Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 6/26/24

Tony is back! He and Austin talk Reds, what all he's missed, Bengals, college football, chat with Chad Brendel, take your phone calls, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Cincinnati Reds fans and haters. Thisis Skyline Chile. Since he three sixty
about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored inpart by Skyline Chile. Stop by Skyline
Chili for a three way or cheezConey today. Feeling good, It's Skyline
time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Welcome back.

(00:32):
Your dreams were your ticket out.Welcome back to that same old place that
you la bat Well. The namiesthey have all change since you hung around,
but those dreams have remained and theyturned around. Hi, all right,

(00:56):
well we need Jack welcome back.I guess me since he three sixty,
I'm trying to figure out all thebuttons in here. Austin forgot how
to work all this stuff. Thankyou. It's good to be back.
I am Tony Pike, and Austinis in there somewhere Austin. Austin has

(01:17):
filled in admirably over the past coupleweeks, is what I'm told. I've
been listen to one second. I'vebeen told you did great and very thankful.
I'm also happy to be back.It is bittersweet because, uh,
leaving the little one and the wifeand the kids at home. It was
a a good couple weeks. Itwas a busy, hectic couple of weeks.

(01:37):
I'm happy to say the baby ishealthy, U mom is doing great,
and other two children are are reallyjust picking up right where they left
off. How's dad doing? Dad? Is Dad's tired, fatigue but also
happy? Good and uh. Thingsobviously went a little earlier than expected.
I believe it was a what twomondays ago I did the show, was

(02:00):
expected to do the show pretty muchall that week. Things progressed a little
quicker and we had to move upthe timeline a little bit. But things
have worked out well. Great tostep away and help around the house,
but also great to be back.The unfortunate side of all this, Austin
is I've come back in the Redshaven't seemed to instill much confidence in this

(02:22):
fan base. We have a lotto get to on the Cincinnati Reds today,
including fallout from last night, alineup today. You want to talk
about instilling confidence? Did you?Did you see it all? Charlie goldsmith'sweet
about David Bell's conversation earlier today.So we'll get into the lineup as we

(02:44):
go. But a spoiler alert,Will Benson is not in the lineup today
and Jamer Candelario not in the lineuptoday. David Bell said this on Jamer
Candelario, the tendonitis in his kneeis progressively not getting better, maybe worse.
He's still able to play. We'regoing to take a closer look at

(03:04):
it to make sure that he cankeep going. There's ways, there's an
off day coming up, continuing todh things that we can do to help
him through it. So that's notgood. The translation to that would be
that on August third, Jmer isgoing to have knee surgery. Is that
how that works? Correct? Okay, what's probably gonna happen. He'll fiddle

(03:27):
around with this some more and it'lllead to him missing a substantial amount of
time. That is the case withChristian Encarnassio and Strand, who is out
for the season because remember he wenton well he didn't go on the injured
list, and then he did,and then he was ready to come back,
but he got a second opinion.Now he's gonna have surgery and he's
out for the rest of the year. Will Benson has also been terrible.
Nick Lodolo has a blister. HunterGreen is puking on the mound. TJ.

(03:53):
Friedel is on the injured list.It seems like the Reds are kind
of what You're home has been likeover the last couple of weeks. People
are throwing up, people are angry, people are hurt. You know,
it's just the Reds are kind ofa beautiful depiction of life after a newborn.
Right. Yes, you really don'tknow what the next hour is going

(04:14):
to bring, and for the CincinnatiReds, that's what it's been. So.
I got a lot that that Ihave compiled over the last two weeks
to talk about with the Cincinnati Redstoday. But I think it all kind
of came to the forefront yesterday ina game that that just saw the Reds
do things that they've done all yearthat do not allow themselves a chance to

(04:40):
win. Hunter Green was having whetherit's hydration issues or illness issues. On
the mound, he got sick,he didn't have anywhere near his stuff,
The pitch count was high. Ifyou follow along with Lance McCallister on Twitter,
you certainly saw his frustration last night. But the way Hunter Green was
handled yesterday rowdy to les, when'sthe last time you saw rowdy? Telez

(05:04):
Austin, He's not a skinny fellaon the bass pass. What are you
trying to say, Well, hestole a base pretty easily. Yesterday she
scored on a single which was oddlycut off by Hunter Green at the plate.
I watched Jonathan India at third basewith a ball hit right back to
the pitcher break home. That's notsupposed to happen in baseball. I saw
Jake Frayley have a ball drop infront of him and took his time to

(05:30):
get to the ball and another runnerscored. This team just makes airs that
you can't make in Major league baseball. This team just handles themselves with mis
cues on the bass pass that youcan't make in major league baseball. And
when you have the injuries that rackup the way the Reds have had,
and when you have the issues thatrack up to the Reds have had,
your margin ferrer is smaller and thisteam simply is not good enough. And

(05:54):
it feels and Austin, I thinkyou've talked about this before. It feels
like a season that has been haltedbefore where I even got off the ground,
much like the Bengals this year.Oh, there's so much optimism in
the off season, especially when youlook at somebody like TJ. Friedel who's
just back on the injured list.It's been all sorts of different things,
a wrist, a hamstring, whateverelse. It's my it's just one of
those seasons where it feels like theycan't seem to get off the ground.

(06:17):
And Monday was fun. Monday wasa really fun time. Ellie hit one
on the river boat. But itdoes feel like Monday was merely a mirage.
Yeah, you know, my wifelooked at me on Monday, Yeah,
about six fifteen, six thirty,she said, get these kids out
of the house. And I'm smartenough because I was at the tail end

(06:42):
of my paternity leave. I'm smartenough to pick up on these cues now.
And when she says, get thesekids out of the house, that's
exactly what I did. And Itook them down to the ballpark and it
was great. Three and underw Aththe ballpark. You don't need to get
a ticket. That's pretty cool.And you know the thing is, they've
got to sit on your lap.But it wasn't a sellout crowd. I
was able to get pretty good seatsup top, and uh man, I'll

(07:02):
tell you It was fun watching Ellieday la Cruz hit a ball into the
the steamboat was fun. I knowyour son Wilder loves fireworks. Yes,
he's a huge Llie de la Cruzfan, huge firework guy. But there
was a mirage. It was fun. They they wreaked Tavoc on the base

(07:23):
pass right, Ellie de la Cruzstretched a double from a single and and
an RBI and uh they got timelyhitting and Carson Spear made a made a
pretty nice start. And you know, we we got to see a debut
that went successfully for the Cincinnati Reds. Levi Jordan had a nice debut.

(07:45):
He played like Michael didn't He Yeah, for that night, and then it
goes back to reality. And thereality that continues to set in is this
team is not good enough to playthrough the airs and the mistakes and the
miscues that they continue to Now we'llget to today's game, we'll get to
the lineup. We can tell youAustin Graham Ashcraft day at the ballpark.

(08:07):
Graham Ashcraft is back. Yes,that's exciting. Uh huh. What do
we know about nolova Marte at thispoint other than he's not really hitting the
ball in triple A. That meansthat. Well, earlier today, tone
when they activated Graham Ashcraft, theysent Jozverr Zulueta, who pitched last night
and had four strikeouts in his bigleague debut. They sent him back down

(08:31):
the cnlx Perez Expressway to Louisville.And in the announcement they said that they
have returned Noel vi Marte from arehab assignment. That doesn't mean that they
have selected his contract to be inthe big leagues. That simply means he's
been activated and is going to continueto be at Louisville. He has not

(08:54):
pitched, or he has not hitthe ball very well whatsoever. No has
not been in a good spot.And just moments ago, Ton, Yeah,
here we go. Thirty seven secondsago, the Reds announced that Jake
Frayley has been scratched with a rightlower leg contusion prior to today's game.
So no Jake Frayley in the lineupeither, which means Levi Jordan gets put

(09:20):
in. But yeah, Noel vMarte not selected. Today is his first
day eligible to return, and clearlythe Reds did not think he was ready.
Incredible, nothing has gone right,I think the hope with the team
the rest of the year is like, Hey, sometimes they'll have fun games
like Monday. Yeah, but Iguess the cool thing with no Jake Frayley

(09:41):
today you get to see Levi again. Sure, maybe Levi has another big
game. Maybe Levi will throw theball into the infield correctly, maybe Levi.
I think Levi only has like sixless RBI than Jake Frayley does.
Yeah, so it's really not thatbig of a difference. Yea, there's
a lot. We'll get to itthe Cincinnati Reds, especially here in the
first hour because they do have aone to ten start today, so we'll
be all Reds here now were numberone. There's a ton that I missed.

(10:05):
I love that you decided to comeback during your Red's Day game,
Yep, knowing that people would bemad and they would all just listen to
us instead. Yep. Smart move. That's the thought. Veteran. Here
are some things I wrote down thatthat have happened since I've been gone.
The Olympics are close, Yeah,and I have to bring into question a
little bit how Olympic qualifying goes,because one of the best Olympic hope hopes

(10:31):
for a gold medal is not goingto be there in the track and field
side of things. Alex Morgan's alsonot in the Olympics. Yeah, she
posted earlier today. So we gotthe Olympics coming up, We got the
College World Series. Imagine this.A coach lied at the podium. Oh
man, A coach criticized a question. The college coach lied, yes,
really yes, huh, crushed areporter about a question, and then the

(10:54):
day later took it, took ajob at Texas Hard Knocks. The Bengals
are going to be on that.That's cool. We saw Caitlin Clark and
Angel Reese round three. Uh jj. Reddick is now a head coach in
the NBA and he's using curse wordsin his in his prediction in his uh
press conference that I love it,I love it. The Florida Panthers and
the Boston Celtics were crown champions inthe NHL and the NBA. Yes,

(11:16):
Joey Chestnut his band from the HotDog getting contract. You've missed a lot.
I have missed a ton. Uh. There was a kid tasered in
the outfield at the Reds game.That was still when it felt like the
Reds were in it. We gottraining camp scheduling. Travis Kelcey appeared on
a on a stage at Wembley Stadiumin front of ninety thousand people, appearing
with Taylor Swift. Do you rememberwhen we thought originally, like this whole

(11:39):
thing's not going to work. Thisis just a public publicity stunt. Seems
to be in love. Seems tobe that they're in love. Joe Burrow
was doing stuff for Vogue on thefashion Week and he's walking around with like
a a jacket on with no backand Joe Burrow seems to be much more
comfortable with where he is. Peoplegot big mad about that. Yeah,
yeah, people got big man thathe was wearing unique clothing. Sure,

(12:05):
sure, it's unbelievable, but JoeyBurrow is making an effort to get out
there more. I appreciate that,and that's a good thing from Joe Burrow.
Also, NBA Draft is tonight Austin. Oh my gosh, we're gonna
see Bronnie. How long round howmany picks into the draft until we know
who one of the guys is that'sbeing drafted. Oh, that's a good
question. If there's any indication aboutthe state of college basketball in the United

(12:28):
States, it's the the NBA draft. Well, you could have a guy
draft that average four points last yearat USC unbelievable. There is rumors,
you know it's going to be onthe movie. Did you know that they
there was a big trade in theNBA last night? Yeah, Bridges is
in New York. Next he onlygot four Villanova players on that team.
They calling it Nova York. Didyou know that they have made the NBA
draft two nights now? Yeah,And it's really like two rounds to begin

(12:52):
with. Can't wait and like theonly reason for this is because of Brownie?
Will Brownie have to wait to beWill Bronnie have to wait a second
day? He's not gonna be inthe green room. Do you think will
his name be called tonight? Ithink he only worked out for like three
or four teams work out, whichis apparently that's like his agent, that's
a thing his agent does. USmen's national team is coming to town.

(13:13):
Have some FC Cincinnati questions Hotter thanthe proverbial firecracker right now too. Just
owned Bolivia all that the other day? Watch that, did you Yeah you
saw polistic I did Captain America?I did? Okay, So we have
a lot to get to today,including your phone calls. Also tone the
EA Sports list of toughest places toplay in college football. I think we

(13:37):
need to talk about that. Okay, it's in the game. Can you
give us your best e A SportsIt's in the game. Okay. Sure.
I did get a chance over thelast two weeks to see some of
the greater spots in Cincinnati, reallyon days where you know, the newborn
is not the not the worst part, Austin, Right, what's what's the

(13:58):
worst? Well, the newborn's easy. He essentially does three things. They
eat, they sleep, and theyuse the restroom. Right. Well,
yes, for my wife, whoobviously had a c section, a lot
of the last two weeks was helpingwith her because she can't lift anything,
and having a two and three yearold at home takes a lot out of
you. I got to go tothe Museum Center one day. You know,

(14:20):
I have not been there since Iwas a It was phenomenal, Is
it cool? Phenomenal? Took himto the museum Center, got to see
a Reds game, went to acouple of different parks in the area.
Really cool, went and saw amovie. Have you had the Skyline Breakfast
yet? Now? Put it upin five different spots. Now saw that.
Though. I'm excited about it.I love Skyline Chiley. I'm thankful

(14:43):
for Skyline Chili. Missed all ofour sponsors over the last couple of weeks.
Oh we lost them all. Yeah, they're gone. I was looking
at the log. We don't haveany sponsors today. It's just since He
three sixty. Now we've turned thisinto a three hour podcast. It's just
a podcast. I'm happy to seethat Marcus is calling in because it tells

(15:03):
me he's been locked in and withJonathan India in the lineup today, India's
hitting the ball. Well, youknow he's ready to talk about that.
But literally, we have so muchto get to from now until three o'clock.
We'll start on that journey when weget back. Happy to be back.
Since He three to sixty thanks toSkyline Chili on ESPN fifteen to thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station. Hey Google,you got promoted getting ESPN is fifteen thirty

(15:26):
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thirty. Asia's delivery. Swing ahigh, high fly ball right field and

(16:12):
deep back of this one. Johnsonto the warning track at the wall,
and there it goes. Jesse Wakertakes his time stepping out first base and
we'll circle it all with a tworun shot and the crowd will react to
that. As Winker makes it fourtwo Nationals with his ninth home run of
the season, Winker chester into thedugout rounding third. This game has some

(16:36):
high tensions and emotions at this moment, all right, Den, how about
that? That's the wink the wink, The wink with a home run started
up with the padres over the lastcouple of days so he plays for the
Nationals. But yeah, he hasstarting up against the pod I just wanted
to clarify for people that him andthe padres Ma gowing back at it.
Jerkson Profar got the last laugh though, with a grand slam down the right

(17:00):
field line. But I'm gonna giveJesse Winker our power player of yesterday's game,
brought to you by Cincinnati Tax Resolutionand powered tone by your good friend
Tove Sheldon. Yes, okay,Jesse Winker. I miss him, I
miss the Wink. We can getWinker back. Maybe Nick son Zel back.
I mean, I don't know whyif you're Nick Crawl, you don't

(17:21):
go after those guys at dead bringthem back you. Yeah, talking about
Nick Crawl today too. Thank youto uh Cincinnati Tax Resolution. Also as
we kind of review everything with yesterday'sgame and in the last four weeks Top
sports stories in the last two weeks. Also thanks to our friends with Klaus
Roofing, the Roofing System of Cincinnati, the trusted local roofing and gutter company

(17:42):
that's Krssincey dot com KRS. Sincehe with a y dot com man,
you know, I was watching Mondayat the game and I'm watching the game
last night and it dawned on mesomething about the Pittsburgh Pirates all and the
NL Central NL Central might be retoolingin a big way. Saint Louis essentially

(18:07):
is never retooling. They're always goingto be relevant, and they're showing that
they're relevant because of the way they'veplayed lately. They're in second place in
the NL Central. You would assumemaybe the Cubs figure it out, or
you know, with Craig Council asthe manager, something is going to change.
At this point, Austin, canwe can we no longer wait for
the Milwaukee Brewers to to give uptheir lead. It feels like it is

(18:29):
not a flash in the pan.It feels like this Brewers team is a
legitimate contender. Yeah. I mean, at this point, through eighty games,
they've kind of proven to you whoexactly they are. And despite the
issues that they've had in pitching,I mean, I always expected them to
come back down to earth at soand they just haven't. They just have
not. They've stayed right there.And then now, as you mentioned,
Saint Louis has won four in arow. They're the only team really in

(18:52):
contention with Milwaukee for the National LeagueCentral, and I'm sure they've got some
big matchups yet to be played.So yeah, when you look at the
as a whole, I think Chicagohas some question marks moving forward, but
Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Milwaukee,they're still set up nicely, not only
for this year but for years tocome. You know, I was,
I was watching Pittsburgh play the lasttwo and you start to going to go

(19:18):
through who they are. Yesterday MitchKeller threw hiss he ares three to two
zero on the season. Sixteen startsin Jared Jones is one of if you
don't know, you're you're going toknow. Jared Jones is going to be
a force in Major League Baseball.So fifteen starts, three, six,
six ERA all. By the way, They've got Paul Schemes. They've got

(19:40):
a player by the name of BrianReynolds who has the longest active hits streak
in Major League Baseball right now attwenty two games. They have O'Neil Cruz,
they have young talent. Is Pittsburghcloser than the Reds are right now
in your opinion? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean those

(20:02):
three are three legitimate cornerstones of arotation that they have, and Jared Jones
and Paul Skeen's being so young,I mean, Mitch Keller's only twenty eight.
But they have their own Ellie daLa Cruz. Yes, they do.
O'Neill certainly not on the same levelas Ellie, but a guy with
huge upside and very young. BrianReynolds is a two time All Star already.

(20:26):
They still got some guys that andthey have question marks certainly at the
catcher position. Andrew McCutcheon's not goingto be there forever. But from pitching
and a young core standpoint, they'vegot a pretty good start. Yeah,
a good bullpen too, well,not a great bullpen, but they've got
a couple of good arms in thebullpen. Yeah. As I was watching

(20:47):
the last two games unfold, foryears, we've kind of just put Pittsburgh
in the cellar, and now you'relike, man, there's pieces around this
team that make them formidable going forward. And if you remember, at the
start of last year, they startedoff really really well, yes, and
then they kind of declined as theseason went along. Same situation this year.

(21:07):
They start off really well, wentback down and now they've kind of
slowly been at that, you know, five hundred and blow up and down.
Mark. I think that does saya little bit about Derek Shelton is
too. You know, he's youknow, been there for a couple of
years now and kind of establishing whathe likes to do and how he can
get the best out of his players. And I think that says a lot
about the direction of the Pirates.And on top of that, they've developed

(21:29):
guys like schemes to get to thebig leagues and they're not holding him back.
They said, come now, let'ssee what you can do. Let's
do it, do it at thehighest level. So obviously from a new
central standpoint, last year, Ithink we all fell into the trap last
year of what Austin just saying,well, you know what, everything's cool
because next year all these guys aregoing to progress and then it's going to
be the Reds division to lose forthe next four or five years. Yeah,

(21:51):
other teams now have something to sayabout that and the way in which
the Reds are playing the game.And I'm not talking about the personnel and
talking about the injuries right here,I'm talking about the airs, the miscues,
the mistakes that you don't see majorleague teams making that the Reds are
making makes you really start to questionwhere this team and where the trajectory is

(22:11):
heading for the Cincinnati Reds, becausethere is reason for optimism and there is
reason for excitement, but you've gotto capitalize on that or else On the
other side of the spectrum, you'retalking years from now about, Man,
did the Reds waste the Li dela Cruz era? Did the Reds waste
the Spencer Steer era? Remember theyoung talent that they had and nothing ever

(22:33):
came of it. That's the conversationyou don't want to be having in a
couple of years if you're a CincinnatiReds fan. That's kind of part of
the story I had yesterday too,is like my frustrations with the team is
more about the fact that I'm nowfearful that this won't work because they've screwed
it up in the past and Ihave nothing to go on to believe they're

(22:56):
going to get this right. Likelast year was a good taste of what
it could be, Yeah, andthis year is the taste of the other
side of that. Yeah. AndI think we all kind of winted it
last year with like, Okay,we'll see what happens, and then we
were impressed, and now we're like, okay, well let's see what you
actually got. And then you aremet with all these different issues and you're
like, yeah, yeah, theReds, we'll see it when you see

(23:17):
if they actually ever do anything.And and that I think is where a
lot of people stand. Yep,there is so much, literally in the
last just two weeks that's happened fromthe lineup. Has Will Benson gotten a
hit since I've been gone. Idon't know if he has. I mean,
honestly don't think so let me doublecheck that real quick. I think
his last hit. I think hislast hit was June twelfth, so he

(23:40):
might have gotten a hit the secondday I was out, but he's not
gotten to hit since then. That'sincredible. It's it's it's unfathomable to look
at where Will Benson is and noone's really doing him many favors within the
organization. We've seen TJ. Friedelnow suffer another setback. We see Christian

(24:03):
and Karnassi Ownstrand, who has suffereda major setback mentioned the Hunter Green issues
on the mound his last two outings. Nicolodola with the blisters, Jamer Candelario
with the knee tendonitis that doesn't seemto be going away. In fact,
David bell talked about it's actually gettingworse at this point. Noelvee. Marte
was looked at at one point Austinas what will they're gonna get Marty back?

(24:26):
He's not shown the ability to hita baseball in Triple A to this
point. Graham Ashcraft went into theseason as one of the cornerstone pieces you
wanted. He's now back from aTriple A stint making a start today.
Will Benson has not gotten a hitsince June twelfth, unbelievable. Before that
hadn't gotten a hit since June sixth, So he's had one hit since I've
been out for the month of June. As a whole, he has seven

(24:48):
hits and twenty six strikeouts in fortynine at bats, and slash line tone
is one forty three, two ohfour, two oh four. What if
Matt McLain doesn't come back? Becausewe're hearing the right stuff, which we
kind of hear all the time fromDavid Bellen's organization. Yeah, why do
you believe anything the organization tells you. I don't believe anything at this point.
Yeah, I wouldn't. So thoseare just a couple of the players

(25:12):
and the issues that I've wrote down. Where's the help coming from now?
Jake Frayley was scratched from today today'slineup? Where is the help for the
Cincinnati Reds right now? What isgoing on with the training staff for the
Cincinnati Reds right now? A lotto take in before we get to phone

(25:36):
calls Austin, we would be remissedas well. Man, I miss that,
not to be I don't want tobury it. But the story twenty
legendary seasons of ceremonial first flights,Oh my gosh from Sam the Bald Eagle
from the Cincinnati Zoo. Did youfirst flights? Did you have a chance
to hear quick hits yesterday? No? So the only one I missed.

(26:00):
I brought this up. I broughtthis up to Mo. I said Mo
to I, just Sam the BaldEagles last flight. Yeah, a final
fight. He had no idea whoSam the Eagle was really. He thought
I was talking about some dude fromthe Muppets. Wow, I'm like Mo,
Sam the bald eagle has been flyinga great American ballpark for twenty twenty

(26:22):
years, and he's not I saidout like lies during the national anthem,
yeah seven or eight times a year, like he's kicking the cake. He's
retiring due to age related motion issues. Had no idea who Sam was,
and that broke my heart. Ilost a lot of respect for Mo.
Yes, thank you for the memories, Sam, Yes, thank you,
and for your service of a coupleof phone calls. When we get back,

(26:42):
and maybe we'll dive more into thisRed's lineup, which I know everyone's
eager to hear about since he threesixty. Thanks to our friends at Skyline
Chili and soon enough Austin, thiswill rain even heavier. The home of
the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty,Cincinnati Sports Station, Hey, Alexa,
what's going on in baseball? GettingESPN fifteen thirty From iHeartRadio, Welcome back,

(27:17):
Cinty three to sixty. ESPN fifteenthirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, a
service of Skyline Chile. Right hereon ESPN fifteen thirty. We've been all
over the UH the Cincinnati Reds fromfrom start till now and UH with a
one to ten start today. Wewill uh, we'll talk Reds up until
the start of the game, willgive you updates as it goes on.
But a slew of other things thatwe will get to as the afternoon goes

(27:42):
on. But for now, thefirst time today, let's go to the
phone lines. Uh. Mark iscalling in. Jonathan India is leading off.
Jonathan India has been on fire.Mark, what's up? Hey,
what's going on? Yes? Hey, hey, were about to ride the
ship up? Now let's go.Now it's time for a run, Mark,

(28:06):
Yeah, exactly after. But afterwhat I saw last night, I
was terribly disappointed. I decided togo to a game for my birthday and
I saw Hunter Green get left inthe game and in too long after that
second, after that first in,and definitely after the second, and he's

(28:27):
been at the game. I'm notthree. I'm not sure how anyone in
the Reds dugout missed what I feellike everyone watching the game new and that
he just didn't have his stuff yesterday. Yeah, after that first in,
and I said take him out thegame, and he was he was sick,
and he's sick. Yes, whatis he doing in the game?

(28:48):
Okay, So that was another reasonI never thought much of David Bell as
a manager. For twelve games lastyear he got it right. But last
year was another you know thing thatproved my point. But the biggest thing
that stood out to me last nightwas Jamer. Yeah, I've never been
sold on Jamber, and he beencoming around and kind of getting me to

(29:14):
kind of rethink things with the wayhe's been hitting the past a couple of
weeks. But last night he cameto the plate with the bases loaded.
He came to the play with menon second, first, and third with
one out. I've seen him come, I've seen him come to the plate
four times with guys on base andguys in scoring position, and he did

(29:37):
nothing. So it was like,this is what I've been seeing with Jamber
Minusto's past couple of weeks, andthat's what uh to me. That that's
that that was that summed it uplast night. Well Mark, Happy,
happy late birthday. Thank you forthe call. Good to hear from you.

(29:59):
The But the problem Austin that Ithink this team has as a whole
is Mark kind of singled out JamberCandelario there. And if you missed early
on David Bell spoke today about JamerCandelario and he talked about his knee tendonitis
and said, quote, it's notgetting any better. It's progressively not getting
better, maybe a bit worse.He's still able to play. We're going

(30:21):
to take a closer look at ittoday to make sure that he can keep
going. There's ways with an offday to day, continuing to use him
as a DH there are things thatthey can do to help him through it.
Austin, reading between the lines,as you said earlier, what this
red season has been, what doesthat mean from David Bell, I have
no idea he'll be on the injuredlist soon probably, But to Mark's point,

(30:45):
Yeah, you could single out JamerCandelario, you could single about ten
other players out on this red roster. You could single out David Bell.
Talk about Nick Crawl and what hisrole in all this has been. But
it all adds up to something that'snot good. And unfortunately, when it's

(31:06):
not just a couple players, what'sthe solution. It's not like, you
know, Austin, you remember likethe Yaciel Pleague year, Yes, where
it was like hey, they wentall in, they tried to get some
vets. It didn't work. Blowit up and do something else, right,
you can't do that with this team. Well, I think your core

(31:27):
nucleus is young. It's supposed tobe the future now in Cincinnati, who
I think in twenty nineteen they wentafter those guys and then you know,
they were competitive but not great,and they doubled down midway through and they
go and they got Trevor Bauer yeah, and a couple of other guys and
then they rebounded and made the playoffsin twenty twenty and it was a sixty

(31:49):
game season. I know, theybarely made it, but they did have
the future in mind at the endof twenty nineteen. So it makes me
wonder in a season that is kindof heading in the same direction as twenty
nineteen in terms of a win lossyep, is Nick Kral going to try
to go out and get somebody,you know, like Sam Maull, who
they got at the deadline last yearand has been a big part of this

(32:12):
team as well and has pitched well, like Trevor Bauer, who was a
big part of twenty nineteen and aneven bigger part of twenty twenty. Is
there somebody that you can go andget to already start working ahead towards next
year. That's my question, becauseI don't think there are any real expectations
any longer attached to the twenty twentyfour Reds. And the problem is what
the problem is is that even inthe last couple of years you could point

(32:35):
to the future because of what wasin the minors. That's not the case
anymore. I mean, there's acouple of nice pieces, but talking about
foundation, cornerstone pieces that are nowwith the team and they're underperforming. That's
the concerning point for all of thisright now with the Cincinnati Reds. And
again, does it get worse beforeit gets better? The news we're hearing

(33:00):
again a contusion for Jake Freley.Does that mean he misses a game or
is he going the Aisle jamer Candelearry. The k E tendonitis is not getting
better last time I checked ten tonights. Isn't something that just clears up.
That takes time and it's getting worse. No, TJ. Friedel. Where
does it end right now for theCincinnati Reds, hopefully in a positive note

(33:23):
at one ten today when they takefirst pitching. Graham Ashcraft's back and we
can get excited about that again.Jeff is calling in. What's up,
Jeff, Ah, welcome back,Happy Wednesday to thank you Jeff. You
got Walker out catching any dark kit. He's not catching darts yet, but
he is part of my crew.Okay, that works, that works well.

(33:45):
I think last night that the justthe height of the malay surrounding the
Reds right now even hit the officialscorers boots last night when the centerfielder was
tracking a ball from Ellie perfectly hitthe heel of his glub and bounced out
and they gave him a triple forfifteen minutes. Yep. I was I
was like, where does that comefrom? Out of nowhere? So and

(34:09):
my first thought when I saw Hunterthrow up on the mound was he might
have seen the lineup card for todayalready. He got some sneak preview or
something like that. So you know, there's there's not a lot you can
say at this point in time.You know, I think hopefully everybody realizes
that a home run into the steamboat, a two run home run into the

(34:31):
steamboat in game eighty, basically meansnothing. You know, it's great for
one night for the excitement, butthere, you know, we got guys
who can't for all we got,guys, was it last night again?
Contact play? Back to the sureA guy gets Jonathan India at third base,
sees the ball go back to thepitcher and takes off home Jake Frayley.

(34:55):
You know the play that Jake Frayleydidn't make where O'Neil Cruz scored on
the ball that dropped in front ofhim. You know, you would think,
and again this is this is frommy perspective, but you would think
a team that is underperforming would focuson doing the little things right instead of
doing the little things wrong, insteadof making the bonehead of mistakes, instead

(35:16):
of not making the hustle plays.That concerns me from the manager down because
you could say, Okay, we'vegot some injuries, but man, this
team plays hard, or man they'resmart well, but when they don't play
hard and they make all these theseboneheaded plays and they're not good, that's
that's a disaster. For David BellSunday on the pregames, he's asked direct

(35:39):
about the base running quote unquote,we are successful on the contact play.
I'm like, you're sitting in thedugout watching this happen night after night,
yep, And I said to Austin. I said to Austin the other day,
the next time Ellie gets picked offsecond base, he needs to be
pulled from the game. It hasto end somewhere. So but uh,

(36:02):
yeah, welcome back Tony In.Big shout out to Austin for man in
the Ford in your absence. Havea good day. Thank you, Jeff,
I appreciate it. Yeah, youknow it now, Austin. It
comes to the point now of whatdo you look for for the excitement.
For a while it was what dowe talking about it? Well, just
wait because you get to the endof June and then mart is able to

(36:23):
come back. There's not really alot of excitements arounding Noueva Marte right now.
Yeah, he is uh going intoyesterday. He was batting one forty
three, one forty three, Austin, that's not a typo in forty nine
played appearances with fourteen strikeouts and zerowalks. You know what, that's identical
to what's that Will Benson? Yep. Will Benson was hitting one forty three

(36:45):
in forty nine ad bats in June. Yep. So to put into perspective
how bad Noelvie Marte has been inLouisville. He's been Will Benson, yes,
in tripa A yeah, and notmajor League Baseball. But for a
long time that was well, they'regoing to get Marty back. Watch out.
McLain's gonna come back. I thinkwhat's what is interesting for the rest

(37:07):
of the season is what do someof these guys do. Does Will Benson
finish the season the way he isright now? Because if he does,
he's not part of the future yepcees. We obviously won't see McLain.
I don't expect to see him whenMarte gets here. Does he look anything
like he did last year? Elliede la Cruz continues to ascend. That's
great. Can Green and Lodolo doit for an entire season? The most

(37:30):
part of an entire season. Obviouslythey're dealing with stuff and that happens,
but it's just like, okay,is there What exactly is the long term
future? What exactly are they buildingupon moving forward? Is really the most
interesting part of this whole season.I kept talking about getting to five hundred
by the end of June. It'snot going not going to happen, as

(37:50):
though. I mean, they've gotto win every game the rest of the
way essentially. But you know,I think it's just kind of at the
All Star break, maybe Ellie's anAll Star, maybe somebody else is in
All Star that'll be cool, Andthen after that, I think people will
really not care anymore. Fernando Cruzis fun. Yeah, why he pitched
the other night, I don't knowwhy he pitch in that game. Money.

(38:10):
I have no idea, no ideawhat they're doing. That doesn't make
no sense to me. One morecalling than a break, Chris, what's
up man? Yeah? Have anybodytalked about, Hey, maybe we got
the worst training staff in baseball andwe don't prevent injuries, we don't fix
it. We misdiagnosed injuries for weeksat a time. It has to be
a point of conversation now because multipletimes this year we've had the same thing

(38:36):
happen where a player's gonna miss acouple of games or maybe just a fifteen
day, and then it turns intoa sixty day, or it turns into
the rest of the season. Andthen you add that up to the point
of what's going on with Hunter Greenin his last couple starts. The injuries
that have mounted for this team.Yeah, it's a fair question at this
point to ask about the training staff. Yeah, I mean, why not

(38:57):
at the end of the year.I mean, you probably can't do it
in the middle of the year.End of the year. Just clean house
on that and go get a newone, because it couldn't be any worse,
you know, when you have themost injuries. He ain't gonna The
worst you can do is move upwhen you're pretty much got the most injuries
in baseball. And I just can'tbecause I know somebody that's you know,
in baseball, and I've asked thatand they said, well, I'll never

(39:19):
say anything bad about a training staff, but you know, he said,
basically read in between what I'm sayinghere. Yeah, it's yes, they
aren't considered state of the art ontop of the thing, training staff,
Chris, I think that's fair giventhe outline of what we've seen this year.
It's not like it's been one ortwo players. It's been consistent for

(39:39):
a lot of this season. Chris. Thank you for the call, man,
I appreciate it, Thank you forlistening. No, awesome, that's
fair at this I think that's alegitimate concern. That is a legitimate question.
There have been a lot of headscratching situations involving their medical evaluation,
and unfortunately, injuries are part ofthe game. But other teams have shown

(40:00):
the ability to win while going throughdevastating injuries, one being the Atlanta Braves.
You could argue that the players Brewersthat the Braves have lost, the
players that the Brewers have lost.The thing is, if you flip on
the Braves or you flip on theBrewers, They're not trying to go home
from third base when a ball ishit to the pitcher. They're not allowing

(40:20):
to run to score on a ballhit to right field that you lazily attack.
They're not making the mistakes on thebase pass. That's the difference.
The little things is what separates rightnow what the Reds are doing and what
others aren't. Think about how differentthings would be if this team was fundamentally
sound, yes, and they werefloating around five hundred with all the crap
that's happened to them. How wouldwe be talking about David Bell in the

(40:44):
organization there, or if we couldjust get on here and say, you
know what, man, this teamcontinues to battle, this team continues to
play hard. They manufacturer stuff.They find ways to win when they are
at full strength instead many how many? How many base running blunders are they
going to have? How many guysare gonna get picked off? How many
airs? How many is gonna haveto play tonight? Correct, that's a

(41:07):
problem, and that starts at thetop. We got to get one more
break in before we finish up hournumber one. We'll do so with a
lineup when we come back. ESPNfifteen thirty, centy three sixty A service
of Skyline Chili on the Home ofthe Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty, ESPN
ESPN fifteen thirty and iHeartRadio Station,Welcome back since he three sixty ESPN fifteen

(41:36):
thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, aservice of Skyline Chili. Red's getting underway
at one to ten today, Austin. I'm just I'm calling an audible already.
We're gonna do a lineup and weget back at the top of a
hour. Okay, that's how we'llkick off hour two. I was sitting
here, I was I had pulledthe Oregon and everything. I was going
to do this well, I wasgonna be able. I didn't I didn't
want to feel like we just rushed. What is such a vital lineup for

(42:00):
the Reds. It's a huge dayand a huge opportunity. You know why,
because the Reds can win a seriestoday. They can win a series
against the Pittsburgh Pirates, can theyThey could, and in doing so,
they could draw themselves into a tiefor third in the n OL Central.
I guess you do play nine inningstoday, you know, no matter what,

(42:21):
regardless of what happened yesterday, they'regoing to roll the ball out there
today. And by the way,I'm looking at at the grass is green,
the sky has blue, and westill got some work to do.
Come on now, all right,this season's not done yet. No Ave
Martes on the way back. MattMcClain's going to rejoin the team. We're
holding out hope for that. Huhyep. Trying to find let's let's find
some positives. Okay, but let'sspend the rest of this segment right here

(42:44):
finding finds with a search warrant.I haven't gotten very much. Let's spend
the rest of this hour trying tofind a positive for the Cincinnati Reds.
And with that we've got a break. We'll come back our number two since
e three to sixty. ESBN fifteento thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, a service
of Skyline Chiliy. Imagine waking upthis time next week and being one hundred
natties sponsored in part by Cincy Shirts. Cincy Shirts, all Cincy all day.

(43:08):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation. All right, welcome back
our number two there. It isthanks to our friends at Cincy Shirts.
By the way, Austin, didyou see the shirt I was wearing today?

(43:28):
I did five to one three Dad. But it's in like the seven
hundred WLW logo. You were allwe don't don't, we don't mess around.
You were all out with Dad geartoday. You had the Dad Gang
hat, you had the five toone to three Dad shirt from Cincy Shirts.
They came through. They got me, They got me this shirt.
They got me a shirt where theyput the kids' names on the back for
me. Oh no kidding. CincyShirts always going above and beyond in the

(43:51):
Steamboat led shirt. All talk aboutgetting the wild Man of memento for being
at the game. It is.It is all as old as time.
Honestly, something happens out of CincinnatiReds game or f C Cincinnati in the
city in general, and the firstthought is how quickly can Sincy Shirts get
that on a shirt. I haveto give a credit to our guy Kevin

(44:13):
in Northern Kentucky because he said steambowtell he put it on a shirt.
Yeah, and two hours later itwas man. Shout out to Cincy Shirts
for everything that that they do.Shout out to you for listening and for
your talkbacks. Coming up here insegment number two of our number two,
about five minutes or so away fromfirst pitch at Great American Ballpark, before

(44:36):
I get to the lineup, thiswas a this was a text thread or
not, It was a a tweetthread that Stephen ort Leap tweeted out say
that again for me. I believeit's Stephen ort Leap, okay, And
he talks about what we've talked aboutin our number one, the medical team,

(45:00):
the Cincinnati Reds, and also addingin David Bell's or how David Bell
plays in all of this. Theseare four reports Austin starting on June sixth,
from Charlie Goldsmith, and we knowCharlie is as plugged in as possible
reporting on everything David Bell says,and a highly credible journalist, listen to

(45:23):
these four tweets. June sixth,Charlie Goldsmith tweets out David Bell said that
Cees has been cleared to progress forward. Ces requested a second opinion and will
get one quote all indications or helooks good. When he starts to ramp
up, he'll begin the strength workand then go to hitting. Two days
later, David Bell said the planfor Cees is to start his strength training

(45:45):
ramp up in five days and thenstart swinging in the next few weeks.
June seventeenth, David Bell said thatCees going to the sixty day injured list
isn't a reflection of any change inthe timeline in his risked a few more
days and seeing where it's at beforemaking a decision on the next step.
And then finally, just yesterday,David Bell said that Cees is having surgery

(46:09):
on his wrist. It's a threemonth recovery time. Are we as fans
just taken as dumb at this point? I mean, those are four tweets,
Yeah, that David Bell is talkingto the media, which then goes
to the fan base of where Ceesis in his production in his recovery.

(46:31):
Where is the where's the disconnect here? My question would be when did he
know or when did Christian and Caronasiand Strand know he had to have surgery,
and did the Reds staff tell himthat correct? And did he go
get a second opinion because he wasn'tsure if here's my guess as to what's

(46:53):
happened, because this is the onlything that makes sense. As the red
said, you'll probably need surgery,but we can rehabit, let it heal,
and you can play through it.Then he goes and gets a second
opinion, and the other guy probablysays, if I were you, I
would just have surgery. You cansee how it heals. But you're gonna
need surgery regardless. That's my guess. That's the only thing that makes sense.

(47:16):
And so he decided, Okay,I'm not gonna try to play through
it. I'm not gonna try tolet it heal anymore. I'm just gonna
have surgery. Yeah. So obviouslythere's a disconnect between the doctor who gives
a second opinion and what the Redsbelieve is the best plan, which I'm
assuming is try to play through it, ramp you back up and see what

(47:37):
happens. But The problem is isthat the disconnect has been there all year
with multiple players, right like whobut who today? Who today reads this
this Jamber Candelario update with any optimism. Well, the tendonitis in the knee
is it's not getting better. Infact, it might be a little worse.

(47:58):
But we're confident that the plan wehave and some rest and some off
days and being able to dh thatJamer will be fine. Who reads that
right now and says, eh,sounds about right, yeah? Or do
you read that and say, well, that's only a matter of time before
Jamber Candelario is on the ir Yeah, that's a bad way to be.
And I think if you are lookingaround in the rest of the clubhouse and

(48:23):
you know, if you're one ofthose players and you're seeing what other players
are going through, are you goingto trust the training staff right? Are
you going to go seek a secondopinion? Then it becomes a trust issue.
I mean, in the locker roomfalls apart. You can attest to
this more than anybody, Tony andthe fact that you felt like you didn't
get a fair shake from the Panthers, right, and if you had done

(48:46):
something differently because the Panthers didn't necessarilyhave your best interest in ry, and
they had their best interest in mind. And I'm not saying the Red staff
is doing that, but from thestandpoint of a player to say, Okay,
well, let me take another lookat this, because there's been some
weird stuff going around. One thousandpercent. One of the biggest regrets I
have is not getting a second opinionwhen I had my initial surgery in Carolina.

(49:10):
And that's not that's not a reflectionof everyone in the organization at Carolina.
I have a lot of friends inthat organ but it is a business
first, a business first, andthe business is protecting itself. And I
found this out the hard way becausethe day that I signed, the day
that I was released in Carolina,guess what, I didn't get any returns

(49:32):
of phone calls or emails. Iwasn't I wasn't treated the same way when
I was an employee of theirs.It was what can you do for me?
And if you can't do anything forme, good luck. And I'm
not saying that it's like that withthe Reds. I'm certainly not saying that
it's like that with major League Baseballbecause I don't know. I know my
experience was what can we do toclean this up the quickest And if he's

(49:58):
not a part of our plans,how can we part? And again that's
not I'm not saying that that's theRed's way of doing it. I'm just
saying that it is a business,and as a player, you have to
make sure you're looking out for yourself. And I would imagine, as you
just outlined, Austin, if you'rea player in the Red's locker room right

(50:19):
now who's been struggling and you're dealingwith discomfort or a problem that's kind of
been nagging at you, would youthen want to seek a second opinion on
your own now? Would you bemore inclined to do that than maybe you
would have been a month ago ortwo months ago. Absolutely, And no
one would crush the player for doingso, for having their best interest in
mind. And it does seem likethe organization has tried to get the players

(50:45):
to play, yeah, you knowwhat I mean, like, okay,
well just see, you know,give it some rest and see what happens,
and you can play TJ. Friedoplaying at eighty eighty five percent,
Candelario going through it, Cees andTyler Stevenson when they went through the rist
injuries, Like it seems like theorganization is really trying to get the players
to play, and that kind ofgoes against what I feel like David Bell

(51:08):
has been in terms of trying totake care of his guys. But it's
head scratching. So and you know, we're not medical experts, but like
I just always find myself confused.So, Graham Ashcraft is getting ready to
make the first pitch in a Gamethree, an opportunity to win a series

(51:29):
today when he retires the first threepirates or however many batters it takes him,
how will the Reds oppose Pittsburgh today? From a lineup standpoint Ton,
that's gonna sound something like this leadingoff at second base, Jonathan India.
The second better is the shortstop Ellieday La Cruz batting third, playing first,

(51:50):
Spencer Steer Tyler Stevenson's the cleanup hitterand catcher. Nick Martini bat's fifth.
He plays right. Santiago Espinel isthe sixth better and third baseman.
The seventh is Stuart Fairchild, heplays center. The DH is uh Levon
Soto. I think I don't evenknow his name. And the left fielder
is Levi, Jordan, he's battingninth, graand Ashcraft pitches once more India

(52:13):
Dla, Cruz, Steer, Stevens'sMartini, Espinall Fairchild, Sodo, Jordan,
ashcra Can you just give me thatright after Stevenson? Can you give
me those five one more times?Because this is what I would recommend.
I wouldn't even I wouldn't wish thatlineup on any pitcher in Major League Baseball.
This is like through that stretch.This is like the twenty seven Yankees

(52:36):
murderer's row. Here it's Martini,Spinall fair Child, so to oh,
Jordan, okay, yeah, anduh as Jeff Carr fromd of the Show
put it, the Reds lineup todayhas precisely four players that you expected to
be in the lineup when spring trainingbegan. But don't don't worry because Jamber

(53:01):
they're going to figure out the tendonitis, right Will Benson will eventually start hitting,
maybe in July. What would yourather watch tomorrow night? Oh,
the presidential debate or the Reds inthe car? Forgot about that? Oh?
Oh my goodness, probably round twoof the NBA draft. Oh man,

(53:23):
that's that's tough. Isn't that great? That's tough. It's hard,
right and naturally as we just BrianRenn I should know. Brian Reynolds just
extended his major league hit streak totwenty three games, So congratulations to him.
In the Pittsburgh Pirates, watch out, who is a guy? Ty
Cop? Ty Cob? Watch out? Did ty Cop have the all time

(53:45):
hit streak? No, it's fiftysix? What you have? The consecutive
game hits streak is fifty six?Why am I thinking, ty Cob?
He used to have the all timehits? Yeah, Joe DiMaggio, Joe
DiMaggio, Joey Demaggio. Yeah,I just Pete Rose had forty four.

(54:07):
I believe. I'm just I'm ina sense now where I don't know what
the next move is with the CincinnatiReds, because you know, we are
and I hate to even bring thisup, Austin, we are not far
removed from the interest in the CincinnatiReds being minuscule. And you remember a

(54:30):
couple of years now, a coupleof years ago, it was off seasons
or this time of the year,no one cared anymore about the Reds.
It's not that far removed from that, and that's my biggest fear is the
Reds taking a step back towards thatinstead of the Reds taking another step forward

(54:50):
because the direction they're going right,because last year, what did they do?
They revived a lot of those fanswho had turned away from the Reds
and said, wait, you knowwhat, I can see the pieces that
are being set up. I cansee that there are players in the system,
the development is there, and youknow what I'm gonna do it.

(55:12):
I'm gonna I'm gonna buy back into what the Cincinnati Reds are and you're
gonna go from having that to morefans doing what oh what is it?
June twenty sixth, football season startswin, I'm already onto the Bengals And
that goes both ways. That iscredit to what the Bengals have done,
but it's also in detriment to whatthe Reds are doing. And f C

(55:35):
Cincinnati plays a hand in that aswell and what they are able to do.
Because I will give it to FCCincinnati and I know they have questions
right now because they've dealt with injuries. They have managed to still win games,
win matches despite injuries. They havewon more matches this year where you
say, how did they come awaywith a point or three points in that
one? And by all accounts,f C. Cincinnati is gonna continue to

(55:58):
be aggressive, you know, basedon the track record they have that they
are not going to sit idly by. The Bengals have built something right now
sustainable in the National Football League.It's very easy for fans, and I
hate even it's very easy for fansto say I'm on the football season.
Whereas leading into this season and hopeand the optimism we did the show at

(56:22):
Smoke Justice Austin. You can attestbecause you were there the year before.
The optimism this year on opening Daycompared to the previous year was unbelievable.
And here we are not even throughJune yet and it's a far cry from
where it was at the end ofMarch. And what turns that around,

(56:45):
I don't know. You know,it's not easy to have twelve game winning
streaks in Major League Baseball. Butearlier this month we started June and we
said, man if the Reds canfind a way to get to five hundred
by July, because we kept doingwhat we kept relying on. Well,
they've just had a brutal, brutalschedule, a brutal start to the season,
and every conversation we had about theReds was get through the tough part

(57:07):
of the year, get to fivehundred the end of June. And then
they got within a game of fivehundred early in June, and you start
to renegotiate, Okay, maybe maybethings can can get there close. And
now they're going to go to SaintLouis for four, who's playing great baseball.
They're going to go to the NewYork Yankees for three. Good luck

(57:27):
in the next seven as your seasonright now is already teetering into the ABYSS.
And it does get easier Detroit,Colorado, Miami after that in July.
But man, you were there,you were close, and now it
just feels like things are unraveling atthe seams. Is there anything they can

(57:50):
do, Austin, because we arewhat we we don't have it up in
the studio, but we know whatthe training camp schedule is, we know
when when training camp is happening.Is there anything the Reds can do between
now in training camp to to reignitethis Yeah, it's called win. So
then you're telling me they need towin games. Yeah, they need to

(58:13):
win Major League Baseball games. Yes, all right, all right, I
just it's really not that hard.Win games. Don't be stupid. You
can you can only do so muchwith the health. But yeah, the
health is one thing. But giveyourself a chance to win every night is
what it comes down to. Correct. Goes back to what we just said,
if they had all those other issues, you know, if they wouldn't

(58:35):
you know, worry about if wedidn't have to worry about base running blunders
and poor defense and baseball IQ beingso low and they were scratching and fighting
their clawing their way through the NationalLeague around five hundred right now, and
it would change the entire narrative.But instead, it's like every night you
kind of go into it saying,well, how are they going to screw

(58:57):
this up? Correct? And thatis a terrible thought to have. Have,
a terrible thought to have as itrelates to this organization and this team
where the optimism was so high.All right, Reds are underway, which
means once we come back, talkbacksand then we will shift gears away from
the Cincinnati Reds. From now untilthree o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty at Cincinnati

(59:17):
Sports Station and we're a service ofour good friends at CINTI shirts. Hey
Alexa Cincy three sixty carries on onESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. All
right, bough, let me hearyou good loud. Oh wld hah too

(59:37):
ah free, well listen to suptowbacks. We listen to the clouds.
Get me a bud of surprise.Jones, come on now, we hope
those other two diver come back over. Ruth totally Doffing comes close to this.

(01:00:07):
Shyk you Harry, we got backright Hello o stars over talk back
shy, thank you Harry, rightas well, thank you, Rads.
Well, let's go, who haveyou missed the most among the talkbackers.
It's a good question, v O. G Ronald Reagan, really, you

(01:00:30):
know, just because he can alwaysbring it no matter what's happening in the
world. He's not a fair weatherguy, good or bad. You know,
he's going to be there and he'swith us at the start. But
Mike as well, Hey guys andHarry, Yes, welcome back. Winston.
Oh sorry the show wow, holdon, sorry, so I gotta

(01:00:58):
take a little stay stage. Anyways, Let's see where he's going with that.
He this Istarnald Riggin and Wil I'dlike to formally welcome you back,

(01:01:20):
Wally Pip in your absence, LouGarrig did a wonderful job holding down the
fort. In all seriousness, Tony, congratulations on the addition to your family,
and yes, really welcome back forsure, because this is where you
will get most of your rest overthe next several weeks. Tony's been sneaking
in naps during the commercial break.I've snuck in naps and I've thought to

(01:01:43):
myself, like, how how overthe next you know, a couple of
weeks when I am very sleep deprived, can I spin it to my wife
that I just need to get tothe office pretty early today. Do I
sound like a broken record? DavidBell has got to go? Do I
sound like a broken record? DavidBell has got to go? Do I

(01:02:05):
sound like a broken record? DavidBell has got to go? Here's the
thing, Uh huh. It's hardto take a manager who will be coaching
as part of the staff in anAll Star game and move on from him.
Can you imagine that here's David Bell, although he's no longer with his
team, would he just wear theall star uniform, additional leagues or whatever

(01:02:30):
it is. It's a great question. Oh man, hey, guys,
park it from the grove. MarcusTony, welcome back. Thank you for
the future reference. You do know, all you've got to do is talk
to Mo about how to properly doload management June. You don't have to
go and have a kid to gettime off. You kid with MO and

(01:02:52):
he'll steer you in a right direction. At this point, that is a
true statement. No one does loadmanagement uh any better than I think Mo's
got a little bit more vacation timebuilt up. Gosh, I can't even
imagine what most got built up.Austin Shotty. I told you, folks,
every time we think them reds theirback, they suck you right back

(01:03:13):
in and puke up the Broadway.Just keep counting down those days so you
can see Holly wattn't know what youwant to call him, Paris Burrough,
Begett Burrow, Well like beget Burrow. Oh might have a different implication anyhow,
awten to refer to you from Monday. We don't comment on people that
were from Mount Healthy that play forCleveland. Oh okay, Oh so did

(01:03:37):
you hear about this Lonnie Phelps.Lonnie Phelps, uh, former Mount Healthy
football player plays for the Browns.Drunk driving, ran into a restaurant.
Oh and I said, is Johnnyfrom Mount Healthy going to comment on Lonnie
from Mount Healthy? Oh? Uh? And we just got word and that
it did bring And this is completelyoff topic, but this is since he

(01:03:57):
three sixteen is kind of what wedo. You you brought up a point
earlier and we can get to thislater today. Can you overlook sites like
that with with your team if youhave a team that gets into a lot
of trouble if you're winning championship.I wondered about this, because yeah,
we'll get into that. Oh milkingthat lead, man, I wish I

(01:04:34):
could take that kind of time offof my DJ. Just have a kid,
man, I'll tell you this.Two weeks flew by, and if
you asked my wife, I needto be there about four more weeks,
dude. I was blown away bythe amount of people that said to me,
Tony's really taking two weeks off andI'm like crazy, I'm like,

(01:04:55):
dude, he's got three kids,two dogs, and a wife that just
gave that just had her third csession. It's like this guy's got stuff
to do. He should probably takea month on man. Happy hot day,
gentlemen, Kevin and Architect to hearfrom you, Kevinny, we missed
you, but Obdy did a goodjob holding down the fort. He stood
on business. That's what I hear. I don't know what to say about

(01:05:16):
these guys bussing with some hope andthen they kick it back out the door
again. No, I'm just askingkeep it interested into a training camp.
I have a fantastic day. EverybodyAlways remember put Tony in the ring.
Let's switching it up a little bit. Is hoping I'm still high? No,
no, yeah, I didn't knowif I missed. Now that we've

(01:05:39):
reached the summer doldrooms, I gota start bench cut. Thank you making
the butter filled pretzel nuggets, barbecuechips or fresh cooked movie theater style popcorn.
Oh, I'm taking the popcorn,and then I'll just cut the other
two. I'll take popcorn and thenthe peanut butter pretzels, and then I'm
cutting the What did he say tocare lest some of the other two?

(01:06:00):
What was the middle thing? Barbecuechips? I hate barbecue chips. Yeah,
barbecue. Check quote my grandpappy rI p these red legs is ridiculous.
They just ridiculous, Grand Pappy.All right, grand Pappy, do
you ever get your hands on anypappy? No? I think my god,
Tommy two cuts will hook me up. Welcome back, Tony. Uh,

(01:06:27):
I'm so sick of this franchise.Here we have here a hundred green
I mean, what are we doingthrowing up? Thrown up on the mountain
like that? Uh? Turned thatgame off last night right as I saw
Brian Reynolds hit that ball in theright field, so decided I'm not going
to watch this Reds team till they'reover five hundred. Okay, well,

(01:06:51):
good luck filling your time. Yeah, I good luck filling that boy.
It was kind of nice to beable to just be like, all right,
I'm gonna go do something else tonight. Yeah, Tony, Welcome back,
and congratulations on the birth of yourbaby boys. Thanks man. My
wife and I a blow in theback. Our baby boy was born on

(01:07:15):
the eleven as well. How aboutthat, man, It's a great day
birthday buds. Congratulations, Welcome back, TP. What's going on, man?
Man? I didn't Hey, I'mjust wanting to give you a report
on Audie. He was he wasreally really skilled while you were going.

(01:07:38):
My only criticism is he was actuallyvery nice to everybody. I don't know
if you found Jesus or found thatsquatty potty or something, but squatty.
Now you have just going to goback to being mean again. You had
mentioned Austin about some interest in thesquatty potty that you had. Uh No,
I never said that. I mean, I think the squatty potty is

(01:07:59):
a great thing. I haven't usedit, but I'm open to try.
All right, Teddy, Great tohave you back. Congratulations the baby,
Austin's blue collar mentalities. Thank you, Brownie James, what a joke.
NBA draft, what a joke.I always one to go back. Listen,

(01:08:21):
have a purse in Paris. Theydidn't want me there. David Bell,
I think he's got to go.Man, I'm miss loud. Talk
about guy. He's the best.YEP. Feel bad for Lynn from Lebanon,
Peppy Patty, all the diehard Redsfans. I need this team.

(01:08:43):
It's bad, yeah, fundamentally bad. Thirty four years of blah blah blah.
You know you can become an Astrosfan. Oh, they're hotter than
Georgia as p h a lt that'sasphalt for I was gonna say if he

(01:09:04):
had the time. Xavier fans outas fault Tony and Audie Kin from the
Ken Tony welcome back, dude,Really good to have you back. Austin
did an awesome job billing to havethe team back together. And also congratulations

(01:09:25):
on your new edition. Nothing likethe little kids running around the house.
It's been a while for me,but I remember there are times not much
has changed. The Reds still suck, but we still pull for them.
Go Red, Go Big Blue andwho They kind of sounded like Ken was
open to babysit there. That seemslike he kind of miss having the kids
around. I'll tell you what,Maybe Uncle Ken can come up from the

(01:09:47):
lex and come on the kids.You already gotta ask big Welcome back to
Tony Pike. You know. HunterGreen easily had his greatest performance of the
season, if not his career last. He had it all. He hurled
ninety three four rings, heaved fivestrikeouts while only regurgitating six runs and a

(01:10:10):
home run. Even ejected like hismanager and spit up like little Walker.
Pike truly an all time performance.I'll say this, that's so well done,
and I'll knock on wood. Walkerhas not spit up much. Oh,
there was more on the mound lastnight than anything that's happened to Nutthouse.
You're gonna get home today, Meredithis going to say, what did

(01:10:30):
you do? This is all yourfault. I feel like when you are
mentally not into a game, isit because you're just kind of giving up?
You don't care? The apathy issetting in on this team. It
is it is uncalled for the lastnight when Hunter Green instead of backing up
the catcher, there was a playat the plate floor and that's not mentally

(01:10:54):
in the game. I feel likewe need a manager that's going to stick
a little fire up there behind sofrustrating. Ye, look, we alluded
to it early in the show.You are preaching to the choir with that
one. I'm in full agreement onthere. Welcome back young Tony. Yeah,
this year probably wouldn't hurt so badif the Reds historically were a good

(01:11:16):
franchise. It did things the rightway and you knew that they were going
to get things on track. Butthere's no reason to think that there's no
reason to believe it's going to getany better. I mean, another worst
team in the division right now,along with the Cups and as far as
the medical and training staff, theysucked. I'm just waiting to hear that
Hunter Green is going to be onthe ten Day l Il from Puket Hole.

(01:11:36):
As long of love it is,uh, look, I'm with you.
The frustration is there. It's goodthough. It's good to at least
have frustration because that means the expectationswere high. I mean, think back
to Saint Louis last year. Theyhad this just unbelievably disappointing season, but
they had I don't know, onehundred years of being really good. To

(01:11:57):
lean back on. The crazy thingwith Saint Louis was what every conversation we
had in the off season. Youknow Saint Louis is going to figure it
out because that's the track record.You don't have that here. As far
as if the Reds can win theseries or not today, who cares?
I mean, really, who cares? We're getting We're to the point of
ape. Who cares? I hateto hear that. I hate I hate

(01:12:19):
the word apathy. Sad but true. Thanks George. Heyah, that lineup.
I mean, I'd rather not knowtheir names to watch Will Benson backs
then Will Benson couldn't to you ahead? Oh no, I love that we

(01:12:40):
stay relevant. That meme is Yeah, that is an unbelievably popular meme.
Did you see she lost her job? Did she really? He's a teacher
and they fired her because of conductdetrimental and now she's going to go after
her employer as she should. Huhup the sea? Oh no, such

(01:13:02):
a loly word. That's about whereworth? What's the Cincinnati Red Legs?
Hapathy? I hate care, Ihate the term bob. It's time.
I just I think I hate andI but I I understand it when it

(01:13:25):
comes to uh sell the sell theteam, Bob. When you get that
going on, oh boy, notgood, not great. Else it's your
buddy, the talk back cowboy.Bad for him, the most stewie f
you're bed for Hunter losing his stuffall over the mountain, vomiting everywhere last
night reminds me of Chris Wells onenight after a game, didn't have his

(01:13:47):
best stuff, yeah, and pukedall over the bar as well, kind
of like all these other talkback candidatesare doing. Now they learned that Harry
and I are running. Oh yeah, this is gonna be a tough ticket
to beat. I've learned my lesson. I will not be wasting my time
listening to the game today. Iwill be listening to Sin three. Let's

(01:14:10):
go with my close personal friends TonyPike and Austin know more. I'm a
huge fan of the squatty potty.A guy who eats gas station pizza and
just Chick fil A and Guyline andthe Roses. I mean, don't have
any problems. Squatty potty has tobe the reason why you say catfish and
pizza? Do you say catfish?I don't know what he said, uh,

(01:14:31):
but I can guess that one lastweek that was boning. Ain't easy
last week? Well, listen tothis since the Turner listen to this two
pm on June nineteenth, twenty twentyfour, Ain't easy tweeted this just another
day. I got excited to listento the Reds at work. And they
don't score a run, a traditionunlike any other. And this is a

(01:14:53):
guy who's supposed to be one ofour diehards. Yes, one of our
rider dies. Yes. And Isaw that at two forty seven pm,
after I had just been working mybutt off on a show all day.
Yeah, and man, that isa tough pill to swap, I said
to Ball, And I said,well, I guess we know what you'll
be listening to next time. Andit appears that he's a man of his

(01:15:13):
work, good as he has showedup here. Good today were welcoming back.
That was our last talkback. Man, that was a good way to
get back into it. Really,they really didn't miss a beating. You
know when it like you turn ona state and you can say, man,
they're playing the hits today. Yeah, I feel like that's what talkbacks
were today, a little bit playingthe hits. You know where the bread
is buttered. We got plenty moreto go now until three o'clock. Since

(01:15:34):
he three sixty are the Reds winning? What's the update there? They're losing.
They're losing after two winnings won nothingto the Pittsburgh Pirates and what summer
claiming to be a must win gameCSBN fifteen thirty. We're the home of
the Bengals thanks to our friends atsincey shirts is getting gas at shell burning
a hole, welcome back. Sinceyou three to sixty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati

(01:16:06):
Sports Station and a service of ourgood friends at Penn Station. Thank you
for joining us, thank you forlistening along. Glad to be back.
And it's always good to hear fromthose around you. And we have one
of those loyal listeners on the lineright now, so let's get to his
call, John Michael. John Michael, how are you? I'm doing that,

(01:16:30):
Kenny, how are you? Imet the barbershop all these people that
were listening to your shows, youguys, Well, that's awesome. John
Michael, how are you? I'mgood. I'm doing really well, man,
since you've been I really get thiseployed. When people said you had
a kid, because Megadas is theone that had a kid. You just
just got to do the milk andbottle and stuff. That's correct. You

(01:16:53):
know what I'm saying about on yournew edition? What did you what didn't
you call her dinner day Mega Death? It's Meredith Oh Man, Oh it's
all right, John Michael. I'msorry. No. Yeah, I'm at
the barber shop right now. Man. I'm getting ready to get my pips

(01:17:14):
trimmed and my knees cut. Whoall's there with you? Well, there's
this one guy in a green andhalf. There's a guy getting his haircut
right now, there's Kevin who ownsthe barber shopping. There's a guy that
has no idea where he is.Really yeah, yeah, crazy man.
So they listened to the show downthere. Yeah, yees every single day

(01:17:34):
I walked in here and they werelike, hey, man, three sixties
on. I was, but myfriends, man, that's awesome. How's
everything else been, John Michael?Everything going well? Well, I haven't
talked to you since I did thathot air balloon in chili coffee with my
mom. Yeah. Yeah, wehad a sisty fly where the fire shoots

(01:17:56):
up into where the balloon grows.Right, yeah, it was fine.
I can be really nervous, man, time go ahead. No, you've
had a lot going on. Iknow it's been really busy for me.
Man. How did you guys getdown well rope mm okay, that makes

(01:18:17):
more sense. Yep, yep,yep, yep, yep. But but
you're doing good, timey. Everybody. The family's doing good. How is
the other kids? Everyone kids?Everyone's doing well? John Michael. The
new editions new edition has gone gonegreat, and uh, you know we're
just really happy where we are andreally happy to be back on air today

(01:18:38):
speaking a new edition. I'm goingbackstage when they come for Jazz Festival.
Really, yep, on my way. Do you go backstage to a lot
of concerts, John? The onlyother one I did was Ben Pold And
because I like that song, brickright Well said, Well said yep,

(01:19:00):
yeah. But Barber's here, man, can I I'm gonna give out his
address? Is that? Okay?No, no, not quite. You
can't be giving people's addresses out onthe radio, John, Yeah, but
we'd love for them to be apart of cinty three sixty if they're interested
to get their information for us.Do you know what I can do?
I can do what you just askedme on the low because my's about the

(01:19:28):
plow. John. It's good tohear from you, Michael. You're the
best man. We'll talk soon.II. You know how this is right?
That's it? Love you, John, I love you, God.
I am so good. I'd loveto have a barbershop's part of the show.
That'd be great. We should doone from a barbershop. What do
they say, get your ears lowered? Is that what it is? Yeah?
Get your ears lowder, the earslowered, get your hairs cut.

(01:19:49):
I'm all in for that. Uhhuh we will uh we'll wrap up our
number two when we get back Cintythree sixty thanks to CINTI Shirts on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Esp continues on ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati's Sports Station. Welcome

(01:20:23):
back, Cinty three to sixty.Finish you up hour number two thanks to
our friends at CINTI Shirts. Doyou do that on purpose? To what
make me mad? What's that insteadof hitting the post you talk as soon
as they start talking? Do youdo that on purpose? I just wanted
to make sure you knew I wasofficially back. Can you answer the question?
It could be on purpose, orit could be just my way of

(01:20:43):
saying, hey, I'm back.I didn't miss you at all. ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.Real quick, I want to get to
some Bengals in the third hour,along with a slew of other things that
I have written down that's happened inthe last two weeks. But do you
know what? We're inching up closerto Austin? What's that tone TBT?
That's the basketball tournament, the milliondollar Prize, which will culminate in Philadelphia

(01:21:08):
on August second through the fourth.But Cincinnati another host city. Now remember
the centas center head it. Ibelieve last year. This year Fifth Third
Arena will be hosting. Austin hostingthe TBTI and in that bracket Xavier and
Cincinnati's respective teams. That's zip themup. For Xavier they're the two seed

(01:21:33):
and the Nasty Natty are a oneseed this year in the TBT. Yeah,
now there are I believe eight differentone seeds based on the REAGI.
I believe it's a Butler, Pittsburgh, Houston, Wichita, Louisville, Lexington,
Dayton, Cincinnati all hosting. Iknow Kentucky's got a team in it

(01:21:54):
this year. That should be fun. But uh, TBT and zip them
up. If they each win intwo games, could match up in the
TVT Again. Do you care aboutthe TVT I went last year or two
years ago when it was in Dayton, and I thought it was awesome.
I do too. It's not somethingthat I've been super interested in when it

(01:22:16):
comes like watching it on TV,but in person I found it to be
really entertaining. Do the North havea team. I feel like they were
they they tried to have one.I don't know exactly. I think it's
probably within consideration. Okay, don'tyou have to like qualify it even Yeah,
there's a qualifying stage somewhere, butlook, it's it's basketball. And

(01:22:40):
the way it's set up, asyou mentioned, you know, you get
a take, you can go inand watch multiple sessions at the same arena.
Pretty cool to watch these teams.By the way, Oh yeah,
for sure. I think I thinkNasty Natty their first match is going to
be about Billions. That's Adrian Bronner'steam. I thought it was Bronner.
You're probably right, Bronnie. Ishe on the team? He's gonna get

(01:23:04):
drafted to night? They say so, and I mean, well, he
probably not tonight, right, Maybetake him in the first round. My
gosh, can you imagine poor JJReddick. He doesn't give a nope.
By the way, Reds have eventhings in the third inning in Austin.
This is kind of a crazy statthat I just saw Charlie posts. We

(01:23:25):
know that Jonathan India is hot rightnow. He just had an RBI double.
He has reached base eleven straight times. He's come to the plate.
Wow, isn't that nuts? Thatis, whether walk, hit by pitch,
hit fielders, George reach, onair, whatever it is. He
has reached base eleven straight times.That's awesome. I had Jonathan India keep

(01:23:46):
doing your thing. Then he haseight multi hit games in the month of
June. I believe Ellie Jamer andSpencer Steeer all have eight as well.
It's pretty impressive for a team that'snot winning many games. At least they
have that stat. But at leastthey have that and there's a new banner
in studio. Yeah, I gotthe sizing a little bit wrong. The

(01:24:08):
sizing is wrong. I gotta Pythagorean. Pythagorean, Yes, what's that mean?
That's a great question. It's uh, it's basically what like the theoretically
what it's supposed to be? Ohyeah, there, hold on theoretically what
it's You know what the Pythagorean theoremis. I've heard about the theorem.

(01:24:30):
I couldn't tell you what it is, to save my site. It's like
C equals A squared plus B squared. Sure, that sort of thing.
Sure, Basically it's the baseball translationis you've scored more runs than you've given
up, so you should have thisnumber of wins. Well, pythagoream in
simple terms, Austin is a squareof the length of the hot poten nowse
of the right triangle equals the sof the squares of the length of the

(01:24:53):
other two sides. Correct. Andif you say that visa v for the
Cincinnati Reds, you should have awin loss record to forty and thirty seven.
And that's why there's a banner rightthere. That's why this is sincy
three to sixty hour number three aheadgeometry in our number three. Listen when
you say, simple terms, thesquare of the length of the hypotenuse of

(01:25:13):
the right triangle equaling the sum ofthe squares of the lengths of the other
two sides. That's the smartest thingI've ever read on CINCI three. So
how can you like screw up thebasics of the English language but then read
that smooth, just dominate the Pythagoreantheorem and simple terms. It's a noun.
You are so back, it's crazyback with our three after this uh
five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty, we

(01:25:34):
are the home of the Bengals.On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station
if you roam Cincinnatis spontered in partby Penstation East co Subs, handcrafted hot
grilled subs, fresh cut fries andlemonade. It's all about good taste.
Pennstation East Coast Subs order online today. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports

(01:25:57):
Station. All right, well,m back our number three since he three
sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation and a service of our good friends
at Penn Station. Man, Ican't tell you how how much I frequented
Austin over the past two weeks PennStation and Skyline. I'm struggling right now.

(01:26:19):
I'm a little distracted. Yeah,at that point, well, it's
you know, it's starting to gethungry, first of all. Second of
all, Chad Brindle's in from thisafternoon, and Chad's in here eating Penn
Station. He's having an East Coastsub. You would have let the fresh
cut fries and the lemonade and allthat, you could have thought first day
back and new baby at the house, that Chad would have been like,

(01:26:39):
Hey, I'm gonna spread my penStation, let me get you something today.
Yeah, No, that didn't happen. So he's got it. There's
cookies here the whole nine yards,so you know it just it's something.
It's gonna inspire me to go togo to Penn Station after the show.
Okay, we now know training campfor the Bengals right around the corner.

(01:27:00):
Let's go right around the corner.You're excited to be out there. I
am. I'm ready. July twentyninth through August thirteenth, those are the
dates where there are ten practices inbetween those dates that are free and open
to the public. Obviously there's thejoint practices in there. I believe that
the preseason games are are Tampa,Chicago, and Indie this year because they

(01:27:26):
have the joint practices scheduled. Obviouslyhard knocks with the Chicago Bears, that'll
be a lot of fun. Butknowing the dates just makes it feel real
right now. For many NFL players, they are enjoying their off time,
none more so than Joe Burrow.He's at Fashion Week, He's wearing the
top with no backend, and he'sdown there with Justin Jefferson and with Vogue

(01:27:49):
and so much going on with JoeBurrow. I did see over the course
of me being gone, Joe Burrowtaking the time to talk about, you
know, some of his bigger strugglessince coming into the NFL and trying to
take on more of this outward leadershiprole or just being present and doing more

(01:28:11):
in the community. We've talked aboutthat before, and hearing that from Joe
Burrow, I think it it didthat that was a big transition for Joe
Burrow. And when you're paid themoney that you are or that he has
been paid, that is part ofthe role that you're expected to take.
And hearing Joe Burrow openly talk abouttheir being struggles there but making the effort,

(01:28:31):
I think that's just the next naturalstep in Joe Burrow's progression as a
quarterback and as a leader here inCincinnati. He's also done more on the
field. A lot of the takeawaysfrom off season workouts were what Joe Burrow
is a lot more vocal. JoeBurrow from a leadership standpoint, is taking
a big step forward. And Ithink if this offseason has shown anything outside

(01:28:54):
of the rehab, it is thatJoe Burrow is trying to kind of complete
that package of what it is orwhat is expected to be a quarterback in
the NFL. Would you agree tothat. Yeah, I had talked about
this a little bit while you weregone. Is to me, it just
feels like a level of maturing ishappening in his life, and with that,
you are seeing him being a littlebit more open to putting himself out

(01:29:15):
there, him taking care of hisbody in a different way, all sorts
of different things that I think arecoming with the fact that, Okay,
I've reached this level of being oneof the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
What's next? How do I getbetter also as a human being, because
there's no glaring weaknesses in his gameother than him getting hurt frequently, and

(01:29:39):
he's addressing that and taking more timeto rest, more time to take care
of his body. So now it'slike progressing not only as a quarterback,
but also as a human being,as a leader, as a face of
a franchise. And I think that'swhat we're seeing with Joe. Yeah,
and it's a good thing to see. What's more impressive what Joe Burrow was
able to do with Vogue and FashionWeek and you know he's he's being pictured

(01:30:02):
and right behind him as Kenel JennerKendall Jenner on the horse riding in or
Travis Kelcey crushing it on stage withTaylor Swift, Joe Burrow. Yeah,
it takes guts to go out anddo a Paris fashion show. Anybody can
go up and sing and dance.I don't think he sung, well,
he was. He was yapping,okay it And I actually I didn't tweet

(01:30:25):
much when I was out. Thatwas one thing I did. When we're
seeing all this, we just needfootball back, and I, oh,
yeah, I'm all for these guys, you know, taking the time.
God knows, I enjoyed, youknow, time away from the game.
But uh, I'm ready for footballto be back. I did you when
you when you when you're in theseason, you like, I mean you

(01:30:47):
you have to make the most ofyour time off, and by gosh,
a lot of players are doing itnow in ways that that we haven't seen
before. We've seen Bengals in Hawaii, in France, in Cincinnati, in
Florida. We've seen Bengals all overthe place. Are there any other storylines

(01:31:11):
leading into camp that we have notcrossed? I mean, obviously when we
get closer to camp, we'll diveinto position battles and things like that.
But I mean we have essentially takenevery angle on this offseason. T Higgins
officially signed his franchise tag when Iwas out. But there's nothing really that
this team needs to cross off thelist between now and the end of July.

(01:31:31):
Yeah, I think it's mostly setin stone. I thought James Rapine
wrote something interesting the other day,Hi, James, Yeah, on the
Bengals Talk website about four free agentsthat he thought the Bengals should target.
And the first one I think makesa lot of sense. Jerick McKinnon,
the running back used to play forthe Kansas City Chiefs. He's a proven

(01:31:54):
pass blocker in the NFL. He'sa proven pass catcher in the NFL,
And that position does feel like isone where the depth is questionable outside of
Chase Brown. Like I think youfeel good about Zach Moss and Chase Brown
and that's it, and the otherguys really have not proven to be people
that can contribute significantly on offense.Maybe some special teams type of guys.

(01:32:18):
And I think with Chase Brown alsoplanning on being a big part of their
return game with these new kickoff rules, I wonder if they would kick the
tires on somebody like McKinnon, especiallywith the belief that under Dan Pitcher and
with this offense and with Joe Mixonout of the picture, running backs are
going to be a bigger part ofthe pass game. And I think that's

(01:32:41):
a move that makes a lot ofsense. I'd really like to see the
Bengals go after Jerick McKinnon. Iwill. I'll circle back to this.
We brought this up during talkbacks alittle bit before I was gone. There
were a lot of stories out ofKansas City involving players this offseason in a

(01:33:02):
bad way, obviously, the RashiRice side of things. They just released
Isaiah Bugs after multiple arrest you youtweeted out earlier it was a stat line
of offensive penalty yards last year,Kansas City had four hundred and eighty six.
Kansas City also won their second straightSuper Bowl. As a fan,

(01:33:23):
As a fan, would you takethe penalty yards? Would you take maybe
employing some bad people if it meantwinning a Super Bowl? I would do
almost anything to win, because foryears the Bengals did employ some bad guys.
Oh yeah, right, but theyweren't winning super Bowls. Correct,
that's the day. They weren't winningthat much altogether. Correct, but if

(01:33:44):
you're employing those guys and you're winningsuper Bowls, all right, figure out
a way to hone it in alittle bit, to rein it in.
Yeah, isn't it crazy? It'sworth that. I mean, if you
really look back on Andy Reid hisin the entirety of his career, there's
a lot of guys on his rostersthat have been marred with criminal issues.
And Andy Reid has won a loteverywhere he's gone, and obviously winning Super

(01:34:09):
Bowls lately with Kansas City. Ijust think it's interesting how that sort of
thing really is not paid attention to. It's not brought up. It's not
a big deal because they win asfrequently as they win, And like,
I'll take undisciplined players on offense ifit means they're winning super Bowls, if
it means they're getting back to thatplace. I just think it's interesting that

(01:34:31):
you have a team with the bestquarterback in the NFL, probably the best
head coach in the NFL, probablythe best defensive coordinator in the NFL,
and you have a ton of guyswho have run into criminal issues, and
you have the most undisciplined offensive teamin the in football and you've won back
to back Super Bowls. It doesn'treally add up. This offseason, they

(01:34:51):
had two offensive linemen arrested for misdemeanorcharges, obviously the Race Rice situation.
Isaiah Bugs was booked on domestic violenceburglary charges on top of misdemeanor accounts of
second degree animal cruelty. Yeah,those are two weeks apart those the rest.

(01:35:12):
There's a point that it's like,how can you not get out of
your own way? If you're anNFL player, you're playing on it like
you're on the Kansas City Chiefs.You have a legitimate chance to win Super
Bowls and you can't get out ofyour own way. But again, they've
had off they've had players with offthe field issues. On the field,
last year they had the most yardspenalized of any team in the National Football

(01:35:32):
League, and yet they've won twoSuper Bowls back to back. Is that
is that the greatness of Mahomes andKelsey and Reid and company shining through even
more that even with everything going on, even with the penalties, even with
off the field issues, they've wonit back to back years. Yeah,

(01:35:53):
you talk about we always use theterm of rising tide lifts all boats.
I think those three guys could beconsidered that. Yeah. By the way,
that tweet that you retweeted the WarrenSharp tweeted it out offensive penalty yards
last year four to eighty six forKansas City. You know who was best
in the NFL? I do theCincinnati Bengals just two hundred and fifty five

(01:36:15):
yards of penalties, Zach Taylor.This bunch plays clean, which is crazy
because I feel like penalties became aproblem last year at some point. Yeah,
a couple of times. It definitelystalled out some drives and I think
part of it with maybe with Browningrunning the show. Yeah, that sort
of stuff. And I'm just Iwould like to know. I'm sure there's
a stat for this out there,how many penalty or how many holding penalties

(01:36:39):
the Bengals had just going up againstthose defenses in the AFC North. It
feels like those guys Watt and Garrettget at least three or four holding penalties
a game to begin with. Butyeah, I thought I felt like for
the most part, the offensive linewas pretty well well verse last year.
Yeah, but for now, likethis week, next week's a shorter week

(01:37:03):
with the fourth of July. Oncewe're back from the fourth of July,
you pretty much get all full steamahead to training camp and football season.
Yeah, we have a couple often This is like the law. This
is the slow period right now forNFL. Yeah, we have a couple
of live shows on location coming upfirst and foremost. Friday July twelfth,

(01:37:25):
Mo is going to be at theHoly Grail, yes three to six,
and then the next two Fridays wewill be live on location. Friday July
nineteenth, you will be at ryinGeist Watch Out, You'll be riding solo
at Rhyine Gutch. I'm going tobe on vacation. But Friday July twenty
sixth, which is a Bengals practiceday, we're going to be live at

(01:37:49):
the Holy Grail from twelve to threeagain. Man, so let's go.
You know, that's fired up.That's crazy because you would think they would
want to move that up as soonas possible because of how the team did
after we were at the Holy Graillast time. Yes, we gave the
Reds a chance. I got atext Yester and off a little bit said,
do we need an opening day three? I don't know at that point

(01:38:12):
ifill it even matter man, youmentioned that would be a day July twenty
sixth training camp happening right down there. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yep, so
many good things on the on thehorizon. We still got more to go.
We've got to dive into a questionthat Austin asked earlier, toughest places
to play in college football? NowEA Sports released theirs right, correct,

(01:38:36):
and it's it's gotten a lot ofhate and I kind of want to get
your opinion on that in our listenersopinion. Right when we come back,
we'll knock that out. Since Ethree to sixty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station, We're a service of ourgood friends at Penn Station. Three sixty
is back on ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports Station. All right, welcome back.

(01:39:12):
Since E three sixteen ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports Station. A service of
our good friends at Penn Station.Very thankful for everything they do here for
us on sincey three sixty. Thingsgoing from bad to worse right now at
the stadium known as GABP as thereds Now Trail at Austin four to one

(01:39:34):
at the hands of the Pittsburgh piratesthis who cares about that? Let's talk
about college Thanks to and Andrew McCutcheon. Four hundred and twenty two foot to
run home run. Here in thetop of the fifth, Graham Ashcraft has
alloted four runs on seven hits.Reds have managed just four runs, four
hits and one run. Right nowas the game is in the top of

(01:39:54):
the fifth, all right, weall know what's coming here very soon A
sports or it's college football. Thehuge release is right around the corner,
and the return of EA Sports hasbrought a surge into the offseason for college
football. On Tuesday, which isyesterday, EA Sports unveiled their Top twenty

(01:40:18):
five Toughest Places to Play, whichis a ranking of stadiums that in the
game will actually pose additional challenges togamers playing as the visiting team. And
I believe they got with the Athleticon this as well. Right, this
is by the Athletic College Football.No, this is EA Sports College Football

(01:40:38):
posted their top ten toughest places toplay. Okay, because I'm looking on
the Athletics website and they have theAthletic College Football that they gave top twenty
five. Yeah, that's that's athat's that's not related to this. Okay,
to my knowledge, EA Sports CollegeFootball twenty five has the Stadium paulse

(01:41:00):
Meter and release their top ten toughestplaces to play. Give me the ten
and I'll tell you if it's thesame list. Okay. Number one is
Kyle Field, Number two is BryantDenny Stadium. Number three is Tiger Stadium.
Number four is Ohio Stadium. Joke. Number five, it is a
joke. Number five is Sandford Stadium, home of the Georgia Bulldogs. Number
six is Penn State. Number sevenis Wisconsin. Number eight Oklahoma Gaylord Family

(01:41:27):
Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Come on withit. Number nine is Dope Campbell Stadium,
home of Florida State, and numberten is ben Hill Griffin Stadium,
also known as the Swamp. Sothat's the same list I have. Okay,
So they made a full twenty justexpanded to the twenty five. Interesting.
I didn't see that. But thetop ten has raised some eyebrows.
What did you think of that topten I just gave you. I think

(01:41:47):
Texas A and M at one isa joke. Okay, A and M.
Just to refresh everybody from one toten, A and M Bama,
LSU, Ohio State, Georgia,Penn State, Wisconsin, Oklaho home of
Florida State, Florida. I thinkthat's whack. Yeah, I think LSU
should be at number one. Iagree, I made my list. Kirby

(01:42:10):
Smart is forty four and four athome in the last forty eight games.
I never think of Georgia as atough place to play. Now. I
know the atmosphere at Penn State iscrazy, but they don't win enough games
for me. They don't win enoughbig games for me. I don't care
about that is a tough place toplay or not? Obviously not if teams
go in there and win. Well, Ohio State goes in there win camp

(01:42:30):
Randall, I get jump around,great tradition loud. Yeah, I mean
name one just the same amount asPenn State. I feel like, no,
do you think of Bryant Denny asas a true home field advantage?
Yes, tough place to play?Yes, you know what. I'm surprised
is not in the top ten andit's on number eleven of the list.
I have audtson Stadium Oregon the Zoo. Yeah, I feel like that it

(01:42:54):
needs to be on there. Tome, there is one glaring omission Michigan
Stadium, Virginia Tech. How isVirginia Tech not in the top ten again?
Not a place that is a perennialtop twenty five team, top ten
team. They've their better days arebehind them, for sure, but that
is still an electric place to playanytime they have a night game Inner Sandman

(01:43:15):
the best entrance maybe in all ofcollege football. How is Virginia Tech now
that teams that immediately came to mindfor me Virginia Tech, Michigan, Tennessee,
Clemson in Oregon, Tennessee, Iagree needs to be on there.
I'm one percent. I have Tennesseeas number four. I have number four
in Tennessee online. I've been tothe Big House and it is loud,

(01:43:39):
but that is a stadium that isthe seats aren't really on top of each
other. What do you make ofOhio State at four? Ohio State I
think is bordering on the top ten. I have them as eight on mine.
I would have them in Michigan nextto each other. Ohio State has
changed in the sense I will say, Ohio Stadium, you are more on
top and I think it holds soundbetter than the Big House does. But

(01:44:00):
Ohio State ticket prices have gotten sooutrageous the last few years that the people
that are loud and rowdy and makeit a home field advantage can't afford going
to games, and so I thinkthat is I think Ohio State has taken
a hit in that in recent years. So I'm reading some of the surprises
from some of these rankings. Theyalso never played big home games at night
anymore. Yeah, listen to someof these conversations about the takeaways from the

(01:44:27):
list. Sam con Junior says rightaway, Orgon out of the top ten
is crazy, thinks that's tough.And Utah. There's a lot of talk
about Utah. The muss sneaky goodone, one of the loudest, and
Rode is student sections twenty seven totwo in the last five years. Now
here's where I don't agree. NotreDame is at twenty one, and nearly
everyone that weighs in says that that'stoo low. I don't think if Notre

(01:44:49):
Dame as a home field advantage,Yeah, it's a crazy atmosphere. I
watched UC go there and almost havemore fans than Notre Dame in that game.
I don't think. I don't thinkNotre Dame's a home field advantag that's
that's my same argument for Michigan islike when we went to Ohio State Michigan
up there, there were forty thousandbuck eyeeahs, like at least and now

(01:45:09):
forty thousand in the grand scheme ofone hundred and ten. You know,
you certainly are outnumbered, but itwould have had a different effect if the
other you know, twenty one thousandof those were Michigan Van What do you
banking when you say toughest place toplay? Do you mean by the sound
you mean it's tough to go winthere? I think it's loud and the
environment can get to you, andit's like mean like for me, then

(01:45:30):
that would take Kyle Field right offthat, Like they're terrible. They've been
terrible. What do you mean that'sone of the loudest an m But they've
been bad at home. I know, but that's one of the loudest stadiums
in Kyle. But it hasn't resultedin wins, right. I don't really
look at the win loss as muchas it's like, you know, because
nowadays people are more even college footballin general, they don't rely on radio.

(01:45:53):
They are going to this year,but it's all hand signals, so
everybody can look at the hand signaland get the play. Like if you're
relying on stadium, helmet, youknow, radio and that sort of stuff,
it'll have a bigger effect. Ijust think the just general loud,
raucous environment of a place that canget to a team YEA makes it a

(01:46:14):
tough even intimidating places. So Ithink if you go into Tiger Stadium at
LSU, that's just an intimidating placeto play. Now, I'll say this
though, in that sense, Iwouldn't have Oklahoma in the top ten right
mind always gets moved out of theirstadium right now. The way that the
athletic did this list is they lookedat I think the wins and losses that
played into it because their stance onenter Sandman and Lane Stadium is that they're

(01:46:40):
two and ten in the last decadeagainst top twenty five teams that come in,
So I understand that point. Thislist, for what it's worth,
Mississippi State is twenty five, Boise'stwenty four, Arkansas twenty three, Michigan
State is twenty two. No thanks, Notre Dame twenty one. Iowa twenty,
Texas nineteen, Utah eight teen.They have Virginia Tech seventeen, Michigan

(01:47:01):
sixteen, South Carolina sneaky good atfifteen, Auburn fourteen Auburn. When Auburn's
good, it's a different sea.And then there's Tennessee, Clemson, Oregon
to round out. Here's here's mytop ten from ten down. Ten is
Oregon, nine is Florida State,eight is Ohio State, seven is Virginia
Tech, six is Florida, fiveis Bama Forest Tennessee, three is penn

(01:47:27):
State, two is Texas A andm one is Lsu. Okay, that's
mine. You see not in thetop twenty five is unbelievable to me.
I'm not even gonna start here.Are the stadiums that they had is the
biggest snub. I ask you whichone of these teams matter? NC State
twenty seven and seven in the lastfive years at home, second only to

(01:47:48):
another stub, Oklahoma State boone PickensStadium that is one of the coolest stadiums
in the coast, twenty seven andfive in their last five home seasons.
Yeah, that one. Washington wasoff the list. Washington. I guess
that place is brand new. Itis so loud because of the overhangs on

(01:48:08):
the sideline. It's like Oregon State, like the Seahawks Stadium built like that,
Nebraska Memorial Stadium is on here.Yeah, and that's it. That's
another one where if they're good again, it changes one that I don't I
don't know because they just haven't beengood in its la is the Coliseum with

(01:48:30):
USC, Yeah, because that forlike but but when that was like Leonard
and Bush, that was a intimidating, intimidating trip. Yeah, I could
see that. I can't believe YeagerStadium's not on. There's a good point.
And you're a huge Chuck Martin Miamiguy. Always what does that make
you think? When you see thatthey're not on there? It's hurtful and
you know, leave it to youto have to bring it back to Miami.

(01:48:51):
I say one thing about UC andyou scoff and then you turn it
right back to Chuck Martin and ye, that was a clear scoff on your
side, No scoffing, clear clear, no scoffing going on. I would
love to hear from you who hasa better home field environment Miami or you
stop. I'm just kidding. Stop, I'm kidding. Everybody relaxed. It

(01:49:13):
was a joke. This is aThis was just making a joke. He's
Audielmore on Twitter. I'm Tony underscorePike fifteen. Uh, let us know
who, uh who your list wouldbe? Let us know who won this
battle and Austin, who just saidYager Stadium over. That's not what I
play the tape. I said,Who's is better? Yeah, play the
tape. That's not what I said. Play the tape. You were shocked.

(01:49:35):
You said you were shocked that YagerStadium was not on there, and
you scoffed when I said, Nipper, I have some interesting news involving Ai
when we return Alan Iverson. No, oh, okay, but close,
we'll get to that. Uh theanswer, He's the best, Austin's Ai

(01:49:55):
hint, I used to want tobe Alan Iverson so bad we get back
at court. Bad news, Virginia. I don't know what else we can
do on this show. Chad Brundle'sgonna stop by for quick hits and locks
of the night Read the Amazing Thingsare bad down at the ballpark again,
but optimism springs eternal here. WhenSincy three sixty on fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station thanks to Penn Station, ESPNfifteen thirty Welcome back since e three sixty

(01:50:45):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station anda service of our good friends at Penn
Station. Are you worried about AI, Tony? Should I be? I
don't know that you should be.I know there are people that freak out
about it and maybe don't quite understandit. I think a lot of us
are maybe still just beginning to understandthe depth of its abilities. But how

(01:51:12):
about this we talked earlier about theOlympics is coming up. Yes, and
NBC, who of course carries theOlympics, has asked al Michaels, the
great Al Michaels, if they coulduse AI to create his voice or recreate
his voice for their Olympics coverage.H how about that? I don't like

(01:51:38):
that. Apparently al Michaels was veryskeptical of the proposal until he heard it
himself. He said, quote frankly, it was astonishing, it was amazing,
and it was a little bit frightening. Yeah, he said. It
was not only close, it wasalmost two percent off of perfect. I
was thinking, whoa Dave is blessingto NBC. He's, of course,

(01:52:01):
you know, been emeritus there sincehe left to go to Thursday Night Football
on Prime. Sure. But basicallyit's a feature called Your Daily Olympic Recap
on Peacock and it will pull fromthousands of hours of live coverage from the
games and use a large language modelto recreate Al Michael's voice to talk over

(01:52:25):
these daily recaps. How about that? Can you imagine reaching the level of
stardom to be like, hey,we need to use your voice in AI.
Isn't that crazy? That is nuts? Hey, I'm excited to check
it. Scare me a little bit, like it is crazy? So,
like, how do you know whatto believe? At one point, right,
so during the NBA Finals, therewas this AI video of Luka Doncik
out there talking about it was thisvideo basically saying he's saying it's a white

(01:52:49):
boys league now, yes, whichhe never said that, no, but
but it's believable enough that it causesa start and paired with a video that
you really couldn't tell if you didn'tknow, right, And I was a
terrifying I was fielding phone calls onthe station down the hall, and somebody
called in Big Mad that Luka Donciksaid, it's a white boys league.

(01:53:11):
Now the problem to explain to thatperson that that was an AI generated video
that was not real. But theproblem in today's world with social media and
the way we are so quicked toreact, that makes it dangerous, right
because of that scenario, because therecould be something that you don't say or
have never said, and they putaudio with it, and they put a

(01:53:32):
video with it, and someone ora group of people see it and believe
it, and then it becomes anissue over something you never have said.
That's the scary part to me becauseof the way the world is constructed in
which we live and how reactions aremade. I'll tell you what else is
scary. Graham Ashcraft. Anytime hetakes the mound, he's done for the

(01:53:53):
day for the Reds. Graham tellme that's that line his line today five
and a fe third innings, ninehits, four runs, use were hard
for earned. I actually think it'sgonna end up being more than that if
I'm not mistaken. One walk,three strikeouts, two homers and not great.

(01:54:16):
So you mean the time away didn'thelp Graham Ashcraft? The reset well,
I'm sure it didn't help, didn'treally help him. Now Justin Wilson
is in the game and he justgave up two more runs. Those are
both going to be charged to GrahamAshcraft, to the number nine hitter hitting
the Pittsburgh Pirates lineup, is nowhitting two hundred because of two more hits

(01:54:38):
today from Jason Delay. They werehis runners, and now Ashcraft is up
to six earned runs. What anightmare, What an absolute nightmare. Regis
trail six to one, top six. So those tuning in or switching over
this is since he three sixty,you don't have to talk about it anymore.
I'm too late because uh we're almostdone. Chad Brendle is in for

(01:54:59):
Moeger and Mo Agger gets the treattonight to fill in for Lance and talk
about this Red S team. Ilook forward to hearing from Mo. This
is since he three point sixty.On ESPN fifteen thirty. It's the whole
of the Bengals. We got thatgoing for us, and we'll talk to
Chad Brendle for quick hits and thelocks of the night when we get back
right here. On ESPN fifteen thirty,