Thursday, June 12, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports.

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Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roverta. In with me today is Dave Silver Back to back? Hello, Dave, back to back? Goad to be back again? Yes, yes, we love to talk about. Have we got Ray handling the board? Oh yeah, I hate handling that board. Too many teams to look at going away, coming back, blah blah blah.

Just good to have someone who can handle it. Yes, Dave's kind of like those screws up a. We're gonna be on right. Yeah. Well, welcome everybody.

If you want to call, please do five two zero, four one, six seventy four forty. We've gone some pretty good calls. We had pretty good day yesterday, Dave. Yeah, good callers.

What's going on? Good?

Good guess I know. We got good guests again today. Yeah, lot to talk about. I mean baseball. Great to have you a baseball still for this next week or so at.

Least, right right, so we'll see what happens. They played tomorrow at eleven o'clock, we have Tommy Lloyd. We did you kind of screw queue that up. Screw that up, queue that up, just kind of go to YouTube.

Uh.

Tommy Lloyd talked about a lot of things today. He's going to coach the younger groups that you you eighteen eighteen, yeah, in Colorado Springs and then go to Switzerland with the team. You know, Tommy was being Tommy a little snarky in a good way.

Doesn't he have a couple of the recruits are going to be part of that team.

He's gonna be on the team. He's gonna be on that team, or he's going to try out to be on the team. But we'll make it. Yes, I think you'll make it very good team. So we'll look at that. His thing today lot went. We went everywhere for like thirty minutes. A lot of different topics from the media that was there, from the people returning, the people who.

Left, his roster. I asked him about the roster.

I asked him about the the possibility of any of the Internet players having difficulty coming in to the United States to play. He says he was not sure about that until it happens right, you don't know untill know, but they're doing everything they can to get them on campus. I think a couple have already here. Yeah help, yeah there. So they don't know exactly, but that's part of it. A lot of different things than the roster, I mean, not the roster. The schedule. Did you see that? It

So I like just on the Twitter, I don't have a like schedule with dates, but it gives you the home and the ways for the conference.

Yes, is that from the conference? Yeah, okay, maybe maybe the conference. You're gonna play Kansas twice this time. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. And but he said, you know, they're a pretty good good program. I'm gonna try to paraphrase and not be stupid. Paraphrase, are a pretty good program. But we know who runs the roost now, Houston.

Houston.

It's a it's an Eastern Texas team that they have to surpass. You know, Kansas was good, that's not today, it's Houston.

It's true.

I mean, obviously the conference was quite good this last year. Yes, Iowa States also in the mix there, in the top ten, I think, yeah, most of the season. So yeah, it turned out to be kind of as we expected. But there's no easy easy weekend. Actually talks about that easy games at all.

Yeah, exactly. He talked about that being, you know, the non conference being crazy good. But he says, yeah, the conference is going to be just as good as it is what it is.

Did he say anything about going to a tournament this year, the NCAA tournament, No, like a preseason tournament.

Oh no, no, no no, because they're playing too many good teams. They opened the season with Florida, right November.

Yeah, yeah, they're not going to play any kind of turn Yeah.

November third, I think that's a Monday. I think that's like the weekend after the Breeders Cup, so it's going to be kind of busy. And then November December, so we're waiting for the official announcement from U of A. But that that one came from the Big twelve. Yeah, that you're seeing.

Oh no, it came from the U of eight.

Like it's just showing the Big twelve opponents though, like ol coman, who's away?

Or did you get who? Did you see that twitter on their schedule on the website?

Twitter?

Oh?

Twitter? Yeah, the all important Twitter. It's the fastest thing, man, did you see it? I'm just looking at some of the games.

Yeah, I mean Florida first November third in Vegas and they play UCLA in Los Angeles.

That's going to be at the Clippers. What day is that?

November fourteen? Fourte one of that and then Yukon on the road.

That's it's gonna be fun Vegas that you.

And then Auburn here which will be a big game, and then Alabama in Birmingham. So won't be on campus, but it'll be in yeah, in the state, in San Diego State, in Phoenix. And then that's it. Well, these are game. It's on December twentieth, before Christmas. Yeah remember that. You remember the Christmas game always with loot Oh oh yeah, the December twenty third, twenty four or twenty yeah, second that week right before Christmas.

Never could win, could win, they always it didn't matter who they played. Yeah, we want to get the hell out of Dodge and and and get out and come back.

Yeah.

Yeah, okay, it'll be good to have the astecs. My my school will be playing. So yeah, they've had pretty good games in the last decade. They have been the finals, what two three years? Well, yeah, they made the championship game. It almost won the thing. Now they're gonna play in Phoenix. Kind of a I guess I'll these are all like made for TV situations. But yeah, it's gonna be a great non conference, right and then on then you turn right into the did.

You is it on the on the press conference from from him today?

Yeah, it's on there. It's just I just don't know, like if the sound's gonna come through. Oh, on the on the on here. Okay, you know what I mean.

I've just never you've never done it, Okay, okay, do it like a caller. I think that's what I was told to do. A caller calls in and you put it to that microphone and it'll pop in.

But we won't do it now. We'll do it later. Only have time. I'll try it, like on the break or something.

Yeah, okay, So to mention the break, we'll go to break in about five minutes probably. Yeah, we're gonna have Jerry Stitt at three seventeen, former U of A baseball coach, assistant coach and the head coach after after Kendle, he.

Was on the He was on the staff obviously when when Chip won the championship in eighty six.

He was one of the assistant.

Coaches along with Jim Wing I was one of the one of the greatest coaching staffs in college baseball history of Kendle and yeah and Wing instead.

Another good guy.

Yeah, another good guy, very bookish, very bright Jerry, Yeah, yeah, is it am I correct?

I think so? Yeah, very very studious he was. He was just a great hitting coach.

That was kind of this thing, you know, win was the pitching coach, and Jerry Stitt was the hitting coach, and they, together with the leadership of Jerry Kendall, had it working for a long long time.

Yeah, it's funny because you know, you and I played a game or two softball, baseball, whatever it was many years ago and hosting a pool hitter. I pushed it to write and I asked, Frank Cota, can you teach.

Me that hit? How do you?

If I had that answer, Steve, I'd be you know, because it's so difficult, right, but you know there's an art to it. There's an art to it, and Jerry state, I guess and Francota could probably teach a lot of people how to hit.

Yeah.

Well, I mean it was interesting because both baseball and softball had had really good hitting coaches at one point.

I'm sure they still do. But when we were recovering them.

Who's the baseball Larry Ray was, oh yeah, yeah, football coaches and he was like the master of the swinging bunch whatever they call you, lefty slapers, the slappers. So he was I mean, he was like world famous for that. They would have kids from all over the world would come in and learn from him and back in the day.

That was how you play. You don't try to move base to base, you know.

It doesn't do as much I don't think, I mean every but all the most teams seem to have, you know, somebody who.

Can do it, right.

Yeah.

He eventually got a job at Florida and then got released there afterwards. Yeah, yeah, Larry Ray. Yeah, So we'll have Jerry still at three seventeen. It will be good to talk to him. And at four seventeen we're going to have who do we talk about, Oh, Dave road Roady. He was mentioned yesterday with our guy Clark christ Right, So Dave Roady's going to be on at three four seventeen.

You know how many errors he had in his major league career three years? How many tickets? One?

One?

Really?

Yeah, I totally guess because I probably how I asked the question. Yeah, yeah, because he was so steady with the glove, you know, nothing got by him. So we'll talk about that in the u of A. The u of a's presence in the World Series.

Yeah, it's exciting, it really is.

I think it's always good to be playing kind of at the end of the season when that's really the only game in town, and people are going to be paying attention. It's not like they're going to be stuck on you know, ESPN plus, you know, in the middle of the afternoon somewhere here they are. It's going to be on the big ESPN. And we'll see how they do. If they win, they well, they're they're definitely not going to play Saturday. Everything goes up to Sunday. They win,

Yeah.

So eleven o'clock, first game probably of the whole series game ye against the team, and there are other underdogs going in.

Still underdogs. You're gonna put some money on a U of A so we can. Yeah, we'll line to change.

But no, that's that's Jay's job. Okay, you got to go the other way with it so they can.

By the time you guys hit the air tomorrow, it'll be over.

Yeah.

Well that Jay might do it today, you know, or not, So we'll see what happens. What you got everything, Ray, did you find it? You found it right, So we'll do that later. Yeah, we'll do that later. Anything else, Senor David Silver.

No, just looking forward to talking to the coach and talking to to Dave Roady about his his time as a Wildcat. No, it's just another chapter in Arizona baseball. Hopefully it's something that you know, extends into next week at least and they can get through the weekend and start seeing maybe maybe facing LSU somewhere along the line with the old coach or UCLA or Oregon State teams that you know they're somewhat familiar with having just played them the last couple of years.

Sure.

Sure, it's definitely got a little West Coast flavor. And again some of the teams that were used to seeing and that tournament are not there, so it's kind.

Of wide open. I had it.

I thought about this earlier because you know, everybody's making a point of you know, three old Pack twelve teams getting in like a couple only a couple of SEC teams. How much do you think like And it was one of those things in college football too, where it was like the Pac twelve, the pack always just eighty like itself up, you know what I mean. I could get to the championship game and like the favorite to go to the playoffs would get upset and like.

They would or no football football, But so do you like do you? I don't know.

It's just it's it's funny to see it now because it's like now that they don't have to play each other, they don't beat on each other, you know what I mean?

Is that a thing? Is that what you're trying to think that now?

It could be? Yeah?

Yeah, well they're in the Big two Big Oregon States by itself, right, uh, pack twe and or the Big ten right right, that's a possible especially in baseball.

Baseball was such a difficult.

Yeah, yeah, Big twelve is a pretty good baseball conference, better than I thought it was gonna be. And Arizona what they finished fourth, and it kind of stumbles a little bit at the end. But some of those teams are pretty decent. West Virginia, Cincinnati, Houston, No, I guess Houston wasn't very good, but those others, he was good. But yeah, they managed to get through.

To your point.

Probably in baseball, I don't know, but in foot Paul they were not good. They were not that good. I just at least by the naked eye and what they did, they weren't that good. You know, usc maybe every time every now and again. But yeah, it was not like basketball where they beat up each other and they got ready for the what it was ahead.

I thought it was amazing in Arizona, you know, going on the road in baseball here and getting through both these you know, the regional and super regional on the road and teams home fields.

I mean, that was pretty impressive. I mean we're kind of like it's.

Happened so fast you don't even have a chance to kind of, you know, look at it.

From a distance. But I mean that was that was very impressive.

In Oregon, well, I don't know what crowd you hang out with, Dave, and I know the crowd I hang out with what.

Your old older dudes. I don't have a crowd you do.

So so a bunch of older dudes who don't talk about baseball. Just what they're talking about baseball because you know, no one pays attention to you to really do really well. They couldn't tell you whose short start. I couldn't tell you, But now you know I'm doing it because of the show. But before it was like, oh that baseball team pretty good. Well you never asked me about that a month ago. Now,

A sudden, you know, a top story.

Right.

It's interesting too because when they're on TV all of a sudden, like I had no idea what even these guy's even looked like. Right, No, I know that the games have been on here and there, but you know there's just something special when they get on you know, national TV, and you learn about them and their hometowns and their stats and their history and the stories it will be coming out that many many of us probably had no idea about until tomorrow.

It's funny. I'm not like Jake because Jay's over the top with this. You know, he's a guy who you know, you walk out and if you're six foot five and you you look good in the uniform, he says, God, that guy must be a good player.

Dude.

Give me a five foot ten dude who looks like this, grunty dude who can play scrappy dude. So yesterday they they were the first team in Omah out of their bus and do you remember bad newspapers coming out of their and they kind of look like ragtag group. This team was just a bunch of dudes. This a bunch of dudes. Like, how is this team a good team? Because they're good players? Yeah, And it goes to my

And you played wrestle against those dudes? Yeah yeah, I mean he looked tough. But guess what, Yeah, they're tall, that's right, they're dogs.

No, yeah, man, so and that's just how sports is, you know what I mean exactly. It's like you see upsets all the time, and that's why we love it. That's why loves it.

You know, how did that big dude get beat? Because the other dude was tougher? Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua, you know what I mean.

It's like you see like this big old, you know, kind of chubby gag getting into the ring box. Yeah yeah, with a six pack. Yeah, and it's just like, yeah, it's.

Tough to beat a whale, then gonna get through that that fat That's right. Okay, we gotta go because we can get a call from Jerry Stitt.

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This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

I want to take part in the show called Out Steve now went five two oh four one six seventy four forty.

FI the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty part Steve Rivera in with me to day.

Dave Silver Now on the phone.

We have former You have a baseball coach assistant coach Jerry Stitt now the assistant a d at Pima coach.

How are you?

You're good? Thanks for having me on.

Of course we love having you on. You've been on a few times. This must be a pretty good time for Jerry Stitt. You know you have a program there at Pima that did a fantastic job this year in sports, and then you get to see your former school do really well.

Right now, Yeah, yeah, first to go with the Wildcats. Yeah, it's and this is one of the things that the Wildcats face, not not to correct you, but it's it's never my former school.

It's still my.

I'll always be a Wildcat, the old born and bred be a Wildcat.

So I'm dead that one. That's me. That's that's how we feel about it. You know, we're very proud of.

The Wildcat, Chip and the whole staff and everything those guys have done.

It's been incredible.

It's been so cool to see Chip, you know, rise to this level and you've known him. Did you help recruit him here as a player back what in nineteen eighty one ish?

Yes, I helped.

Uh, it was mainly coach Waning that got him. Uh, he was up scouting Dave Carly. He was he was a six nine right hander playing high school teammate at Chips and they're playing summer ball and Coach Wing went up to.

See him and and he's watching.

Carly and and from the minute he got to the park, he couldn't take his eyes off Chip and and he told old coach Kennel, we got to get this guy. You know, he's he's going to be a great one and h And we got both of them, carly And and Dave, carly And and UH and Chipper and Uh. And he came in and started every game played ever he came from his freshman year through what.

Was what do he have?

What did Wing seeing him back then?

You know, he was one of those guys.

And you know, I've done a lot of clinics of all sides all over the country and and internationally, and and that's one of the.

Questions I get you.

The greatest players I ever coached, one, of course, was Tito and the other one was Chip. And one one was great and made himself very great. The other one was was fairly average and made himself great.

And that's that's what we all loved about Chip.

And that's what Coach Wing saw in him, is that he didn't he didn't have the uh, the tools, the basic tool they're all pretty average. You know, a couple of his his hands were above average, and he was a great contact hitter, and but but it just how he played the game and how.

He led his team and his his.

To effort, uh, not only to improve, but but to help his team win.

Is what what uh?

What we got out of Chip and what the Cats are getting out of Chip Right now?

I was going to say, what about the leadership? Where did that come from? Did did he have that even before he got here or did he pick that up? You think maybe from you guys with Vane, Well, all I can say is.

Chip.

Chip just had it and that old thing, I'm not sure what it is, but he has it, you know, that that thing where people are just drawn to him. And he's very well respected, as you know, you've talked to him and interviewed him, very soft spoken and never says anything about how great he is or what he's done. It's always about what people around him have done and

And we still laugh about this.

He's the only one we've ever known that you go in and tell coach Kendall what he thought, and coach would take it to heart.

Yeah it was. It wasn't well let me think about that. Well, Chip, you know what, You're right, we need to do this. It was just one of those things about him is that he's he's very smart. You know, he had had an appointment.

To the Naval Academy and a bigger scholarship than we gave him to Santa Clara, and and he chose us, Thank goodness.

I was gonna say, what, you know, as a as a former coach or as a coach, what do you like about this year's team?

What do you like about the Wildcats of Omaha?

Right now?

If I could answer that question, because I was going to ask the same thing, and how do you look.

At the game? You know you won't play for the couch, but do you watch it as a fan?

Do you watch it? This kid's great, this kid's not? You know, what do you see?

Well? You know, we go to just about every.

Home game, you know, it doesn't matter conference, non conference, big game or.

Not so great.

And and uh, you know, I said, or seats the right behind her plate, and we sit there and I said I sit there right next to Steve Strong and and I just watch I watch as as a coach, and and things that I see that could be improved or see that things I think are great and just and and and as a fan of course, you know, uh just really really want the Cats always to succeed and chip, especially with this this group of Wildcats. But yeah,

And they just kept battling, just kept battling.

Yeah, to maybe to Dave's question again, when you look at the players, specifically the guy that the kids from White from South Point, the local kid, what do you see in him?

Well, you know, his grandfather, Tim played with when I was with me at when I was at the uvert and played together, i should say, and I coached I coached many his dad when he was in the early nineties when he was wild And I've known Mason uh and known of him since he was very young, and that first time ever saw him.

He is eleven years old.

I think cornaught a little league and he's the best player on the field. And then watched him all the way through high school, and you know, watched him at South Point, you know, where I coached for a good number of years, and went to the home games in some away games, and just he was just.

A different player.

You know, he just could elevate himself and the team to the moment and and and it's interesting that and he could hit the ball a long way, and you know he can still do that, but in high school he could hit the ball line the line and just and you know, fell off eight nine pitches before he got the one he wanted and then ith'd hit a single to left.

Or a home run onto.

The softball field or something. But yeah, and he just showed that. And he could he always had real good hands, good feet, and a strong arm and just just as lightning and a barrel. And we've seen that through his three years as a Wildcat.

How about playing on the big stage.

You think these guys are ready to go into a place like Omaha where you know you were there, what four times with the Wildcats. It's a big It's a big difference, isn't it.

It is a big difference.

But as as as a trip couch and Chips, Doumber, one assistant and recruited coordinator, says, we're just playing baseball.

The game doesn't change.

You know, the.

Venue or the crowd or who we're playing against might change, but it doesn't matter who you're playing, You're You're still playing baseball.

And I think that's one of the things.

That this team has done very well, and just battery want of chips, teams.

Have done well. They play the game and and don't.

Let the the moment get in the way of what they're what they're trying to do as an individual to help the team win.

It's funny you say that, because baseball is baseball, right and everybody plays it the same but different. Let me ask you, does his style of coaching kind of emulate Jerry's at all or maybe a little similar?

And I reason I ask is I have another question for that.

Well, the one thing that we all learned from coach Kindle was was that the fundamentals never changed, you know, you know, as much as the way baseball seems to have changed. It really hasn't you Still you still need to throw strikes and play catch and put the ball play to win. And the constant repetition of the fundamental And you heard it on the broadcast when Wes Clements was was doing the commentary.

He would talk about coach.

And how and it was like, oh, no, we got to do this again.

When are we going to hit?

You know?

So it was just yeah, and that's what the chip just pounds into them.

I know you've been practices.

And you've seen them the infielders down on don on their knees. Uh, field in the ground balls with with with no glove, and you've see the outfield taking their their route steps and you know the pictures just just practice and just throwing easy and getting their mechanics right. Yeah, that's that's just the way it's he's he teaches it. The fundamentals don't change, and in order to win, you have to you have to do the fundamentals correctly over and over again.

So you have a lot of games in a season. Uh, and and they gets more intense, like they're going to get this week? Uh did Jerry? And I probably know the answer to this have a Rockney speech. Did he have something that got the guys going? My guess is no, but maybe I'm wrong. And would Chip have that in his pocket?

Uh? Yeah?

You know it was never over the top. It was is not the raw, raw type of type of speech. It was just more of a and Chip does this very well. It's it's more of a confidence building moment where you know we're up to this.

You know we can do this.

We just remember where we've been and what we've done to get ready, and we can do this. And that's that was Coach's message all the time. And it didn't matter who we were playing or where we were playing. It was the same and of course different ways of saying it, but it was basically the same message.

You guys are good.

You know you're good. You've worked hard for this moment. Now just go out and do what you do. And I think that's where the cats have been and you know, the doubters and the haters have been out there all along with Chip and the Wildcats when they're down or this guy can't coach in the pros. You didn't know what he's doing, and you know, okay, all right, keep saying that it's funny. It's never been done, never been done.

Yeah, it's funny you say that because even you're saying this, and Pete, we know that because people are negative, negative, negative, and all of a sudden, Oh, the guy's great because he's here. But it's funny that you say this because you you must have heard it or saw it somewhere. Right.

Oh, it's so true, so true. Thank you for saying.

That, bringing back some memories.

I guess, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, And I know it's well, I was saying that.

I was kind of counting up the number of.

Reasons we went to when I was coaching. There's sist in our head coach. We went nine times. You went to all four and one two, And you know that's that's a when you look at it at oh man, that's all that's a that's a pretty good uh average.

You know, that's a pretty.

Darn good average that for a program over the years. And you know it's we went to we went to nine and in my uh twenty three years and ship's already gone to four.

You know.

So well, you talked about something yesterday, Dave, the good team that didn't make it the Oklahoma State I can't remember the year.

Oh the ninety three team.

Was it ninety three when when you guys lost fight at Oklahoma State? Was such a great team you had like having guys drafted or something, nine guys drafted.

That was such an awesome team.

Yeah, that was in fact, just since you mentioned that they were, that team was here this past weekend room reunion and a huge number of guys came in and played golf and hung out. And I went up to OMNI on Friday afternoon with Bobby Benzing or.

Equipment man, and.

When they all those guys were here and just talked about stuff. And that was truly a great team. Was It was across the board pretty much considered one of the greatest hitting teams in the history of college baseball.

And and.

It came down to the to the regional at Oklahoma State, and and we had a pitcher who who went down and couldn't pitch, and and that's when the beloved Todd Brown came in and just you know, pitched on fume and we we lost in the in the championship game and late in the game. That was a great, great team and if our pitching would have held together, I think we would have won. We at least competed for the national championship.

And look at the eighty nine team, you know, with all those.

Greats that went on to pro ball, and you know, they're great here and they're great in pro ball, you know, Trevor's and Jts and just what a team that was, Alan's Inner and just a great, great team Scott Erickson and and we lost in our own regionals.

You know, it's like holy cow, and that was you know what happened. It happens right.

In fact, I think I had Andy on last weekend it Lopez, and I think baseball, you know, we know how difficult is to get to the final four and when maybe win a softball title. But to me, baseball is one of the harder ones because there's so many land mines and so many good teams, and and baseball is kind of different because you never know what's going to happen with pitching or hitting or whatever. Would you agree that it's just kind of like a difficult, difficult thing even with a good team.

It is, even with a great team.

It is so hard, you know, And in eighty nine, you know that our center fielder Kevin Long who was our hit third or our leader, our team captain.

And you know, the first game.

Of the regional, he he breaks his finger diving into back into first base and can't play the rest of the rest.

Of the regional.

And he always said we'd have won the national championship if I hadn't got hurt, And I say, well, we'd at least played for it.

But it's things like that.

And you look at that game Sunday where that second basemin makes an air just a ground balls, as we say, there there really are no routine ground balls. You know, they're all tough and you all you have to make the play. And then the great bunt where the third basement threw it away and all of a sudden, Mason drives to it and we win. So it's it is You're right, there are land mines, you know, a blop single here, a walk, a hit by pitch, an error

Definitely. Yeah, well that was great, great to catch up.

I mean, it's gonna be a fun weekend, I hope for you and for your your alumni group.

Yeah, yeah, let's.

See if they can. Who do you advance? Keep on going?

Maybe one last quick question because we've got to go. So where do you watch the game? And do you hang out with some of the ex guys maybe locally?

It is what do you where are you watching the game from? And will it be with a bunch of X guys.

Yeah, we'll be We'll be watching it at home and you know, we'll have a small watch party. You know, I not one to go to a big watch party because I don't like to be distracted what I'm wating.

Yeah, you know it makes sense.

But yeah, no doubt we'll be watching and just just rooting the Cats on.

Great. Thank you coach, Thank you, Jerry, yep, thanks thanks for having me. Yeah.

Be well, all that was Jerry SidD former U of a baseball coach.

We'll take a break.

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Breaking down all they says and ohs, this is I.

On the Ball with Steve Rivera on Block Sports sporteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to my on the Ball here of Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave Silver got ready at the controls. That was a good interview with Jerry Stitt.

Good to catch up with him.

He was He was always a good one to talk to, even when he was an assistant under kindle. We would have talked to Jerry. They were always available. And yeah, it was great.

Very smooth minded, very you know, controlled voice.

You know how you doing today, Steve.

You know what I'm saying, Just very just not always under control. Yeah, not excited like.

You know what.

That was kindled too, he was. They were all like that in those year.

Yes, well let me say when he when I asked him about the speeches and things like that, I'm sure it's all generational. Loot was that guy. Yeah, And I've never really asked any of the guys. Didlut have something that he kind of said? No, it was everything, kind of like you know, every game's the same, gentleman, it will be good. You know you're good, kind of like you're good. Just go out and prove it, right, yeah, YadA.

Yeah, but you know, I'm all excited. They were all pumped up right right.

I think he had guys like Phil Johnson that they would get on them, you know, just crazy coaches that you know, got on them for that.

Well, there's also too because Kendall and Lout were you know, from the Upper Midwest. There was that thing too. There were they both Norwegian or something. I maybe there's some of that yah, you know, so they kind of came out of the same culture. They're probably around the same age. I think, you know, they all were kind of you know, grew up in the fifties and stately, very stately, didn't you know, didn't have a lot of attention on themselves,

Yeah.

I think I don't know sometimes because like I've asked coaches, like well, high school coaches, but like still as coaches.

If they've like given speeches and a lot of them tell me that.

It's just like the players that like they like, they either understand or they'll be the ones to talk to their own right.

Right, If you don't know the magnitude of the game, he shouldn't be told that the magnitude of the game, right.

And it's not like they're not hearing it from their family and their friends. Hey, come on, this is the biggest game you've ever I mean, there's a lot on the line and everyone's going to be there putting pressure on these guys.

Dave, you're going to come on the rad of tomorrow.

You better be good at this, and I'm gonna get you fired up, he said, Steve, I got this.

Shut up. You know what I'm saying.

You already know, You already know the situation. We're going to Omaha. We don't need anybody telling us this is.

Important and we've proven ourselves.

We've won in some hostile environments and we're going to go and play you know, the national TV, and it's going to be a big moment for them.

They should be looking forward to.

Well to your question that you asked them about the stage and all that is. Baseball is baseball. It's just a different facility. I don't know if I believe that.

I do.

I do, I guess I do. Still got to be it's got to be in the back of their mind. Hey wait a second, you know, pinch me. I'm here in Omaha, have made the major leagues.

It's a big deal. I think I think there's some of that.

But and I've argued this with Jay, and maybe I'm completely wrong, whatever, but you know, these the guys who get to the major leagues and you saw one the other night, first at bat or second at bat, they get their thing, and the family's teary eyed and blah blah blah. The dude's been doing it all his life. To him, it's just another game. Maybe inside he's got but it's what you do. You know you drive. If you drive a truck across country, what do you do?

I agree. We'll see.

Hopefully they can respond and it won't you know the bright lights won't be a big deal.

You know.

I don't know about you, but didn't you guys to get pumped up when you had a big story to cover, like a final four or championship.

Yeah no, but it didn't. I wish it would have maybe right better? Maybe I'm Maybe I'm because it didn't involve me. It didn't involve me.

Although you know the nick day when you kind of you write it and you read it next day, anythink cool?

I was there.

I was there, like for the national title game and they win the title. You're thinking maybe I should have written it a little bit differently.

Whatever.

It's always second guessing or god, every you know Bruce, when we have Brusson and we were on the road a lot together cover the team, I used to finish my story and he'd be still hacking away and I'm thinking, God, your story sucks.

I'm gonna start again. Yes, yeah, there's no way. And then you wake up say you got a ninety seven. That's pretty damn good. Right right, Well, let's see.

I mean, you know, they've they've been Grays on the road and they're you know, away from High Corbett. They're gonna be back in like a major league stadium. It's gonna be the big dimensions like high Corbett.

Yeah.

I think they kind of got lucky by playing in an Oregon where the field was didn't play organ when they were in Oregon, you know, and like, whoa, we get have some home runs here by just hitting some high fly balls in the wind.

I don't know how the weather is going to be in Omaha.

Also, remember, Dave, they're not played against themselves. They're playing against pretty good teams, right, So the other team is thinking the same thing.

You know, we gotta do this, we do that.

Yeah, and at the other day maybe maybe, if not, the other team could be better.

Right, Well, I'm in Coastal Carolina was the one that beat them in twenty sixteen. So it doesn't matter in terms of you know, the players, but you know they're gonna say, hey, wait a second, we can win.

Yeah, sure we can beat these guys. Sure, it doesn't matter.

And in this tournament itself, all the big names aren't there, right, you mean the powers that were used to see.

So someone's gonna sneak it, sneak through? Why not Arizona?

Why not?

You know you hear that everywhere you you were mentioned, what's the T shirt? Going for five?

Going for five some type of I saw that yesterday in the story that I told you about TV.

Yeah, cool shirt. Where do you get it? Bookstore? Bookstore? Yeah?

Yeah, shirt?

Is that what it is?

Probably?

Probably they ain't cheap anymore. Anybody you want to call.

That, we we got like thirty four minutes.

Okay, if you want to call, please do five to zero, four, one, six, seventy, four to forty your your thoughts on the baseball team.

You're gonna have breaking news on the other side. Oh yeah, yeah, okay.

And then at four to seventeen we're gonna have Dave Roady, another one of those kind of stable dudes. Good dude, we gotta call perfect timing. Hello, you're on the air. Nine on the ball?

Who's this?

Rick? How are you doing?

Hey? Rick?

What's the word?

How are you doing?

Dave? Hey?

Just thinking about this the other day. Baseball is the hardest game to predict from one day to the next. And I say that because number, when you have nine people on the field, you have so many different variables going on. A pitcher can be on, a great pitcher can be totally off, and it just and your bats you could be missing the ball. It is, so you're

Yeah, well, Rick, I totally agree with you, totally agree with you, and I never the kids, and I never.

Agree with I know you never.

You never agree with me unless.

You want to give me some money, and I definitely don't agree. There we go ahead, but no.

And just and that's the one greatest thing about baseball. It's like, and here's the other flip side of that whole deal. You can strike out a dozen times, and all of a sudden you're hitting three hovers in a row.

Right, white kid, he had kind of been slumping before you got that base hit, right, be came a shortened just swinging, got got that base hit.

Well, look what happened?

You know?

The first game of that regional I get destroyed, what eighteen to two, and they come back the next day and it's like they just totally forgot about it, move on to the next.

Game, and it's it's crazy. But that's why I love baseball so much, because it is so unpredictable, and uh, being a coach, you gotta want no wonder most of them don't have much hair left.

Yeah, no, you're right, you're right where you watching the game? What are you watching the game? Are you?

And yeah, I'm taping it. Actually I meant I'm hosting a conference.

Tomorrow, but okay, I'm not.

I'll watch it. I got him, I got him all taped.

Okay, re good, Thanks Rick, So appreciate you guys.

Thanks for the call.

Got about not enough time for another call, right, five fifty four?

Got about two minutes.

Yeah.

I agree with him though, because wasn't starting pitching right? Starting pitching. One of the things that enlightened me a little bit more when I have Blake on you know, former picture, former you know pro picture, Uh, and you it's gonna be game ones are always tough because you're gonna face the number one guy, the number one guy,

Which kind of made last weekend even more remarkable because the number one guy got shelled. You know, Kramkowski gave up all those runs and they just you know, there was nothing they could do to stop who they lose to that North Carolina. Yeah, I mean, you're right, and so the other there was some depth in the pitching staff that we saw this past weekend, which was great.

Well, let's go back to Oregon. They faced the number one guy from They got two hits and all they needed to survive, right, you know, so that guy was pretty damn good.

So I'm sure Coastal Carolina is gonna throw their number one guy and we'll see how they react to him. And how much scouting can you do really against the player You've never really seen him personal, right.

I'm sure they're scouring the tapes, you know, how to hit, how to pitch these guys.

So yeah, but that number one starter generally is your best picture. Generally you're you know, you're hoping you're gonna get a great performance, and uh, you know, in the regionals so far, it's been the other pictures who've kind of carried the load.

Right right, Are we good to go? Yeah yeah, all right, okay, and we can come back early if you want. Let's take a break, come back, we'll get your break, your news and tell more.