On news radio seven hundred w Welwue. It is upon us. I mean, this is some biblical stuff that's happening. It is falling from the sky as we speak. It is white death. And I'll tell you, I know we're in trouble. Now, I know we're in big trouble. Now go find toilet paper at Kroger. It's an interesting reaction we have here in Cincinnati to snow falling. Maybe it's the fact that the streets don't get cleared as quickly as they short, or maybe it's the fact that drivers don't drive the
way they should have. Maybe a lot of reasons. But the minute we see things falling from the sky like Uncle Randy's dandruff, we tend to panic. And my guess is, somewhere out there right now, hopefully not you, there are people with white knuckled grips on their steering wheels. All I can tell you is this, remain calm. Everything is fine. I'm in charge pending the Vice President's return. And welcome to another Saturday afternoon. A lot of pertinent things going on,
not just the way. We have uce basketball coming up. Airtime is at one thirty. That's what we lead into and maybe today one might just keep one's fingers crossed. Maybe today you see will actually beat a named opponent. They're in Georgia to take on the Georgia Bulldogs. You'll hear all the play by play action Dan Horde and Terry Nelson. A lot of things that are percolating around the world today, like this Venezuela stuff. Have you heard
about this Venezuela stuff. Trump's blowing up boats. They're drug boats, they's cigar boats. Anything that knows anything about boating knows that these aren't just some guys out on the high seas look into cast a line and catch some grouper. So he's been blowing up these boats. The Democrats are all upset about it, not because they care about Venezuelan fishermen or even drug cartels in Venezuela. They just want something that can get Trump, because that's all they've really
been about since twenty fifteen. Get Trump, Stop Trump, Orange Man bad. So we got Venezuela and boats, we got seizing of Venezuela and oil tanker to mix in with other things like rounding up gang members MS thirteen gang members. That infuriates Democrats, not really, it's just another reason to get Trump. It's kind of like the Jeffrey Epstein Files. There's more things in there about Democrats than Republicans. I mean, there's only so many rakes you can step on and
hit your groin with before it starts to hurt. But nevertheless, they're on Trump about this Venezuelan drug war and how he wants to take out Maduro and could there be a chance that we, as the United States people that represent us, you know, the CIA, coelt whatever it may be, actually go into Venezuela and take out Medora, who of course operates at the behest of the drug kings in Venezuela. Joshua Phillip is about to join us. You say, ken,
who is Joshua Philip. It's one of the great investigative reporters of our time. He works for The Times and Epic Times TV, has produced many, many different documentaries. He's got a new one that's out. We'll talk about that in just a second. But Joshua Philip is somebody that knows exactly what's going on in South America and what this Venezuelan government is up to. So I've asked him to join us here on this day to talk more about that, and he's kind enough to give us some time.
And Joshua Philip, how are you on this glorious.
Saturday doing well?
An interesting step to watch, I can say.
That absolutely more than interesting. What do you think Trump is up to in Venezuela.
So I predicted it and then it came out the new National Security Plan and Secretary of warp Tex have set it publicly.
Now.
This is about the re establishment of the of the Monroe doctrine. And I think we saw the examples of this because you know it started after blowing up the drug cartel boats. There's more context to that. Actually that actually ties into Venezuela having been on the cusp of invading Guyana just literally a couple months when they started bombing those boats. The latest one, though, is the intercept of this Iranian oil tanker that was violating sanctions and
trading in oil. And so I think what you're seeing now is they're not just going after like Venezuelan drugs, They're going after the core parts of the Venezuelan unofficial economy and what really matters. In the new National Security Plan, they've announced that the Trump administration will once again be enforcing them in row doctor, which means Latin America, no foreign countries involved if you're not there, so Europe, China, Russia, Iran,
no involvement in Latin America. And the interesting thing with Venezuela is that Venezuela under sorry Hugo Java is and now Maduro being of course Javas is pick was he hand picked him. Chavez actually was the one, working with Fidel Castro on Cuba who pushed the United States out of the read And the way they did it was they established regional like pseudo powers like organizations of states
that did not involve the United States or Canada. So really, toppling what Venezuela has come to represent in Latin America would be the very first step necessary to re establish the Monroe doctrine.
Right. The Monroe doctrine has been around for over two hundred years, so named after President James Monroe, who basically told the rest of the world, look, if you're thinking about colonizing any of the Americas, forget about it. This is not your territory. Okay, got that, But I still don't know what Trump's endgame is with all of this is what is his endgame.
The endgame I think is power shift in power. And you know what's really interesting with Venezuela and Maduro. Even the Biden administration had this policy and I should built the National Security Plan. I mean huge bipartisan support. It's probably going to get past. In fact, Democrat Demopupkins in the House joined pretty heavily to pass it. Even when Biden was president, they were talking about power change in Venezuela. They said publicly they did not recognize him as the
official leader of the country. They said, he's the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, which is a terrorist organization, which means that they could justifiably do a target strike or you know, navy seals.
Rate or something and kill him.
And there's also a government in waiting for Venezuela, which both Trump and Biden have acknowledged. In fact, the transition government in waiting. The guy lives in Florida at Sjuanglido, And you know, it wouldn't mean he'd be in power per se, but they have a process already established because of again the twenty eighteen elections in Venezuela, mass protests, and they believe there's enough popular support for that that toppling Maduro would not be a difficult process.
Okay, so Meduro is in power. The only people that want Maduro in power right now appear to be Meduro and his cronies. But Trump's got something to figure out here. I think eventually you run out of cigar boats carrying drugs to blow up, and eventually there are only so many tankers you can seize. So again, what's his endgame here is? Is it boots on the ground in Venezuela. I don't think he has an appetite for that in Venezuela or anywhere. How does he get Meduro out of power?
How does he stop these cartels who basically run Venezuela at the behesta Maduro. How does he get those cartels to stop transferring drugs up to the United States? I mean, there's got to be some sort of plan here. What's the endgame?
I think what they're going to do is they're going to either force Maduro to step down or they're going to kill him. What Because he's again having designated the cartel the SUNS as both a terrorist organization and as again the targeted cartel organization right, and with Maduro being designated a leader of it and basically head the heads of the date and military being deemed leaders of it, what you're going to be watching is Maduro is going to be treated like Bin Laden. He is the new
Bin Laden. And we don't have to engage the full military to overthrow bin Laden. You just go in there, rate him at you know, midnight whatever, shoot him and throw them off, and throw him into the ocean like you know that that could very likely happen. Trump has said publicly that he will not start a war. There is not going to be a full scale war. But Maduro's days are numbered, and it seems he has given him a will ultimatum. Step down, You're going to die.
And you know, for better or for worse. People can agree with that or not. But but now that he has designated a terrorist leader, America does have the you know, the the clearance of say in terms of like war you know, laws and so on to do that.
You know, I'm just playing through the political ramifications of this scenario if it does come to pass. I mean, you've got the Democrats right now, uh, exactly where Trump wants them. They have sided with the narco terrorist squad. They're embracing MS thirteen gang members. I can't, for the life of me believe that that's what they want to do.
But that's what they want to do. Now, if he goes into Venezuela and either the CIA or Navy seals take out Maduro, I can't imagine what the Democrats would react to there. You can't necessarily, if you're a Democrat, come out and say, hey, Maduro's our guy. You know this? Yeah, what is he doing now?
There?
He can't blow up our guy?
Right?
You know I wouldn't do. Okay, this is where I think it's going to go. You're going to see the media make a stink about it, without a doubt they're going to make you know, they're going to be indignant politically. But I think it's going to come out very quickly that this was also Biden's policy. Maybe not kill Maduro, but the Biden administration just before the twenty twenty four elections was basically saying they're going to do the same thing.
They were talking openly.
About forcing a regime change in Venezuela. Now does that mean killing him?
You know, killing Maduro?
I don't know.
But under.
Under the Bide administration that this was also the policy, and I think the Trump administration could easily drag that back out.
And make that case.
But you know, the media these days, they just want to they want to scandal, regardless of history, and so they're going to make a big deal about it, of course, regardless, especially right before the midterms.
Yeah.
Yeah, the media these days, particularly those that cover Washington, d c. Are populated by people who think they are the next Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward, when in essence they couldn't find Karl Bernstein or Bob Woodward on a map. But it does serve another purpose here. If indeed he does this, and he goes into Venezuela, it would be a warning shot across the bowl of any of these South American countries who are in essence run by drug cartels himself to let's the nonsense is over. Let's let's
we're not playing that game anymore. So maybe therein is another aspect of this.
I think he on that and so on that point, Trump as we speak, is also threatening the president of Columbia, and he's even threatening Mexico. And I mean, I don't know if you'd go and you know, do targeted strikes as the president of Mexico, you know that'd be pretty shocking. But if you remember when Trump was on the campaign traw, he was saying he was going to do this. This was part of Trump's campaign promise. And what do you say?
He did a very long video.
I'm talking it was at least I think fifteen minutes, but it was very long, and he laid out his plan to use the entire US military, every power they had, intelligence networks, US Navy, targeted strikes, airstrikes, special forces, raids, all of this, he said to destroy the drug cartels. He said he was going to do everything we now
see him being done. And in addition to that, he said that if any government tries to stop him, he will expose the ties of that government to the cartels, which you know, Maduro is the first example of and Trump right now has made that an open threat. And the unfortunate part for a lot of those government of Latin Americas, a lot of them are tied to the
cartails in one way or another. And if Trump says, hey, you know, you know he likes to tell the story where he's talking to this like terrorist guy, and he shows him a picture of his house, you know, from the sky, and he's like, mister Trump, why do you show me a picture of my house? He says, well, you know, you're gonna have to put two and two together on that one, you know. But he's basically doing the same thing to most of the Latin American governments effectively.
And on that point too, a lot of people say, well, didn't Trump just pardon you know, the fore of the former presidents. I believe it was his Honduras I believe, who is also arrested on drug charges. That ties into what I said earlier. This is about the re establish
him to the Monroe doctrine. Part of it is about drugs, but the bigger context of it is Trump has tried, he is trying to establish loyalist leaders to America within the Latin American region to begin again re establishing US presents throughout the whole region and then from there dismantling criminal networks. Is establishing kind of an American answer to the Chinese Belt and Roade initiative, meeting infrastructure projects and begin changing the region effectively.
Joshua Philip ark Gass he is the senior investigative reporter at the Epic Times, and among other things, he produces a lot of documentaries for the Epic Times. You've got a brand new one, right, what's this one all about?
The latest line that is actually on Charlie Kirk and how the media framed him. It's called it's called Truth under Fire, the Framing of Charlie Kirk. And I've been quite I've been quite a few other documentaries. I've even of course gone down to gone down to actually Panama, the Darien Gap to the ember Indian villages, tracked the entire migrant flow system and exposed how the United Nations
has been running it. They have a program called the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and something else Migration and basically paid for by the State Department. That documentary I had is also available on Epic TV. It's called it's called Weapons of Mass Migration.
And that debut is when.
That one's already out, as is the Charlie Kirk one, and you can find those on epictv dot com, epochtv dot com.
Yeah, where Joshua is also not only a senior investigative reporter but also the host of Crossroads, which is a terrific news and analysis program on EPICTV. Okay, when does all of this in Venezuela come to a head? When do we get either Maduro out or Trump puts his head on a platter. How quickly or how soon does all of this play out? In your opinion?
You know, that's a good question.
The way Trump is talking, you could say any day now. There's also the chance if he believes it could harm the Republicans during the mid terms there maybe he'll wait till afterwards, or maybe he'll think it'll be strategically valuable
to do it before. I think, I actually think opinion polls in terms of the media hit pieces Trump blowing up, you know, fishing boats, fishing boats by the way, they like semi submersibles or like four engine you know, you know rocket jets, and you know, of course big engines painted blue, so they blend into the ocean and they have no fishing equipment.
But you beside the point.
That's modern journalism. I think opinion polls left and form. Whether he thinks it's good to do it now or wait a bit.
Yeah, the always unpredictable President Donald J. Trump, the predictable Joshua Philip and I will predict that he is working on his next documentary even as we speak. That's for the future. Joshua, for your time today.
Thank you, We appreciate it always, Thank you so much.
You bet, yep, you bet.
So.
It doesn't sound like any of this is going to curtailed. Trump can't imagine boots on the ground. He doesn't want that, doesn't believe in it, any campaign, actually against the whole thought of the United States going into a foreign country. But nevertheless, there is something that's at foot here, and I think what's at foot is the Ouster of Maduro. Stay tuned. Like many things, it could all turn on
a dime. It is now twelve to twenty six, as the snow continues to fall, and we all brace, perhaps cowering in a corner, wondering if it's going to get us on seven hundred WLW is just a warning. But tomorrow, if you're going to the Bengals game, kickoff at one o'clock, is going to have a temperature of ten degrees ten degrees wind show much worse than that. Of course, the Ravens turned the ball over what like a million times. No, it wasn't that. There it was like five times when
they met a couple of weeks ago. There's Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson on all of that, and what they have to do tomorrow.
Turn over free number one, you know, protecting the ball, uh, putting a lot of points on the board. Because we didn't do that either. We got unfortunately we had to didn't happen two more, you know, on top of the fourteen we have, but it didn't happen. So I'm looking forward to sc go on more points this week.
I don't look forward to it too much, Lamar. You know it's twelve forty three, but as you and I both know, it's five o'clock. Somewhere. There's one for you. There's one for me. Oh there's there's one for the ages.
Pop the top again.
You're smuggling in the good stuff, aren't you today.
I've just got time for one more round.
Set them up, my friend, and then what happens.
Then I'll be gone and you can lest some other.
Pool to sit. Yeah, well we'll see. All I know is you see basketball on the horizon beginning at at one thirty today. Oh hang on a second, let me play this for you. Hear this song. This is Ariana Grande's remake of the Wham Song. Last Christmas. The Wham Song wasn't all that great and this thing is a piece of Yeah, it does have a distinction though. According to a group called Bader Law, this song is the most distracting Christmas song you can have playing in your
car when you're out on the roadway. It's all about beats per minute, and if a song has in excess of like one hundred beats per minute, you're in trouble. This one has two hundred and five point nine beats permitted and over and above that. It's Ariana Grande singing. But nevertheless, it is one of the top ten most distracting Christmas songs that are out there, and you should not be listening to them if you want to stay
accident free on the highways this holiday season. So a lot of other songs on there that are kind of interesting. One is Christmas Dream by Perry Como. The other is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams. But this is the most distracting song that you can listen to if you're out on the highways this Christmas season. So why so and what does it actually do to our brain? Well, when it comes to the brain, there's
no better authority than my next guest. He is doctor Patrick Porter, expert in brain health and the purveyor of a group called brain tap dot com. Kind enough to give us some time here about driving listening to this stuff and what it can do to you in your car and doctor Porter, how are you on this glorious Saturday. I'm doing great. It's a great day to be here, Yes it is. It's well, it's a great day to be anywhere, to be truth about it. Yeah, okay, so
you've seen this report. Do you put any merit into it? Well, yeah, I think that there's a few reasons for it. If it's faster beats per minute what they're talking about, if they get into high beta, they're going to create anxiety, mil per, nephrone, cortisol don't mean all these things are
going to be triggered. And if you don't and then you put together you know, a lot of people think of the holidays, of course as joyful people, but there's more suicides during their holidays than any other time, so there's a lot of negatives too. People have a loss, they start thinking about things and if your mind gets distracted.
We have first and second attention. So if you have your first attention is you know, driving, let's say, and their second attention is thinking about all this negative stuff that happened during the holidays, and the songs bring up a loved one units something like that, and then you switch attention and you become less aware of what's going on, of what going on in the world within your mind, and your brain can't tell the difference.
So if all these if all of these Christmas songs are doing that, it would stand a reason the eleven months out of the year you should not be listening to Metallica as you drive a car. Correct.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I mean I wouldn't recommend that at any time, but because I've seen what it does, I guess when you're working out or you're doing something where you want to be just a crazy animal or something like that, because my dad used to call it zeta brainwaves, you know, because it's just super hyperactive.
So some people are they.
You know, with PTSD or something like that. People they we call them first responder brains. They're always on the edge of their seat, They're always looking for what might happen. They're looking for a way out, they're looking for who might you know, you understand what I'm talking about. They had a vigilant kind of brain. They operate in that zone, so then they look for that kind of music. But it's not healthy for the body because the body meets
those downtime too. It needs to have those relaxing moments and rejuvenation and replenish. Now, most people, i think, get us to Christmas songs while you're sitting at home and you're just relaxing and with family. That's great, But sometimes when you're alone, you get that melancholy because you start bringing up memories of past Christmases and things like that.
Right right now. This survey that was done by batter Law, which is a law for him. It found the songs between fifty and eighty fifty and eighty beats per minute help people stay focused slower tempos. That creates that alpha state that you were talking about, which boosts productivity and concentration. But I'm I'm looking at some of the lists on these ten most distracting Christmas songs. One of them is
Christmas Dreams by Perry Como. Every song that I've heard Perry Como saying it sounded like he was dead now, but how can he deliver a song with one hundred and eighty four point three beats per minute? Terry Como, you kidd me.
Yeah, I'm a little curious about that myself. I mean, apparently it's the music in the background.
It's not as singing for sure, you know.
And what they find is that, you know, the drums or the b of the symbols and all those things that they do that's going to create the rhythm and cadence like a metronome, and the brain is going to follow them. They call it frequency following response in science. So the brain is always doing that, it's always trying to find the patterns. The problem here is that it
takes you off the patterns of life. The natural rhythm of the earth is seven point eight hertz frequency, so when you think about that, that's.
Seventy eight beats per minute.
Yeah yeah, Now when you get up and goes higher ranges, that's why it's so distracting.
There's another song on this. You may not know this, but at one time this radio station played music. It's a fifty thousand one radio station, Big signal all across the Midwest, and somebody that got their start in their careers singing on this radio station was Andy Williams. He was from right now in Cincinnati. It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Now.
I listen to that song, doctor, I don't know what it does to you, but I mean, it's just uplifting and it's great. But you're telling me that if I'm listening to that song at two hundred and one point sixty three beats per minute, which I suppose that that was your heart, your entire body beyond overdrive. But the fact of the matter is you're telling me if I listen to that song, I'm more distracted than if I listen to perhaps some sort of symphony from the eighteen thirties.
Is that what you're telling me, that's what That's what they're saying.
But what they're doing is though for you and me, I listen to that song and I'm more focused, I'm energized, I'm ready for Christmas. You know, it brings up this
the energy. But some people it might cause them distraction. Apparently, you know, I don't really agree with that one, but there's I would have to see how they actually measured these beats per minute, because that one seems a little weird to me, because when I think of Andy Williams, I remember all the Christmas specials and things like that that were going on.
There were good family times. For me, it's a good memory. Yeah, yeah, I mean I get the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I've interviewed a number of those guys to know what they do on a on a yearly basis. But by and large, listening to music while that you are driving, I think what you're saying here is probably not the most ideal thing right.
Right when when people unless you are in it, unless it matches your concentration and focus zone. You know, one thing they're not taking into account is that every brain is different. So some people, if you're listening to certain music, people will say, turn that music off. It's distracting, you know. Other people say keep the music on. Some people drive with no music because they can't handle the distraction of any noise at all.
But but it's it's perfectly fine to listen to talk radio well while you're driving, correct, there's no problem with that, especially your show, especially your show, Thank you very much. So let me let me just ask you this. So we've talked what that kind of music does to the brain. We talked about how it can distract the brain driving.
Can you know you can't drive anymore anywhere, particularly in this country, being distracted at all, because God knows what's coming the other way at you, in what state of mind somebody is driving that car. So what is the best way to drive? Doctor? How do we avoid see now I'm going to morph into something that might save lives here. How do we avoid traffic accidents when we're driving so that our brain is completely focused on task?
But I think the main thing is you know they say we have the attention of a goldfish about five seconds. So always change your point of view, like when we look in the rear view mirror from side to side, we look in front of us. Always change your point of view, but refocus because what happens is you get distracted because you maybe you see a stop signed down the way, but you don't see the car hitting the brakes right in front of you. So it's about keep
your eyes moving when you're driving. You need to be vigilant, like you said, So it is a stressfully them you know, a lot of people think that on airplanes or driving an automobiles, you know, they sleep the whole way, but then they're tired when they get there. That's because every cell of your body is moving and you're stressed out. You're creating more cortisol in that, don't you meine I was talking about, and neuropronaffter and all those things trigger
the wakefulness that we need in the morning. Our bodies were not designed and especially our brain was not designed for the technology that we're experiencing today. So we need to just take that downtime. You know, when you get back, when you get home from driving, take a moment, take five minutes and do some breeding and just relax. Because you went from one stressful event. Maybe you walk into a house, it's another stressful event. The problem isn't the stress.
The problem is that nobody's taking time for recovery.
Yeah, nobody knows how to sleep in this country. If you haven't noticed that, doc, at least without chemical help. I'm just wondering when people go to brain tap dot com, what happens. You come on the phone and you talk monotonously to them until they pass out for monotony, and then they fall asleep. What happens at brainsap.
Dot com cos Oh, No, we use sound frequencies too beats permitted, but we're going to use earth frequencies zero point five to eighty eight and depending upon the brain we want to train. In the morning, we want to train SMR to get them well woke up, to get them going. It's about between ten cycles actually ten to fourteen cycles per second, and then or beats per minut it. And then when we talk about the afternoon, we want to have a full reboot because our temperature drops at
two a pm. We're cyclic creatures. It increases two degrees at two am, so the body is always cycling from something called the circadian rhythm. So we reset the brain and back in. You know when you read books. I'm reading a book right now that was written about India. They never worked past two o'clock in the afternoon, and now now we worked until eight o'clock at night.
So we're pushing the.
Boundaries of our biological system and we're not taking the time to recover.
So the middle afternoon is really good. And then at night we need to down regulate.
Just get that beats permitted as slow as possible, turn off the lights, drink plenty of water two hours before going to bed, get yourself ready for bed and cool dark place, and just let yourself relax, you know, and do the breeding exercises which I've talked about on your show before. You know, like at night those people that aren't sleeping. Two thirds of the world, by the way, is not sleeping. Well, so when you think about that, when you go to sleep, it's a sport.
It's not an activity.
Tomorrow morning you're going to get up and you're going to become a part of the human race, you know, and it's a race like you get up to one hundred yardsh and say, what do you mean I got to run one hundred yard dash. I didn't train for this. Well, that's your life. So at night, that's when you do your training while you sleep. So breathe into the count of four, hold that breath, breath out to the count of eight, and you'll start regulating your nervous system and
teaching your body to recover. Because sleep is when you get those superpowers you need tomorrow morning when you wake up to have the energy to listen to those songs on the radio, do the things so listen to talk radio, process the information you need, and live the life you really want.
Well, we got a lot of people around that don't work past two o'clock. You can't find them with a search warn after two o'clock at this place. But nevertheless, doctor Patrick Porter, expert on brain health. You can find him at brain tab b r A I ntap brain tap dot com. Okay, you have a great holiday season and stop listening to that Christmas music when you drive. Chris, I'm on the road with you, Doc, all right, thank you,
you bet you bet? Yeah, all kinds of who. As a matter of fact, here's another song that'll make you plowing to the guy in front of you, he says Nat King Cole. He's like mister Christmas, but apparently not good for your brain. Now driving to the guy next year and plunge into a brick wall. Be careful what you listen to on the radio. It could be hazardous to your health. Twelve fifty six News Radio seven hundred w l W oh, this is sweet.
And send the taste of home to those special people on your out of town gift list by sending you Sensey Favorites Holiday gift collection, including Montgomery in Ribs and Sauce, Queen City Sausage, Chef Ruby's Greaters and more. Visit Sensing Favorites dot com and your holiday shopping is done.
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There's an open house tomorrow from noon until one point thirty. Call Holding five to one three four five one forty eight hundred, five to one three four five one forty eight hundred, or on the internet Holding with an E dot Com. We're definitely going to be late to the concert. I feel like we should be there by now. I'm just taking out now your host Ken Brew on News Radio seven hundred WLW, Snow continues to fall one thirty. You know all, we have UC basketball live from Georgia.
As the barricades take back, Bearcats take on the University of Georgia. All the play by play right here on seven hundred WLW. George's pretty darn good. They they average about one hundred points a game. I know Xavier played them to within one point a couple of weeks ago. But this is a team that can put up points. We'll see how the Bearcats handle them. You want to warm up snow falling, let's talk baseball, Yes, let's talk baseball.
A lot of things that get us warmed up. Reds Fest a couple of weeks away, and then of course they start a spring training and a new book has just come across my table. I have a little table here. Books come across and every so often I stop the ones I like this. One is written by a buddy of mine, Matt Snyder cbssports dot com. It's called The leadoff Man, The History of the Evolution of and Fun
with the greatest catalyst in sports. The leadoff man maybe the most difficult position in a batting order to staff, and Matt Snyder, as I said, has done a deep dive into this. His book has just come out, and I wanted to get him on the show today, not only to warm us up, but to talk about all of this, and he's kind enough, probably snowed in in his home in Indiana, nevertheless kind enough to join us. Matt, how are you on this glorious Saturday.
I am great. Thank you so much for having me on to talk about the book.
I am.
I'm ecstatic about it.
Is it fair to say that the leadoff hitter, and I'm sure you go into this in your book, is it fair to say that the evolution of that particular position is not something that has just happened recently, that it began as one thing and now has evolved to where it is now. Maybe speed and on base early, but now it's almost a position that demands some sort of ability to hit for power. Am I right about that?
Yes?
Absolutely, It's covered heavily. There's a chapter on the evolution. I go back to the eighteen hundreds.
It's interesting.
I talked to Major League Baseball historian John Thorne and he said, actually, at the adjunct of the game in the eighteen sixties and eighteen seventies, they did just hit their best player first, because becomes the best and most That was the logic. The turn of the century, it changed and it became hey, you got to save your best hitter for fourth. Now, if you go back like Honus Wagner, ty Cop, they had the profile where they would have been great leadoff hitters, but they hit clean
up pretty much their entire careers. And the stolen base thing fifties sixties seventies is when it became, hey, you've got to rack up steals from the top spot.
You had guys like.
Maury Wills who didn't really get up base much at a great cliff, but sotole a bunch of basis so they had to hit lead up. Guys like Gary Pettis I talked about should never have.
Bad at leadoff, but he sole basis. So we got a bat, we got a beat leadoff.
And then you know, I feel like Ricky did a little bit in terms of the power. People started to see, hey, you know, this is the greatest leadoff man of all time, and he has some power. Alfonso Soriano, I think, really started to kind of push it. And here recently we've seen George Springer types and now we've got I mean, Kyle Schwarmer a couple of years ago was hitting lead off for the Phillies.
Shoho Tani bad leadoff.
So Ronald Lacuna Junior sitting over forty bounds in the leadoff spot. So it's yeah, I talk about the evolution, but yeah, Brady Anderson in the nineties had power as well. I know everybody just focuses on the one fifty homer season, but he hit over twenty three other times, so he had power a lot of different seasons.
Betting leadoffs.
Yeah, and it's interesting about putting your best hitter in the in the in the leadoffs situation that has they've evolved out of it in baseball, but there was a time here in Cincinnati in the mid two thousands where they put Adam Dunn in the leadoff hter simply because he was a guy that could hit for power and at that time he was fond of, if not their best leadoff hitter. Yeah, and he took his walks too.
So it's I go through.
There's a chapter where I go through and I say, like, if the evolution had happened sooner, or if people were a little bit more open minded, some players through history that could have or even should have let off and Joey Voto in twenty twelve, I mean, the Reds didn't lead him off at all, running out Zach Cozart and is two eighty eight on base percent of hitting leadoff.
And it's not like you needed to save power.
I mean they had Ryan Ludwick, Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, FRANM. Siltz could have hit tip. I mean, they had plenty of power. They should have just hit Botto leadoff.
And that was a team that made the.
Playoffs Eve though they didn't go anywhere in the playoffs.
I think they could have streamlined it.
So there's twenty five different guys where I run through like that. And also you'll find this fun. I believe I had something stuck with me.
I was when I was a little kid.
We went to a game in Cincinnati and my dad would throw on Wow on the way home and to listen to the postgame show. And there was a caller who I believe it was nineteen eighty eight, because there was a caller who wanted to set the perfect lineup for the Red and.
He started he said somebody.
Else other than cal Daniels, and the host pushed back and said, wait, wait, wait, you've got to hit cal Daniels leadoff. He leads the league on base percentage, and the caller was adamant that he.
Had too much power and he needed to save that power. So I talk.
About the mindset that was permeating throughout baseball fandom, baseball media managers for a long time.
It was hey, hey, hey, he's too good. He can't bat lead off.
The best I thought at that position that I ever saw was lou Brock, and that's just I think more of a of an era that I come from. But Pete Rose hit lead off quite a bit here in Cincinnati. Is wondering where he would put where where would you put Rose? Or where did you put Rose?
In?
I ranked that I have a ranking chapter. I ranked the top twenty, and I also went through honorable mention by era.
So like the dead ball era, pre integration, post integration, predh deoid era two thousand and four to present, I ran through over eighty five guys that I did you know little blurbs.
On in the top twenty. I expanded on each guy a little bit.
And Peter ros is easily easily in the top twenty.
I'll say I'll reveal top five, okay, b lou Brock is top ten, number one. We can spoil that because it's easy and obvious.
The Tree interested absolutely absolutely yep, and I think he defined the position four years to come, but it's it's absolutely it's so difficult for teams to find a leadoff hitter. You mentioned what they did here with Kozart several years ago. They're still looking here for a guy that can put up at the plate and get on base in essence, quote unquote set the table. Why is it so difficult for teams? And the Reds aren't just alone on this,
why are they? Why is it so difficult for teams to find a quote unquote leadoff hitter.
I think for a long time there was a mindset you have to be different when you're leading off. And I interviewed a lot of guys about this, Mookie bet TJ Friedel, Pete Armstrong and half George Springer, and a lot of them said, well, I don't really change my approach. And Boba shed actually was funny because he argued with himself for a second when I was like, hey, do you approach your bets differently when you're cleanup hitter versus
when you're leadoff? And he was like no, well yeah, no, wait, yeah, yeah, I think I do, and that to me comes up why I think it's difficult because guys will say I don't want to change anything.
But when they get up there first and you're the first batter of.
The game, or you're supposed to be setting the table, I think there is a change in mindset, like, hey, I'm supposed to be a table setter, so I'm supposed to be more patient here. And that's why you see leadoff hitters take more pitches than most other guys in the batting order. Now, the truly great ones are was attacking the first pitch. George Springer, for example, he's great at sneak attacking with the first pitch or deciding to
take it every once in a while. I talked to Dexter Fowler about it and he said he was the same way, like he generally would try to take pitches, but every once in a while he'd get in his head like, hey, I'm going to sneak attack him on the first pitch here because he thinks that it's going to be easy to get a.
Strike on me.
We're chatting with Matt Sneyder cbsports dot com, but the author of a book that has just dropped the leadoff man, the history of the evolution of and fun with the greatest catalyst in all of sports. I've got to ask you this. The winter meetings just wrapped up. The Reds targeted Kyle Schwarber and came up about twenty five million dollars short. He's back with the Phillies. How do they recover from that? Because this town was geeked for about forty eight seventy two hours and now it's like, oh,
same old Reds. They really don't want to play the game. How do they recover from that?
I thought they should have pivoted to Pete Alonso, but now there's a slinging the mist there as well.
Look, we don't need to run through it again. You know how badly they need power.
Elie de la Cruz Census Seer, the team leaders in home runs with twenty two and twenty one.
Swarba or Alonzo.
Would hit forty to forty five, if not fifty in that ballpark the next two years at Leeds.
If you were worried about the last two years of the.
Contract being a stunt costs, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. Because the Reds just made the playoffs last year, but they were outclassed by the Dodgers, in part because they don't have enough power in the lineup, and you had these two mega power hitters sitting there on the market and all it takes is money, all you got to do. I don't think Swarber was ever really going to leave Philadelphia, but sometimes the polls going
back home can be there at least match it. At least match it and say hey, we'll give you the same money.
Just come home. The Reds have the money, They're not tied up with a bunch of huge contracts or anything. They need to.
Capitalize on that run to the playoffs. I mean, they hardly have anybody making five figures in the season. I think maybe Preaty will be over ten million, but Hunter Green's going to be the second highest tape player next year. To me, sorry to pile on, but unacceptable that the Reds weren't willing to swim in the big boy pool here for Shober. And then again I would throw Alonzo in there too.
Yeah, exactly. The book is the leadoff man, the History of the Evolution of and Fun with the greatest catalyst in sports. I'm looking right here on Amazon. If you order it today, you can get it delivered free by Monday. So that's pretty darn good. Good luck with the book, Matt, and you know I'll visit down the road. But congratulations on that, and thank you, thank you for your time here today.
As always, thank you so much.
I'm very platteruing you should be actually very proud of what you did. It's a terrific book. I would recommend it. I've read it. It's great. Yeah, it looks like the Reds are left with the Ryan o'hearns of the world. Who's still out there? Thirty two years old, hit two eighty one last year, seventeen home runs. But it could have been so much much better, really deflating one twenty two on this snowy Saturday News Radio seven hundred WLW.
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