters, and Ali said ithimself, the Rocky haven't had a bunch
of sluggers in a while, right. And for me, even though you
know, every picture that comes inhere and every hitter that comes in here,

(30:11):
they're gonna look at the wide openspaces of the ballpark and say,
okay, well we can eat inthis ballpark. But at the same time
they have to look over in yourdugout and look at your guys and say,
well, let's look at their startingtheir their batting, their lineup,
their starting lineup, and just okay, well in that order, how many
of those guys are dangerous? Right? And that's where you become lethal.

(30:33):
So if you can't get the pictureshere like the veteran pictures and that that's
a true statement. You have todo a great job in developing your younger
pictures. But I just say,keep bringing those sluggers in here. You
gotta keep doing you have to do. You have to come up with something.
Ben. They only had two twentyhome run hitters last year, McMahon,

(30:53):
Nolan, Jones. But they hadsome guys like you know Montero who
played eighty five games, he hadeleven He was pacing for you know,
for over twenty. CJ. Crowland of course was only fifty six games
and had eleven home runs, wason pace. Chris Bryant played eighty games,
had ten home runs, he wason pace. So you would have
you had guys at were on pace, you were on pace for all that.
I just I think that over theyears, they've had guys you know,

(31:14):
you had it or NOTO you hadthe trolly Troy tul Lwitzki's you've had
You've had guys here who can whocan put the ball out of the park.
I think it comes down to pitchingit. And I think it comes
down to finding pictures that get groundball outs, you know, and and
and you know, finding out whothose guys are going out looking at,
uh, who's it over the giantsweb logan web that the San Francisco Giants

(31:40):
have. Who gets a lot ofground ball outs? Uh? And and
maybe trading for those pittures, youknow, trying to get those kinds of
pictures in here to to to takethe the air out of what it is
that your opponents do. Okay,I get the idea of trading for pictures,
but for me, it's about retention. You can trade for the those

(32:00):
guys will say, well how manyyears they still have on their contract,
because you have to retain those guysand knowing as though the part that you're
playing in and what can happen asa picture. Like you said, it's
hard to get those guys to cometo Denver. So I believe identifying those
guys who are great at the platebeing able at some point trade for those

(32:22):
guys or even give them them bigmoney to come to this ballpark. That's
going to help you. And Iknow when we look at the Rockies,
you have some guys who perform wellat home and sometimes they don't perform well
away because when individuals outside of Coloradostart to look at Colorado hitters, that's

(32:45):
kind of the knock on them.Oh they do great in coursefield. Outside
of course field, they just kindof fall by the wayside. So pull
those hitters in and try to seeif you can beat teams that particular way.
Yeah, I mean, I'm withyou on that. I just I
look around this and I'm like,all right, how do we solve the
pitching crisis? And that's the onlythat's the now you want it outside of

(33:08):
the box solution. That's all Igot for you is just look, let's
go out there and get because theGiants have done it. They've got two
guys out there, Webb and BenCobb, who are two the biggest ground
ball pitchers you know out there,So why not at least try that?
But I you know, again,I digress. Let's go out the KA
Comma Spirit Traffic Center check out withjeffret La. Welcome back to it,

(33:29):
Broncos Country tonight, Ben's been allbright, Nick Ferguson, Michael Coover be
the fifth Color right now to wina four pack of tickets to the Rockies
and raised this Sunday at coors Field. It's three oh three seOne three eighty
five eighty five three h three sevenone three eighty five eighty five fifth caller
now four tickets to Rockies. Raisethis Sunday at coors Field. Brownie James

(33:52):
entering the NBA Draft, he's keepinghis options open with the transfer portal,
which might be the better of thetwo, but he's doing workouts to kind
of see what kind of great thathe's gonna get. It's Lebron James Son.
They're gonna be transferring from USC eitherway. Where Eric Musselman, former
head coach at Arkansas take it overafter adienfields Is went to MU. You

(34:16):
drafted Bronnie James, I mean hehad no production this year. I mean
he was barely out there. NoAnd if you the Lakers, would you
do that to say sheate Lebron takea second round pick and just burn it
on Bronni. No, man no, And I know Lebron wanted to play
long enough so he can play withhis son, and I totally get it.
And I was telling my brother earliertoday about this whole situation. And

(34:40):
with Bronni's father being Lebron James,that puts an immense amount of pressure on
him to be the next best whateverversion of is that, and we know
that's not going to be the case. And the way that I look at
it is Lebron had a certain typeof size in high school, but the

(35:00):
biggest thing was his hunger and hisdesire to know that. And I'm gonna
put it on the glass and betotally transparent. His knowing that his father
wasn't in his life the way thathe was, and both he and his
mother were struggling. That built acertain type of drive in Lebron where he
had to succeed. He grew upHungary where Bonnie grew up with everything,

(35:22):
yes, and Bronni doesn't have that. So because Bronnie doesn't have that,
it has in my mind impacted hismentality. There was a game that took
place earlier this year and USC wasplaying someone It could have been UCLA.
I'm not sure on the team,but Lebron had just finished the game of
the Lakers, rushed into the lockerroom so he can see his son play

(35:45):
on television, and even while thereporters were asking him questions about the game,
he just played his mind. Hisfocus was on the television Washington,
his son play, and he wasa little upset because he was like,
shoot it. And that was thething that Bronni didn't do. Watching him
at USC, he would always deferto someone else, And I was like,
is he doing that because he wantsto be one hell of an assist

(36:07):
guy, or he's doing that becausehe's a little timid, And what I
saw was him being timid. Sothis whole idea about Briani entering the NBA,
if this is say he does andsomeone drafts him and they say it
is the Lakers, it is doingit because it's a favor to his father.

(36:29):
Because, let's be totally honest,even in high school, he wasn't
the best player on his high schoolteam. That's real. Yeah, I
mean, and you're talking about aguy who played twenty five games for USC
this year after coming back off thecardiac arrest from the cogenital heart issue.
Average four point eight points a game, two point one assist, two point
eight boards. He plays the oneor the two. He's a pointer and
off guard. He's not a youknow, like his dad. He's not

(36:50):
a three or four like like Lebronwas. And the Lebron was really more
of a point forward, you know, than anything else. It's they just
they play wildly different position. Sincethe Lakers do not have a first round
draft pick in this draft, theydo own their own second in this draft,
but they don't have a first rounddraft pick. I think the Pelicans
own that and they have the rightto receive their twenty fifteen or twenty twenty

(37:13):
five first rounder instead. I mean, yeah, you would be doing this
as a favor to Lebron James,And is Lebron even gonna be with the
Lakers next year? You know?Do they blow that thing up because it
didn't work, It hasn't worked,it's still not working. Do you blow
that thing up and try to rebuildaround Aunt Davis and let Lebron fade off
into the sunset with somebody else togo play a couple of years with his

(37:36):
son kind of the way Jordan,you know, we did two years with
the Wizards. Yeah, I thinkthat's what you do because looking at bronny
Man, you can't average four pointeight points a game and thing that NBA
team is going to take a flyeron you. And here's the biggest thing
about Lebron too, Like when Lebronleft Cleveland and went to Miami and then
he decided he was going to leaveMiami and go back to Cleveland, it

(37:59):
was because pat Riley was like,look, whatever you thought you were running
in Cleveland, you're not going todo here. But we could see with
Jenny Buss and Rob Polinka, Ican see those two trying to appease Lebron
James and trying to shuffle their deckand to get players moved in order to
make this happen. But you hitthe nail on the head. Why do

(38:22):
that for Lebron who still playing fantasticat this age of the game, but
you know that he doesn't have thatmany years left and you're gonna hamstring the
organization just so he could play withthis kid. No, And that's the
thing I mean, because at thispoint, both those guys practically need to
come off the bench. I mean, a guess Lebron would be a starter
for the Lakers, but not ifyou're serious about making a championship. Both
those guys be coming off the bench. I mean, you got D'Angelo,

(38:44):
Russell, Austin Reeves, Hotchimorro Eversince he's got in the starting lineup has
looked a lot better. Ant Davis, of course, you know, is
the star of the team, evenif Lebron is, you know, the
bigger name. I'm in air quoteshere. You got a couple of guys
that come off the bench at areall right? I mean, Max Christy
gave Vincent Dinwoodie, Tarian Prince.You got to come the guys that come
off the bench and play a littleball. But at the end of the
day, I'm gonn look at thisLakers team. I'm like, this is

(39:05):
not in any way constructed to wina championship. This is just, Hey,
we're selling tickets because Lebron's playing inthe Twilight years and maybe gets his
son on the team. I don't. I mean, if you're the Lakers,
you have to decide are we doingare we are we burning a second
round pick for one year of Lebronand his son or you know, or
what? Because and then the otherside of this is are you blowing it
up? But if you're blowing itup and you're Lebron, is part of

(39:27):
your sales pitch to come to someteam like, Hey, we're gonna sell
tickets if I'm here, but yougotta draft my son. Yeah, I
can see Lebron definitely doing that,and every father would want to do that
for his son. But it's notthe best move for the Lakers. And
I would say this is not thebest move for Brony because the level of
expectations are only going to go upfor this kid, and doing something like

(39:47):
this is just gonna make every everyonejust come after him. From from a
creek standpoint, when we come back. Thomas Harding from MLB dot Com.
You listen to Broncos Country to nightKawa