11-11-25 Lance with Rick Wall

On an abbreviated Sports Talk, Lance talks with Rick Wall of the Reds Hall of Fame about the new class of nominees for the Hall.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Six seven hundred wlw Itzarnel Kerry Sports Talk presented by
Kelsey Chevrolet. Let's talk Reds Baseball. The Reds Hall of
Fame and Museum presented by Dinsmore. Announced last week. Eight
former Reds players appear on the twenty twenty six Modern
Player ballot for your consideration. Homer Bailey, Francisco Cordero, Zach Cozart,

(00:26):
Aaron Harang, Mike Leak, Brandon Phillips, Scott Rowland, and Edison Volcz.
Let's talk about that and more with our friend, the
executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum,
that would be Rick Walls.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hi, Rick Lance, how you doing today on this veteran's day.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I am well and I'm excited to talk about this
list and these men, these names bring back some moments
and memories. Certainly. First, let's start with the basic what's
the criteria for consideration and who decided this ballot?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, so you have to play for the Reds for
at least three years, be out of baseball completely for
five years, but have played within the last fifteen years.
If you fit into that criteria, you make the Modern
Player ballot. Otherwise you're going to go to the veteran's ballot,
and we have a veterans committee that works on players, managers,
executives who are more than fifteen years ago with the club.

(01:17):
The ballots put together through our staff, creates a ballot
that's given to our election Governance committee, which evaluates all
the eligible candidates. You know, those over one hundred players
have played more than three years with the Reds, so
you can easily put that list together, and then you
start to narrow it down and we create a list
maybe fifteen or seventeen that goes in front of our
internal committee. They're the ones that decided to pick the

(01:40):
eight and also to come up with two this year
from the modern player ballot going.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
In Rick who all gets to vote and tell listeners
they're part of this process. How can they vote?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well? This is really important. I think this is something
in the museum, the staff, the Reds, everybody wants the
fans input and involvement. When you read off those lists.
Every time I hear them, I think, wow, the fans
remember these guys were recent. They were on the great
teams of ten, twelve, thirteen. It was a good time
to be a Reds fan. Love that now fans make
up a third of the modern player voter, so the

(02:14):
fans get one third vote. The other two thirds are
the media and then the Reds alumni. So if you
played for the Reds for more than three years, you're
going to get a ballot as well to be able
to vote. See you vote at Redsmuseum dot org. You
can vote once per day per email address through the
twenty seventh of November, so it was a total three
week period for voting. Encourage you to go on there

(02:35):
and vote. You vote for two candidates on each ballot
and help select the next Hall of Famer. They'll be
inducted next April twenty four to twenty five, twenty six.
During the induction celebrations presented by P ANDC. They will
be putting this on. There will be a gala at
the Convention Center, just like we've always had on the
big induction year. That's a fundraiser for the museum in

(02:55):
a great way to kind of cap off the induction weekend.
So the player ballot winners and then the Veterans committee
will meet in December. They'll pick probably one, maybe two,
you never know. There's no mandate for that group. They'll
evaluate everybody from eighteen sixty nine right up until fifteen
years ago. The results from that ballot will be combined

(03:17):
with the modern player results to be announced in December.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Rick, what's it been like over the years. I can't
imagine the emotions of picking up the phone and calling
the eventual inductees and letting them know, and what that
moment has been like.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You know, it's different for each person. Whether it's a
phone call you end up trying to get a hold
of them, and sometimes it's trying to get a hold
of them right before the announcement, before the word gets out.
You know, keeping a secret for a couple of days
is difficult even for the recipient. But it's for some
of them it's it's just magical, you know. They just
really emotional. They can be extremely happy. Some are expecting it.

(03:53):
Maybe it's just a really fun part of the job.
I think for us, often I'll get our board president
will make a conference call to the person. I remember
a couple of years ago trying to get hold of
Danny Graves and we're doing it through text, and we're
doing through Instagram. We're like Danny Collin, call in and
he tells that great story, they thought something was wrong,
and it's a fun time. Ultimately, it's about honoring them

(04:16):
and their accomplishment. And what we do so well is
when the inductee comes in, you know, it's all about
the careers of Reds. It's the time to pay tribute
to what they did for us, what their contributions were.
And you know, going into the Reds Hall of Fame
is a pretty big deal. I doubt any other team
does it as well as this organization does, no.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Doubt about that. Let's well, I got you. Let's talk
big picture for the Reds Hall of Fame. Because although
it's winner, I would think that'd be a great time
to visit the Red's Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
No, it certainly is. I always say that baseball is
always in the season at the Red's Hall of Fame
in museum. So it's a great time to come down.
Get out of the call that's called out today, right,
So you come in here, relive all of Red's history.
We've got some new exhibits that they are in the
making right now. We're still celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of
the seventy five and seventy six World Series. Big focus
of ours next year. We are having all kinds of

(05:05):
holiday specials over the winner, so you definitely want to
do some Christmas shopping here. I'd say membership is a
big thing. Certainly support the museum through that and Red
Fest is back, right, so that's going to be a
big time for the organization to bring the fans back
to the convention center with the first major event there
after the refurbishment of the place. We're going to have
all kinds of alumni, current players are there, great interaction

(05:27):
with anything and everything Reds related, So all kinds of
specials on stage, celebrations, events, activities. It's going to be
a great time. And that is in January the sixteenth
and seventeenth.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Can't wait I get to do that Friday night of
sports talk from Redspets. It's always a blast and I
can't wait and so happy it's back this season. Hey,
great keech.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Coinciding Lance. Coinciding with that is our Fantasy Camp, and
I know you know a lot about that. So at
the same time that's going on, we're out in Arizona
doing our big camp and forty four campers will descend
on Goodyear, so that's one of our big fundraisers, and
that's going on right now too.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Excellent, love it, Hey, great catching up is always. Thank
you for making time.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Thank you, vote vote off in Redsmuseum dot org.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
There you go. He's Rick Walls, Executive director of the
Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Eight on the modern
player ballot, Homer Bailey, Francisco Cordero, Zach Cozard, Aaron Harang,
Mike Leak, Brandon Phillips, Scott Rowland, and Edison Volcaz and
man going through the names and the moments of the memories.
And I'm thinking, you know, not that I'm trying to
sway anybody, but I think one that jumps out right away.
If you consider what Brandon Phillips did, what he was

(06:37):
here in his place amongst second basement of the history
of the franchise, Brandon Phillips is the Reds all time
in the modern air, at least among second basement and
hits doubles, Homers and RBIs three time All Star, four
Gold gloves, a silver slugger, he was the Reds MVP
three different times. Then from there, if Brandon Phillips is
one that jumps out, then you're thinking, all right, the

(06:58):
second one. And I'll tell you a guy who probably
isn't appreciated as much as he should be, but he's
on this ballot, so it's hard to say that, Bud.
Look what Aaron Harang did in his time with the Reds.
Seventh all time in strikeouts. He led the Reds in
strikeouts in four, five, six seven, and two thousand and nine.
He led him in wins in two thousand and five

(07:20):
six seven, He led the National League in complete games
and strikeouts in two thousand and six, tied for the
league league and starts that year and wins that year,
and then finished fourth the next year in the Cy
Young Award voting and was their opening day starter six seven, eight, nine,
ten and a member of that twenty ten Division championship team. Man,

(07:43):
it is a and yet from there, if you look,
I mean, how many people know Francisco Cordero not only
had one hundred and fifty saves as a Red but
let him in saves all four of his seasons and
finished top ten in the National League in saves all
of his four seasons. And oh, by the way, say
forty on that twenty ten National League Cumpra Division team.

(08:04):
The Division championship team man. That is a list, that
is a deep list. And two we'll get the selection
all right. Hang tight, There's a plenty of college hoops
on the way. The Bearcats a six and a half
point home favorite tonight versus the Flyers. It's Dayton's first
true road test of the year. Flyers are two and
oh with a win over Canisius and University of Maryland

(08:25):
Baltimore County. In getting off to that two and oh start,
see what happens when the Bearcats and Flyers get together Tonight,
Dan and Terio set it up after we check news.
This has been RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey
Chevrolet and here on seven hundred WLW