This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services ensure your most prized possessions.
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in today's Dave Silver just off the pick aball court. No look, or you're playing tourists in Tucson. Yeah, why not? Very casual one. I'm still sporting his wellcat gear.
Happen to you.
You're gonna be a fan in Louisville one thousand percent? What the hell you wearing? What did you come from? Sun Tucson, Arizona? You're back to proudly? Yeah, you're going to Louisville. Yes, I am all right, congrats. I can't officially say what it is for, but I am going to Louisville. Yeah, I'm still waiting. He's got to win Kentucky Derby. He's even mad at me, though I'm not. I'm going to be living with you for like a three days for the condurban, believing on the couch. Some
get a nice couch. I got a hammocks even better. I can sleep on the It's just not too far from the from church, will gads please? Yeah? Yeah, no, cool, it's gonna be a nice, nice little venture from two years. Maybe I should say much pat TV, I can say that TV. Yeah, oh boy. Behind the scenes, behind the scenes, okay, smart, I'm not there's a reason we're on. I'm on the radio. Okay, No, but let me too. Let me tell you David. David might or might or might not agree with me. That's
the place to be. I mean, come on TV. In front of the camera's one thing. Behind the cameras good.
Behind the camera, there's probably gonna be a million more opportunities to do things exactly. You know, a TV station has tons of people that you never see on the air, So there's a lot more jobs there. Maybe not the high paying jobs necessarily or the marquee jobs, but there's certainly more of them.
Yeah, and with the ability to move up, yeah, for sure, to be you know, a decision maker. The best thing is just getting the door.
You know, such a cliche, but if you can get that first job, it leads to probably a better second job, and who knows, you know where you're going from there.
That's the goal. So good for you, Good for you. I guess when your spy job can let you talk next week maybe because you'll be gone, it should be next week. It should be next week. You this is your second last show, but it'll make you good like you're like your life depended on oh, like your job. I'm ready to put on a whole performance next week. Yes, don't screw my job at the end of the show. Not my goody two shoes guy. He would never do that.
I would never mean nothing. Though there's some other people that might have been there. You'll drop the mic and say at this and that, like I almost we almost said a couple of times. No performance. I mean I'll probably sing or something or dance. That's fine, that's funny. We got the TV screens to karaoke there. Well, welcome to the show. A second show back this week after being out for a while. Uh, dave a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, it's kind of a busy week right.
Summer is going to be a bee for me because I'm scrabbling for people and you know, everyone's busier. Gone.
But that's when you can be creative, you know, maybe you can get Seriously, this is what we not our strategy in the summertime is we were doing more fun and interesting stories sometimes in the summer than we were during the typical school year. Okay, we can always go talk about the Wildcat football team, basketball and baseball and stuff.
But once that ends, what are we gonna do for a couple of the routine ends. Yeah, that's what's crazy. One dude who's jumping jacks or whatever? You know exactly. You don't find that guy.
That's why we need want to stick around and try to find those stories. But those are those were you know, challenging, but they were sometimes the most fun to do.
Oh yeah, best stories. Yeah, the my story. So I'll be looking up for that tool. Today. We have Brian Peterson out in Oregon. He'll talk about tomorrow's game with who You're back in your Woods r Yeah, so that'll happen tomorrow.
One.
They'll be probably in the middle of the game when we go on the air tomorrow. So he'll be on A three seventeen. And then at four seventeen, I got a guy who's been on the show before and he's coming back. Lauren Woods is coming on the show at four seventeen. Many people may not know well, but he's an actor.
Yes, I saw him on some show and I will have to talk about it. I need to look up his IMDb page see what he's been doing. But yeah, there was something where he was like it was like obviously it was him. He was wearing some kind of a costume. He was wearing like a hood thing, but he was on, so good for him. I didn't know he was even branching off into something like that.
Yeah. Yeah, So I've seen him on on Instagram a lot. So I said, come back, come back, and I've been pressuring him and he finally said, Okay, I get some time today, so he'll come on. We'll talk about what he's up to, you know, back back in the day. I don't know if you agree with me, but I've said this on the show a lot. Who's the best team in Arizona basketball or what's.
The I mean, that was a great team that two thousand and one you're talking about that was I mean, yeah, Gilbert Walton, Richard Richard, Michael, Michael Wright, Lauren.
Jason Gardner. I mean that was quite a teams. Still my best team in my mind, I know eighty eight. Everybody loves that team and it's fantastic. So it would go two thousand and one, eighty eight, ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety seven. Yeah, that was great.
I mean that was a really good team obviously, and they came so close and I don't know had what was it Gilbert ran into Zach Randolph's shoulder or vice VERTI yeah, the injury I forgot.
Yeah, he was he hit his clout, his middle mid section, yeah, and he heard.
Show messed him up and Luke had an injury and yeah, So I mean that had things all just at the very last moment. It kind of cost them, you know, maybe a chance to go over the sure and then maybe a call or two. Yeah that too, caller too at half court too.
But to me, it's the best team, best team again, like an eighty eight was fantastic, ninety eight was fantastic. Uh, you know, two thousand and three was the first time they were the longest time they were. They spent that number one in the history of the program. Is that right? They three three teams, So that was a Luke Walton team with with Andre Hassan and sim that team another good one, but but just kind of got beat by
Kansas in that sweet sixteen. Yeah, yeah, so okay, we'll talk all about that stuff for Lauren because he's had he had a pretty nice career here after transferring from Wake Forest. That's right.
It was from Wake Forest, wasn't he kind of right after Tim dunk Or he played with.
And that was one of the reasons why he left. There was some pressure to do what he did. Yeah, he's he was supposed to take over after Duncan left and then transferred to the u A. Right, that's when they set out to remember they had to sit out actually a good old days with basketball.
When you had to rest or had to sit sit up that one red shirt year whatever they call it, or transfer transfer year. It's hard to believe that basketball really kind of was like that word.
It was like that.
I mean even going way way back to when you know, freshmen were.
Pretty that's when you were probably just a kid that I was.
Yeah, I mean I kind of sort of you know, in my mind, like three we could see like those U c l A teams and like Walton and al Sinder just played three years because they didn't get to play their freshman years.
Yeah, were older. You in seventy two is seventy three.
I was like early high school. Okay, okay, so I kind of remember I remember Walton.
So we asked this yesterday. I don't know if people could still call in. Uh even Jesse, who has his smart as remarks about who you got his is? Uh his signatures from who's you? Back then? I did, do you? Yeah? So I still have them?
Uh?
I got Hank Aaron? Oh really? On what on a program? Cool that I got? Cool? That's a good one. I got.
So.
I'm my dad and I we would go to a lot of games in Oakland when the Warriors were We're there and their heyday, and I mean I got Jerry West, I got, I got.
Wilt, I got and you would get you would get.
That, I would get them. They would just come walking out of the locker room heading to the bus. So you were allowed to stand there, believe it or not. So your dad would say, hey, do this for my kid. No, no, no, no, you would you would push me towards at the end of the game.
You would kind of go there. Yeah, that was a great experience we had.
I mean I had basketball, we had hockey, but yeah, I mean Jerry West, I think I definitely got Wilt that group Gail Goodrich.
Uh, you know all the Warriors, Rick Berry and Nate Thurman. Do you still have the stuff? Still have them? Well? Cool? Yeah, I don't know. Your mom did away.
And she saved my baseball cards, so I have all this stuff. No idea what I would ever do with him. You got a good mom, because most of our moms, What the hell is this? One day in Tucson, many years after I was out of our house, so all of a sudden, this box shows up and says.
Make sure I got these two very nice. So I still have a lot of stuff. Yeah, I was good. You were got to get together with my boy George and see is this worth it? I don't know.
I've you know, I used to kind of look at the old magazines. What was it Beckett's I think it was the baseball card one and he's look and see, oh I've got that card and it was worth, you know, twenty five dollars or this is worth twenty five cents.
So I don't know. I've got a lot. Yeah, but those those are prime. I have some. I sold my baseball cards in my senior year in high school to someone. Yeah, one hundred dollars back then to me, it was like fantastic. Yeah, I'm sure I would go there.
Used to be baseball card shows if people remember, like Foothills Mall used to have short card shows every you know, a few times a year myself and I just go wandering in there just hey, wait a minute, I get that card and maybe, you know, just to kind of out of curiosity.
Howard calls in him out again. He says, I bet you this guy, what Howard? What did I meet you? But use that those events? Really use a card guy? Yeah?
Yeah, I never other than just kind of having them. I never like thought about what am I going to do? And people have urged me to like, well maybe you know, just check because many of them are you know, could be worth something.
I was assuming, sure, no, but I think they're more like I said yesterday, they are more there, worth more of me. Then to sell them to somebody, does that make sense? Because you have them there? To me, I'm excited for you just because you have them, and I don't know how you display them, but to me, that'd be cool.
I don't I don't want to really give up my Henry areon autograph. No, I mean it's pretty cool I mean, I was lucky enough. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were in in Kansas City. We went to the Negro League's Baseball Museum slash library, and all there's a you know who Geddy Lee is from Rush, the lead singer of Rush is a huge baseball collector, and he has his collection is there at the at that you know?
Oh? Really he don't to them and there's like I couldn't.
There's gotta be a couple of hundred balls, you know, everyone from Satchel Page to Charlie Pride singer is his collection.
Yeah. Hell, we've gotta call Hello, you're on the air andine on the ball. Who's this? How's it going good? How are you? What's Brian? Oh? Pretty good?
Guys talking about the baseball cards and stuff. Yeah, to me, it was a great bonding experience with.
My son cool uh huh. Yeah.
You know we used to you know, you know, we'd buy the packs and we'd go through them all the time, you know, because he's he's in his forties, sound and we still have all these cards and you know when he was I do, I do, okay, and I want to make sure. I want to make sure they don't.
Get lost, right, whis the wives and moms? What the hell? Why do you still have these?
I know, I know, you know, and uh but you know it was great when he was a little kid, you know, like uh, Dave was saying about, you know, he go to a foothold, Mom, we got alcon.
Yeah, you know they used to.
Have the when Elkon was an indoor mall, and you know, we would go in there and they'd have all the all the tables lined up, like the said, and all the all the card dealers and it was great. It was really great. But it was just so much fun. Like we go to the grocery store, you know, and I get a back of cards and go, yeah, go get one and then you know, get home, we open it.
Up and everything and you know see what we got. It was it was it was a.
Great bonding experience, you know, you know, reading the reading about the players in the back of the cards and stuff.
That was that was an art in itself, the way they would they would summarize their careers in four four lines.
Sure didn't have a little cartoon in the state.
Also too is now I mean there's so many different.
Card companies, you know, compare compared to what it used to be. Basically it was just tops, yeah, you know, and and the cool thing got you got the piece of gum that was at that time was the size of.
The card, right, and the hard is the card?
Yes it was.
It didn't matter, you know. You got that gum and you chewed that thing, and you.
Know forever, I know, you have to clean the cards from the powder. Sometimes I don't know, because you're ten, twelve years old, even younger than that. When you drove your bike, where did you put the card?
Oh? Yeah, I.
Can't.
I don't put when I put the cards in the spokes? How many decent cards I got rid of?
Right exactly, because you don't know any better. And then you realize, oh, my mink carry's gone right now.
My my mistake I made was I wrote on a few of them as they were retiring or getting traded. Yeah, and I look at him, you know, twenty years later, I go, what did I do?
You know?
Mickey Mantle? Oh there's a big R you know, in the back of the card.
So I don't know. Maybe that's what makes him special. Yeah.
One of the good cards we have is Michael Jordan baseball card signed by him.
Yeah, yeah, you know, the things we've had him on a couple of times. I forgot. I had forgotten. I don't know why. Who coached him in the minors of course, Terry Frank Terry Frank phones. Yeah, yeah, so I realized. So I saw his documentary again, I'm thinking, oh, I forgot because we've had him on the show. Yeah, yeah, for the Barons. Was it Birmingham? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you know, it's just something there's too bad.
Kids nowadays don't have that opportunity.
You know, it's a different it's a different world now because they have like the shows from h with Triwtime Cars and people like that, where it's a business. Now it's kind of you. I'm sure you can go to Target and get to your stuff because I see them there. But it's not like when we did it. Maybe it is, but I don't think it is. I don't think so either.
Okay, thanks, Yeah, Like, like you were saying, there's so many companies now too. Back then, it was like Tops and I was basically it. You know, you get the Tops whole collection. I think that's what I wound up getting from somebody who had like the entire nineteen sixty nine season or.
Something like that. That's what I wound up with. Thanks so much for Okay, thank you man. Let's take a break and get hold of Brian Peterson out in Orgon.
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Experts breaking down all they says at OHS. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I Theboll here on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave Silver. You didn't know that Dave got along with us. Now we've got Brian Peterson from azydigitswarm dot com. Bryan, how are you great?
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, you're on the greatest college camp I loved in my time covering college sports. I love Eugene, I love you, Gene. Big fan of Oregon, huh, big fan, big fan of Miss Matt Court. You know Matt Court. Back in the day, it could.
Have burned I got to go there a couple of times.
Yeah. Remember, it could have burned down with anybody's smoking a cigaret in that place.
Oh man, it could have fallen apart with just people jumping up and down.
Yeah, you know exactly, And that's and that's what they did. It was fantastic. What year did you go? What year?
I think I was there in two thousand and four or two thousand and five, and then maybe a year or two before when the Pac Ten did their women's basketball tournament there. There's a great experience, just such a weird thing with having it so straight up. It felt like you were watching basketball in like a theater.
Yeah, yeah, no question. I think Jones who was the coach it was, did he Ken't?
Oh no, it was Ernie Kent. It was Ernie Kent there.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was back in the day when everyone thought, or at least in Oregon thought, oh they're gonna catch Arizona. They're gonna cat Arizona in terms of prestige, and there was like, get off, get off my lawn. Whatever. Hey, well, now you're either there for baseball. What's the scene like, it's a day before.
Good?
Pretty good. It was a little cloudy and drizzly this morning when Arizona was practicing, but it's supposed to be really nice weather for the rest of the week here seventies eighties, No storms like there are at so many of the other regionals in college baseball, which are all centator in the Southeast. Arizona dealt with weather the last two times they traveled, Coral Gables in twenty two and
Fayetteville in twenty three had tons of weather delays. So that alone makes this a better trip than those other ones.
Plus there's some familiarity with the stadium, and I guess that's going to help.
I would, yeah, they well, yeah, I mean because of the connection.
With the Pac twelve. Arizona played here last season, lost to A three, but almost everybody in their starting lineup has played here, and a couple of them have been here twice because the seniors were here as freshman in twenty two, So that definitely gives them an advantage against cal Polly and if they play them Utah Valley because they've already seen what it's like. And you can even see an example of how that worked during the season.
Arizona began the year at Globe Life Field in Arlington for a tournament, went oh To three three months later, come back for the Big twelve tournament and win all three games and just being a little bit more acclimated for how everything works there, it can only help you.
I wanted to say, Oh God, what I want to say? Oh I saw something. I guess it's accurate from the line from yesterday. Playing these guys, it's even money. I'm assuming that the San Luis they're going to throw their ace and Arizona'll throw let's ace. But he must be pretty good. Yeah, his name.
Is Griffin As he's a right handed sophomore. I think he's seven and two on the season, an era in the mid threes. He's not a flame thrower. He's more a guy uses a lot of his change up and Arizona has had some vulnerabilities to off speed pitches and breaking balls, mostly from left handers, but they just have to be disciplined and not go chasing after those balls that start down in the zone because change up's just going to keep dropping. They need to be going after
the high balls. They're playing in a park aside from the fact that they're familiar with it, it's small, especially compared to High Corbett, which is one of the biggest in the country. So their ability to know that they don't have to rely on the home run, but they can play in a place where they can hit home runs because of how small it is, could hopefully work in their favor. And I don't think cal Poly is a
big power team. They're more of a like a small ball West Coast team, so they're probably going to bunt a lot, try to steal some bases. I think seventy percent of their hits are singles, so it'll be a scrappy game. Team won forty one games, and they weren't just beating up, you know, weak teams in their conference. They were beating up good teams all of it.
Yeah, they have pretty good RPI is twenty nine, which you know, coming out of a Big West is pretty impressive.
I would think, yeah, had they not won the Big West Tournament, title. They may have gotten in as an at large, or they may have been like a big snub because of where their RPI would have been. But the Big West Conference generally has a couple really strong teams. This year it's them and you see Irvine. Last year you see Santa Barbara hosted the regional. So it's a
style of baseball that does well. It's just now you get into these tournaments where you're facing teams you haven't seen and you don't have that luxury of, oh, well, there's still going to be two more games for the rest.
Of the weekend.
Let's just win two out of the three. Once you lose one game in a regional, now you're behind the eight ball and you can't lose again. So the first game is very, very critical, and Arizona has had trouble in the first games of weekends. I think during PAC twelve play they went four and six in the opening game, but those again were situations where they knew they would be playing two more games after that different mindset.
We kind of saw that with softball.
I guess it wasn't the first game, but losing that even the second game put them behind the having to fight their way through a longer weekend. How about Mark Wazakowski. He's done quite well at Oregon after coming over from Arizona being an assistant for Andy Lopez two hundred wins.
I kind of forgot he was there.
Yeah, Well, he had left after the twenty eleventh season to come to Oregon to be an assistant coach, and he was here for four or five years. Then he got his first head coaching job at Purdue and was there a couple of years, got them into the tournament, and when the Oregon job opened, he went back there and I think he's been.
There since twenty twenty.
Somewhere about it, or maybe a little bit before that. But yeah, he got over two hundred wins this year, the last year and the year before they made Super Regionals, and he's definitely established himself a program here. And this year the Ducks have one hundred and seven home runs, which is a school record. It does help they're playing in a smaller park, but they do have dudes who
can send it out of the park. Mason Neville, who ironically was committed to Arizona before Jay Johnson went to LSU, and he could be in his junior year at the u of A had things gone differently.
He leads the nation with twenty six home.
Runs and he's their center fielder and nineteen of those who come in this park, so he's one of the guys they.
Have to keep in the park if they face.
Oregon, and I would imagine at some point in this tournament they're going to play Orgon And there's another guy on the Ducks, Jacob Walsh, their first baseman. He's a senior and he has terrorized Arizona in the past two years ago, I think he hit four or five home runs in four games against the Wildcats. So he's another one that they have to worry about. And Oregon Scott
a very strong overall pitch staff. They've got a very good left handed pitcher named Grayson Grinzel who would probably throw against Arizona if they meet up tomorrow or excuse me, if they meet up Saturday in the.
Late game.
So definitely gonna be tough ones. The only team here that I don't think is particularly great would be Utah Valley. They have a twenty eight and twenty seven record, had to win four straight games in their conference tournament to get here, and had lost ten of eleven before that, But again it's the inns of a tournament, and Arizona's gone oh and to the last two years with a loss to the number four seed to get in each of those, So there's no guarantee.
So how do you grade or what do you think about the job that Chip has done. He kind of falls into these petters, does really well, really well, kind of have a lull, and then he catches the fire at the end.
Yeah, I mean the during the season ups and downs. I think that's just something that comes with a long season. Even in twenty one, when j Johnson's last year they went to the World Series, they had a stretch in the middle of the year where they fell into a rut to the point they lost a game at Washington State where I feel like they gave up like twenty or twenty one runs and it just this didn't look like a team that was going in the right direction.
And then they got hot after that and made it all the way to Omaha and then go oh into in the College World Series. And any team can do that, and there's going to be one or two of those that do that each year. But I think overall, Hale has done a very good job here. He's gotten to the tournament every year, no coach since Frank Stancett had gone four straight years. He just hasn't gotten to the next step. And that's really where it comes down to,
is at least getting to the Super regionals. J Johnson made the World Series in his first year, Andy Lopez in his third year, and Jerry Kendall in his fourth year or maybe the other two, or maybe Andy was his fourth and Jerry was his third, I don't remember exactly, but they all did something significant in the first four years. And college baseball, maybe more than any other college sport, does have a big cyclical nature to it since a lot of the best players once they get into college,
they get drafted after their junior year. So every three or four years you can have that one really good team and then there's probably going to be a drop off because you lose a large class. That's what Arizona is facing here. Eight of their nine guys in their starting lineup may either are either going to graduate or could get drafted, and you have to replace a lot
of that. So the players know this and the coaches know this that like this, there is no tomorrow so if there's a team that's going to be able to get past the first weekend at.
This Mason White was a story in Texas last week. You think he continued to hit this way for another couple of weeks.
Well, he has played if you include conference tournaments and NCAA tournaments, he has played I want to say, fifteen postseason games in his career. He has at least a hit in every single game. He homered in both games of the regional as a freshman. He hit three home runs last week in the Bigsball tournament. He's won two conference tournament MVPs. It seems like he rises the city occasion in these games, the winner go home kind of situation. But they need more than just one guy who's doing it.
Their number two hitter, Aaron Walton, was probably their best overall hitter for the season until the last three weeks, and he's been in a big hole. If he can just get a little bit of what he has back, that definitely would change things. And if Brendan summer Hill is getting on base at the top of the order, it just sets the table for everything. He's not hitting for the kind of power that you would hope for
coming back from his injuries. But he's getting on base, he's drawing walks, he has a great eye, and Arizon needs to score early to set the tone. This is a team that I think they're something like thirty or thirty one in oh when leading in the seventh inning or later, and it's just a matter of they have to get to that lead early and hold on to it in those middle innings. They're not really a team
that makes big comebacks. They won the Big Twelve Final when they were down one nothing, but if they fall behind a couple runs, I don't know if the team is necessarily built to make that comeback.
I'm naive to this, Brian, and you covered it for a long time now in Grain. In the baseball situation, someotball we know that, you know, if they don't get to the World Series, there's a lot of complaints, Well, you know, Caman can't do it, blah blah blah, even though she's had a great a great year and a nice little four year stretch. Is this pressure or whatever word you want to use. The same for Chip if he doesn't get to the Omaha to the series.
Not this early because.
He's not following yes, j Johnson.
Got there twice in six years, but it's it's not the same. Arizona has won four national titles and they've made the World Series eighteen times, and both of those are among the top ten in it, but they're not like softball, where they are one of the three or four biggest names, and it's it's not the same coach who did all of that. Like in softball, if you know, like.
This is.
If Chip were doing this stuff right after Jerry Stitt, or excuse me, right after Jerry Kendall, like if he was in the Jerry Stitt era in the late nineties, then.
It would be the pressure you need to do more, which is why Jerry.
Stick didn't last very long because Jerry Kendall had been so successful.
For so long and it's hard to come after that first person.
We saw that with men's basketball, doesn't matter what Sean Miller did. If he doesn't get to final fours and win a title, he is not successful because he didn't do what Luke did. Chip's not in that same boat. Caitlin Lowe is with softball.
Yeah, she's following in the legend, so kind of hard to live up to that.
Sometimes it is, but it's also unfair to.
Compare apples to oranges in that respect, because yes, Ca Andrea had all that success, but he wasn't.
Like super star success right away.
Same with Luke.
Luke took a couple of years before he finally got things established and then hit his stride, So that needs to be taken with a grain of sap.
Well, I have a good time. I know you're with Michael lev I know he's not me as a roommate, so oh good luck. I should we tell him?
Well, yeah, because he does yoga in the morning. I never saw you. Yeah, I don't. I think if you stretched it was because you slipped.
I would never I can't even spell yoga, you know. Yeah, I'll get it. At ten, I'm getting and turn off the turn off the curtains, get up, you know whatever, pose those damn curtains.
Well, you would love where we're staying. We're actually staying in these apartments right across the street from the baseball stadium that is basically student housing, off campus housing, and it's got built in desks in the room and all that, but it's definitely like a college vibe around there. So that would be your wheelhouse seat because I know you love the college kids.
Is school out there? Are they done? No?
No, they are. I guess they have another week of classes and then yeah, Oregon and Oregon State on the quarter system, if either of them were to host the super Regional next week next weekend, it would be coinciding with the end of finals and graduation.
Okay, let's say Arizona guests do this. Could they be in Tucson?
It really depends on who wins.
The other side, as they're in.
The the against the number twelve seed is who is their regional host? They'd be paired up with the Chapel Hill Regional, hosted by number five North Carolina. If North Carolina doesn't win that regional, then it would come down to I guess which of the teams that won the two and who hosts? Who bid to host the Super Regional. And the better thing, If it were the number two seeds from over there, which I believe is Oklahoma, Arizona
might be able to host. If it's the three seats from over there, then Arizona would host because they'd be considered the better team. But yeah, I got to win the three, three, four or five games here first.
Okay, thanks so much for giving us an update, good luck and that we'll see you next week.
Thanks guys, to take care.
Thanks, let's go to break before we go, I got a special guest coming on after this. His name we all know him as Bob Bafford. Whoa Yeah, he just texted me you can come on today, all right, so we're good. 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 Ludelsen era in my new book,
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This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Want to take part in the show Call up Steve now went five to two oh four one, six seventy four fortnight.
Hey, welcome back to Ian about here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Aware and with me today's Dave Silver and now on the phone we have Hall of Famer Bob Bafford. Bob, how are you?
Bye? Thank you and thanks for having me having me on.
Yeah, of course I saw you over the weekend. What a great ride with your two phillies, and I'm thinking Bob has some pretty good phillies. You usually don't have a lot of phillies. But first of all, before I say it and we get into that, uh, we've had Kerr on not too long ago, and I'm thinking I told Steve on the air, I wish I could, for a weekend, could be Steve Kerr. And I also say, for a weekend, I wish that could be Bob Bafford giving your life and you know, horse racing and all
this stuff. And then I said to Steve, now you have to deal with Draymond that I never mind, never mind, you just have to deal with what you deal with. So and I'd rather be you. I think.
I'd rather be making the money that Steve Kurt is a trade with them. I'll put up with it for the right for the money they make. It's ridiculous, right right, he earns it. He's a great he's a great coach.
Right right. You two loves are fantastic. Your two phillies. And I like the second one and didn't realize you had the first one. You're gonna have to give me the names.
Well it's it's it was uh seismic Beauty and Splendora they ran this last weekend. And I have some really nice mayors, you know, they're in The crop that I have is pretty strong, and so sometimes it happens sometimes, you know, you go through years there you don't have a good one. I've had some really good ones in the past, you know, then it gets quiet. But uh, you know we have you know, those Phillies Seismic Beauty. I have a mayor called Cavalieri who is really good
mayor called Ritchie Hope Road ran. Uh she's another good Philly. So I'm pretty stocked up in the in the Philly division, you know, and we're all hoping, you know, come in the fall the Breeders' Cups at del Mar this year and hopefully that that's the main objective is to have him ready on that big day because that's when the they give out the the championships.
Yeah right, tell us about this year for you, I mean you obviously you get to come back to the Kentucky Derby. You're involved there, You're involved with the Preakness. And now what's coming up with the Belmont? Is it going to be Rodriguez? Is that going to be your horse? Is he gonna be ready.
Yes, he's actually going to breeze tomorrow and hopefully. So far he's been doing great. It was unfortunate when we got to Kentucky and he was doing great and was coming off a big win in New York in the Wood and I breathed them at Kentucky and he bruised his foot. It was wet and a lot of times in it's raining, you know in California don't get a lot of rain, but h and he had a bruise and we just couldn't get him one hundred percent. And uh so we we couldn't run him, and we were
still working on it. But it's one of those things where it you know, it's uh, it takes a couple of weeks just to you know, got to let it, you know, uh, work its way out. And and now he's good and he's ready to roll. And but it's gonna it's gonna be a pretty tough phrase that the journalism the horse that won the Preakness. You know, I've been chasing him all winter. He's he's really good and uh, you know the way he won the Preakness, he fought, he just bowled his way through there. And and like
uh and and and one. That's pretty impressive when a horse can do that, you know, and so uh and then the Derby winner will be in there, and and that he's a horse that ran uh third in the Derby California horse he's uh and and Rodriguoz. Those are the four top I think three year olds, you know, and it's very rare that you get all for of them, you know, in there. And I think the reason is
because it's not a mile and a half. It's being run at Saratoga usually turn at Belmont, but they're they tore it down and they're building a new, smaller venue there, so so they're gonna that's why they've been running the Belmont up there. They'll probably run it there this year and next year and then in twenty seven they're gonna they're gonna have it up there. So it's amount of quarter. It's it's easier on the horse, and the mile and
a half is pretty it's tough. That's a tough distance, you know, especially if you've run That's why the Triple Crown it's so hard to win, because you run amount of quarter a mile three sixteenth to shortened up. Then you go a mile and a half, you know, in a five week frame, and so that can be tough. So that's why the derby winner the trainer really you know a great trainer, Billmont, he decided, you know, the Triple Crown. I wasn't you know, he wind away and
have a better horse for the Belmont. And then they're New York guys, you know, so you know, everybody has their own they know their horse that they do. But they you know, horse and Hamlet, then they'll they'll take the crack at it.
So I saw you at the Breeders in this November. You had some pretty good three three year olds. Think one of them who ran on the derby. I think he won the two year old thing. Gaming was third. What happened to Gaming? It seems like he lost his confidence.
Yeah, Gaming was really you know, he won the Delmar Fraternity and he ran second to my horse in the Breeders Cup, and then I ran him back at lost all a Medos and he had a bad trip and he he just was got out of rhythm. And then I came back and and he just he lost for him. And all these horses will do that, they lose confidence and he's you know, he's fine, looks great, and he's uh, he ran a decent race in on h Derby weekend.
He ran third in in a mile race. He ran a better race than he can But he's uh, he's a kind of horse that I'm letting him come back around. He's gonna run next week, maybe in a in a in a you know, Matt win, it's a Churchill down Mount on the sixteenth race. I might give him a shot there. If he doesn't run him well there, then
I might try him on the turf. But yeah, he was he really just he was a head scratcher because he's this big, beautiful horse that looked like he had so much potential and then just one little you know, I guess, I guess horses get the yips, you know, like golfers. But but yeah, but we're slowly and then you have to just back it up and say, all right, he's not going to run in the Derby, So let's let's let's take baby steps and get his conference going back.
It's there. They're horses, you know, and get them back go and then they get good, you know, they'll they'll go through a period there where you just gotta have to wait on him a little bit.
So let me ask you real quick. I mentioned gaming because of course he's the horse from the local guys, your car guys, Whiteman and Watson and Pegram, So you know there's that connection.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, they're they're they're my best clients, you know, not only my best clients, but they're like my best friends. You know. They're they're great guys, and and they really you know, they love they love the game, and and they they they handle the hids and lows of the sport. You know, it's one of those racing's tough, Steve.
You know, it's like it's like any sports. You know, it's like a coach, you know, or like you know these owners that you know, you you you know, you got to you gotta certain only certain people can really deal with horse racing, owning horses and stuff like that, because you know, you don't want a horse race to ruin your day. It's a horse race ruined your day.
You're you should not be involved, all right. You got to be able to got to take it, just like when you're you know, sports teams or coaches or whatever you know, and but uh, you know, it's it's it's just like any other sport. And uh, but it never ends. We were it's a yearly thing. We don't have breaks, we don't have seasons. It just goes and goes and goes and goes. And so it's it's it's a lot of work. It's fun when it works well, and it's
not fun, you know, But it's like anything. When the highs are high, the lows are roll low.
But uh.
My guys, you know the cardboard they have a passion for it. They love the horses, they they love the competition. And there's not a better feeling in watching your horse turn for home and he's on the lead, no matter what kind of race it is. It's just excitement, you know. And so that's you know, horse racing is unfortunately RULEDO I guess I guess they close it down.
I ask you about that.
Would you like to get involved maybe help help out in your roles of stopping grounds?
You know?
Really, I just I love really because that's where I got my start. And uh, when they turned the barn area into soccer field, it was sort of that was not good. It was like not a good sign. You need a barn area. You know, you just that bringing him in, and you know it's that track is pretty small, you know, but uh in that grandstand, I mean it's like one good Win. I think it's going to go. But I have a lot of great memories from there. I went there as a jockey, as a trainer. My
father took me when I was eleven years old. Just fell in love with the place. I loved it. It was actually the first official Courter horse race was running, really yeah, you know, and so it's there's a lot of history there and that's where corterhorse racing sort of got its birds right there, you know that. And so
it's just a lot of memories. I remember going there a few years back, you know, just showing up there and one of the races one day, you know, just not the races, but for the uh, just to check it out. And it's it's really you know, it's a great place.
So so back in the day when you had real quiet, I think it's late eighteen eighties eighty nine, I spent a day or two with your your mom and dad, Ellie and Bill. Great people. Obviously fun Your dad's a funny guy. Was a funny guy. What would they be thinking of you now and how proud would they be?
Well, I mean, it was my father. It wasn't my father's passion. He loved animals. He loved horses, cattle, everything, and so he's the one that fell in love with the horses, rave horses racing, and and I was just tagging along with him, and that's how I got the bug and I really got to enjoy great memories with him. Unfortunately, they weren't around when I finally won a triple crown.
They were with me with the other triple crown, with three of them that we that was in ninety eight, two thousand and two, whatever, But you know, they were there two thousand and nine when I was inducted in the Hall of Fame. That was probably my proudest moment. And I remember them. They were just so proud, you know, and to be there and to get introducted in the Hall of Fame and have them there, it was that
was pretty pretty moving for me. Was very emotional, And when I won the Triple Crown, I got very emotional because I wish they could what could have been there to witness it was the most unbelievable experience. I mean, that's the greatest sporting event I've ever been to because everybody was there rooting for one horse, you know, one hundred thousand people and it had been thirty thirty seven years.
You know, it was ridiculous whatever. And so you know, great memories from kid from the Gallas RULEDO wins triple crown. That was not I didn't I didn't plan that.
No, it's been ten years. I mean since I think America fifteen. It seems like just yesterday and.
Then and then Justify, you know, a couple of years later. Then he does it and like makes it look easy and it's tough, but it's it's you know, they keep wanting to change it because they can't get enough horses to run in the second leg. Because a lot of a lot of the younger trainers now they're you know, they're they're using analytical sort of just like they do
in sports. You know, well my horse, if I get more time, blah blah blah, and so you know, but that's the thing is to me, I like, I'm traditionalists. It wouldn't mean the same if if they changed it, and it would just be another race. You know, it's it's they're very emotional, they're they're very important races. And the Derby is like, that's the Derby is The Derby is like it's like the Masters. Okay, you know, you can win a lot of turn in golf, but everybody
at the Masters. That's the Kentucky Derby. And so it's it's it's something that I still have to pinch myself sometimes. I can't believe what I've accomplished coming from where I came from.
Yeah, how much longer are we going to be seeing you involved with this? I went d Wayne Lucas is like, what eighty nine or something.
He's going to be ninety years old, and I was I talked to him. I was just talking to him yesterday. He was there, and I mean he just loved it. I mean, and he the guy was a great horseman. I remember the first time I saw Wayne Lucas. I was seventeen. I was at Sonoyda, Arizona, and they had these court horse trials and he pulls up in this shiny trailer with wheels and ran these horses there came in from New Mexico. And I mean the guy has always been, like, you know, not only is a great horseman.
But it's a great showman type. Know, he'd be brought. He really up the game, you know, brought class into the court horse. He changed, revolutionized court horse racing, durban racing. He's the one that started putting horses on planes and shipping them to different races and winning off de waighing off the plane and all this and so and he's still at it. His mind is still it's great, you know, he's he's getting up there in age, but his mind's still sharp, and he's you know, he said, he's he
still loves what he's doing. And he told me yesterday he says, you know, I've got a couple of nice two year olds and uh, Charlie Winningham had they he's a great trainer, had the best the best phrase, he said, you never he never knew anyone that committed suicide knowing they had a good two year old in the barn, you know. And so and that's where we all live for. You know, how's our two year olds doing? You know? And we've got a good tier that can go to
the Derby maybe next year or something like that. You know, So you need something to keep you going. And horse racing and horses. It's great therapy for a lot of these guys. It's secondary business for them, and you know, they were very successful in their businesses, but they want to do something. This is like their own. You know, they can't own a franchise team, you know, a team or something like that, but this is theirs, their own team.
That's they got their colors and that's how they get involved. And I'm lucky that my brother Bill, who lives in Tucson, got to be good friends with Carral and Paul and that's how I met them and got them involved with horse racing. And they've had a lot of good luck, you.
Know, Bob, thanks as always. Good luck next week with Rodriguez. I know he's going to be in my trifecta. You got it, my man. Good luck to you all right.
Thanks for having me.
You got to go. We're way over. So that was fun though. That was that was great. Yeah, thanks much.