All right, Billy Cunningham, the Great America. We never stopped, we never hesitate, We simply continued. Johan, You and I now from the northern shore, the great state of Ohio. Was Bill Wills who got his chops right here in Cincinnati through Lynchburg, Ohio. He was a morning man here for quite a period of time and outgrew the market, according to Tony Bender, and then moved up to Cleveland, which I think is a down draft, not a enough draft,
but nonetheless Bill Wills from TM and Cleveland. Welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show. Bill Wills, how are you?
Legend? With that intro? Always an honor to beat with you, and certainly a joy with all we have going on in Cleveland.
My friend, I'm watching the game, the game. I want to talk about the Brownies, of course, Oh yeah, sure we'll talk. But the game last night between the Yankees and the Guardians. I'm thinking, okay, it's over. The Yanks F three zip, they're losing three to one, come back five to three.
It's over.
I said, all of a sudden hell break list, it was hatred, despair, all of a sudden glory. Explain the emotions of last night's game between the Yankees and Guardians. You're in the playoffs. The Reds likely never will be again. Give me a full report.
I want to touch on the Reds and make Reds fans feel good about what's happening in Cleveland because it ties back to Terry Francona. Having said that I posted last night. The game was every emotion. It was a wedding, a funeral of baptism, a birth, and if you're a Yankees fan, maybe a brisk It was absolutely amazing to go through the night, back and forth. Our closer, Emmanuel Classe up against Judge, he hits the home run, their closer against ours and their closure goes out. It's a
walk off. In ten we're still down a game to the Yankees. But now back to Terry, what you experienced watching the Guardians last night. Bill was built by Terry. Frankcone and Stephen Volte will tell you that the players that we use, you know, we're twenty third in payroll, Reger twenty fifth. Mary told you in his press conference was of course I checked out on seven hundred WLW. He takes any ballplayer and tries to make him the best he can. And those skills, those fundamentals in the
guys that are are now. You know, a couple of games away from the World Series all were taught by one Terry Francona. So I think the success that we're enjoying in Cleveland, I think Reds fans may have down the road, you.
Know, making sense, Terry Francona took this town by storm. I didn't know this at the time, but when Peter Edward Rose recently departed, was in Montreal, his roommate was Terry Francona. They lived together, how about that one in Montreal for about three or four months, And that's the connection. That's the connection to Cincinnati right there. Plus he played for the rest Yeah.
Yeah. Terry and I did a lot of radio shows together because we carry them, and we always talked about Cincinnati and he had so he's got great stories about Marty Brenhaman and if you never get him on the hear talk about those. He and Marty are very close. And I'm sure it's come out by now, But Marty, I'm sure was very intricate, shall would say in getting Terry and Miss Cascelini together. But I just want to say, you're getting a great way. He's solid, he's enjoyable, he's
great to work with. And I really think and Stephen Boote will say that cleveland success this year really started with the building blocks from Terry Francona.
No, let's talk about the Brownies, of course, on Sunday Big Game. The Bengals have not won a game in Cleveland since twenty seventeen. That's like seven or eight in a row lost. And now you've got Nick Chubb back. And I'm told by my Cleveland sources through the spirit of Trevisano, that Deshaun Watson is about to have a fabulous game and to a rise without an offensive line with nobody to throw the ball to. And Nick Chubb can't be any good, just out for about a year
with that serious knee injury. So what is this sentiment in Cleveland, the Northern command of the State of Ohio about the Big Game on Sunday? Do you care at all about the game? Brownies have won one game this year, and I worry about that. Are they poise for victory or defeat? What do you say?
Bill Wills a couple of talking points. If Watson has a great game, it'll be better than the Lazarus coming out of the tomb. When it comes to Nick Chubb, I'm not sure anybody wants to run behind our line because we just ain't got no line. And that's one of the problems with Watson. He has very little protection and his skills have been shall we say diminished. Yes, Browns are one and five. My brother Joe is a season ticket holder for your Cincinnati Bengals, and I talked
to him this week. He said, yeah, they score, but there's no offense. But I mean our defense. The one guy you got to worry about. Oh, his big Miles Garrett, number ninety five. His arms Bill are as big as my legs, and my legs are pretty big, so he's in one jump for him. He's a man's man, and you know, the defense has been the key for the Browns, although we've only got one win to show for it this year.
Miles Garrett, the rumor is he may be traded before the trading deadline. Miles Garrett as a man's man and woman's man, got a hairy ass, and the guy's strong, tough and brave. He's going to be true supposedly because Jimmy Haslam says that they're in a rebuilding product.
Again.
Can you imagine the Browns at this point in a rebuilding project with a terrible quarterback making a quarter of billion dollars a year running back just coming back, no offensive line, nobody to throw the ball to, and the Browns beat the Bengals' that's impossible.
Impossible, No, no, and the owner wants a new stadium. You know, Deshaun Watson actually is twenty four for twenty four in lossuits bill. He settled twenty four on the twenty four so far. His ranking is better there than he.
Is on the field.
He's got to keep his private parts inside of zippra. That's a different problem. What's the sense of Jimmy Haslam moving that brown He's out of the lakeside and moving to twenty five miles. It'd be like the Bengals move into Warren County or something. What's the sentiment of Cleveland? Do Cleveland Browns fans care as long as they stay in the Cleveland area?
Fifty to fifty. If your season ticket holder, it's going to be easier to get to your seats. If you're a purist, you like playing them by the lake front, the dome thing I think I'm mixed on. But the problem is going to be who's spending the money. I don't think Columbus wants to help him because they know obviously Mike Brown's gonna want whatever Jimmy gets right. But there's a lot of land. As you and I talked a couple of months ago, Bill, when the story broke
and you were on top of it. Of course, there's a lot of land around Burke, around the airport to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, and the city offered to close Burke lake Front, which is like closing Lunkin to say, well, build there for you, and Haslim didn't want to do it because he wants control. You follow the money, he wants control of all the development, and that looks to be the way they're going to go.
He'll put a flying j in there at some point. But my memory of the mistake on the lake was going with Andy Furman to the last Bengals game there with the Browns. There, the Browns fans were tearing apart at the Municipal Stadium and behind the Browns bench and ar before the game, I was introduced to a young defensive coach named Nick Saban and Of course Andy Furman knew Bill Belichick. So I'm standing there with Bill Belichick and Nick Saban and I said, what's your name? He said,
my name's Nick Saban. I said, well, good luck to you. And then Bill Belichick was quickly fired by the Browns. Of course he couldn't coach, and out he won, and the Browns fans tore apart the stadium, and I said to the fur ball we need to get the hell out of here.
Not good, Yeah, pick up some pick up some of those names you drop on the way home today.
By the way, no question the mood.
It's going to take several years, and I'm not saying it's over yet. The county is not happy about. Nobody's happy about. Plus, when you're one and five, nobody's happy. If they're undefeated, then people they want to get on the bandwagon to build a new stadium. But right now everybody seems to be on the sidelines Bill except for the owner who once.
Had done and Jimmy Haslam is some multi billion ere The Forbes magazine came out that Mike Brown and his family's worth about five billion dollars and he's one of the poorer owners in the NFL. He's on the He's on the breadline. And uh, Jimmy Haslam is worth about ten to twelve billion. So what he wants is to basically own Warren County. Moved the Bengals to Warren County, move to Brown South. He has all the apartments, is all the strip centers, has all the clubs, has all
the condos, and build like a large project. And Mike Brown's not built that way. Mike Brown's not a great businessman who wants to move thirty five miles away.
But Jimmy Haslam does. And is that going to happen?
According to the media types I read it yesterday, Tony Benner gave me the story that it's a done deal.
Is it a done deal that he's moving? He can move.
I mean the issue is gonna be the Art Modell law Bill, which you know very well if I passed after Modell moved the Browns, saying there has to be a period of time, a cooling off period between city officials and the owner of a team. What that technically means, we don't know. Cool after Mike Brown. You know, you can still run into Mike Brown as de la Roses, having dinner once a while, Right, you don't run into Jimmy Haslam. Okay, he's not that kind of guy. He's
almost like a carpetbagger, you know. He's like Hillary Clinton went into New York to be a senator. He came in from Tennessee. He was a part owner of the Steelers and they wanted to own a team, and the Browns were for sale, and he paid about a billion. Now they're worked like eight billion dollars. It was a great investment.
Jimmy has now eight billion. That doesn't count the other Flying Jay and that kind of stuff. Do you miss Cincinnati at all? Because now you've established the Kingdom in the North from Lynchburg, you got Reverend Valley, you got all this stuff going on.
Do you miss the Queen City?
I do a great deal. We still get down there every once. A matter of fact, I've told Tony Bender my dance got a little minor procedure over christ next week's I'll be there for a couple of days in Cincinnati.
Come love Queen City.
It's always been home, Willie, and you've always been good to me. And absolutely Cincinnati's a wonderful, wonderful city.
Do you still miss Mike Trevezano, my running mate.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I think about him a great deal. One of the legends of the business, without a doubt. We lost him way too soon. Man.
Yeah, all right, Well see what happens. And I think I wish the Guardians well. But the manager of the Yankees is a Red. Paul O'Neill does the Reds again, and the closer are all Reds, and so I'm thinking our team is somehow.
In New York.
But I know, I know, I know it's a big payroll. But again for Red stands. I'll leave you with this, U thought. A lot of the success Cleveland has goes back to one Terry Francona, and he will be your manager of the coming season.
I love that idea. And Marty Brownman was the bridge. You know, Terry Francona did not want to come back. Sixty five years Hell, that's old, sixty five years old, as old as you know, he's getting old. Should retire, go to Florida and relax. And Marty said, hey, get in here, and he met Bob and Phil and that was the end of it. And all of a sudden, we have a manager. All we need to need now
is a team that's healthy. We lost our entire pitching staff on the DL and players are using steroids and having a Matt McClain, the star second baseman, didn't get a sniff this year, So every time I look around there's another doc cremcheck work to be done.
But I wish you well, Bill.
I wish when you come into town next week, will you stop in and see us here at the big.
One, Willie, I'll find you. I'll try and find you and look for it open person next week.
Okay, God bless America. Bill Willis, What is the price of pork? But I need pork bellies, I need pigs. I need the price right now? What is the price of pork? Belly's going to give me a number.
He's around seventy. Candle market is good, beautiful day to be out there harvesting. I know the farmers have you on kind him.
Bill Wills, thank you very much, See you, buddy, see you next week.
Let's continue with more.
There it is and Bill Wills was here, and then Jim Scott kind of came back the second or third time, and Randy Michael said, well, Bill, we have an opening in TM and Cleveland, wanted to be the morning guy. He goes up there and over the next twenty five years, establishes himself as the Mike McConnell of TAM gave up Ziggy's Piggies and away we go, and I miss Bill Wills every day. Let's continue with more Bill cunning in
the Great American Live. It's remember the Reds and the Bengals and Terry Francona News Radio seven hundred WLW