NFL Draft, Longhorns Selected, Texas Baseball, Schlossnagle Meets Media

Welcome to "The Craig Way Show" today Craig breaks down the NFL Draft, where did the Longhorn players land, College World Series Predictions, Preview of upcoming baseball series agains Texas A&M, Jim Schollnagle meets with media.  A conversation with Gene Watson and Ty Harringtom of SEC Network join the last hour.  Plus Inconceivble! You can hear it all here on "The Craig Way Show!"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Friday has arrived, a big day and a big weekend.
It is good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program. Here,
I'm thirteen under the Zone. We bring you the program
this afternoon from UFCU dishfog Field, prior to tonight's series
opener tonight in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown Rivalry
series Who Else with the Longhorns and Aggies, Texas against

(00:25):
Texas A and M. My name is Craig Wait glad
to have you with us this afternoon. Yes, there's a
lot to get to with regard to this series matchup
between Texas and Texas A and M, and we'll certainly
talk about that. We'll updateh on the SEC. There's a
game going on right now in the SEC. And then
additionally there'll be a lot more to discuss with regard

(00:48):
to the NBA Playoffs and hl Stanley Cup Playoffs, but
also clearly and obviously the twenty twenty five NFL Draft.
If you were tuned in yesterday to our program or
one of the many who made their way out to
Twin Peaks and Round Rocket I thirty five and Louis Henna,

(01:08):
we were glad to see you out there and of course,
we set the stage for that with a four hour
and fifty minute draft preview special that included not only
Cameron Parker with me, but also my cardboll Harge. Mark
Henry was with us as well, the two guys certainly
from the morning kickoff. Speaking of the morning kickoff, our
producer today is not Cameron Parker. He has some family

(01:34):
business attending to today. So you talk about a guy
doing the marathon shift, he did it yesterday as our
on site engineer. And here he is in the studio
after being at it in the morning, and here he
is the one and only Marcus Spears.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think it's our first.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Time together doing a show together outside of that draft thing.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
But I appreciate it. Marcus. How are you holding up today?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
He am getting it in, getting it in, starting it
in the groove, you know how it is?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
So I'm really curious to get your thoughts because I
know you follow the NFL very closely hard, you know,
get solicit your opinion on things. Also, for folks who
don't know about Marcus, it's a little bit different than
what we have with Cameron. You see, Cameron, of course
went to the university of Texas. But Cameron was originally

(02:25):
grew up in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, and Cameron
is a long suffering and I do mean long suffering
Dallas Cowboys fan of late of late, Houston Texans fans
have not had to suffer nearly as much, so it
hasn't been nearly as bad in terms of the suffering.
The Houston Texans fan base includes none other than our

(02:48):
producer today, Marcus Spears. You're an h Town native, aren't you?
Or originally a resident.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Born and raised Houston, Texas North Side? North Side? All right?
Where'd you go to high school? Want to? Uh?

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Formally known high school as Forestbrook High School? It is
no longer in high school right now, it is junior
high school.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, that's right, Forestbrook, That's right. Uh okay, yeah, I'm
I'm I'm quite familiar with that with all of my
whatever high school duties and the things that I that
I deal with.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
But anyway, okay, so you're.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
A Texans fan, yes, And the Texans traded out around
wanted made that made that deal with the Giants, and
that was after they had earlier made a deal with
the Browns and they were kind of swapping amid the
lake round draft choices, but the Texans traded out of it.
Not only did the Texans trade out of the first
round my team. I'm a Rams fan, and the Rams

(03:46):
traded out of the first round as well. So, UH,
I will tell you that I wasn't I really wasn't
that unhappy that that the Rams traded out of the
round because they picked up an X their first round
draft choice. I think they wanted to get Omari and Hampton,
the North Carolina running back and when the team crossed town, uh,

(04:07):
the carpetbackers known as the Los Angeles Chargers took uh,
took Omari and Hampton. Then I think the Rams kind
of re evaluated and said, all right, what else can
we do? And they made a deal with the Falcons
where they swapped basically into the second round or relatively
early in the second round, picked up another pick, and
they picked up the first round pick from the Falcons

(04:28):
for next year. So I think the Rams said, okay,
what about the Texas. How do you feel about the
Texans and the deal they made with the Giants? To UH,
I guess you might say build for on down the road.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
My opinion is is if you can't get the guy
that you want, you might as well trade to pick
get as many access as uh, you know.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
As you want.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
And I think the guy that was looking at is
the is the the guard what's the guy named Donovan
Jackson which was selected right before them. I think they
probably had some interest in in uh in Golden because
they do need some some receiver help with UH with

(05:11):
tank deal going down last year, and Diggs also no
longer with the teams. But those two picks right before
the Texans they just basically had to trade down and
get more assets.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, it kind of took their interest out of it
right once, uh, you know, once the Garden went and
then I think, especially with Matthew Golden, there was a
lot of conversation that Matthew, of course, being an h
Town native, would have been a perfect fit for what
uh the Texans wanted, and once the Packers took him,
and how popular a pick was that at lambeau Field last.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Night, Yeah, they was. They erupted.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
They were pretty excited about it, and Matthew was pretty
excited about it as well. So uh so you know,
so that happened, and and and I agree with you,
I think At that point, the Texans said, let's let's
see if we can improve for all on down the
road and made the deal with the Giants. The Giants
did exactly what they wanted to move in and then

(06:07):
all of the draft experts and the draft draft knicks,
both from the collegiate side of it and from the
NFL side of it, said, okay, the Giants are traded
here because they want a quarterback. And given the fact
that you saw you know, Shador Sanders slide all the

(06:28):
way to that point that was at number twenty six,
that the that the sentiment and the thought process becaing, well,
maybe this is where the Giants opt for shad Door Sanders.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Didn't happen. They went with Jackson Dart.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Shad Door Sanders winds up not being drafted in the
first round.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Now, I do expect him to go very early.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
I think if he's there when the Browns or Browns
have three second round pitch and they have one I
think at number three in the second round, I think
Cleveland's going to go for him, if if, if.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's still there.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
And but did it did it surprise you that Shuldaris
Anders was passed over by all the NFL teams.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
To be honest, nothing surprises me when it comes to
NFL teams when it comes to drafting quarterbacks, because every
team has the little ideal what they want, big guy.
Some teams want the big guy that sits in the pockets,
stairs the defense, downfields, throw, you know, and some teams
want a mobile quarterback move around, and I think Shadurance

(07:29):
kind of you know, he's a guy that moves around
the passes it. So I think it's kind of a tweener.
That's kind of kind of a tweener between what most
GMS want, most teams want. But I think, yeah, it's
more unlikely because I saw recently h Garrett Miles, Garrett

(07:50):
pretty much excited about who the Browns may bring in
as quarterback and maybe he shouldure is that guy.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, I just have a feeling that that's probably going
to be the case if he's still there. So I
have a feeling that's probably going to be the deal.
All right, let me tell you what we have coming up,
because like we like to do on this program is
bring you a variety of things and topics and stuff
like that, because not everybody's into the NFL draft and

(08:19):
not everybody's into the NBA, and not everybody's into.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Major League Baseball, and not.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Everybody's even into in the Longhorn Baseball, even as big
as this series is between Texas and Texas. And and we're
going to hear from Jim Slasnagle a little bit later
on in the program. But uh, coming up, we'll talk
major League Baseball. Our good friend and member of the
Chicago White Sox front office, Gene Watson, will join us
to talk about major League Baseball, our weekly conversation.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
We'll do that.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
As I mentioned, we're also going to hear from Jim Slasnagle,
the long WRNS head coach.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
We do have inconceivable.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Uh and on and on Fridays, Marcus, just so you'll know,
in CONCEIVD means it's a Florida Man Friday. So we
have the exploits of Florida Man as well as some
of the other inconceivable elements. I'm a little excited right
now now, Okay, I think you'll enjoy that. So we
have that coming up, and then in the four o'clock

(09:15):
hour joining us, Ty Harrington's calling the game with me tonight.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
He'll be on the call with me on the.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Broadcast for Texas and Texas A and M and T.
I'll be here and we'll have our weekly segment talking
college baseball. We'll do that in the four o'clock hour.
As I mentioned, we'll hear from Jim Schlosnegle coming up
at the three o'clock hour. But up next we talk
major League baseball with Gene Watson. Is we continue from
UFCU Dish falk Field here on Friday afternoon on thirteen

(09:44):
hundred the zone. It's a Friday afternoon as we continue
here from UFCU Dish falk Field. Craig wait with you
here this afternoon at the ballpark. And as always always
we enjoy talking major League baseball with a man who
has oh forty plus years in it or right around there.

(10:09):
That's of the resume of our man, Jeen Watson in
the Chicago White Sox front office who joins us.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Now, did I exaggerate that forty years?

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I was thinking you started like around eighty five working
with the Rangers, right six years? Okay, all right, so
only exaggerated a little bit there. Okay, let me get
your thoughts first of all. On well, I'll put it
to you this way. I'll ask you to fill in
the blank. The most unexpected element of the Major league

(10:45):
season so far is blank, And then the most surprising
element of this Major League baseball season so far, since
we're basically a month into it, is blank. Let me
start with the most non surprising. What you expected and
what you've seen so far?

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Well, I think.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
That for even the little struggles that the Dodgers have had,
I think that everybody has expected them to be the
team to beat this year, and what Yamamoto is doing
is absolutely unbelievable. He has turned into arguably the best
pitcher in baseball. And I think that they're even for
the struggles that they've had against the Chicago Cubs, which

(11:27):
might be the biggest surprise in baseball.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
For whatever theody thought they might be.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
I think the Dodgers, you know, they're just it doesn't matter.
You almost wish the season away April October, and then
when the bell rings in October, the really good teams
come out and they're ready to play, So the Dodgers
would not be a big surprise. And the Cubs and
the way they've handled the Dodgers and the fight that
they've shown in some of the great games we saw

(11:53):
at Wrigley Field this week. I think that they now
become a team with the minor league system that they
have to go out and make a very big splash
to acquire one and or two starters to really put
them in contention as a favorite in the.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
National League this year.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, and.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
You brought up the Dodgers are asking you the fact
that Blake Snell has to back off of his throwing
program right now because that left shoulder inflammation. Clayton Kershaw's
going through rehab warm up, Tony Gonsolin's going through rehab
warm ups right now. The one guy who really is
toting the mail from is Yamamoto on the mound, and
Sasaki pitch pretty well the other day. But if there's

(12:35):
an achilles heel with La right now, is it the
starting pitching.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
It would be.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
I saw Gonsolyn's last rehab start and he was outstanding.
So he's gonna be a big lift for them when
he gets ready.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
But but that's kind of what makes.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
The Dodgers so good, is you know, they take an
injury and it's just the next man up, and their
depth is so incredible, and they're they're constantly looking for
more depth and they've got guys in their minor league
system that they could just say, hey, let's let's give
this guy a shot, and that guy would be better
than a lot of team's best best options. So it's

(13:12):
not anything to be panicked about. Kursol's been just okay
in his rehabs. The velocity's been down a little bit,
but Gonsolin's been outstanding. And so the one thing they
do have going for them is very good depth and
a very strong system.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
All right, since we're talking about pitching at the moment,
before I jumped to the unexpected for you and we're
talking about pitching, you were a major part of building
up what the Royals did for several years, including winning
the World Series. How big a blow is it that
Cole Reagan's is going to have to have testing on
the left groin?

Speaker 2 (13:47):
He had to leave last night.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Start after what three innings and sixty two pitcher pitches
allowed four runs on three hits, a couple of them
were home runs and two walks. And if this is serious,
howficult is this for Kansas City?

Speaker 5 (14:02):
Well, it's very serious, and that's kind of been the
concern all along. When you're talking about Michael waka Cole
Reagan's who's had two Tommy Johns, Seth Lugo, who's had
some injuries in the past, Like that was kind of
the house of cards is the health of the rotation.
But second to the health of rotation has been the
production of the outfield. And the offense is coming from

(14:26):
the outfield. So, uh, the one thing when you're not hitting,
when you can lean on the pitching, that's a big plus.
But if your pitching starts to break down, it it
really turns into a house of cards. So hopefully Cole,
you know, he'll be it won't be a major injury,
and he'll be back sooner than later.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
All right, And I don't think this necessarily belongs in
the surprise category, but I'll transition over to it and
get your thoughts on this. Since we were talking about pitching,
and since we were talking about, uh, the Dodgers now now
Walker Buehler of course is applying his trade h in Boston, Massachusetts.
He looked fabulous the other day in the Patriots Day starting.

(15:04):
I think he's three and one right now, So I
don't know it's necessarily a surprise, but it's certainly a
pleasant development for Boston because everybody wasn't quite sure what
Bueller was gonna have even though he had the good
postseason for LA last year. About your thoughts on what
he's doing with Boston.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
Well, two things.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
One, the pitching infrastructure in Boston is as good as
there is in the game of baseball, you know, going
back to when Brian Banister was there, who now works
with us, but just the some of all the parts,
and he was used to it in LA, high expectation,
great talent around him, and so to be there with
a great infrastructure in the pitching department, high expectation of

(15:46):
the organization, and great pictures around him every day is
kind of, you know, a work in progress and training
for him.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
And so Walker Bueller.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
As good as he is, is not a finished product.
And the sky is the limit for what this guy
could be. And for them to be really really good
and survived in October, which they have the team to
do it, Walker's gonna have to continue to perform.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
At the rate that he has.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Talking Major League Baseball with Jean watch him from the
Chicago White Sox front office here on thirteen hundred zent. Okay,
let me go to part two of that because you
answered the part about what has not surprised you through
the first month of the season, what has what's open
your eyes the most geno maybe unexpected, not only for you,
but for anybody else that's looking at what's going on

(16:31):
in the big leagues right now. What has stood out
to you as a surprise element, good or bad with
this major league season.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
I think the Atlanta Braves has been a very big surprise,
and I think we all knew that that was going
to be a very difficult decision with the Mets and
the Phillies and the Nationals.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Having a very good young team.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
But I think the expectations were extremely high on the Braves, and.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
You know what kind of fell out of rhythm early.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
You have to go to Arizona and play a couple
of spring training games against the Cubs who were coming
back from Japan. You've got to start on the West Coast,
a very brutal schedule, going into San Diego and into
La and then travel back east, and they just haven't
really found.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Their rhythm yet.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
And then you have the situation with Clinic last week
where he did run the home run with the double out,
thinking it was a home run and then you've got
some you know, infrastructure controversy with players tweeting certain things,
and so I think this is a team that's really
gonna at some point get their backs to the wall

(17:35):
and have to look each other in the mirror and say, look,
we're way too good.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Of a team for this.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
And I know the goal right now is win every
day and get to five hundred, but even in the
last four or five days, it's been a very very
very difficult run for them.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
All Right, Yeah, you brought that up. And I'm not
in any way, shape or formasking you to whatever single
anybody out or point any fingers anything like that. I'm
more interested in the philosophical side of this, because you've
been in a lot of Major league clubhouses, both when
things are going well and when things are not going well,
And I'm just kind of curious about this. You made

(18:09):
the reference there with Clinic not running out kind of
not running out the ball, and then Ronald Lacoona making
the making having the tweet about it, and I thought
Brian Stinker handled it very very well when he said, look,
you know, we've addressed it and not gonna worry about that,
and all this kind of stuff. Is it your in

(18:30):
your experience over time, what you've seen that things like
that that, like the old John Nadden thing, winning is
a great deodorant. I mean, you win, things kind of
sift away. If you're not winning immediately, things can still
kind of bubble and simmer beneath the surface. A little
bit about when something like that happens about a player

(18:54):
who says something or in this day and age and
social media tweet something out or something like that. How
depending on how the ball club is going to go
as to how long something like that lingers.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
What you're really hoping for is that you have the
kind of culture where the players police themselves and that
clubhouse with the twenty six players in the clubhouse is
a living, breathing organism and you cannot you cannot fake it.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
It's organic. You cannot fake great culture.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
What you want to have is a clubhouse where the
players police themselves, They hold each other accountability, and even
in situations, and most good teams situations, you kind of
connect the dots on accountability. One player manages this player,
and this player manages this one, and you know one
knows when to tell the one player, Hey, keep your

(19:46):
mouth shut and hey, this is not the way we
do things around here. That's what you hope for. And
when you don't have that and you're not playing well,
things can spiral out of control quickly because then your
coaches and your manager have to get involved. And it
is forever a player's game, and so that can be
a very slippery slope for coaching staffs. But you hope

(20:08):
that in the twenty six man roster you have the
type of clubhouse that everybody's kind of policing each other
and holding each other accountable, and they've got that real
big mirror to look at themselves in the eyes and say,
we got to go forward, boys.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Let me keep it. In the National League East, you
mentioned in the Phillies, you mentioned the Mets in the
Nationals as well. The Mets have won five a seven
in a row. They've won eight of their last ten.
They're the only team leading a division that has fewer
than eight losses this year, and they have a five

(20:42):
game lead on Philadepha. Now it's early, like you said,
we're barely a month into it, but I know you
have to be impressed with what you've seen for the
Mets so far.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
Very much impressed. And they don't have two hitters.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
They have two hitters with over an eight hundred ops
and Lon Soto in one of them. And you know,
they've they've had some injuries in their rotation. What they
do have is a really good manager and they've got
great expectations from last year, and they've got some young
players that have kind of not achieved to the level
that you would hope to this point that are kind

(21:16):
of coming out right now, and the Brett Badies and
the Atunas, and they've got a very good system, and
so if they can continue to trend the way they're doing,
you know, they're gonna spend money. So they're not afraid
of adding at the deadline. They've got the system to
trade away.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Players to add.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
They've got major league talent and depth to trade away
if they need to. So they're kind of overperforming for
the health that they've had and the offense production they've
had and the injuries they've had to that rotation. They're
kind of finding a way to win games every night,
and that's.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
A real positive sign as you move into May.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Keeping it in the American League.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
You've been talking about how aj Hinch does a fabulous
job with the Tigers, and they are up. I have
game on Cleveland a resident Guardians fan, I'm sure, or
with text in to get your your impressions early on
of what you see from Cleveland right now.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Half came back of Detroit in the central.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Yeah, I'll tell you what this division it's It hasn't
really gone the way it's thought. Everybody thought Minnesota was
gonna be a lot to at least contend for the Vision.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
They've had a really a tough time.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
But actually the Tigers are really really good and they've
got good young starting pitching. Jackson job could arguably be
Rookie of the Year. Flaherty's done a tremendous job. This
is a really sneaky team, not the most talented team
in the world, but they play so well together, and
they played great in that ballpark, and they really got

(22:43):
a quick eye opener as to where they need to
be early in the season when they went out west
and they faced the Dodgers. I think for aj that
was kind of a measuring stick for them, and they
didn't play great, and so I think that that it
kind of gave him a little, you know, a little
way to tell his team.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Look, we're not there yet. For everything that we.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
Did in October, this is the measure, and we're not
there yet. And they played really well since then, and
so I think that they've got a really really good
system at the upper levels, arguably the best manager in baseball,
and a really really good young club that's going to
be dangerous in October.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
You what do you see him from the Guardian so far?

Speaker 5 (23:25):
Well, they just do what they always do. They hit,
and that's what they're doing again this year. They the
pitching hasn't been healthy. The DFA of Tristan McKenzie was
a little bit of surprise for what they thought he
was going to be long term. But Cleveland just kind
of does their own thing all the time. And the
one thing they do do is they play good baseball

(23:45):
and they hit all right.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Let me jump to the American League West. Now, I'm
curious to get your thoughts on this. Seattle's fourteen eleven.
The Rangers were fourteen eleven lost a heartbreaker last night.
I had that three to two lead in the ninth
and uncharacteristic for Leoti ta veris to misplay the fly
ball that wound up opening the door to two runs
coming in in Oakland or the A's as they call themselves, Athletics,

(24:09):
not Sacramento just Athletics won that ball game and ended
up winning that series. And so you have the Mariners
and the Rangers are both fourteen to eleven, the Astros
half game back at thirteen eleven, Angels twelve and twelve,
a game and a half off the pace, and the
A's are two games back. My question is this, how
many teams will stick in this race in your thought?

(24:30):
And for how long will it be like this all
the way in the October between two, three, four, or
maybe even five teams.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
Well as it begins, the heat up help will be
a major issue for every club. The advantages would go
to Seattle Texas in Houston because they play indoors.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Their home games are indoors. It's funny about this division.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
What makes it so unique is that each team finds
a different way to win. Seattle tremendous pitching, lack a
lot of offense.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
The bullpen's okay.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
The Angels arguably some of the best young position players
in the game at premium positions.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
When you talk.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
About Zach Nato, who's just getting back from injury and
Logan o'happy, Naytan Shanwell, and they've got some really good
young pitching. Look for a kid named Caana Dana A
Dana Cayden to come up and impact that rotation soon.
And then for the Astros to lose Kyle Tucker and
Alex Bregman and still be hanging around. Just from a

(25:35):
morale standpoint of what losing two players like that does
to your clubhouse. From a leadership standpoint, it just speaks
volumes to again what a great system the Houston Astros
have at the major league level and the way they
go about the expectation level and how the expectations drive
the results. And Texas for me is arguably not just

(25:59):
the best team in the in the American League West,
but also the American League.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
And when they can get everything right.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
With their pitching and get healthy and start scoring runs,
I think that this is the team that kind of
they're the most balanced team, and I think they're the
ones that are gonna pull away at some point, but
all different ways of winning ball games each night, and
it's gonna be really funny. And when the when the
summer hits and the heat starts to take over, whoever

(26:25):
can stay the healthiest is gonna be the team that
pulls away.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
He's team Watson, the director play a personnel for the
Chicago White Soxs toes is each week to talk Major
League Baseball? Does does does your travels? And they have
and they have just voluminous travel. But do your travels
manage to take you back this way for any of
the games of this rather large series this weekend between
long Horns and Aggies.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
I can't wait. I'm gonna be there tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
I've I've I've knocked out the Aggies and this is
gonna be a great, great series. I haven't been able
to see Texas yet this year, know how super talented
they are.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
But this Texas A and M club.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
I was in Knoxville when they got ten runs on
Friday night. And you wake up on Saturday morning, and
Ryan Prager's dad and I were teammates at UT Arlington,
and you wake up on Saturday morning and you think
they're up against the Ropes and about to be knocked out.
And they sweep Tennessee those two games, they sweep South
Carolina and they've kind of found their way again. And

(27:24):
it is a super talented baseball team. And you're gonna
have arguably as many major league prospects on the field
in one weekend as you could have tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
And that's why I will be there.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, indeed, all right, Hey, I appreciate that, GENO. Look
forward to seeing out here at the ballpark tomorrow. Okay, correct,
take care man, all right. That's Geene Watson. He is
the director of player person out out of the Chicago
White Sox front office.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Talks Major League Baseball with us every week.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Up next, we bring Inconceivable on a Friday afternoon when
we continue from UFCU Dish falk Field.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
I'm thirteen hundred the zone.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Us in the horn.

Speaker 7 (28:07):
I don't think it, miss, What do you think it?

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Miss? I?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yes, inconceivable for a Friday. We know what inconceivable means
on Friday. Obviously, it means, as we like to say,
we go to the lowest of the forty eight states,
the most flacid of those, to pick the low hanging
fruit that is Florida, Man. And we'll get to Florida

(28:33):
Man soon enough. However, there's other things we get to
I'm I'm gonna ask the producer of Marcus and Marcus
and I have known each other for a little bit,
but I don't know that much about Marcus because we
haven't had a chance to work together that much. So
I'm just going to toss a couple of things at you, Marcus,
and you tell me, because I have discovered over time
that people are either into cereal like breakfast Cerea, or

(28:58):
they are not into breakfast Cereal. And I like to
do a fast food and junk food update as part
of Inconceivable. So I put the question to you, my friend,
are you a breakfast cereal kind of guy? Where you
ever into the breakfast Cereal thing?

Speaker 3 (29:12):
I'm more in and out with it. Sometimes I'm in
a heavy move for Cereal. Sometimes I'm not. Right now,
I'm not, but in a month or two, I'd probably
be eating some fruity prep pebbles or some Captain Crunch,
like every day when I wake up.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
All right, So there you go. You just hit on
what I was gonna ask about Captain Crunch. Right, So
you like Captain crunch?

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah? One is the roof of my mouth. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Well I should let you know that it says the
weight is over Captain Crunch is bringing back it's original
summertime flavor that they had back in twenty sixteen as
a limited edition release to bringing it back for the
summer Orange cream pop crunch orange cream up like like
a dreamsickle type thing?

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Does that? Does that hold any interest for you?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
There?

Speaker 3 (29:58):
I might give it a try. I used to love
the Dreamsuckles when I was young, So yeah, I give
it a try.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Okay, the folks say, quote, this isn't simply an orange
colored Captain Crunch, But it isn't simply a cap'n Crunch
shaped orange cereal either. It's an orange coated Captain Crunch
that carries the best of both worlds. According to a reviewer,
it tastes eerily like an orange cream sickle or dreamsickle

(30:25):
by combining a sweet and juicy bite of orange fruit
flavor with a delightfully creamy, yet subtle vanilla finish. So yeah,
maybe you may have to review it for us and
let us know.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Let us know which. I By the way, I am
a breakfast cereal guy. I like those which.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
It's so your favorite would either be, you said, fruity
Pebbles or Captain Crunch if you were to pick a
favorite breakfast.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Cereal, say, Lucky Charms is probably I used to love
pops as a kid, but uh yeah, I kind of
grew out of that. But I would say Lucky Charms
is probably my favorite.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
You and my wife and Crisp Beard all Lucky Charms people.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
I like it too, all right, all right, jumping from
junkie cereals to junk food in general.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
How do you stand with oreos? Um it's cookies? Okay?

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:19):
So yeah, okay, all right? Do you like pretzels? Only
pretzels buy stuff. I don't like mixing it with anything.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
So you would not be down with a chocolate covered
pretzel favored flavored Oreo.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
No, I have to pass on.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
That, okay, because that's coming out in a couple of weeks.
The chocolate covered pretzel flavored Oreo will launch nationwide on
May fifth, and they're all fired up about this thing.
I've never been really that much into I like the
maybe the small mini chocolate covered pretzels, but I'm not
really big into mixing my sweet and salty that much. Yes,

(32:00):
so that's coming out.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
That's just like the trail mixes that have, like the
candy in and it's just it's bad.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
That doesn't work for you. Yeah, okay, all right? Are
you much into collecting or at least following the sports
card and sports memorabilia collectible scene?

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Are you just like looking at my childhood and just
bringing up stuff that I used to do it.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
I have a reason.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I have a reason for all these questions.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Like I asked you about the I asked you about
the oreos, I asked you about the breakfast here, and
I have a reason for asking you this question. Were
you into have you now been or have you ever
been into the collectible scene?

Speaker 3 (32:39):
I used to collect car sports cards as a kid, Okay,
any I had a Barry Santa's Rookie card when I
was a kid and one of my family members did
bad things to it and I'm still upset about it.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
But everybody that collected cards at one time or another
has a horror story like mine with my mom. Throw
bring out a sack of cards, had over two thousand
cards in it, had a Willi Nayes and a hancarrot
and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, the reason
why I asked this is for those who are into collectibles.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
This week, by the way.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
I'm sure not many people knew about this, but this
week it was two days ago. Wednesday was William Shakespeare's birthday. Now,
he was born in fifteen sixty four, so that would
make him what five one hundred and forty eight years old?
I think if it worked out an add to one. No, right,

(33:34):
but his collected works an original. In fact, all four
of William Shakespeare's folios will be offered at auction in
a single lot for the first time since nineteen eighty nine.
Sotheby's is planning to sell the first four editions of
William Shakespeare's collected works next month. Care to estimate what

(33:57):
that might fetch? Marcus?

Speaker 2 (34:02):
This is in what currency?

Speaker 8 (34:04):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Just if it just said an American if we said
American money, what do you think it would How much
money do you think that that would fetch?

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Twenty five million? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
It's going to start around six million dollars. Oh, okay, okay,
overshot it.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
That's all right.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
The first folio, which was published in sixteen twenty three
after his death, is among the most significant books ever produced.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Is described.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
It contains thirty six of Shakespeare's plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo,
and Juliet in a Midsummer Night's Dream. There are about
seven hundred and fifty copies of it printed. There's about
two hundred and thirty believed to survive today, and of
those two hundred and thirty, most are in public institutions
like the British Library. In the New York Public Library,

(34:49):
very few copies are described as complete.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
But and due to the Great Fire of London.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
By the way, the third folio is actually the rarest
of the bunch's only an estimate one hundred and eighty
two surviving today. But if you got a spare six
million and up, you know, and you're into Shakespeare, now
you can do it. I took a Shakespeare analysis course
in college. I used to tell people I got out
of there on new Hamlets underwear size. I mean it
was it was pretty detail stuff, all right. So here

(35:14):
we are to Florida Man Friday.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Oh boy, here we go.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
All right.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Well, first of all, you have the you have the
the usual really disturbing, troublesome Florida man fee headline Florida
man kills father and wounds mother over video games.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Argument game. That's a good question.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Let's see Florida Man admitted the police he fatally shot
his father wounded his mother, allegedly over comments his parents
made about him spending too much time playing video games
and not having a job. Joseph Voyd, twenty three years
of age, told Polk County Sheriff's deputies that his followers
upset about him spending the majority of his time playing
video games and was quote writing his ass about making

(35:58):
something of himself and getting job. So then he shot
the dad, sixty three year old Barvin Boyd, killed him,
wounded his mom, fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Year old Susan Voight.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
So they got him by the way, his criminal history
included arrest for firing a weapon in a residential area
and battery. No word as to.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Whether that had anything to do with video games.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
And then, finally, if you know a lot of things
about the state of Florida, you also know that, of course,
Florida is the home of disney World, and we always
hear about weird things that happen at or around disney World.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
This is one of the stranger ones.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
Headline Former Disney World employee sentenced to three years in
prison for hacking menus. Former Disney World employee Michael Schuer
was sentenced to three years in federal prison for hacking
in the Walt Disney World's computer system to manipulate menu information.
Former employee accessing the menu system following his termination from

(37:03):
the company a month prior. He worked as a menu
product manager and was accused of hacking into the system
over three months and manipulating menus in various ways that
included changing prices, adding profanity, and altering the allergen information.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
That's just what we all need, right, I think it's
allergen information.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
I got, yeah, with some with some profanity in there,
with a with an overpriced item. There, all right, there
it is. There's your inconceivable for Friday, complete with Florida.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Man.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
We'll be back to wrap up hour number one on
thirteen under the zone. All right, we come to the
end of hour number one, but still a lot to
go in hour number two and hour number three. Of course,
we're here with you up until five o'clock, and then
we'll be back at six forty five with the pregame
start time. In the first pitches at seven o'clock, Texas

(37:54):
against Texas A and M. More on this matchup between
Longhorns and Aggies coming up in our number two of
the program. Well, update, there's a pretty important SEC game
going on right now. They moved it up I think
to dodge some weather, and we'll sell you about that
coming up. But obviously day two of the NFL Draft,
how many more Texas Longhorns will go, you know, for

(38:15):
the first time since nineteen eighty three went in the
first round. So we'll get to that coming up, NBA
playoffs and more so, stay with us our number two
of three hours on a Friday, coming up here on
thirteen hundred the Zone, our number two of the program
here on thirteen hundreds. I almost said round two, because

(38:38):
Round two of the NFL Draft continues and gets underway tonight,
and I don't know how this is. Well I know
how it's possible, but I can't say as I remember
the same question going into round two being the exact

(38:59):
same question.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Going into round one. And you know where I'm going
with this.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
The question is where and when wolves should Sanders be selected,
because there were those who thought that he could go
as high as top five, that somebody might make a
deal to take him the top five, possibly top ten.
I did say on our Draft Day special yesterday that
it would not surprise me, and our producer just afterd

(39:26):
Marcus Spears echoed the sentiments that it would not surprise
me to see should do or Sanders slide deep into
or perhaps even completely out of round one and for
any number of reasons.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
And that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
And as we look at what's to come in round two,
that's that's going to be a topic of conversation. How
long Wolve should Ur Sanders still be on the board.
I'm looking at one mock draft that says he's coming
off first pick, first pick number thirty three over roll
of round two, because the first pick belongs to the
Cleveland Browns, and the Browns did not want to take
a quarterback in round one, and they made that deal

(40:04):
with the Jaguars of the Jags could move up and
get Travis Hunter. So now maybe as a second round pick,
they might be a little more amenable to that. But
the thing that I found out last night and looking
at all of the draft analysis afterwards, because last night
and the way it usually kind of works in my

(40:25):
house is I keep a pretty loose thumb on the
remote and flip around and I watch a lot of things.
Now I watch. I watched quite a bit of NBA playoffs.
I watched NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. I watched their friend
and Collie Keith Morland called the Georgia Oklahoma series opener.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
He's working that.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series in Athens, Georgia. And
obviously and predominantly I was watching the NFL Draft. I
got to where I could time it pretty good between
in the you know, in the ten minutes downtime in
between picks, to flip back over and see it in
time for the pick. And here's some of the analysis

(41:09):
afterwards all of that. But I also stayed up pretty
late and was watching a lot of the post draft
analysis and a lot of that seemed to center around
why did shaduor Sanders go completely out of the first round,
And then of course there were the requisite shots of
him out and at the place there in Canton out

(41:31):
near Tyler Out in East Texas where he was situated
with his family. And then he issued a statement and
I thought he handled it pretty well and talking about, hey,
exactly how he thought this would go. But there's a
plan for everything, and we'll be fine. It'll all be fine.
So it was that kind of thing, and I thought
he handled it pretty well. But then there are a
lot of the draft experts were asked why why did

(41:55):
he fall this farm? And there's probably two or three
reasons that folks could make for it. And I'm not
comfortable with somebody saying, well, well, Scotts just didn't think
he was that good. There's reasons beyond that, and there's
reasons why they might not have thought that he was

(42:20):
first round material, whatever those reasons are, and folks control
their own conclusions with this. I thought they handled it
pretty well. Nick Saban made a great point last night
when he said, you know, we all do all of
this speculating this and that that in the end, a
team decides when they want a guy, and then it's
up to them when they take it for the for

(42:42):
the young man to go and play and play well.
For that That's that's all that matters on this thing.
The rest of it is details and the details surround
money first round money as opposed to you know, falling
out of the first round and not getting that kind
of first round money. But that's basically what talking about
is if it was going to be first round money

(43:02):
otherwise you know, he's going to be drafted, He's going
to go somewhere, and he's going to be projected to
be a contributor. So we'll see if that's the case
with the Browns taking in with the first pick in
the second round. Put it this way, as much attention
as was focused on Shoudeur Sanders in the first round,

(43:25):
it wasn't as much as say, you know, waiting on
the inevitable Camore to be selected and then what other
trades might happen. But Sanders was always a piece of
it going into round number two. Today it's more than
just a piece. He's the centerpiece of it now about
you know, what happens with him and how far there.
There was even speculation, I think this morning among some

(43:48):
of the draft analysts on ESPN who were speculating what
might happen if he slid all the way to the
third round h and that may the Pittsburgh Steelers, who
many thought would take him if he was available at
twenty one, and he was not. I mean he was,
but they did not select him. You know, would they

(44:10):
would he still be there? I can't imagine him being
there and available in the third round. I was able
to imagine him not being selected in the first round
for any number of reasons, among those to fit, what
people wanted from certain positions, what their draft needs were,
and where he rated among other quarterbacks who were available.
Folks can have their own argument and discussion and debate

(44:33):
about whether the Giants should have taken shudor Sanders instead
of Jackson Dart. But the end result about this is
that you know, the very few quarterbacks were taking a
Round one. This was not expected to be a heavy, heavy,
high round quarterback draft.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
It wasn't going to be like this.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
This was not nineteen eighty three with the magical draft
that that was for quarterbacks. But there are quarterbacks available
that are still available, including Quinn Ewers, which also brings
us to the Texas thing. How many long Warns will
go On Day two of the draft. Day number one
of the draft saw three long Worns go in the

(45:14):
first round. Kelvin Banks ninth of roll selection to the
New Orleans Saints, and you saw the emotion there from
his family. I love seeing that, by the way, on
draft day, when the families get a chance to see
not only their you know, their son, or their their
son or nephew, or whatever or close friends dreams come true,

(45:38):
but in some ways their dreams come true as well.
Matthew Golden had said something about, you know, wanting a
dream he had was to purchase the home that his
grandmother had lived in for a long time in Houston
and lost lost that home later, and he drove past
that house as recent as about a week ago, and
that he was interested in the possible purchase at that home.

(46:02):
But hearing those things, John ay Baron the great story
and just a fabulous young man. You know, I've had
a lot of pleasure not only broadcasting his games as
a long worn but even going back to covering him
when he was a standout at Conley High in the
flug of eliasd and just what a great dude. And

(46:27):
to see that come true and for him to be
the twentieth overall selection and go to Denver, it's a
great story. And then I mentioned Matthew Golden obviously going
to the Packers, and that brought about a great deal
of excitement there in Green Bay.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
They got lit up about that.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
So three long Worns selected in the first round of
the draft for the first time since nineteen eighty the
only other time it happened. Happened on this and I
will tell you that Cameron Parker had all of us

(47:03):
chuckling and completely thrown off when he mentioned, can you
name the only other time the Longhorns had three players
selected in the first round of the NFL Draft? And
the answer was nineteen forty two. Well, nineteen forty two,
in addition to being a war year, was the only time.

(47:26):
It wasn't the only time, but at the time there
were only the draft was only six years old, so
even the draft was different back then than it is now.
Nineteen eighty is much more representative time. And the Longhorns had,
you know, the Longhorns had an opportunity to repeat history

(47:49):
and they did and so that was really cool. So uh,
looking at our text line because I asked Marcus about
his collecting days, Marcus, but he said, I have a
dan uh dan pastor any card worth about twenty five cents.
Uh because from his time of playing with the Oilers,
or maybe later after the trade for Stable when he

(48:10):
went to the Raiders or something like that, do you
remember how valuable your most valuable card was?

Speaker 2 (48:18):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (48:18):
I remember having a little books h And I don't
know how accurate they were I had.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I don't remember even the card.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
I remember I had one card that was like worth
like ten bucks, but that's fit as high as it got.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, okay, all right, Uh well, uh you know that's
you know, I, like I said, I had some cards
that were worth some things and and and ended up
losing out on all of that.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
But we all we all kind of have that story.
It's almost kind of like a fish story.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
We all kind of have that that story about Oh
I had this card, or I had that comic book,
or I had this collectible and uh somehow I got
lost or the dog ate it, or my mom threw
it out or whatever. So that's always gonna come back.
And as I bring it back full circle to the
NFL draft, that's why you have so many people with

(49:11):
trying to get those rookie cards. Can imagine what the
rookie card for cam Ward could and I do stress
the word could could be worth someday. We'll see, we'll
see how that all turns out, all right. I mentioned
that there was an SEC baseball game going on right now.
It is Oklahoma and Georgia, the three game series in Athens.

(49:35):
They both went into the weekend with ten and eight
conference records. Oklahoma won last night's game eight to six.
The Sooners were up eight to one and Georgia cut
it back to an eight to six ball game before
Oklahoma was able to close that out and get the win. Well, today,
it's almost an inverse even though the game is still
going on. Georgia jumped to a nine to two lead

(49:56):
on Oklahoma, and they moved the start time up by
like six hours because they were concerned about weather in
the area. So Georgia jumps to a nine to two lead.
Oklahoma cuts it to nine to seven in the seventh
before Georgia gets out of the inning. Now they're in
the top of the top of the eighth inning and
george is still leading oklum it's ten to seven right now,

(50:17):
and again the Sooners are now eleven and eight in
the conference and Georgia is ten and nine in the league.
So they have game two of that series well underway.
Of course, the Longhorns and Texas A and M have
their series opener tonight here at UFCU dish Fowk Field,
and coming up will take a closer look at the
matchups on that a little later on we'll hear from

(50:39):
Jim Schlasnagel to Long Horns head coach, will visit with
Ty Harrington as well, and will work the broadcast with
me tonight.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
So we've got all that and more coming.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Up when we continue here on hour number two from
UFCU dish falk Field.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
I'm thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
You're on a Friday afternoon, bring you to the program
from UFCU dish falk Cup bright sunny skies right now.
There was some chance of some showers in the area.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
That could happen, but.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
It was only a minor chance of that happening at best,
and even if it did, it probably wouldn't be anything prolific.
In other words, it wouldn't it shouldn't be anything that
would prevent the game from being played tonight, or being
played to its completion tonight, or any anything like that.

(51:31):
I think it'll all, you know, at this point, it
should all come off with out a big issue, should
be able to be played without any real big problem.
All right, As I mentioned, it's a big weekend for
college baseball here in Austin across the state of Texas,

(51:55):
and there's another big series. By the way, I'll tell
you about with regard to the possibility on down the
road to postseason. There's another series outside of the SEC
that's pretty important as well, and we'll get to that
coming up in a little bit also. But as we mentioned,

(52:16):
it's a pretty big weekend for Texas and Texas A
and M. It's the first time that they will have
met as conference foes since twenty twelve. As we know,
before Texas A and M went off to the SEC
and the log Orange, we're still in the Big Twelve

(52:38):
and they continue to play every year. This is different
than the years between football games where the two teams
did not meet at all in football between twenty twelve
and twenty twenty four, and they finally got together in

(53:00):
twenty twenty fours. We know Thanksgiving weekend last November when
the Long Wrorns beat Texas A and M in College
Station seventeen to seven to renew the Cotton Holdings Lone
Star Showdown rivalry series. Cotton Holdings became the sponsor for
that and this is the first year that they've reupt

(53:27):
this Lone Star Showdown series. And I should let you
know that if you're a long Wrn fan, it's good news.
If this thing means something to you because even before
the two teams take the field tonight, Texas has already
clinched winning the Lone Star Showdown Series. They're up ten

(53:49):
to four in the series, and this weekend baseball series
counts for one point out of that and it's a
ten to four edge for Texas, so they've already clinched
winning it as it's come back around. But what I
have found about that with regard to the Lone Star
Showdown Series is it's important when it's convenient for folks,

(54:11):
whether you're a Longhorn or an Aggie, to bring it up.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
It's that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I understand that, and long worn fans will also point
out that the Director's Cup, which of course is a
national award for the top overall athletic program in the country,
and the Longhorns have won that three of the last
four years, or they're closing in on making it for
the last five. They have a pretty healthy lead in
the points in that as well, and that's the nationally

(54:39):
for having the best overall collegiate athletic program in the
country and winning some national championships that the Longhorns have
during the season as well as the proliferation of conference championships,
most notably of late men's tennis winning as well, and
obviously baseball is in the thick of the fight for
it A softball.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Is as well.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
But they need a good weekend in Norman, Oklahoma against
the defending national champion Sooners. They need a good weekend
they're to strengthen their possibility. They're they're very close to
the top. And and by the way, it's Texas A
and M who leads the SEC softball standings right now.
So uh, Texas needs a good weekend in Norman.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Uh at what's it called. It's called.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It's named uh. I think it's called Loves Park or whatever,
named after the truck stop, uh, you know loves Loves
truck stops, which are headquartered in Oklahoma. But anyway, they
need they need a big weekend in uh, Oklahoma to
stay in the thick of the fight of the SEC race.

(55:44):
The log Oorns sit in first place on top of
the SEC standings going into the weekend by three full
games over Arkansas. But as we know, the long Orangs
will be in Fayetteville next weekend to play Arkansas next weekend,
so that could be a critical series. In fact, it
will be one or another, not only in terms of
who might or could possibly win the SEC, but also

(56:08):
you know, we could be talking about placement on national
seeds as well. So that's an important series. But the
other series began this weekend. Last night, Missouri had a
five to I think it was a five to one
lead or five to two lead on Alabama. They ended
up losing seven to five. Missouri is now oh and

(56:30):
nineteen in the SEC oh and nineteen as they played
that series in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with the win went to
ten and nine in conference play with the win.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
The rest of the series get underwraty to night.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Obviously this one here, but additionally South Carolina is at Kentucky.
Both of those programs have bent resurgent. South Carolina comes
off winning a series against Ole miss even though they're
in fifteenth place at four and fourteen in the conference.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Kentucky, after dropping.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Two out of three at home to Texas, turned around
and took two out of three in Knoxville over Tennessee.
That was a huge win for them. Mississippi State is
at Auburn. Mississippi State comes off dropping two out of
three at home to Florida. Auburn of course swept by Texas.
Auburn's ninety nine in the league, Misissippi state of six

(57:19):
and twelve in the conference. Tennessee is at LSU. Big
series there, both teams trying to bounce back after having
some difficult weekend series. LSU twelve and six in the
league and Tennessee is twelve and six in the league.
In Tennessee dropped two out of three, as I mentioned,

(57:42):
at home last weekend against Kentucky, so that's about positioning
as well. Vanderbilt plays at Ole Miss. Vanderbilt had dropped
two of three at OUI were eleven and seven in
the league, and like I said, Oklahoma now eleven and
eight after winning last night. They're going to the bottom
of the eighth inning in Athens and Georgia after dropping

(58:05):
last night series opener to Oklahoma, leads by a score
of ten to nine. In that Oklahoma's rallied back from
nine to two to pull them within a run at
ten to nine. And then of course there's Texas A
and M in Texas and the Aggies have been red
hot of late. Texas A and M has won three
consecutive series over well they've won. They've won ten of

(58:32):
their last eleven games, and they've won three straight series,
including back to back series on the road against number
one and number two in the country, winning two out
of three at Tennessee. And you heard Geene Watson if
you were listening last hour, discuss how big it was

(58:54):
for Texas A and M after being no hit and
run ruled in the series opener on Friday to come
back and playing a doubleheader on Saturday to escape the rain.
And they won both ends of the double header, including
run ruling Tennessee in that last game. That was huge.
Then they went to Arkansas. Well, they went home and

(59:14):
swept South Carolina, had that crazy game and hit the
two Grand Slams and won that last game to sweep
the series. Then they would go to Arkansas and win
two out of three of the Razorbacks.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Very impressive there.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
So, as I mentioned, they have won road series against
the number one and number two teams in the country
and now here they are in Austin facing another number
one team in the country. They're looking for their third
straight road series win over a top two rank school.

(59:48):
And the Aggies had flipped the script. They were actually
sub five hundred. At one point around the midway mark
of the season, they were one and nine in SEC
play and they have turned it around. As I mentioned,
they have won ten of their last eleven games and
that has gotten them the twenty four and sixteen because

(01:00:09):
they were fourteen and fifteen before getting those wins in
Game two in Game three to turn things around. So
it's pretty impressive stuff for Texas A and M. They're
going with their their veteran left handed Ryan Prager who's
two and two with a four to two nine ERA.

(01:00:29):
And you've probably heard the news with regard to Texas
that the Longhorns are going to be without Jared Spencer
for the rest of the season shoulder injury. He got
i think three separate independent medical evaluations and opinions and
they all yielded apparently the same result that it's a

(01:00:51):
shoulder injury and he will not be able to return
from the shoulder injury.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
So his season is done.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
So what that has brought about is the Longhorns have
to do a flip of the script and a flipping
the rotation and they'll move Ruger Riojas from the Sunday
starter to the Friday start. That's why Ruger only threw
thirty eight pitches last Sunday and only three innings in

(01:01:18):
the series sweeping clinching win against Auburn because Jim Slasnigl
and Max Wiener wanted to have him completely fresh and
ready to go for tonight's series opener. So it'll be Ruger,
Rio Hassel the man for Texas, and Ryan Prager left hander.
In fact, the Aggies are going to go with three
left handers over the weekend, three straight lefties, Ryan Prager tonight,

(01:01:44):
Justin Lambkin who's three and four on a four to
one three ERA tomorrow and Miles pat Nehw's three and
three with a four eight five ERA. And these guys,
even though the numbers, a lot of the numbers are not,
like incredibly impressive.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
A lot of that is due to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
The difficult they had at the start of SEC play
when they started one to nine in conference play. Well
that's turned around and now they're posting much better numbers
on this and the back of their bullpen is better,
and they're hitting the ball well.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
As we knew.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
So in fact, I mentioned, you know when Kimball Schuschler
hit the home run to end Sunday's game in seven
innings with that fourteen to two winterver Auburn actually sit
in the home run call. I don't know what else
is going on around the SEC, but I know there's
nobody more deserving of SEC Player the Week honors than

(01:02:39):
Kimball Schusler. Well, it was partially correct. He did win
SEC Co Player of the Week honors. The guy that
he shared the honor with is Jace Lobolette, who has
also been on a tear of late, and he hit
five home runs last week and he one co.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Player of the Week.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
He right now leads the Aggies with fifteen home runs,
fifty two RBIs, He's drawn forty three walks, he scored
forty eight runs. He has sixty five career home runs.
That's an all time Texas A and M record, one
hundred and fifty five walks. That's a first in A
and M program history. So anyway, there's lots of impressive

(01:03:27):
numbers of late of late that Texas A and M
is posting. We'll have more on that coming up as
we bring it to you here on a Friday afternoon
from UFCU Dish falk Field here on thirteen under the
Zone here on a Friday afternoon, getting you ready for
a big baseball weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
We've talked a little bit about it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
I mentioned that it's an important weekend in the state
of Texas, not only on baseball for Texas and Texas
A and M, but a couple of other schools meeting
head to head this weekend are TCU and Baylor playing
in Fort Worth. And even though the Long Words are

(01:04:10):
no longer in the Big Twelve Conference, it's a bit
fascinating to see what's going on there because it's a jumble,
and on any given well game one or game tuvas series,
let alone after the completion of a three game weekend series,
you could have a different team leading the standings. Right now,

(01:04:31):
it's West Virginia. They're thirteen and three, Kansas, Arizona and
TCU are all twelve and six. There's going to be
an uneven amount of games because West Virginia was only
able to play one of its three games and still
water against Oklahoma State, which is, by the way, been
the most stunning surprise this year. The Cowboys, with a
preseason choice to win the Big Twelve. They're six and

(01:04:53):
nine in the league and they are eighteen and nineteen overall.
The second biggest surprise would be Taxes Tech. You're always
to be a contender. The Red Raiders are eight and
ten in conference play and they're thirteen and twenty three overall.
The only way Texas Tech is going to make it
into a regional and the same can be said for
Oklahoma State is to first qualify for the Big Twelve

(01:05:14):
tournament and then second win it to get the automatic bid.
And I say qualified because only twelve slots of the
fourteen baseball playing institutions of the Big Twelve land a
spot in the postseason tournament at Globalie Field in Arlington.
I said fourteen because remember Colorado and Iowa State do

(01:05:35):
not field baseball programs. The last time Iowa State field
of the program I believe was nineteen ninety nine. Colorado
hasn't fielded a baseball program since nineteen eighty. They've got
a skiing team, but they don't have baseball, So no
baseball for Colorado and Iowa State right now. The teams
are at the bottom are Utah and BYU, but UCF

(01:05:57):
is very close to it, Houston's very close to it,
mistakes not far from that bottom as well. And again
the top twelve will advance into that tournament.

Speaker 4 (01:06:05):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
So against that backdrop, TCU is twelve and six in
the league, twenty nine to twelve overall. Right now, if
you look at tournament projections, they're in the field, and
not only in the field. One of the sets of projections,
it might be Baseball America, as I pulled that up here,
one of the sets of projections, it's not Baseball America,
it's D one. Baseball has tc hosting a regional, but

(01:06:32):
they're really kind of on the bubble for that. Jim
Slawstangle made a very good point to me the other
day when we were recording the pregame interview when he
said that there's always a situation where a team is
on the bubble. You're either on the bubble to try
to get into the tournament in a regional, or you're

(01:06:54):
on the bubble to host a regional, be a top sixteen,
or you're on the bubble to be a top eight
national seed. There's always and in the case of Texas,
may be on the bubble to be the number one
overall seed as well. It depending on how they do
with the rest of their conference season. Remember, after this

(01:07:14):
weekend against A and M. They go to Arkansas, then
they come home for a senior weekend against Florida, and
then they finished the regular season in Norman against Oklahoma.
Speaking of the Sooners, Georgia just put down Oh You
in the night to win ten nine. So in both
cases last night and tonight, the winning team built a

(01:07:35):
seven run lead and then held on for dear life.
Last night, Oklaoma won the series opener eight six. Today
Georgia takes a second game, ten nine. They've got one
more game out of that series tomorrow. Keith Morland will
be on the call for that, and then he'll fly
back and join us for the Sunday broadcast of the
game here between Texas and Texas A and M. Ty
Harrington will join me for tonight's Carl Roger Wallace will

(01:07:56):
be with me to for tomorrow's call. But in getting
back to that TCU Oklahoma TCU Baylor thing, here's tc
which right now is projected to host a regional but
again it's kind of on the bubble, and it's gonna
be very very important for the horn Frogs to have

(01:08:19):
a good weekend at home against Baylor. It's going to
be very very important for Baylor to make sure they
continue to win to stay away from that bottom part
of And they're eight and ten in the league, so
they're probably in pretty solid shape to make the Big
twelve tournament, but they have designs on making an NC regional.
And the Bears are twenty six and fourteen, TCUs twenty

(01:08:41):
nine and twelve. TCU's twelve and six in the conference.
Baylor is eight and ten in conference play, so all
of that is important stuff, and we'll see how those
weekend series go as well. All right, coming up, we're
gonna hear from Loggorne's head coach Jim Slasnegle down on
the field as well.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
The Longhorns are down on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
We're gonna hear from Jim Slastnigle talking about this matchup
between Texas and Texas A and M. When we continue
on thirteen under the Zone. We welcome you back here
to the program. You're a partam you FCU dish fault
field on thirteen one hundred the Zone. Texas getting ready
to take on Texas A and M. And yesterday Longhorns

(01:09:24):
take coach Jim Slastnigle got a chance of media availability
to visit with the media and talk about this big
matchup between the Longhorns and the team he used to coach,
the Aggies of Texas A and M.

Speaker 6 (01:09:34):
Thanks everybody for coming super excited about a weekend ahead.
Feel really good about how our team's playing at this point.
I thought Tuesday night was a great test for us,
and I told him after the game, if we didn't
win a game the rest of the season, Tuesday night
may be my favorite win of the year. So hopefully

(01:09:55):
we can get some guys with their feet under them,
get healthy for the stretch run here and and then
you know, obviously having the opportunity to be a part
of the rivalry series this weekend, what a great thing
for our players and A and m's players to uh
to be a part of a Texas and Texas A
and M baseball series in the SEC and they'd be

(01:10:17):
the very first one.

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
Wow, what a what a great life experience.

Speaker 6 (01:10:21):
So I'm sure this place will be rocking and and
I hope we play well.

Speaker 7 (01:10:26):
Which is an update on jar A Spencer where you
guys are. Yeah, he's on his way back from Houston.

Speaker 6 (01:10:31):
We're gonna meet when he gets back, and you'll let
us know what he's what he's deciding. I think at
some point today as soon as he gets a chance
to talk to his family.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Other than with Kimball gestured to the dugout last year
in the regional what's the biggest memory of like that
atmosphere and what that original mat.

Speaker 7 (01:10:46):
Over in College Station.

Speaker 6 (01:10:48):
My biggest memory, Uh, La Baron pitched really well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:10:53):
I remember we knew JT.

Speaker 6 (01:10:57):
Swung loved to swing at the first pitch of the game,
and Prager was having a great year, and I was like,
I let him just wanna get the first pitch of
the game, and he hit a homer, and then Kimball
hit the homer and then of course the weird, weird
play at third base. But it was just an awesome game. Uh,
incredible atmosphere. To have those two teams play each other
in an interregional winners bracket game was great. And uh

(01:11:21):
of course we also got to play in the College
World Series that was even better.

Speaker 7 (01:11:24):
You know, if if it was.

Speaker 6 (01:11:26):
Up to me, these two teams would be cool to
meet in Omaha and that's that's the best place to play.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
Are you ready for this because a few personally.

Speaker 6 (01:11:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm you know, I've been I've
been around a little bit, and I've been through this before.
I had to uh at TEA at A and M
the first year, had to coach against tcuh. You know,
within a year of leaving there in a in a
regional in a regional final, and so you know, this
is an SEC series, this is three games versus one.

Speaker 7 (01:11:53):
But uh yeah, I mean I'm the game.

Speaker 6 (01:11:58):
Uh you let the fans in and everybody else enjoy
all the peripheral stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:12:03):
Our job, you know, my job is to coach the team.

Speaker 6 (01:12:05):
And it's not to coach team any differently on Friday
night than I did Tuesday night. And if we win
a game, it's it's worth one. It's not worth one
point five. And if we lose, it doesn't cost any
more than one. So I'm not trying to downplay it.
But for my own you ask me, my own personal
role in this thing is to coach our team. And
I can't get and I'm not going to get caught

(01:12:26):
up in the other stuff general, like the coaching.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Perspectives, whether it's injuries or having to go in different
environments and environments like this weekend, How does that create
coach how does it help bond, especially in the first year.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Point.

Speaker 7 (01:12:37):
Yeah, I mean, I think.

Speaker 6 (01:12:40):
Adversity and going through those experiences, the failure of it,
the success, the travel, the newness, the anxiety of waiting.
There's no anxiety during the gagame. It's just waiting for
the game to get here, you know. And so yeah,
I mean our team's battle tested. A and M's teams
obviously incredibly battle tested. They have championship pedigree from their

(01:13:02):
team last year and then.

Speaker 7 (01:13:04):
Got off to a slow start.

Speaker 6 (01:13:06):
I never doubted what kind of season they were gonna have,
not for one second, and so it doesn't surprise me
at all that they're playing well, and you know, we're
playing well. And but yeah, I think all those things
baseball lends itself to what you have.

Speaker 7 (01:13:20):
To go through to bring your team closer together. Do
you th chans live there and your players know if.

Speaker 4 (01:13:26):
They hate you, How do you, as a head coach
keep from being the story because it's a baseball series
and that's the.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Most important part. How do you keep them level ahead
it because they kind of know the history.

Speaker 6 (01:13:37):
Of this runs ye, yeah, yeah, I mean we had
a I mean, I think it's foolish to put your
head in the stand and and not at least address it.
I addressed it with our team during the course of
this week about you know, if we're gonna talk all
year about playing to a standard, not a.

Speaker 7 (01:13:52):
Scoreboard, then when you get to these moments, then you
better do it.

Speaker 6 (01:13:56):
And I thought that that's why I thought Tuesday night
was incredible. We had, you know, we were pitching some
guys that hadn't pitched in a while. We were in
a really tough environment, not as big, but tough.

Speaker 7 (01:14:07):
It was tough.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:14:08):
Fans were right on you, the students were right, and
the Texas State students were right on us. We get
down five runs, would have been super easy to cash
that in and go home and get ready for this weekend,
and these guys kept playing. So uh, to answer your question,
I think, you know, this is the ultimate test. And
I told him this week would be the ultimate test.
But then next week we go to Arkansas.

Speaker 7 (01:14:28):
I don't think.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:14:29):
I don't think those fans like this very much either,
from what I've been told. I mean, I've had long
time Longhorns say that Arkansas fans are tougher on you
than the Aggie fans. So and then the last weekend
of the season played Oklahoma, so uh, and.

Speaker 7 (01:14:44):
Each week you will Oklahoma, same.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Act.

Speaker 6 (01:14:49):
Your fashion choices are questionable, but but now it's uh,
it's great experience, you know, and we may get it.
The weekend may not go our away. We'll learn from
that too.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
That's Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Since the day you arrived today, What have you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Done specifically could of bond this team to have the
outcome of this team play like they are right now
being what they did tuesdays? I mean, that's opendon me
on probably what you would try to learn.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
Yeah, well, I was very blessed that coach Pierce had
guys like gal Vaughan and Schusler and Flores and Gasparino
and Duplantier, dre and and and Jayden and Luke Harrison,
guys that they love this school so much and they
have such a great passion for leaving it, Max Bulow,

(01:15:40):
leaving it in a as good or better place than
they found it. And so that's where it's to me,
that's where it all starts. It starts with really good
players who have a passion for being better. And then
then what you're talking about culture, and that's just a
day to day. From the very first day we get here,
we set what we want to do, and then each
single day we're super intentional. It's the most important thing

(01:16:02):
I do every day is continue to push this massive
battleship forward and keep these guys.

Speaker 7 (01:16:09):
Accountable, but also keep them confident.

Speaker 6 (01:16:11):
And they're confident bunch, and there's no doubt about it.
They believe they can win every game and the whole
win anyway, or win any way. Mentality has really caught
on within within this particular team. And what a great
trait to have that when you keep taking blows, you
just keep getting off the map.

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
It's gonna be like you working across and seeing Mike over.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
There, and.

Speaker 6 (01:16:35):
Yeah, I mean I've you know, seeing Mike over there.
I'm happy for him and his family. You know, he
earned the opportunity to be the head coach over there.
Will Fox as well, was on our staff last year,
and happy for him that he got promoted into a
baseball position. But you know, when you coach thirty five years,
I mean I've already, for three or four times this

(01:16:56):
year coached against you know, guys that worked with us,
or or even players that I coach. So that part
of it is fine, you know, it's what's what's a
little it's not harder once the game starts. But what's
tougher is, you know, is seeing the players that you
love and care for so much, but you can't really
talk to them or you can't you know, it's not

(01:17:16):
the time and place to to kind of catch up.
And we will have our moments, uh when they're finished playing.
There's guys from the team last year at A and
M that have they've been over here and we've had
a good time together and gone to football games and
stuff like that. But that's that's the tougher part is
I would never wish bad on a guy like Jace

(01:17:36):
lovel At, like I don't want him to play portly,
but I do want our team to win.

Speaker 7 (01:17:41):
So that's the challenge.

Speaker 5 (01:17:43):
Because you know those guys so well, what have you
seen that's allowed them to.

Speaker 8 (01:17:47):
Turn it around?

Speaker 4 (01:17:48):
What are the biggest challenges they'll present?

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
Well, first of all, they've always they've had good starting
pitching the whole season. I mean they had, you know,
and they've been those guys have been consistent. Preger Lampkin
and what's the guy from Long Beach the left the
other left him and he's, uh paton yet he they've
they've been great. So when you have good starting pitching,
you give yourself a chance. I think the you know,

(01:18:12):
I think getting off to a slow start, and guys
start to press, and I know Hayden shot and I
know Jason, I know Surrell was injured, and and guys
that are they just start to press because it means
a lot to him. And I said all along, all
it's gonna take is one day, one day of them
starting to feel confident about themselves. And once that happens,

(01:18:34):
look out and of course getting healthy, getting Currell back
uh Lanthen's their lineup, and Bender up feeling better about himself.
So and then they had that day at Tennessee and
haven't really No one's really slowed him down too much since.
So they have they know how to win, and they're
certainly they've gone to Arkansas, they've gone to Tennessee. So uh,

(01:18:56):
coming over here is you know they've I don't think
they're gonna be I know they're going to be ready
to play.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
Warren's head coach Jim Slasniga. We'll be back to wrap
up hour number two. I'm thirteen under the Zone thirty
final hour of the program here on thirteen hundred of
the Zone. Greig Way with you and glad to be
with you here on this final hour of the program.

(01:19:23):
And I actually have a treat tonight, and that is
and this is really weird because it's the first time
it's happened this season, but Ty Herrinkin's going to work
a baseball game with me now, So I'm very glad
and and I'm glad for the reasons that you haven't

(01:19:44):
been able to work a baseball game, because you've been
You've been a TV mogul and TV personality on the
SEC Network plus telecast the Long Horning Game.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
So I'm really happy for you for that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
I like how we've kept it all in the family,
whether it's you or Keith or Roger or my car
or whoever whoever happens to be the analyst at the time.
It's it's it's good. So I'm I'm glad of that.
And we've been doing our weekly segment regardless of any
of that stuff anyway, So it's it's good.

Speaker 8 (01:20:09):
It's been fun. I mean, it's been it's been a
little bit different.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
And what's the biggest difference for you working huh TV
as opposed to radio.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
I bet I know some of them, but I want
to hear it.

Speaker 8 (01:20:20):
Some of it is And this is not in a
bad way because I've I've I've worked with six, maybe
seven different play by play guys now okay, and uh
so that's part of it. The other piece is the
radio part is smaller pieces of conversation because you're having

(01:20:43):
Your part is to describe what they can't see, as
opposed as you know it's on TV, they see it,
so you can cut. You can keep discussing whatever it
is that may be going on.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
So I have to do the who, what, where, and when,
and then you do the why.

Speaker 8 (01:20:58):
That's right, and when it's TV, you can kind of
keep going even in the conversating. Let's say a foul ball,
let's say a pitch gets taken, let's say even a
plays made. Sometimes you keep conversating and then you you're still.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
Talking about it as a pop flyout to left field
and folks can see it. So the play by play
gud doesn't have to say there's a high fly ball
to left field and have to see it. They could
see that while you finish a point.

Speaker 8 (01:21:22):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean, I just that's probably the
difference the most, truthfully.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
And it's not like this is your first time in
first year ever doing TV. You've been doing it for
years on the Texas State telecast.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
So yeah, yeah, but yes, that's correct.

Speaker 8 (01:21:38):
And that's where I you know, I was probably fifty
to fifty working games with you on radio, and then
the schedule had it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
That it worked out at Texas State.

Speaker 8 (01:21:48):
I was able to go down there and do a
lot of TV down there and often this year was
the most games that Texas State had on the road.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Texas was at home and.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
And then you know, and not like which adds up
to you doing a lot more games.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (01:22:06):
And luckily for me this weekend, I get to work
with you because linear TV came in as we all know,
and took over the weekends.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
The names of Tom Hard and Kyle Peterson and Chris
Burke and uh yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:22:21):
They all came in and took all three games, and
but it all worked out anyway. I want to get
to work radio with you and too, I got to
go to a wedding tomorrow and uh in Houston and Douglender,
my longtime college roommate and friend and teammate here at TOUCH.
His daughter's getting married. So I'm gonna go to wedding tomorrow,
but I'll be back on Sunday to watch the game

(01:22:44):
as a fan and sit and watch a game. Don't
do that, do that very often. And so I'm gonna
get to do that. And then but it's you know what,
So what's interesting about this? They they Linear TV picked
up these three games before the season got started.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (01:23:07):
Then it looked like it was gonna be a who
knows what kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
Series because of what was happening in college ash correct
and then somehow and it's been You can see it
when you watch the games, but you don't know what
was going on behind closed doors or on a bus
or whatever happened in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Speaker 8 (01:23:32):
That you know that you get no hit, run ruled,
your wheels are no longer wobbling.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
You would assume the wheels were off. That's the complete
nator of the season. The complete bottoming out of Texas
A and M season was after the Friday night game.
And who could have possibly imagined that the flip of
the script and completely turning it around.

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
What happened starting the next day with a double banner,
no question about it.

Speaker 8 (01:23:59):
And now you could look into the future and say
when Surrell got back in the lineup, that that was
gonna make a difference. Okay, he's played fifteen games now,
and in those fifteen games, what has happened.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
They've they've won. He came into I think.

Speaker 8 (01:24:14):
The Alabama Series or something like that, they hit a homer,
but they didn't win. They still lost the series or something,
and then you know, and they since then, since that
the game in Knoxville, man, they'd have been You watch
them offensively, they've been really good. They're better. Defensively, they

(01:24:35):
were not. Let's see another piece of this that I
don't I think.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
You you would know it.

Speaker 8 (01:24:39):
People that pay attention, close attention to the game they
put they didn't play great defense that first month and
a half of the season as well.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
They've cleaned that part of it on the infield up.

Speaker 8 (01:24:52):
And it will never know emotionally what unless you were
in that bus or in that locker room or in
those team meeting, you won't really know what was discussed
or how it all transformed.

Speaker 2 (01:25:04):
The physical side of it. Getting two guys back was huge.

Speaker 8 (01:25:07):
And then the other piece of is uh Moss has
been in the bullpen has been pretty.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
Good, which has helped make a difference, uh for a
team who when you look at the eras of the
starting pitchers in the record, it's not that impressive though.
I mean you were talking a two and two of
the four to two nine, a three and four with
a four to one three, and the three and three
with a four eight five. But as I said on
the program earlier, a lot of that's frontloaded from the

(01:25:33):
struggles early in conference.

Speaker 8 (01:25:34):
That's right, it's one hundred percent right. And then you
know the to me too, Now you know you go
through there digging there even more, which I know you
have that the eras and the sec are higher than
what that is unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
The team era is over six.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Yes, and you say, how in the world could they
have won seven of their last eight conference games and
ten of their last eleven overall. Well, one, I think
of the Sunday game against South Carolina outslugging that slam.

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
Yeah, they found it happened. No, that doesn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:26:07):
So they found the way to out slug and then
and then there were other games where you know they
pitched well enough, but the e R. I would like
to have seen what the e RA was after the
Friday night run rule loss to Tennessee. What the team
e RA was after that Friday night game compared to
where it is right now had to be above eight.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
Yes. Yes, So if you're so, if.

Speaker 1 (01:26:31):
You're erasing two full runs off a team e R
in a span of eleven, twelve thirteen ball games, you've
done something.

Speaker 8 (01:26:41):
You've done something, and then and then again they they're
depending the ball better if you look at the pitching stats.
So one thing I will even with the ERA being
a little bit higher, I will say about their stats,
whether it's coming off of last year with Max Wiener
or a continuation I should I should say for Max
and or who they what they're doing now, they throw

(01:27:02):
the ball in the strikes on them. They're starters around
that twelve fourteen walks a game, that's not very many
with fifty something innings under their belt, and then you
go in there. But what they are do, they're going
to give up hits. So if they defend the baseball
at a higher level, and you're putting the ball in
play and you keep defending it, then you got a
chance to hold runner your whole games to five runs.

(01:27:25):
So now your offense which is now stretching its legs,
and now Jay s lava Lette is really stretching his
legs over the last two weeks and not trying to
carry the whole team on his shoulders.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
Yeah, makes a big difference on that. All right, Ty
Herring is with me, and in this next segment we're
going to talk about the rest of the SEC.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Again.

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
Georgia beat Oklahoma today. They moved the start time up
by six hours because they're worried about rain their storms
in Athens. So it was very similar to last night's game,
where Oklahoma built a seven run lead held on in
one eight six. Today george have built a seven run
avenger up nine to two and held on to win
ten to nine. We'll talk about the SEC and about
the national scene. As I mentioned, there's another huge series

(01:28:09):
in the state of Texas and it's not even in
the SEC. Tonight at ten fort Worth with TCU and Baylor.
We'll get to that. We've got a lot more than
we'll get to here. On a Friday afternoon again, Texas
and Texas A and M first game of the Cotton
Holdings Lone Star Showdown Rivalry Series six forty five pre
game start time in a seven o'clock first pitch on
one oh three point one FM, Austin's eighties station, New York.

(01:28:31):
Can also listen to it on the Texas Longhorns app.
You can connect to it through the iHeartRadio app and
also online at Texas Longhorns dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:28:40):
So more on.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
This and a lot more coming up when we continue
on a Friday afternoon from UFCU, just fogg Field, I'm
thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 8 (01:28:49):
Well, all right, dotcha citizens Universe recording, as we have
returned to claim here and now.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
Pop in on the mother I am on this Friday afternoon.
I'm thirteen under the Zone Craig Wave joined by the coach,
Ty Harrington, who will join us for the game broadcast tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Update.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Texas Saftball plays Oklahoma in Norman. Game one is at
five o'clock this afternoon. That's a crucial series of the
long Worns, just behind Texas A and M and just ahead
of Oklahoma in the conference standings. That's going to go
to the wire and depending on what happens this weekend,
we'll see how the big twelve race goes in terms
of going to the wire as well, Ty, I don't

(01:29:34):
know with too many people.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
I don't know of anybody who would.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Have said, yes, twelve games left in conference play, Texas
will be thirty four and five and they'll have a
three game lead in the conference standings. Could you have
foreseen that?

Speaker 8 (01:29:49):
No, No, no, I don't think. I mean, everybody can see.
They want to say they were coming. Sure, yeah, but
there's no way. I mean, look when they got off
to the first month and a half start, and you
could you could see that the older hitters, which is

(01:30:11):
what Jim talked about at the beginning of the year,
like he often said, look like what I walked into
at an m having the older hitters, and so you
could see that, you could see that, you know, there
was the defensive side of the game is going to
be good. I think now, I don't know what's going
to happen this weekend. I think you would at least

(01:30:31):
acknowledge you whether you agree or not, you're entitled. We're
all intelegent own thoughts. But to me, one of the
two of the biggest pieces of this the guys that
have been here before, Grubs has been excellent, not just good,
he's been excellent. His demeanor on the mound is so confident,
so patient, So I mean just you know, confident might

(01:30:55):
be the best word describe it. And his execution obviously
follows his mindset right now. But the second guy for
me that has been I would not have got no offense.
I don't think I would have said it's the beginning
of the year as Luke Harrison m I just.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
To be as as consistent, yep. I mean he hasn't
been dominating by any stretch, hadn't been spectacular, but he's
been solid. He's been consistent, getting the long words into
the middle innings where they either by then have been
able to build a lead or stay close enough for
where they could overhaul whoever was in the lead in
time to think of the Georgia series in that and

(01:31:32):
then the bullpen has been solid.

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
Enough to hold the water the rest of the way.

Speaker 8 (01:31:37):
But he's a big piece of why the bullpen's been
able to stand so Friday night it has you know,
it's it's.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
Been really good.

Speaker 8 (01:31:45):
Spencer's been good, but he's had moments in the fifth, right,
or fifth or sixth they go out goes in and
there's valances. So now Saturday becomes stressful because if you
got to go to your pen in the second inning
or the third inning on a Saturday, you're in trouble.
For you might string it out and win that game,

(01:32:05):
but now you've exhausted your pen. Now that rolls into
that Sunday roll and that's when the games get really goofy, right,
really can get crazy. To me, he has kept them
from having to go early in the bullpen on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
Stretch the bullpen, and.

Speaker 8 (01:32:21):
Then you know who knows, Flip a coin now you
know because now Reojas has been good on Sunday or
but in the same breath, you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
He hasn't stretched it or stretched.

Speaker 8 (01:32:32):
Them out, in my opinion, and most coaches will. Most
coaches will say they're obviously the Friday night's the big game.
Because I've seen coaches give up Friday nights and go,
we're not gonna beat their guy. They've got a guy
over there, We're not beating him.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
Let's build it toward the back end of the week.
Let's go play Saturday Sunday.

Speaker 8 (01:32:48):
Right, So, and I've seen guys do that, but I
mean each time I would go, oh, I wonder how
that's going to be this Saturday. We I don't wonder
how it's going to be this Saturday. It's been pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
There were years seasons when Augie would do that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:01):
Uh now, not when he'd have like a Taylor youngman
going on our Parker French. Everybody else was the gall
on Friday night.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
They're throwing young men we're gonna go through.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Or a Parker French or you know, even Nathan Thornhill,
you know, you know, those those kinds of guys. But
there were seasons when he would build it towards Saturday
and Sunday doing that. And and I've been asked this
by long worn fans this week, everybody expected the other
shoe to drop it. It did officially yesterday that Jared Spencer's
out for the year's shoulder injury. So Ruger Riojas flips

(01:33:36):
from Sunday to Friday. And I asked, Jim Schlasney just
busied with him a few minutes ago, and we recorded
our pregame a conversation for tonight, and and I said,
you like Ruger in that role because some people said, well,
why don't you just move Harrison to Friday, and then
put and then put Ruger. He's been solid enough, why
don't you do that? And and put Ruger in. Just
move him up one day on Saturday. And the answer

(01:33:59):
pretty much that Schlass has had is emotionally, mentally psychologica,
however you want to describe it. Ruger, he feels, and
Max Wiener feels is better built for the aura of
what the Friday night game is all about as opposed
to the Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
I would agree with that.

Speaker 8 (01:34:17):
And I think also, look, I'm not gonna speak for
coach Flash and go okay or Max Wiener when I
say this, but there's times when coaches find a guy
that's comfortable in that moment, in that day, in that game,
and you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Just go, let's he's been so good that let's don't
move him. Right.

Speaker 8 (01:34:34):
I played on the eighty four team that this is similar.
But Jamie Dowdy was hitting in the nine hole, and
he was by the end of the year, he.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Was chasing the home run record at University.

Speaker 8 (01:34:45):
Of Texas, and coach moved him off to the four
hole for a couple of games.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
He didn't do it.

Speaker 8 (01:34:49):
He moved him right back, and it was just like
so there are coaches who get My last year in nineteen,
our best guy was on Saturday. I didn't move he
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sunday, I'm sorry. He was Picture
of the Year on Sunday out of the Sunday slot.
I was like, I'm not I don't want to move
in there, Like what if we moved on?

Speaker 2 (01:35:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
You know who you just described Cole Green, Yes, Picture
the Year Sunday starter.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
I tried, No, I tried.

Speaker 8 (01:35:15):
I just I think sometimes there's a comfort level for
the player, there's a comfort level for the coach. Let's
just let's leave him right there. He's doing good, right,
Let's let's just so. And that's why this this weekend
is going to be fun again on you know, tomorrow's game,
to see how he does match up several left handed bats. Again,
some of their better bats are left handed, and so

(01:35:36):
we'll see how they go.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
Here's the other question I got from fans.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
Max Grubbs has been so great, why don't you just
move him into the rotation? And the answer that I said,
without having asked Jim about it, because I hadn't had
a chance of the time, was with what he has
done on those occasions when Jared Spencer didn't have his
best stuff in the middle innings and Max came in
and just stabilized everything. That it that it made a

(01:36:05):
big difference. The other question I got for people said, hey,
by the way, what was the deal with k Bing?
Why didn't he pitch on Tuesday? He always pitches on Tuesday,
And so I said, when we talked on Tuesday, you
don't know they're entering a different zone. Now guys have
pitched well, but you don't know now when now that
we do know that Spencer's done, you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
Know how the rest of the guys are going to respond.

Speaker 1 (01:36:29):
And having another arm and a left hander at that
at your disposal may speak to what you just talked
about about the quandary of Saturday and Sunday if you've
got another arm and in this case, a left hander
and being available, which is why he didn't pitch Tuesday night,
which is why Grayson Sannier, who's had some good outings
especially in Kentucky, started, and which is and they were

(01:36:54):
able to piece it together somehow with all of those
guys and find it offense to come back and win
that ball game on Tuesday night, all the while saving
a k bing for any sort of time that they
might need him this weekend.

Speaker 8 (01:37:09):
Well, this state's back. I'm gonna just I'm guessing now,
I don't have nobody else told me anything kind of
before I go to the I think this goes back
to Riojas coming out of the game earlier last weekend.
I think they sensed that, hey, you know, we may
need to we may need to overexpose him. He's on

(01:37:30):
short rest, remember, because he pushed up a day to
Eastern Kay pushed up a day. And then now you
may move one of your guys to the front of
the rotation possibly, so let's don't overexhaust him, which is.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
Why only weekend, which is why only threw thirty eight
pitches and slaps, even said and when I just said
to him, that went into his mind. Not when they
made the move to move Ruger up. That went into
his mind as Jared Spencer walked off the mound on
Thursday day night, that they were going to have to
do some shuffling and something because they knew, like he said,

(01:38:06):
he didn't know at the time that that Jared was
done for the year. In fact, he even told us
on the post game, he said, he's a little sore,
it'd be all right. They never heard a discernible pop
or anything like that. Jared didn't feel anything weird or strange.
It was just a little sore, and they thought, okay,
he's coming back a day early. He's a little sore,
he'll be okay. But his law said, even if he's
quote unquote okay, and maybe it's a slight strain, you

(01:38:28):
know he's not gonna pick next weekend. That's right, So
you got to start making plans.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Nine percent, So go back to now.

Speaker 8 (01:38:35):
To me, this is part of why I think Jim
is the best, one of the best, if not the best,
in our business, is because he's a forward thinker. He's
a continual, you know, progressive thinker. In his mind, it
was already translating and communicating his Okay, now, wait a minute, Well,
if that's real, and he we know that, and I

(01:38:56):
agree with you, I know he probably knew that he
was not going to throw this weekend right now.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
He said, even in the best case scenario, if you
moved him back a couple of days, it's.

Speaker 8 (01:39:06):
Still wasn't gonna be still gonna be Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:39:08):
It was not gonna be Friday.

Speaker 8 (01:39:10):
So that started that day and then all of a sudden,
if you watch how they now, that's also confidence, right,
and then and your staff that week to finish off
that weekend last weekend conference wise, right, So he had hits.
You know what we've got. I'm sure they sat in
there in the conversation and the dougout going, hey, coach, look,
we we've got enough bullets to get through this this weekend.

(01:39:31):
We've got in a bullpen, we've got enough guys. But
you know, we've got our six guys, which is what
they've been kind of rallying around six seven guys on
the mount. He goes, well, we've got our guys. Let's
let's do it, and let's get it set up. We
know he's not gonna be able to throw. Let's get
Ruger set up to go into the Friday game with
the Aggies at home. And so they started translating. They
rolled the dice in in uh sant Marcus Kay being

(01:39:55):
who has been really good on Tuesdays, were good enough
on Tuesdays. Let's hey, let's let's it's take them out.
We may need him against the Aggies. It's a conference series.
And we need to get some We now are forcing
ourselves to put some other guys on the mound. And
you saw guys go out Tuesday night, I did you
And Sam Marcus that had done not a ton of innings,
not a ton of.

Speaker 1 (01:40:14):
Work, had not pitched much on Tuesday. Connor McCreery had
barely seen the field.

Speaker 2 (01:40:20):
That's right, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
And Drew Rerick hadn't pitched my Cody Howard winds up
getting the win, that's right. And it was his first
time to pitch in the ball game since March twenty first.
It was the first time for Hudson Hamilton to pitch
in the game since March eleven, six weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
We're talking.

Speaker 8 (01:40:36):
Yeah, now you're gonna see those guys again Tuesday if
they don't get used for some reason partially this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:40:42):
Not over exposive for being.

Speaker 8 (01:40:45):
So they'll be used on Tuesday. But what that does
is that that gave them being for this weekend. Who
can use his breaker on the left tended hitters because
they have you know, it's on that tended hitters in
this lineup that are a challenge and you at least
feel better about Well, let's go at and whatever breaker
and let's go to you know, armside, I'm sorry, extension
side fastballs, third base side, make them empty their barrels

(01:41:05):
the other way.

Speaker 2 (01:41:06):
And so I felt like that when.

Speaker 8 (01:41:09):
They did that, or like, we've got enough guys were
we know the ballpark in Texas State as an offensive park.

Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
We're older hitters, let's go out score them.

Speaker 8 (01:41:18):
And it just happened that it worked out that way
late in the game, it worked out that way for them.
And then to me, one of the guys that I
think you and I talked about this too, one of
the guys to me that I felt like, was gonna
be possibly valuable to this team. But he hadn't He
kind of had done it, hadn't done it, kind of
done was Burns.

Speaker 2 (01:41:38):
Kind of done it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:39):
Then he did it on the road Kentucky, Kentucky. That's right,
even though he took the loss, but he was he
threw the ball inning, that's right. He threw the ball good.
And to me, he was that guy's like, golly, when's that?
When's that guy gonna really appear?

Speaker 1 (01:41:54):
When when is that?

Speaker 2 (01:41:55):
And now you don't have a choice. And he goes
out there Tuesday night and was wamm bam.

Speaker 8 (01:41:59):
Game over right, any game that was Look, it was
a tugger war, both teams going back and forth.

Speaker 1 (01:42:04):
When's the last time you worked a game that had
two Grand Slams in it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:42:12):
I don't know if I ever I don't know, I
don't know if I ever had. And I've been involved
in a game coaching wise, but not not to that.
And I mean it was just like, I don't know,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
The crazy game.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
When you think about this, things like, uh, you know,
I neither Keith nor I nor anybody else that I
would know would be grudge Joanah Williams for trying to
get the second on that ball he scorched and it
took a perfect throw and did a one hop and
a perfect throw from Brightfield to get him, and it did.

Speaker 2 (01:42:42):
It was a great It was a great play.

Speaker 8 (01:42:44):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
You have two outs of the plate the Texas statement.
Once on a sharply struck ground ball that Florest was
able to snag and come home.

Speaker 2 (01:42:52):
That was a big out.

Speaker 1 (01:42:53):
And then obviously the ball that just trickled a few
feet away and Galvan's able to flip underhand, and then
the tag from Cody Howard was down to get to
to get the out.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
Yep, that was what the basis loaded.

Speaker 1 (01:43:04):
Yeah, and with two outs and was more up.

Speaker 2 (01:43:08):
He was up. He was right.

Speaker 8 (01:43:10):
I think he was up because because he as he'd
already hit the Grand Slam. And I don't know anyway,
I think they were in the middle part of the
order if I remember right.

Speaker 1 (01:43:19):
Yeah, because it was the bottom part of the order
to end the game, and that was in the eighth
when that happened that ninety and so there was a
lot of it.

Speaker 8 (01:43:25):
To me, the play Floras made was a dynamic, which
if you're a long warm fan, you're getting used to it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:31):
Yeah, I did, be honest with me.

Speaker 8 (01:43:33):
And now if you ask Jonah Williams, I would assume
if he if he took he thought that proble ball
was probably out after he got closer to first base,
not when he first hit it, but after he got
a little bit closer, and then all of a sudden
when it hits the gear that he went into was like, I.

Speaker 2 (01:43:50):
Mean, just like I don't know, it was like warp speed.
He was flying.

Speaker 8 (01:43:55):
To your point about how good the throw was and
to play off the off the fence to get him
second face. Well, I gotta be honest with ye. I
was shocked that they didn't go look at it. I
thought he was safe. I thought his hand went around
the tag, or one of the other went around it,
or it was close enough that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
But you know, anyway, a back and forth game.

Speaker 1 (01:44:16):
Is Alan Shibley that good an outfielder. He's the one
who made the throat.

Speaker 8 (01:44:19):
Yeah, but you remember now, it doesn't have the Texas
State Stadium. The fence doesn't have the deeper angle like
here is three twenty five, and you start describing the
field before the game street twenty five, but it jets
out to three forty probably pretty quickly, pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
It doesn't do that there. Yeah, it's pretty symmetrically. Yeah,
that's right. So you don't have that the deeper alleys
and so.

Speaker 8 (01:44:43):
And and subsequently, when the ball bounces off this fence,
it's going one a different direction. There, it has a
chance that it's gonna ricochet and bounce right to you.
And now obviously it has something not taking anything away
from Shibley because it was a tremendous play, but I've
seen a lot of guys thrown out from right field
and to second base on the line in the air.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
Throw guys with less speed than Jona Williams, Yes, and
then Jonah and he gets Jonah there.

Speaker 2 (01:45:08):
So was that of a play all right? Again?

Speaker 1 (01:45:10):
Like I said, we're gonna look at the national scene
for college baseball leading up to this series opener between
Texas and Texas A and M. When we continue from
UFCU Diish falk Field, I'm thirteen under the zone here
on a Friday afternoon from UFCU Dish falk Field, and
continue with Ty Harrington here. As the long words go
through batting practice, long one's going to face three left

(01:45:31):
handers at least as starters for Texas A and M.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
How do you see that affecting?

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
Obviously, Adrian Rodriguez unfortunately's only able to hit from the
left side. So I don't know how much if he's
going to be in the lineup or how much or
that sort of thing. I don't I don't know how
old that will be. But it's three left handers are
facing tonight and tomorrow afternoon and Sunday after that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:53):
You know that this has been years ago.

Speaker 8 (01:45:58):
I had two freshmen and a junior or something like
theyver all I was starting three left handers. Frank Anderson,
who was in the pitching coach here and I ran
into each other, and Frank and I've known each other
for a really long time, and he questioned me, He goes,
why are you starting three left handers?

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
It was a question of you know what church is
the reason?

Speaker 8 (01:46:18):
And well I said, I said, well, Frank, first of all,
they're probably my three best strike throwers.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
They just happened to be left handed.

Speaker 8 (01:46:25):
And he said does he what effect do you think
it has on the other team or what effect do
you you know? And he goes, do you worry about
you know, the left handed hitters seeing the same thing
over and over and repeated three games in a row,
and we went it was a forty five minute discussion
about it. And if that that three rotation of left

(01:46:46):
handed broke up about oh, week five or six, and
the one guy, a freshman, didn't you know how that
it just changes?

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:46:53):
I mean, you know you're starting rotations about his flood?
Is his fluid as a top twenty in college baseball historically?

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:47:00):
And but it was interesting that he asked me that,
and the answer became for me a little bit later on.
The majority a lot of college baseball's best hitters are
left handed. A lot of the majority of the middle
of a lineup in college baseball is left handed. So
I felt like that if I was starting three left handers,

(01:47:23):
maybe it made those guys think about it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:25):
Maybe it got into their head.

Speaker 8 (01:47:26):
If they had a bad night on Friday night, they
didn't like you know, maybe they were trying to change.
I don't know, like I just I did. It did
not bother me, and I actually liked it. Now, the
flip side of it is we talk about on not
the flip side. Let me finish that side of it first.
We talk about the matchups all the time. We don't
talk about the right right matchup as much as we

(01:47:48):
talk about the left left matchup. And that's just the
way baseball is, and that's the way it's always been.
In the averages, go down left on left, historically go
down left on left occasionally.

Speaker 2 (01:47:59):
Who was it was unity, I wasn't, kidd Who was
it a year ago? Two years ago? That was left handed?
He was hit It wasn't.

Speaker 8 (01:48:06):
Yeah, he was hitting as high now he runs some
of that. He was running some of that average right.
And but so it is a challenge and for I
was just when you and I were looking at I
was watching Rodriguez take VP. You know, he was hitting
left handed, and I was thinking to myself, I wonder
if he's gonna move over to the right side, but
I guess not this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:48:26):
Yeah, And so he's obviously would be better off if
he could go to the other side of the plate
right handed, because I do think it can. It can
have a fan in fact, because prayer is also the
to the prayer. And then, uh, what's the second guy
they'll start tomorrow? They are they are breaking ball heavy guys.
They're breaking ball heavy guys. So if they're change up

(01:48:49):
left handed pitchers, if their best pitchure is a change up,
then you'd leave your left handed hitters in there. Because
a lot of old school coaches would say they pit
leet handed pitchers don't like having to execute a left
handed change up to the third base side of the play.
They're historically doing it to the right handed hitters on
the first base side.

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
They don't I don't like going back across.

Speaker 8 (01:49:09):
They don't like going extension side back across. So having
said that, some guys would take Wayne Graham would take
a left handed hitter and put him in the lineup.
If your guy was a left handed changeup guy, to
take that pitch away. Now you were narrowed down to
two pitches against your left handed hitters. So there's there's
starts of going now. Like I said, name Cannon. If

(01:49:29):
they're more breaker heavy guys than they are change up,
they have it. But I will tell you what you
will see this weekend might be one of the best
change ups in college baseball. And in command of the
change up as Moss. It is any count at any
right hitter, left handed hit, it does not matter. And
to back it up, and he's he's probably I bet you,

(01:49:49):
and I don't know. I don't have in front of
me the data. I bet you he's seventy five percent
change up. There, seventy percent change up. Well, the ninety
five min our heater behind it. Wo, but it is
change up. He'll throw a change straight change up and
then he gets that finger in front of that thumb
underneath it and I'm sorry, in front of it and a.

Speaker 2 (01:50:08):
Man and it'll disappear. Wow. And so he'll throw two
different types this week.

Speaker 1 (01:50:14):
And I mentioned TC's playing Baylor in Fort Worth and
is like you said about check the rankings every week.
Check the standings every week in the Big Twelve. Now
West Virginia is on top, but they have an uneven
amount of games. They're only able to play one of
their three games in still Water, and I think unfortunately
that's a disadvantage for West Virginia. You'd say that they
didn't play the other two games in Stillwater. Oklahoma State

(01:50:37):
struggling this year. So West Virginia is thirteen to three,
so there's going to be an uneven amount of games.
But the three teams Kansas, Arizona and tc are all
twelve and six. TCU comes off losing a series at
Central Florida, which is struggling to make the tournament field.
Because remember only the top twelve make the Big twelve
tournament field. The other two schools since Colorado and I

(01:50:57):
was stay, don't field baseball programs. There's fourteen baseballing UH
schools in the Big twelve, and UH they're trying to
make sure they're in the field. They dropped two or
three on the road. Now they're home and they're playing Baylor.
Baylor has been up and down and up and down.
They're eight and ten in the league going in there,
but you've got some in Kansas comes off sweeping Kansas
State after really struggling. I got swept in Fort Worth,

(01:51:18):
and UH dropped two out of three in another series.

Speaker 2 (01:51:21):
It's hard to figure out that league.

Speaker 8 (01:51:23):
Early in the year, I thought K State was the
team that everybody I saw him early in UH in
Arlington had watched them. And then they went on ah,
you know, the first month of February and half of March,
and I was like, you know what, they're physical, They're
good enough on the mound, and I think they went
to Lubbock and watch which, as it turned out, you know,

(01:51:43):
Texas not very good. And and so I was kind
of like, K State maybe is that team? And then
the name I didn't know it was West Virginia. That's right,
that's right. The team I didn't know much about was
and maybe just assume because Mazie wasn't there anymore, Andy
wasn't coaching anymore, it was West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:51:58):
But West Virginia does what West Virginia always does.

Speaker 1 (01:52:01):
They open the season running away from the home state weather, right,
they go chasing the sun. So they play in Myrtle
Beach or they play in Florida. They've even played in Arizona,
but mainly on the East coast in the South, so
they can get some games. And that's why they've only
lost five ball games. But there aren't PI in that
great and but they won the conference games they have
to win. They're thirteen and three right now. Arizona's been

(01:52:23):
up and down. Kansas State got back on the roll
before being swept by Kansas. That's why say, go figure
this out. Arizona State has been up and down. Baylor
won two out of three at Arizona and dropped two
out of three at home to Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:52:35):
Figure that out.

Speaker 8 (01:52:36):
You're not gonna and I will say this because you know,
Texas State went in there the Tuesday before you have
aged came in and beat them up on a Tuesday,
I mean really just beat them up. And so you
don't know what picture is missing. You don't know what
guys down. You know, men, we know the dynamic here

(01:52:56):
because you're respenter being out. We all know that most
people do because it's such a highly publicize you know,
program number one and number one in the country. But
then in near the Friday night guy, everybody in the
world's gonna hear about it, yep. But you don't know
what that looks like at Case State. You don't know
what that looked like at Beata.

Speaker 2 (01:53:10):
I know that.

Speaker 8 (01:53:10):
I know that the last three weeks, four weeks or
last month, Bader started giving up more runs than what
they were doing earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:53:16):
In the year.

Speaker 8 (01:53:17):
And you know, they had a little bit better I
thought they had better arms this year going into the season.
So I don't we don't know what they've done it,
but it is that conference. Are you talking about fluid
as you are? You couldn't mind you. We're gonna look
up in three weeks and there's no tonne what it's.

Speaker 2 (01:53:32):
Gonna look like.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
Yeah, yeah, go and figure that out. Like I said,
it's gonna be It's gonna be a Derby all the
way to wire. All right, we've got one more segment
of the program to go, tying. I'd be back to
wrap it up. As we continue from UFC Yudish Fowk Field.
I'm thirteen under the zone. We get ready to wrap
it up from here at UFCU just fog Field with
the longhorns taking doting practice right now. Well, the guys
taking swings right now. Hit one of the boomingest home

(01:53:55):
runs we've seen this here, the one that Casey Borba
hit the other night that just flat out crushed it
off of that back wall.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
Yes, and that's not common. I mean they hit one year.

Speaker 8 (01:54:09):
No, it's just not you know what you was interesting.
I think you'll agree with me on this. The majority
of his homers or pull side, yep. And that was
when he hit it, and I mean he got full
extension and it was like he was lined up, I'm
hitting this ball the other way or I'm gonna stay
on it one or the other. And he got to
the bottom middle of the baseball and it just kept

(01:54:33):
going and kept going. And I mean that's not an
easy part of the park to hit a homer.

Speaker 1 (01:54:38):
There's a reason teams shift way over for him. Yes, yeah, No,
one shift over to the other side because to to
the left side, because they're expecting him to pull pull
the ball. And then and then one of the lesser
mile per hour hits, but was one of the bigger
hits of the ball game. Is the guy at the
play right now, Gasparino, who's had big hits, but he

(01:55:00):
hit that little blue fly and keep mentioned that, Uh,
it was kind of a it was a difficult ball
for I'm looking for him now, Samsung qu to pick
up because he started back and then about he.

Speaker 8 (01:55:15):
Started back because you're used to Gasparino took a big
swing at it. Yep, wasn't It wasn't a soft out
of balanced sling. It was an imbalanced sling. He just
capped it and caught.

Speaker 1 (01:55:25):
Off the end of the bat and so by the
time he got to it, dropped in and kept the
inning alive and got run home. That sort of thing. So,
all right, the uh, let me ask you this. There's
four weekend series left for this team, and none of
them are going to be easy. Florida has been hot
of late. They took two or three of Mississippi State.
So the last home series, the senior weekend series, that'll

(01:55:46):
be Florida here, and then you've got three rival series
end the season with OU. They go to Arkansas next
weekend and obviously these guys here at Texas A and M.

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
So the question is, as a coach, what do you
do to keep your guys.

Speaker 1 (01:56:02):
Level consistent but but but up and spired enough? How
do you strike the balance with all of that?

Speaker 8 (01:56:06):
Well, I would tell you that this that part of
Jim slash Nagel's magic and influence is they have a
mental coach and Brian Kane, who's really good. He's been
with you know, he's worked with Jim for since he
was way back at TCU. We had him for two
years with us, and he works with Brian works with a.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
Lot of people.

Speaker 8 (01:56:28):
My point is they they stay so engaged in their routines.
How many times, DEVI, I ass you this, How many
times did Jim slash n Angle use the word routine
around you? Yeah? Yeah, Sai right, So he he thrives
in and his players and they thrive in that routine
and it keeps their emotions at at a level you
know for them and in checks not the right word,

(01:56:51):
but it helps them stay in that moment through their routines.

Speaker 1 (01:56:56):
Uh, I just robbed you in an hour of your day.
You're okay with that? And still doing a ballgame.

Speaker 2 (01:57:00):
Oh, I'll be fun, you know that? All right? It
comes to college baseball, I'm in.

Speaker 1 (01:57:04):
Ty Harrington is all in. He'll be here with us tonight.
We'll bring you the game six forty five pre game
Star time, seven o'clock, first pitch, Texas and Texas A
and M and the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown Rivalry Series,
Game one of it. Tonight, Ruger Riojas on the mound
for Texas Ryan Prager to go for Texas A and M.
Thanks so much to Marcus Spears stepping in as our

(01:57:25):
producer this afternoon. Thanks to Geene Watson joining us as
well in the first hour of the program. We invite
you stay tuned. Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio up next.
We'll be back at two o'clock on Monday afternoon right
here on AM thirteen under the Zone.