Monday, April 22, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalas on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions, Kat c R two SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Yes, I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagan Zauce. We have Kevin in today. It's not Mick Mouse. I'm sorry. It's still for Friday. You go's got nothing left. I know it hasn't got any better. I did take some

allergy pills, so it's getting a little bit a little bit better. A couple over the weekend. I can barely talk, which is good for people. But welcome to Monday. We'll try to get through this. I'm fine, I'll get right through this. I'm good. Sorry, folks, you'll probably have to listen to more of Jay than me. Please stay tuned for us anyway. Kevin, Yeah, no go, yeah, no go, So it goes. Busy weekend was yeah, a lot of victories for this. Yeah. I went to I went to two of the three uf A

baseball games. Yeah, that did really well. Saw a couple of wins, and they had another walk off yesterday, and then the women swept softball swept ASU, so things are going pretty well. And and and what and PMA College, Yeah, twenty six in a row, FEMA College softball, twenty six in a row. We're gonna blow them. Behold. Yeah, we're gonna have their coach, Rebecca KOs who's going to join us today to talk about that. I've been avoiding suggestion her as a guest because I didn't

want to just blow the blow the streak. Right. Guess what? Yeah, well we couldn't wait anymore, right, how I mean, how long are we going to wait? If they keep winning games? So we got to get on here and talk about that. They won the national title. Yeah, so we'll have her back at that happen. Yeah, twenty six straight softball games for PEMA sop right, So that's great. And then the first time we're gonna have Cody Ritchie, a good friend of ours, a

good friend of mine for a long time. Wanted to talk to him about the Heath Pray Foundation or the they're going to develop a scholarship scholarship. Yeah, in addition to that, I said, don't be surprised if we have other questions. I wanted to ask him about about fatigue. Yeah, and I think he'll be willing to talk to us about that and more, you know, because he's been a big boat booster for a time, a big

booster personally as well as through his company, Yeah, quest Insurance. So you know, there's gotta be a lot of pressure on on on those people all the way around. In fact, in fact, I ran into m Bertot the golf thing that you sent me to, and I said, we gotta you know, thanks for coming on the show. I was excited, he says. He says, look at me. He says, We're gonna wait till the simmers down. If you want to be back, you're gonna wait till the simmer stuff. It. Guess what, it's never gonna simmer

down. It's not, at least not in not until they get this thing fixed. It's not. And then there's so many other things, you know, with you know, with the new a D, with the you know, President Robbins, you're going to be leaving in the next year. So I'm just just all kinds of you know, all kinds of stuff that affects all of that right, So there's gonna be stuff going on all the time. We're gonna play to talk about this summer. Yeah, okay, you

know we have to find something because it's kind of already is summer. It's getting there. You know, we're running out of baseball and softball games. I think baseball's got twelve more conference games. Softball's only got three. Then they get into their tournament, so you know we're gonna be running out of games to games to talk about. You still got a Track and Field Conference championships plancy shields, and the tennis team won the PAC twelve regular season timely

one. I think they're tied for tempered Yeah. And then so there's there's still plenty to do. What did the maybe you have some breaking news. Did the gymnastics team get to the funal No, No, they were living FoST weekend okay because that was but they got to regional. Yeah, they got to a regional, but they didn't make it out of the first weekend. Okay. So it's gonna be a variety of things for today's show. Welcome back. We haven't heard anything with Tommy and recruits coming in. I

think everybody should wait and marinate on it until it happens. A lot of people still going into the portal, right, has a lot of good names to be out there to be chosen. And then football still a lot of movement here. People come in and going. We talked about the kid from Albuquerque or New Mexico, New Mexico kid, who's going to Texas. Where's you go? Mississippi? Mississippi. He chose the running back. Yeah,

remember we talked about that last Friday. Well he was he he uh, well that's right, Ole Miss. Yeah, he went to Ole Miss, Ole Miss. And then somebody left today or last week made his decision. Will wait for that, wait for that news. So a lot of things. Anybody want to call and deal with my voice, please do too. Oh four one six, seventy four forty. Hope to get over this yeah soon. Yeah. But you know, went to those two games at at at High Corbett with fun people. Yeah. Yeah, over four thousand,

both nights, both Friday and Saturday nights. Beautiful nights out there. Uh. You know a couple of good games, especially the Friday night to walk

out right. Well, the Friday night game was a walk off. The Arizona was leading and most of the game, went into the ninth with a five to three lead, gave it up where they were down seven to five, and they scored three in the bottom of the in the bottom of the seventh or ninth excuse me, with the with the help of just a routine dropped fly ball and I heard them he just I mean, he got under it and he had just hit the heel of his glove and he just dropped

it. And then Arizona scores three runs to win the and then they handled him pretty well on Saturday. Then another walk off on Sunday, the women the softball team had two walkoffs and a run rule. So but you know, see we were because we were. I was explained to my daughter who's just graduated from the UVA because she went with us. How you know at Sanset Field, which for a while was a great facility, but how at the end it just had died. Remember, and they were getting crowds of

six hundred, seven hundred. The concessions were terrible, the restrooms were terrible. It was just a bad place to go watch a baseball game. There was no ship aid whatsoever, no atmosphere, no beer, most importantly, and then all of a sudden, they just flipped it, you know, flip this thing over, running over to High Corbett. It's a beautiful facility. It's a major league spring training facility. You can you can have beer out. They're getting crowds of four thousand every game. What do you think

is the number one reason why beer? No question? I think they've been able to sell beer at Sunset? What do you think? And it wouldn't been like this though, because the facility is much better. You also have to kept buying some students. But this facility is much better. Here's the thing, though, there were a lot of non students who go now who wouldn't go at Sunset for parking and and you know, access to anyone of a number of things. And then like you said, no shader, you

know, not you know, no chair, back seat. But I also heard before I got here in the mid eighties that it was a rocking place when it was at the time for a time you know, well into the you know, well into the eighties, maybe early nineties, but really in the early nineties it was the kind of fizzled out and and by you know, when they moved it over there, man, all of a sudden, they just gave the whole thing, you know, a burst svendery to the

point where a su did the same thing. They're over at Phoenix Municipal now, yeah, you know they're not on there on their uh campus state. What I do know now better than I do no, last cut around two months ago, about six weeks ago, is that Chip Hail's a pretty good coach. He's a pretty you know why I know that. No one's bitching about it, you know anyway, well, especially in this time where they bitch about the good ones too, right, right, but you know what

when they start to win people, Yeah, are they low? Don't talk? Yeah? No, and Steve, they're good. I mean they're you know, you watch it. They're fundamentally good. They do good fundamental things. They're pitching. You know, I saw Clark Candiatti throw again. He pitched, you know, he pitched really well. He's a Friday night guy, right, No, he's the no, he's the Saturday Sunday he's the second day guy. And you know he threw. He threw. I've seen

him throw twice on he's throwing. He threw really well both times. He he looks the part, right, he's got the the the airport look of a picture. Throws throw it right now. You know he's he's young, but he throws in the low nineties and he's got a lot of good stuff he's got. He's got some mean offspeed pitch offspeed stuff. He's fun to watch, and you know he pitches. He's Here's the other thing though,

another reason why people are going. It's quicker, you know, the the like they do and soft all the pictures where a wristband where the sign for the pitch comes in on the wristband. It's how does that work? You know? Somebody and somebody in the doug, somebody in the dug has the thing that I don't know what, I don't know if there I guess there's a display because they look at maybe it's blinking lights or whatever, but there's some sort of a display and that's the signal. So the catcher is not

even giving the signals anymore. So the game's quacker. The game on the game on Saturday night two thirty seven, you know, I mean four hour games were regular for college baseball, well especially if Jay Johnson was there. Yeah, so you know, so you got you know, the games are quicker. They're better. They move a little quicker, a lot more action,

a lot of fun to watch. It's it's a great night out there, and the weather's you know over there now is just incredible a lot of fun, especially at night, especially the night because the night time here mornings and nights. And I think the last time I went to back to back Arizona baseball games was twenty twelve when I went and saw them in the I saw the series the super Regional that they yeah, that they hosted here and they you know, they swept that into and I went both of those games.

I think it's the last time I went back to back. Maybe we get lipas in here in a week or two before the playoffs started, but you know there, they're fun. My grandson went on the second day and one of the their director of ops gave him a baseball. That was cool. So he walked out of the out of the stadium clutching the base. Do you walk out or did he kind of like, well he got carried

out because he walked slowly. Well, I take it back. If he's running, he's hard to catch, but if you're just trying to walk with him, it takes a little bat. We carried him out, but you don't cute kid. Yeah, y had his baseball. So that was a lot of fun. So we had a good time, good, good, good, Okay, and more games town out of town. I would guess out of town this week because since they were home, but I know, I know softball is out of town. That this last series was their last

you want to know series? You know how quick time flies? We talked about it as we get older. I don't know does the time fly for rest? Uh? Probably when Scooping was a freshman? Oh, we were, we were here, so Bobby, Bobby had a big crush. That's how four years went by that fast, that fast, because it was four years ago she was playing, and he talked about her, you know, on the the deal. He was, yes, four years from now, she's going to be gone. Yeah, I mean here and there. Yeah,

goes by fast, It does, it does. But you know again, she's starting to turn out be a really good player. Local kid. So a lot of a lot of locals on both teams, on both softball and baseball. A couple of home he's playing, you know, on the baseball team. I can't even think of their names. Now, but the catchers that you know, he's good to really good. Sorry, he can't get him his name that got upsets nineteen seventy two is very clear to you,

yesterday is not. Yeah, that that really upsets me that I can't think of his name right now. I'm like, I'm offended by myself. Yeah, I don't know anybody on that roster. So so you're on. You're on your own, Immedia. Corona is one of the guys, the catcher. What you say it is the catcher because because Chip talked about him? Yeah, who's mom? That's it? That's it. No, you don't talk about Michael Love talked. I can't think of his first name.

Donna's booth, which is a great name. Upset. Yeah, you know what, I'm going home. I'm surprised you don't my name. Surprised you know my name? Pretty sure? You say Kevin? Hey, I did. I did say to my daughters, what's your name? I'm sure you call them all their names? But who doesn't. Who's always I do that with my kids? Yeah, I was. I was the fourth of four boys, and my mom always had to work her way down when except if

I was in trouble when I was in trouble. She got my name right out of the box, right so, and it was my formal first name, not even you know, my legal first name, not even my my nickname. Have loud, have you get your stuff back here? Okay, okay, he yah. We got two minutes and then we're gonna have d Richie for about twelve thirteen minutes. We'll talk some booster stuff with him, and then the scholarship did the putting together in Heath Bray's name, which is

a great, great thing. It's awesome. You know, you know you're somebody when you kick and people do stuff like that for the impact, you had the impact, right, you start to you know, and maybe sometimes you don't realize you're having that impact when you're around, but you know, your family get gets to see, you know, what you meant to a lot of people. Sure, that's a really cool thing for heat Sure and his family. Yeah, and the kids probably are very proud of that too,

obviously. Okay, let's go. Let's let's thirteen after we can run that, right, Let's get it, and then we'll get at about three minutes. Okay, we'll take our break. We're to come back we'll be Cody Ritchie Crest Insurance, also a prominent You have a booster and we'll talk some scholarship and booster stuff with him. Solet's stick around. The Window Depot

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This is I on the par on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Hey, welcome back to one of them all here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay Now unful. We have Cody Ritchie from christ Insurance and a big UA booster, a guy everybody loves in this town. Cody. How are you hi, Steve? Hi? Jay? Doing well for our Monday? Yeah? Good good. We want to talk to you about a lot of different things, but most importantly about the Heath Bray Foundation or whatever you're

calling it with him. But that's very big. We think it's very big. Well, thank you. I mean I think everybody a lot. I know both of you guys knew Heath and a ton of people who've been around since the early nineties. No, Heath, and he was a heck of

a guy. He touched every demographic group. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but we decided to set up an endowment for Heath because he just he represented everything that was great about you know, the University Arizona and a guy played both ways, came from North Carolina across the country, was an ultimate team guy. And in the same age we passed around, you know, doing something with the nil, and most of us who are

contributing to it work with the NIL to begin with. But an endowments stands to test the time, and we thought it was the best way to honor his his his legacy. I can send you a link to it, Steve, that maybe you could send out to your listeners afterwards. But the goal is to get one hundred thousand dollars. We're already halfway there after just a couple of days and then being perpetuity to on a number fourteen heats bray.

So how exactly or have you guys decided how exactly this will be. This will be used, you know, as a scholarship or what it's going to be a scholarship. It'll be a scholarship. They'll more than likely be awarded to like a preferred walk on, which there are a lot of these days, right you know, you know today's walk ons are completely different than you

know, yesteryear's walk on. So, uh, that's what that sort of the planned for that and we're modeling after we set one up a couple of years ago for a gentleman who is well known here to so named Armando Rios and j you probably need, right, and we set one up for him because Armando was a walk on here and kind of the guidelines that gave the

football program, which because it's a really worthy individual. So ironically enough, last year's winner was recipient was Irbie, the defensive back to the young guy from LA who played such a pivotal part in the almable right right, right, So so one hundred thousand dollars is the is the is the target? How much will that be annually? Do you think in a scholarship? Well,

whatever a scholarship costs. But yeah, the one hundred thousand dollars, we wanted to try to you know, blow that out of the water because then you know they might be able to do a second or third with that. And so one hundred thousands just so the interests well fund, you know, in perfectduty so you don't have to really drive right right, No, that's great, that's great. Who came up with us if you can tell

us who, well it was it was a group of us. But you know myself a guy named a former player here named bo Ralph up in Phoenix area who's a wonderful guy. I never really knew Bo because he's younger than me, but of course he's another guy that I've been connected to through Heath. And then Bo was talking to type partner Donnie Salem and all those people that the first person I called UH to ask was Jim Klick And and he's just said how much he needs and you know, you know how he is,

right, it's unbelievable. Yeah, no, Well, you know, when it comes to stuff like this, though, you know, the community really always always steps up with a guy like Heath, who you know, just you just knew he loved the u of A. And and you know, I know he was living in Phoenix, but you know, you knew that this place meant a lot to him. You know, he talked about how much of his success he owed to you know, the experience he had

down here. And when guys like that, you do that and say that people appreciate that, and that's all you can ask for, because you know, we just in the last couple of shows, actually we've talked about so many of the guys who have stayed connected to the u A, whether they still live here or just are involved like Heath was. You know from a distance, and there's so many guys like that, and you haven't you have to have an appreciation for that. Well, I can tell you from being

here now since nineteen eighty seven. You know, Heath Lamont on Ley. You know those guys, they're the ones that have kept everything. And of course I never played here. I just a fan here, Yeah, but I just I've been here a long, a long long time. And Heith worked with me for a couple of years. And you know, whether you played on the team or just a fan of the team, or you met these guys in business, or you know, I'll run into Lamont a quick

trip all the time. But he's he's he'd loved being up in the valley where he ran in a bunch of the sun Devil people. And he would never be shy to tell him that he was a red and blue guy. Yeah, no question. He came on about eighty eight, ninety. I think you were still a young man. Do you remember. Do you have any memories from back in the day. In fact, we met in the back then too, Yeah, you know, I remember. And when we're having his service made the third up in at Bow's house up up in Scott's

or Phoenix. And one of the things that I was tasked to do was to talk about this endowment. But one of the things I was going to talk about, and Donnie Taylor and I were talking about this. Everybody remembers the first time that met he, you know, I met the Green Dolphin playing pool, you know, Yeah, And but I remember he was playing at the time, and he was a special team player, and he was just a maniac. I cut from the you know, the Chuck Cecil mold

where he would sacrifice his body and he was the wedge breaker. So his first year he was a special team kind of like, you know, recovered fumbles. I think he had a fake kick extra point for a touchdown that year. Then his sophomore and junior year he bulked up to play linebacker, and then his senior year was quarterback against Miami when they pulled off almost the greatest upset in the history of college football. Ye where they almost upset Miami

in that fifty game winning string. And oddly enough, I think I told you guys on the last time he had gone when he came to work with me for a couple of years. One time he had a visit at our office. It was Gino Torretta. Yeah, and Gino I saw a thing on Twitter where he said something to the effective like Heath was the toughest guy the dolphmate Warrior that I ever played against. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. Okay, anything else with it regard to the endowment, Yeah,

well, how do people contribute to this? Where do they go? Well? I played something my social media page universey Arizona. There's a heat Ray Endowment at the University Arizona. And again, if I could Steve after the show, I'll send you something and maybe you could put it up on your on your website or your I'll give it to my my social media guy, that would be me, that would be you're good at it, Just shoot it over and we'll we'll definitely get it put it put up on our our

Facebook and h and Twitter pages. Okay, thank you. I very much appreciated. I know his family and cool. You know. The really cool thing is is Coach Brennan invited his son to be a preferred walk on here and his kid was really good. Just had to get his grades up. I mean, he's he's he's in my mind, the type of kid. He's just like his dad, and he and he and he and he waited his turn at some world High School, which is a perennial powerhouse up there

in the valley. He didn't transfer, Heat went on transfer and he's going to be the ultimate team guy, just like like his father if he came here. Yeah. In fact, I just google that. People can google and find it. I know we have it up on all sports twosun dot com. Jay have put it up on ours definitely, so you'll have a variety of ways to find it pretty easy. Thank you. And and you know five dollars tend when anybody can give, would be just very much appreciative.

Okay, let's talk real quick. We have about seven minutes to talk about other things. What do you think, Well, you're a big guy at the u of A, and you've been very very consistent and very loyal to the UA program even though you're not a lum. Why is that you know? What's your connection? Well, I am an alum. I got my master's degree at the U of A. I came down here about the time I met you, Steve, and I actually interned over at that FLIC

department. So my dream was to be a college afflet director. So I came down worked for the Wildcat Club, did a bunch of various, you know, just odd jobs for them at the time when Ted kiss All and Tom Sanders were down there, and Judy Kessler, who's still there, was my supervisor. We laugh about that all day, all the time. But I didn't end up pursuing a career in sports, although I did a little

stint over there with the Tucson Toros. And every time I see Mike, he reminds me to remind people that I used to work for mister Mike State. Or were you a Touro? Were you at the Toro one time? Did you wear the head? No? No, no, no no. I was never the Toro. But they'll take up the remaining six minutes we

have. But there was a famous deal Steve Well, you don't remember where Mike had that the dash for cast when Tuffy would get on second base and the other person start at home plate, and it was a progressive jackpot. And one day it was up to a thousand bucks and Tuffy was walking home and some kid just piled drove him like a Chuck Cecil hit and uh, it made national News it was playing here on CNN. Do you remember that, I do very much. Yes. Two weeks later, the San Diego

Chicken came into town and it was the talk of the mascot world. Everybody was talking about and and Ted Gianolas is the San Diego Chicken. He was asking Mike about it, and he said, I have an idea. Let's recreate it. Have tuck for you walk out to second base, pull a hamstring and there's like a ten thousand people that game and Mike, you said, people on Morning Track, And Mike said, tonight you're racing Toffy And I'm like, seriously, people have to watch me run in from you know,

like it's embarrassing enough. So we recreated it to where I caught the chicken between third base and home tackled them, and he wrestled me, and then and then all the mascots, Chester, the Cheeto, the Red Baron, Tuffy himself on crutches, they all just promptly beat the crap out of it, you know. Yeah, So that was the last time my sports career. Well, you've done very well since then. So just how difficult is it being a booster these days? Given you know, everyone's asking you

contribute to the program, to contribute to basketball women's blah blah blah. It must be tough. And now nil and now inn al well, can I do a little sameless plug anybody and anybody who has a reason and it can and wants to buy insurance from us, please do because we're the hometown guys.

And honestly, at this point, it's tough because we start out, you know, at one point, just a season ticket holder, and then you've become a sponsor, and then you become a donor, and now you have nil and on top of nil, you have these coaches subjects that you're

asked to contribute to you and it gets it gets very difficult. And it's telling Steve when we were talking pre show that sometimes it'd be fun just to be a fan from Sierra Vista who just loves the university and comes the game and nothing's expected out of you, and you know, and ninety nine percent of the people are so thankful and gracious and the university is, but there's

always that one person who's like, how come you're not given more? And it's just it is tough, but we'll gladly do it, you know, to the best of our ability. Cody, this is a question that you know, everybody has their reasons about why, you know, they support a program. Is it because I went there, or I put my kids through there, or you know, I'm just you know, I want to be a big part of the community. I want to contribute to this. But you know, at some point there has to be a little bit of a

return. You know, for you what what is it for you? What what do you get out of this when you're when you either you personally or your company is putting money into the athletic programs at Arizona. Well, I don't know. I'm a big r o I guy, and I don't know if one hundred percent we get our ro I back. However, the feel good, it feels good to help out, and the athletic department has been very good as far as appreciating you and you know, doing nice little things

for you. However, you know, I go back to where you know, my wife's a native born and raised here. My kids, a couple of them went to school here. Probably more than half of the people I work with went to school here, and not only here, in two somebody in Phoenix too. The people that work with up in Phoenix, and I mean it's brought great joy to me over the years. I was there with my boss, Bob Mueller and Birmingham when we beat Kansas and I was at

the leap. I was fortunate enough to be at the leap of the lake. And so a few years ago for me personally, I felt like there was apathy. And during the Kevin Summlan years, a lot of people had stopped giving and just stopped caring, and I was one of them. And I was like ashamed of myself, and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna jump back in and contribute how I can. And by the way, there's some people who are way higher up the food chain than I am.

But we do the five different tiers, you know. We do the coach attention, we do the nil, we do the you know all the other stuff I talked about. But you're Jay, at a certain point of time, one is enough enough and other people need to step up. You

know. I went to a basketball game this year. I'm not gonna name names, but I saw these two guys at the game and I found out to one of other guys at work that they had decided to move to somebody outside of Tucson, and that's their right, that's they're one hundred percent they're right, But I don't know if they're strategically thinking that. You know, if we all do business with the hometown guys. Paul Volti over there,

you know at Volti Mortgage. I mean, he's incredible, and you know, people should be calling him and doing business with him, and and all the way down the line, doctor Rosen. You know, just a ton of different people, and but it takes a village. It takes all of us to to make this thing work. And you know, Jay, you're native of here, and Steve, you moved here about the same time I

did. We're not we weren't the University of Washington. We are not USC But in my opinion, I think we're better than they are because we're a big, small community. And I think finally, you know, as a fan, our head coach is chif Hale, Edia, Uh, Tommy and now Brent Brennan. I think they're they're they're kind of have a reflection of our of our fan base, which is pretty cool. Yeah, very much so, lebbe the last quick question we talk about fan or booster fatigue.

You talk to a lot of these people even without giving too much away. I'm sure you hear that all the time from your buddies. Yes, yeah, I I do. I do. And you know, like what I tell a few of them is like, listen, and some of the guys they've done the nil collective guys have done a really good job, and a lot of them are kind of new to this, and it's kind of like the song Hotel California. You know, you can never leave, and so you gotta be careful. You got to. You got to give to what

your your your capacity is you you have to. We got to get ROI right. I mean if they're winning, it's going to be great. But what happens if we if we're losing, it's like political donations, you're gonna

stop giving. Yeah, So yeah, I mean that's there. There is some fatigue, but at the same token, at the same time, what I'm hearing is a few of our mega donors that were kind of sitting on the sidelines or are dipping their toes back in with the U of A. And that's really encouraging, because you know, we're only as good as if everyone is contributing. And it kind of goes back, like to the heath

and downment. If somebody can't afford you know, a thousand or ten thousand, one hundred thousand or a million dollars, give fifty, give twenty five, and and and that helps out too. Thank you go to these always. Cody, thanks a bunch, man. I appreciate all that. All right, great day, great week. But you know, he's really you

know, and and Cody's in the middle of that. And and the perfect, the perfect thing about Cody and that conversation was that you're right, he's not the you know, he's not the mega donor who's just got falling money raining down on him. He's the guy who's here in business. You know. Yes, he's got a great business and he's I'm sure he's doing very well, but you know, the demands, the asking that's going on out

there, man, it's got to be well. I know, I know this song is not that big of a town, right, it's a big time, but it's not darn many of them. And I'm sure you can name him, right, you can play the name, and eventually I can't

do it anymore. Yeah, I mean I was looking, you know, looking when I was at the at the ballpark, you know, I was looking out on the at the field, and you know, looking at the signs on the outfield fence, and you know, seeing who's out to the Nova Home Loans and banner, and you know, and all these all these companies and organizations, and you know, you just you see them everywhere. You see them at Arizona Stadium, right, you see him at Kale,

you see him at High Corbet, you see him at Hillim. Right. They're doing a lot and they're still not ever sure enough. All right, let's take our break. Where to come. We'd love to take your calls five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four to forty. We're going to see if we get this frog out of Steve's throat over here. We're gonna reach down in there and see if you can grab it.

Please please, all right, stick around, We'll be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them.

Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from lout is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal wild get leman huntly with Arizona Health. Imagine how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform your personal space in your life. We

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Centurions dot com. That's the Centurions dot Com. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WAPP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Robera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifteen. Hey, welcome back to the ball. Here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay Coup Kevin with the for twelve and a half minutes. If you were trying to call, I think I may have seen it buzzing. I'm not sure I'm blinking. Please call back five two zero four one six seventy four forty I've got a text.

Day. Really enjoys the Cody, Yeah, despite the voice, you know, it really encourage people, you know, go find this. You know we're gonna post this this link as soon as we get it, you know, to to you know, contribute to this. It helps And as Cody said, five bucks, you know you've got five bucks, you got ten

bucks. You know, whatever, it's gonna go to a good cause, it's gonna help with it's gonna help a kid in school, that's the that's the one thing I think about the normal people who complain and should be fired and they're not playing well because they're not they're not contributing right to the nil, to the collective or whatever. And if you want to be part of success, you have to be part of the success, whether it's five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars and yes, that may be a lot of

money to you or not. But if it is, isn't and you can complain, here's your payoffs exactly exactly so you know, yeah, it'll give you a whole better feeling about yourself when you're yelling at the coach. Well, j you know, Jimmy, you you called the coach, he should be called him out. You should be fired. What have you contributed to the to the collection? Twenty bucks? Okay, then that was a twenty

dollars rent. Yeah, there you go, twenty dollars rent. No, but but you know, and look and again, those of us who had a chance to know Heath Bray, you know, meet him, know, a regular guy on the show. What they're trying to do with this, uh is in honor of a guy who is just just a good guy around around the athletic program. He meant a lot to the team back in the early nineties. He's had he had a successful career, he's got a good

family. It's it's a shame that he's gone. Uh and you know, people should really, you know, help recognize, you know, how important he was to a lot of people. It'd be good if people would just go do that right and then we recall, please do we got ten minutes and then we're gonna have Kevin Would breaking news. Was a lot going on, Yeah, we're finding we're finding a lot going on. But got the NBA. I watched a little, a little, not very much. There

was only really one good one truly. The Thunder and the Pelicans was really the ly compelling one. I mean you had Anthony Edwards and KD going at it, which was compelling. But the game itself I don't think was played tonight, right the the Sun's Suns and the Sun, Yeah, the Sun's come back tomorrow. I think I'm a little ahead of of of our guy god what's his name? I just lost it from the Sons or Son's calor

Howard Howard because he talked a lot of crap. Said, okay, call me back, well, you know, yeah, I mean, and funny, there's so many people who were saying, you know, the Suns are six seed. They're saying, well they should be, you know, they should win this series. Well, there's sixties, right, there're certainly not supposted based on what they did all year, right, because they were so

inconsistent and that first game showed it. And then you have then you have the seventy six ers who came through the play in they're they're the second favor to win the Eastern, right, and then all season long after you know, after they fired the Bucks coach and and Doc River steps in and all he's done is complain about how terrible they've been. There's the three Seed. I mean, if you if you listen to Doc Rivers, it sounds like they hostage. Hostage. You have to the three Seed. It's not like

they're you know, their crap. That's what I'm doing. I'm doing my uh yeah, I watched some of it, some of it. I you know, my son was over for dinner esday, so we had that, we had the games on that were on uh late yesterday afternoon. But you know, to me, it's still like it's got to get a little further in the PLAYFFS for me to really start. You're for a lot of people that feeled that way. You know, although you know I did get asked

you you have something on this game? You have something on this game because you were watching. I didn't. Yeah, because I didn't, did you? Pinky promised that I can't. I can't. I didn't bet on any NBA this weekend. Smart, not at all, but a little bit, a little bit. Well, you know, this weekend for all three days they had a DraftKings had a thing where if you bet a money line, take a money line bet. If your team goes up by two runs point in the game, you win the bet, whether or not they win the

today. Well, I lost Friday and Saturday. But the Dodgers, yeah, because he wanted to move them out yesterday. They was like, Okay, we're gonna score all these runs today. You know, you know, I don't want to fuel your fire and everybody in turn wisier. But they

haven't been playing well, right, they have not. They lost seven of nine and then they won yesterday, so they had dropped a five hundred, so you know, they won yesterday, they got day off today they're back to on they go to Washington. Oh, speaking of, we're probably probably gonna go to the Dodgers Diamondbacks next Wednesday, sob okay, plan, I'm blowing out here a little early. I have a friend who's a pretty good Dodger fan, pretty big, and he doesn't like Roberts. He just doesn't.

He doesn't think they'd get out of it. He gets enough out of them. Well, there's there's a lot of people have said that over the years, because you know, they've had they've had the rosters and the talent

to win two or three World Series and they've won one. Yeah, you know, I mean last year getting swept by the Diamondbacks and the you know, in the divisional Series, that was just no, you know, I mean, I like Dave Roberts, I like him a lot, but I'm in agreement that that he hasn't he hasn't gotten them to where they need to get to. How long has he been there? They've had he's quite a few years, so he should have more than one, at least trips to

the World before the one before they won the one in twenty twenty. They should have won two others. You know, they had the teams to win and didn't get there, and because he well they got cheated out of one by those damn crap ass will but head astro little take another seven minutes. So why do you think they keep him? Because he's a good guy and he's doing he's doing a pretty good job. They just haven't finished. So he's been there for nine years. Yeah, I mean, he's not done

a bad enough job to be fired, don't you know? In my mind? And if he were fired, somebody would pick him up, and exactly he'd be a great coach somewhere else. He just hasn't won at all except for the one time. You know, it's kind of like and you know they're I mean they're great, they're really good every year and you know they've

got a chance to do it. They just happened. And so I don't know, I I don't think in the end you say they haven't he hasn't done he hasn't been bad enough where oh this guy's doing a terrible job. He should be fired. But there are a lot of people who don't like how much he's gotten done because it hasn't been enough. And today's point, he's only gone under one hundred wins since he got there twice in one of those times, and that's excluding a COVID season. Yeah, but only the

two pennants and one series to show forward as well. So yeah, yeah, so you know, uh, you know, I uh, I I like him. I think I think he's good for the Dodgers. I think he's a good guy. He seems like a guy that can run a team like this, who can handle the egos and the you know, the money players and stuff like that. But you know, it's it's always been one

thing or another. You know, Clayton Kershaw, who it was horrible in the postseason until you know, he won a game in twenty twenty, won a World Series, and now he's been hurt a bunch, and you know, things like that. This year. There's no excuse with the money that they've spent for them to not you know, when all are come close to it, but they're not. They're also not the favorites I thought they were. Yeah, maybe they are. I thought I was thinking of Atlanta,

But you're right, I think they're favorite over. I just got my first text to beat l A. You know, he'll go away, He'll bill to go away. Did you get the same text. I'm not even looking, you know, get my phone's upside down, my iPad is upside down. I'm not even looking. But Bill can it's his figure prints? Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely absolutely, I get it. I get those routive

relatively frequently. I don't think you'd get I know exactly. The Dodgers are still short favorites at plus three sixty, with the Brain is falling very short behind them at plus three seven. Of the Rangers the Rangers that I would, I would what is it to what the Rangers are plus fifteen hundred? What? What are the what the Dodgers? The Dodgers are plus three sixty? You should put some some corn on the three sixty. You're not gonna get a bit of price. In fact, it's gonna go smaller. I

already did, Okay, would you get it at plus thirty five? Probably less than that. I don't remember. To eighty, I don't remember, because I'm sure this is down from what it used to be. I'd have to go back to the well, silly me thinking that you didn't put it. This is this My voice is affected, my brain? Yeah, I should have done, should have The sun is up. I got money on the Dodgers. I mean, what the hell, it's two to one that you get up tomorrow, sun Rose. Today it's a good day to gamble

some money. Yes, exactly, exactly. Okay, we've only got about three minutes. Anyway, We're gonna have Kevin four for breaking news. Then we're gonna go to mis Curroos. Rebecca knows the heads off. I'll coach at Pima. They won twenty six in a row. Uh, we're going to try to make sure that we're not the kiss of death on on that streak. We've already started this ball, I know, you know, if we do price, that's the presious coming on. Hey, let's take this

call. Hi, you're on the air and on the ball. That's all this Jim, Hey, Jim, how are you good? Are you? Jim? Hey? You got about ninety seconds. The Dodgers managed their roster like there is no seven, eight and nine. He told me that too. But the guys, what do you mean by that? Their bullpen has let him down for five years? Oh yeah, yeah, I said the same thing, right. It killed him over the weekend a billion dollars getting hitters and pitchers, and they still haven't filled up that bullpen. Yeah,

you're you're one hundred percent correct. I was losing my mind both on Friday and Saturday in those games against against the Mets. It was like, what the hell are they doing? It was awful. Well, the bullpen comes into play probably forty to forty five percent of the innings they play. Yeah, and that's it. And they've been like that for a while. I mean, going back to those teams like that, you know that were really good, but they just didn't have the bullpen to to finish. You're right,

they didn't. They couldn't shut people down, and so that's not day Roberts fault. Yeah, yeah, I agree you. And there's some guys throwing that. I'm like, who the hell is that one? I said, they bring some guys in from the bullpen. I'm like, who the hell is that? And where did they get that guy? You know? Yeah, I know, And it's crazy. It's crazy with all the other talent that they have, so to show, Heytani and then and then they've got Larry, Larry the the handyman. So you are you on Facebook?

Just curious? What are you on Facebook? I'm just curious? Oh, because I told the story, and that's true. Someone created a fake Facebook account send me a note saying that I hate Tommy Lloyd. I told you that story about a month ago. I'm trying to figure out who was kind of I have an idea because I don't hate Tommy lod obviously, but I guess I said something bad or in their mind, because I've never said that, I know, I know, haven't. Do you think the Dodgers win

it this year? Though? Jim? No, yes, no, maybe if they can pitch the eight and nine. Yeah, well that's yeah, that's for everybody, and the ten. Yeah, but that's for them. Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right, Jim, we got to run. We got top of the hour, so hey, thanks about talk to you soon. All right, Yeah, no, I mean, Jim, Jim makes a great point that that's that's been the thing that and that was you know, they they've scored a bunch of runs over the weekend,

but they just got beat again. You know, just driving me nuts watching them play against against the Mets. Okay, we've a lot of your time for the Dodger Okay talk, and now Dodger talk is over all. Right, let's take our break. We're gonna come back. We've got a breaking news with Kevin here at the top of the hour, and then at about four to twenty becke kidos. We'll be talking to Pima Softball and their twenty six game winning streaks. I'll stick around.