Breaking down all the axes at OHS. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Hey, welcome back to Winding the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera. You're a break eager from Southern Arizona Sports tourism and film with Orner. Now we have Kobe with breaking news.
I on the Ball, Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Class of twenty twenty six linebacker dash fa Fida commits to Arizona. Older brother Noah changes his jersey number from eleven to number one.
Huge get I guess just could keep it in the family, right, Yeah, And you build that you build that line right, well you think that you do, hope, so right, Yeah, nowadays it's it's probably not the same thing, but that recruitment line and where it goes from is a big deal, right, Building that trust in that community, right and the family is bought into this place. Noah obviously has for a while now. I mean there were rumors that he would leave. I kind of bought into those rumors, which was a
shame on me. But now he's here to stay and he's got a little brother coming in, so, which is good. Tomorrow's signing day. I don't know if you have any new potential signings, but tomorrow's a big day with the signings.
Yeah, not much from the signings. But Arizona football announces twenty twenty five schedule. Arizona will play ten Big twelve teams, just like they did last year.
Right right, One of them is not going to be on this. One of them's on the schedule, Kansas State, but they're not part of the Big twelve schedule.
Correct, they're the third game. I think you did the season right, so similar to what happened this year, right right, third game here, they're good bye here. So they open it with Hawaii, uh, and then they play Weaver State and then Kansas State get a bye, and then they'll get into the Big Twelve. Where would you rank Big twelve in terms of football conference? Third or fourth? Okay, third and fourth SEC? Big ten, Big twelve, Yeah, I mean a SEC would be the other one. Whether there
are any Big twelve good Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I think that'll work. I think that's fair. Yeah, I could be wrong. I mean I think it's just a it's a question.
Right, Arizona Jim Katz, Alison Fears, and Elena Dietz pick up Big Twelve honors after dominant win over Denver.
Okay, what I mean is that? Or are they ranked right now? Jim Kats? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to think. So it's fine. Just go ahead and continue because it might take some time to figure Ouah. Sorry, don't don't get yeah, don't don't. Don't worry about the fan over here. Yeah.
Tonight's college basketball slate features several strong matchups, including a ranked Big East battle between eleven Marquette and twelve Saint John's potential upset as number seven Purdue as is Iowa, a crucial SEC showdown between number fourteen Kentucky and twenty five Ole Miss, and a Big Twelve clash as number twenty Arizona takes on by U.
Yeah, okay, what else you got? I don't have much to help you. So Miles Garrett has requested a trade from the bread We had that? Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Did you guys talk about it yesterday? Yeah?
I joked that I didn't know Cleveland had a team. Worst trade of all time, Deshaun Watson, Oh, the worst payment for all the time. Yeah, yeah, sorry, that's not you're talking in the NFL. I thought you're gonna talk to the NBA with that, Dallas.
Oh my god. I don't know if I would say that's the worst trade of all time. I mean, it was surprising trade. But the more you see about it, more you read about it the clubhouse with Luca, I don't know if that front office liked him very much. I don't know if the players liked him very much. So he weighs two seventy now, yeah, and his antics in the finals last year, you didn't see a lot of a lot of backing come out of that front office to back him in his his his antics during the finals.
Right, Well, it's just if he was shocked about the trade, but he's excited to do it.
So go ahead, you have something.
Yeah, it's just in NFL Networks in a rappaport repeat reports the Rams are at least willing to eat some of the money in a Cooper Cup trade.
So does that mean he went I thought he was going to be traded or he's gonna get out?
What does that mean? There's Chris.
It says here they want to pay down, potentially paying down the seven point five million dollars signing bonus, which is fully guaranteed for Cup, so it will ease the burden on an acquiring team.
So a lot of people have n't Maybe in Dallas, wouldn't you want him?
I love that Dallas they said might be a contender for him, which makes the Raiders, Which the Raiders.
He's only I mean, the problem is he's at that age where you're not gonna get a full season out of him. I mean, his body can't take that. But I mean he's still elite talent. You just getting a Kua now, that's obviously the alpha go to.
He's elite in the playoffs though, Cooper Cup right, Yeah, makes some catches.
Yeah. Have you ever seen videos of him playing high school basketball? No? Oh, it's wild. You should definitely go back and watch him. You not tall? He is? He plays small, but you have six two? Oh really?
No?
Really? I don't push it was I was shocked. I don't push the My geek friend Chris here, I was shocked. He plays like a slot.
He plays like what like man Wes Welker, Yeah, Wes Welker six two, he might be six three even.
I'm getting I'm getting confirmation.
Yeah, yeah, I need confirmation. And you saw that t mac obviously in the top ten. They love the guy. Yeah, he's just tremendous. He'd go go in the.
Top ten yearly in a couple of months he has six two. Yeah. Wow, that's wild. I had no clue. It's confirmed. He looks small but plays big because everything on the internet, you know, is true. Okay, that's it for today's breaking Oh well, okay, that was a that was quick.
I have some stuff with just ESPN that I was kind of perusing. I guess coach Reid's going to stay at least one more year from Kansas City, maybe win this year and maybe and again next.
That would be three four. Yeah h So we'll see how old is he. I don't know, sixty something anyway. Sorry, I'm asking detailed questions. No, no, no, this is this is on the kids. These are the breaking news. Good question, though, he's got to be in the mid sixties, it doesn't say. In the story, Travis Kelsey says he's not gonna give it up either. He's coming back from one more year no matter what, interesting, what else, anything else.
Maybe it will take some calls if you guys want to call, please do five two four will take your calls. I guess the Lakers still need a big so they're gonna go after a big to replace Anthony Davis.
There are reports that they might treat for Mitchell Robinson from the next Yeah, they definitely need a big man.
Does this mean that Coloco gets more minutes? Probably Jobby for now.
Yeah, Jackson Hayes the starter. Coloco is the backup right now. Yeah, I'd love to say.
That you saw that Jordan Michael, Jordan's son got pop for cocaine.
And d y and stuff. No, I didn't say that at all. Yeah, I just saw in Miami. In Miami, he's been chasing those supermodels. He was dating what Pippin's ex wife, and now he was dating I guess Murphy Murphy's ex wife. That's a that's a weird. Is that that's weird? Right? I mean? Am I not like good for them? However, I don't have nothing son, It's just that like how that transaction happens. It's not like you're just dating some random person, like you're dating your ex
teammate's wife and then Eddie Murphy's. Yeah, that's that's weird, like what crowd? Are you good for him? Power to you?
Like?
But I mean, like where, let's ask this question first. Where are you meeting these people at family Gaalleries? Yeah? Well, when your Michael Jordan's son, you're kind of annointed, you're kind of I guess he's got the baby crown. Huh yeah yeah, well now he's gonna have to wear it in jail, probably for a couple of days at least. Well, yeah, you know what the bail was? Take a guess. One point four thousand. Okay, Well, you asked me this last week, and I was way off too. I don't know why
you asked me these ques. I'm supposed to be asking you the clerical questions. Four thousand dollars for bail? That was it? How much did he get caught with? I don't know.
I didn't see that. I saw that smort this morning, and I'm thinking, no, that's interesting. I didn't know he stop dating miss Pippin, but he did. I forget her first name. She still go by a Pippin. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you know, I don't run in those for them, so I don't know. Hey, it's a Jordan Pippen matchup. Right, what's the greatest of all time? The Real Housewives of Tucson. Yeah, I don't. I don't follow a big Bravo guy. I don't need the drama. I
don't need I already have no trouble. Yeah, let's see what's going on here. I gotta forguret what I want to do.
Yeah, listeners can't see it, but we're all over the place with the computer here. Yeah, okay, what else? What else? Tiger Woods mom passed? Yea, she was member, you know, and you you remember where you remember her from Tiger's Tiger Woods mom mom?
Right, you said you know his dad because his dad was obvious, but his mom when he was making his confession and his mom was in the front row.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, so she was eighty. She was eighty.
Nfl r I says theories that officials favorite chiefs are insulting.
Oh of course, it's one of only one and a half. I think, when do you get the game script for that? Because then, all right they passed that out with the day before, right, I still laugh at that stuff. Everybody has their thoughts on stupid stuff. I mean, I know, this is kind of a just a boilerplate question. But I mean, if Mahomes wins, oh, I mean is he is he number two?
Well, that's the funny thing about They were trying to compare him to Brady earlier today and they were saying, Brady, no matter what he does, no one who Mahomes does, there's no way he's even this.
Brady's number one.
Yeah, and that Brady's had, you know, these three different seasons or careers, and all of them have been great. He didn't win much when he was younger, but he won a lot later and it takes a lot for Mahomes to too.
Yeah, it's I mean, it's a te I mean he's in that Burdachalon already. So yeah, okay, yeah, Kelsey, greatest tight end of all time. I mean, as it's gotta be gronk, But yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know if I think still holds the It's hard to say in today's world of this. We also just want to put everything in the list, right, yeah, don't you do? What's your favorite show, what's your favorite move? What's the greatest album?
Which?
Right? Right? Right? No, no, no, hard to say, but maybe hard to say, but maybe. Ye.
And I don't know numbers, you know, I just know these good and throwing the ball, and there's a lot of good tight ends there are.
It's a different it's a different position now than it was, say in the eighties and nineties. You ain't never used it till recently. Yeah, that's true. I mean they're essentially another wide receiver. Yeah, of course, why wouldn't you right, Oh yeah, you know you have six or five donkey that would run over people. So not using your leadoff hitter, what the what? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it doesn't. Although the leadoff era has kind of gone
to the wayside coming back power. Yeah, but I mean now that you've you've you've added the running game back into baseball, there's a little bit more excitement. I think, why did they do that? They want the game to move right, Yeah, I mean listen, it was great. It was great to watch, you know, guys hit fifty sixty home runs. But and that's what there's still trying to do. Yeah,
but you're striking out too much. There's not runners in position. Yeah, you want to see the We know baseball's boring, right, I mean that's pretty much I love it. It's my favorite thing in the world. But at the same time, like you want to see guys move, I want to see guys steal bases.
People need to have some kind of thing their eyes need to do something. Yeah, right, No, I get that. It's funny because I think they're talking now with college basketball and you cause you watch it, games are no longer two hours, they're two fifteen, they're two twenty. That's an issue for TV slots. Oh yeah, absolutely.
I mean the media timeout timed with the actual timeout going back to back, where you get maybe thirty seconds of gameplay. Even for me, it's like, okay, let's get this call, let's go.
Yeah, I wants you over runner on tonight's replay four four. That takes some time, and then the media ten Like you say, it's going to be about two twenty tonight. Yeah, you know it's I think that's a that's a problem. So when you have that discussion, you're looking at the average. I mean could be you're gonna have to look this up, but average Major League Baseball game time now is somewhere close to two and a half to forty five. Yeah, I mean, you're when you start getting basketball in the
same breath as as a major league baseball game. That's great for baseball, bad for basketball. Yeah, yeah, what are you looking up.
For?
What for an average major league baseball game?
Now?
Yeah, I thought it was like two and a half two it's short and quite a bit to Yeah, the Yankees still have to play the Red Sox and those games take six days. The fights and stuff, yeah yeah, did you ever get in a fight? We just talked? No, no, no, no, no, no.
I didn't meant to see that, did you How I wanted to say this, not personally. Did I ever hit anybody on purpose?
Asked me. I didn't know how to say that. Yeah, well you can just say okay, yeah, nobody's gonna come after me anymore. I think I might have dotted a couple of guys on purpose, but never had hunted. I never had a hunted none purpose. I would black guys off the play, but I had I had more hit by pitches than I did walk for the fight. No, these baseball fights are kind of like, you know, what are you say, a bunch of pans? I don't know.
I mean, I know some of them are pretty serious in the air and slugs and you know.
The MLB average game time drops a two hours and thirty six minutes, lowest since ninety.
Yeah, so that makes But it's funny because I've gone to a couple since this time, and I'm thinking, you're spending X amount.
Of money whatever it is. It's almost like you don't get your money's worth. So that was my argument. Like, as a fan, I think you're as a true flat fan, I think you're losing some of that and the experience of the baseball game. Everybody knows you're not watching every single pitch unless you're a social event. It's a social event. So like it, I think you're losing a little bit of that too. But it's still a cheaper ticket to go into a baseball game than his NBA or nfls.
Why do you think that the NBA is diminishing the audience or whatever?
The view?
We talked about this a little bit. It's I think it's it's a confusing schedule for an average fan. Now you have a middle season tournament, their playoffs last for a month and a half more and more two months, and now you're you're watching teams like the Celtics that are averaging forty three pointers a game again, like you miss that and everybody's everybody's friends, right, and then you get to pick and choose when you want to be traded.
Most likely you have a top three. It's just it's not the same kind of dynasties when.
The money play apart the Miami guy Butler wanting to get out and get into the number making fifty million, I want more, YadA YadA.
But people are just say no, I'm tired. I'm just tired. I've had enough. I think it's a great argument that you're making. And I've said this before that I'm all for players. As a player, I'm all four players get paid as much as you possibly can. Your career is short, uh, people, people are going to treat you like property, like trading, so you I get but when you sign a contract that you're getting paid close to fifteen million dollars a year.
The average Frian. We like people are waking up at four o'clock in the morning and go and working jobs. I hate right to put food on the table. People don't want to hear you bitch and complain about I think that's an issue. I think that's one hundred. Yeah, it should be a to what level I don't, And you get to choose the games you're not going to play in. You want to take a you want to
take a rest day. When I spend one hundred and fifty dollars for a ticket that I might never see an NBA game again, and I came to see you and you're not playing because you're tired, right, Yeah, that's that's a problem. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I got fired up. Well, okay, I gotta go.
Right, let's go, because we're gonna hear from mister small here on the other side.
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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 forty.
Wells trying the ball. You're on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is Blake Eager from Southerner is on a sports tournament.
SILMASO, who do we y'all? Let you introduce the gentleman we have. We are very fortunate to have this guest, and I am beyondhappy that he agreed to come on today because he already came on once with he was fantastic, and he said it was the worst experience he's ever had on a radio show, so I had to pull listen. I own big time for coming, but it's it's God. I wouldn't shock me.
No.
I say the same thing to people when they're joking around. I'm like, yeah, that could be honest. This is Jim Small. He is a president of the World Baseball Classic and we are we were grateful that he took time out of his schedule because he's two hours ahead right now in New York.
So Jim, Jim, let me ask you the question I asked, my guy, here, are you guys nervous?
Are you guys excited? What's the smood right now?
Oh, we're so pumped.
And first of all, thank you Steve and Blake and Steve, thank you for having me back. You know, it may surprise you. A lot of people don't really care much about what I have to say, particularly around my own home.
So I am happy to talk.
My ear ears off about baseball in general, the World Baseball Classic in particular. Yeah, we're pumped, like you know, the thing and I mentioned this to you guys before when last week talked.
You know, the WBC is something really special, right.
It's it's players playing for their country and that is just special, and that's different, and they do things and they act differently than they would for the regular team, whether that's the major league team or our college team or whatnot. So to be able to bring that energy to Tucson, an to Taipei, which will be the week before Tucson, is really special. So we can't wait for it. We know we've got people in Tucson are excited about that.
You know, Blake had me out there last week and I got to Bob Hoffman invited us out to the road Runners game, and I just saw the enthusiasm there, you know, for sports in general. But I had people coming up to me to talk about the WBC because they ran a little promo on it, and I think two sons ready for it. I think it's going to be great.
You guys have experienced this before.
My first time experiencing this was I think I said to you, Jim, back in Miami two thousand and eight ish.
I think it was.
I had didn't know anything about it, went to a game and I'm thinking, holy crap, this is fun. I mean, you had the nationalities bands and craziness and fun, and there happened to be a pretty good baseball game, right, And I'm sure that's what you're hoping for it, that's.
What you're hoping for exactly exactly right. You know, we call it the Fiesta or the Festival of baseball, depending on which language we're using. And it's true. It is the party in the stands and on the field and some of the best most iconic moments that I can remember. I've worked in baseball for forty years and got to see some really cool things and World Series and All Star games, and you know, it just ranks right up with them, and so and it's not just me saying that.
The players that say that, you know, the guys coming out of the last WUBC, you know, big name guys that had played in World Series before talked about this being the highlight of their careers, including show Heyodani. So that's pretty special and we're really excited to bring that to Tucson.
And each of them bring out their own special of spice from their nationality, you know what I'm saying, it's it's who they are, I mean, their identity. Yeah, that's exactly right.
And what's so cool And I'm in a very unique position and that I get to go to all the venues and I get to see and I'm very lucky. I've been doing this since the first one in two thousand and six, so I've seen the way the Japanese and the Koreans and the Taiwanese, you know, consume this
what they do. But I also get to see it, you know, in San Juan and in Miami and Houston and now in Tucson and see you know different people like you said, you know, they bring your own flavor their character to the game, and that's it's the same game, but it's played in different ways and celebrated differently in different places of the world. You know, we like to say baseball is America's pastime, but it belongs to the world and it has for for several years now.
How did this marriage happen? How did how did you fall into this? If that makes any sense, Blake, Yeah, between Jim and I. Yeah, or just because you're now the head you're kindly here? Yeah, how did this? I mean, Jim knows this and we've talked about it, you know,
multiple times. But uh, we're really fortunate to have some people in our in our corner with Dan Schneider and Tom Tracy that had connections with Derek Hall and Ken Kendrick with the Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball, and so when it was time to go after the qualifiers, it kind of fell in our lap. And then we we decided to go after it, and we put in a bed and we've worked with Jim and we had to
beat out what is it, eight or ten cities? Yeah, and fortunately we we did a really good job on a community effort here and we continue to do a good job on a community effort. What do you think sold what was sold?
It asked Jim, Jim, you know what it was, this this amazing like, yeah, we can get that done. And everybody it's not just Blake. I mean, Blake is amazing, right, and and he's been the one that spearheaded all of this stuff. And and look, we're not easy to deal with, right. We have a lot of needs. We have, we travel heavy, we have you know, we recreate a major league experience with these players, and and Blake and everybody else has
been just like, yep, we can do that. So you know, Sarah Horvat, you know the people at Keino, you know Dan and Tom that that Blake mentioned, you know, so that like everybody that we that is part of this coalition that's come together sold us, you know, basically from the beginning, you know, to see But I think I mentioned that we were we were hopeful to be able to do this a few years ago, and basically five years ago, we were we were all in Tucson, We're
staying out La Paloma. We had a bunch of teams in town, and then the world changed and we had to pack everyone up and send them out. And I think I mentioned then it's like this is not to make good for that right. Yes, we would love to come back. We want we were we were sad that we disappointed the fans and they couldn't see you know, the WBC. But you know, part of this is is, look, this is a business, right, and we have to make sure that we're going to the best place for the players,
for the fans, for everything, and and and Tucson. You know, Blake and everybody commenced us that that Tucson is the right place, and everything I've seen since we made that decision last year has backed that up.
So to both of you, this is hopefully maybe not locally for one off. I mean, if they do really well and pardon the pun but knock it out of the park, it could happen again here.
I mean, that's a plan, right. We want to build this relationship and we want to continue to grow it for the long term. Whatever we costantly can have from a cross market to standpoint from Tucson and the World Baseball Classic and major League Baseball is what we're here for. We've and I've shared this with you, Steve and Jim. You know this. We we haven't had major League Baseball since two thousand and nine. That's been our backbone in
southern Arizona. We are so happy and lucky to have Jim and Mickey and Nelson, you know, doing what they're doing on their side and choosing Tucson to give us opportunity to open that door back up for whatever may come and build a strong relationship for the sustainable future. Yeah. No, w Yeah.
And just to add to that absolutely, I mean, you know, you got to get the first one done, and you know we still have some work to do, all of us working together. But you know, we love the idea of you know, coming back to two on it. That's that's what presents itself and we certainly are are you know, keeping an open mind to that and we just you know, we can't wait to see where we are in a month or so.
It's funny you brought this up, Jim and you talked about five years ago, and I remember that because we had some of the local dignitaries on the on the on the show and we didn't know what was going to happen, guys who did right and they were excited the county and then all of a sudden everything was gone, everything was gone. So that must have been disheartening for everybody involved, because you're on the verge, on the verge, and then it just doesn't happen.
Yeah, it was, and it was you know, we had teams we ran a different event then and that we were bringing twelve teams and you know, two back to back consecutive tandem events with six teams each. And so we had teams from Europe already in town, and we had a bunch of teams that were sitting in Europe
waiting to come in for that second round. And you know, we basically we had to get everyone out before the you know, the travel stop between the US and Europe, and you know, it was a scary time all of us. You know, you know, nobody knew kind of what the world was. And so sometimes, you know, baseball and sports can can play a really important part of the healing after a big event and after after you know, a trauma.
To the nation. But it wasn't going to be that.
It was going to be you know, we had to put baseball in the back seat and focus on other things and make sure everybody was healthy and and and and one of the things I'm really happy about was we came back in twenty two with the qualifiers. We ended up in the twenty three tournament playing these overseas. You know, we played one in Regnsburg, Germany, and one in Panama City, Panama. But you know, that was part
of the recovery process. I think too, And I think you saw this cathartic feeling of everybody getting together in twenty you know, twenty twenty two, you know, two years after, you know, COVID hit everywhere everywhere we played, you know, in Taiwan and in Japan and the United States, and everybody was able to get back in and enjoy baseball. So it was really cool to be part of that.
To both of you. Then, how will measure will success be measured? I mean, it's fundamentally it's going to be ticket sales, But I think from my standpoint, if I take a step back, end up being completely honest, it's due to Jim's patience and Nelson and Mickey's patients on the World Baseball Classic side. But we've got nine entities
working on this one singular thing together. I don't think that's ever happened in southern Arizona, where you have visit Tucson, PMA County Kino Sports Complex, Mexican Baseball FSSKO DOG Arizona ball US raul Gary Lanston, Like, there's so many people at the table and we're all pulling in the same direction.
Ray Flaores. I mean, you have this great camaraderie all for the singular goal of this is an event that we haven't had in so long that we need to pull forward, and you're doing that and that's a huge success in.
My mind to that point, Jim, and I'm kind of interrupting my question to you, but to that point, is that unlike other places that you've dealt with or is it common?
Oh, it's very unusual and it's very special and it's you you you know, the way we.
Have set this up.
I'll give you a time one as an example. We do have a promoter there. It's a business sports marketing firm, and then they have some you know involvement from uh from the government there, but but not much. You know, what we have in Tucson is really, as Blake said this, this you know, coalition of a really smart, like minded people that want to that that that are very proud of where they live and and really proud to show
that off. I mean, I think That's the thing I get most excited about every time I go to Tucson. It's just like how proud people are of being from southern Arizona and being from Tucson, and and they want to show it off. And you know, we get the chance to team with them to show Tucson to the world by bringing the world to Tucson. So I think that's a really cool opportunity for us.
Right, so you're in Manhattan, and you know you're not in Manhattan anymore in Tucson when you're visiting obviously, Right, I'm curious Blake and Jim the price points. You know how important that is. The facilities who are to go to play. There's some some issue, you know what I'm saying. Did you guys figure that out or how did you.
Figure that out? Yeah? I mean it took a group to figure that out. But you're right, it's a different demographic here in southern Arizona and we had to be aware of that, and we want to be aware. And the one thing I looked at is like me when I was a kid, where I grew up, you know, across the street from Flowing Wells Junior High. I want to make sure that everybody has a chance to go
to those games, right and can afford it. It's not something we want to put you know, the people and you know I was the person right right, So I was that person and I'm thankful for my parents to do what they had to do to make sure I had opportunities. And we want the same thing for Tucson. We want everybody. This isn't We're not trying to say we want to go after this singular demographic or that it's it's everybody in our region to have the opportunity.
That's why we're doing the Kids in the Park days. You know, we talked about that a little bit earlier. Is that you know, we've got over three thousand kids coming from all different school districts to experience that, to have that play because you might never ever get it again, and it's a core memory that we want to build on, right yeah.
Yeah, And that's consistent like what we want the WBC to be for everybody. So you know, we work closely with with Blake and every one to make sure that we have price points for everybody. It's if you you know, if you can't afford and you're like a little bit, you know, a higher end seat. You know we have something for you. And then you know, if it's if it's like you just want to be in the park and be able to enjoy the experience, you know we're ready for you as well. So yeah, I think these
guys did a really good job. And to your point, we deferred to them because they knew no.
Two soon right before we asked my last question or I asked to you a gym to be And I hope you guys knock at anut of the park again. I've given given the fact that I don't want to be wally pipped here because my guy blike here is pretty good on the radio. I don't want to get Wally piped in. You know, I'm looking for a job tomorrow.
He's really good. I'm surprised radio is the better radio guy than he.
Is a golfer.
I can oh wow, okay, well that's inside. So Jim, you've been in this game for forty years. Where did you grow up at one and two? What did you want to do when you grew up? Because come on, you're living my dream many people, because if you're not a ball player, you're doing exactly what you're doing.
Yeah, I'm so lucky.
I grew up in north of Boston and was Red Sox fand but loved all sports. And then I got into this really by by chance. I was a journalist a major at the University of Kansas, and I got a job in the cheer department with the Royals, and then that led to a full time job with the Cubs, and then the Rangers and the Christ's office and then the Internet national business after that. So you know, when I say to people that want to work in sports, if anyone's out there, and you know, go for it, right.
It is a great, great way to make a living. It's not every day that I get to sit at work and watch TV, but in some days I get to sit at work and watch TV. So it's a pretty good way to wait make a living. And you know, we have at MLB alone, we have, you know, fourteen hundred employees. When I started, you know, the Commercia's office in nineteen eighty seven, there was about fifty employees, so
it's expanded. There's a lot of opportunities. University Arizona is a is a great program, and you know, and have people working in sports. You know all over the world, and you know, it's a great way to make a living.
So I'm lucky.
I appreciate that what I get every day, and it's it's it's accessible for the people.
So go for it. Yeah, no, I don't.
Just you took a different path in journalism, and that's kind of the new path because journalism is different now it was forty years ago. Because I was part of that, I'm now going to be a PR person for a team. And then moving up. I have two of my interns are from Manhattan. They're actually here at Ubay from Manhattan, and they've done a great job and they have that experience, and I tell him, get your stuff out, be as out there as you can and try a lot of different things.
Yep, that's exactly knocking every door and see what opens. And they have the courage to walk through.
It when it opened, right right. Well, Jim, I guess we'll see you in a few weeks already, Well, we got to bring jam We got to bring Jim back on because he's got so many stories that I want to hear about Harry Carey from the cupsdays. They'll not need to have him there and his Japanese. I mean you lived in Japan for twelve years, correct, Jim.
Six sixteen years? Yeah, yeah, we've got to bring him back. Done that, Jim, Sorry, go ahead.
I'm assuming you have kids, because yeah, yeah I do. Because and I'll go with this observation because you talked about people not listening to you at home. I had that same thing.
My guy here, Blake will never know that because he has no kids.
Gonna have about you know, fifteen thousand kids coming to uh, you know, Keto Sports Complex here in a few weeks.
Right, well, he'll need you as a translator and some of them teams.
Maybe I don't think, yeah, yeah, I get think yeah maybe hopefully right. Well, Joy, well we'll have you on again. I hope you you know, we'll talk more baseball because I used to be a baseball guy growing up, and you're kind of living what every little kid wants to do.
I'm really really lucky and I and I count my.
Blood things every day.
Yeah, great, thank you, Jim, guys, Thank you, all right, thank you, Jim, talk talk to you Jim Small from the WBC. Fantastic you guys. Well, I'm gonna where are I seen my resume? No, I'm want to hitd of my rope.
Yeah, thats what you say into your rope. You're not. Come on, listen, what you've done your body of work? Three. I guess I was off. Sorry, strain, be nice. I'll be coming back from this break by myself. I'll be sitting outside of the I guess it's that you're dressed.
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Breaking down all the uses and ohs. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Playing the ball. We're here for the last segment. That's me Steve and you blake yes, and then Kobe, you opened a bag of farts before you left and walked out here right what was a flavor? What flavor of chips were those? Purple? Doido is my favorite purple. You know, it's child a small space in here. People are going to be smelling that for like hours. Yeah, I missed it. Thanks for going on, Yeah, thanks for going on.
Hey, if you guys want to call five two oh four one six seventy four forty great to talk to Jim. I remember talking to him last time. Baseball baseball Tu song to song is a great market for it. Oh yeah, I hope you succeed because not for the reason you talked about. This is a baseball town, have a bit pro baseball? Uh tu song is deserving just what now they have to show up?
Yeah, we I mean we talk about that. You know, from a marketplace standpoint, it's not There's not a lot of cities that lose something for you know, multipitude of reasons and different aspects. And then you know later in life get a chance to bring and so your your your ex is coming back. Yeah, you get that second, you get it. You get a second chance to make a first impression. Right if we can do if we
can do a really good job. I'm and I'm being completely honest the door opens for us on so many different things, and some things that I can't share on air, but we've talked about it off air. Becomes becomes a lot easier, and it's it's a magnitude of sports things, but it has to happen. Well, here's nothing. I got here in eighty seven. And I don't want to say it was a sleepy town, but it was a lot sleepier. Yeah, and now you're making what one and a half million?
Yeah, one point one four night? Okay, so what a half? It's not that town it was forty years ago, thirty seven years ago. Now you have people not just from Tucson, from over other places who have interests and who have loves for sports and a variety of things to do. And this is right in the wheel loss for many.
And you think about it, and I mean within an hour of Tucson, you've got another four hundred thousand people down down to South. You're talking about no Gallas, Noora, You're talking about Sierra Vista, casser Grande. The way that's growing, I mean, Panal County is blowing up right. So I mean, if we could create that hub, is Tucson's metro hub then it becomes a lot easier. Now you're talking close to two million people, yea, opposed to the one and
a half. Sure, okay, this guy, you're gonna call me on Hello. You're on the air and I on the wall. Yes, Nico, what's up?
Hey? Man? I got a question for you. Man, yoh, I got tickets for the Texas Tech game.
Man, Okay, where the hell do you park?
Man?
If you're going to that's that's that's at You can find spots in and around McHale uh Southel the Fifth I think it is. There's a park parking lot South Park. There's a parking lot there. That's where we park. And then there's there's residences that will charge you fifteen to twenty dollars for the game. So it'll take you five ten minutes to walk.
To the arena.
No worries, man, Hey, thank you?
All right? Cool? If Nico can get there like thirty mins or forty five minutes before they game, plenty of time, plenty of time. Yeah, I just gotta pay twenty dollars.
Yeah, yeah, Well I gotta smoke a joint before the game, so I'm definitely yeah.
Gets her an hour then I don't know how long it takes you, but you know, yeah, maybe grab one of those bags of farts that Kobe just opened up, Nico, real quick. Are they winning tonight?
I don't think so.
Man.
Yeah it doesn't really matter.
I know it matters, but you know, okay, they've got enough equity to this point.
Do you think what I.
Seen, man, b Y is a big, big ass scene. Man, yeah, they're big. I don't know how good bass I will do against them.
But right, let's see what happens. Okay, Yeah, thanks Nicole, thanks all.
Call Hey, thank you for the info.
Yeah. Sure, yeah, there's plenty.
It's hard, it's kind of intimidating to you kind of drive around it, but it's plenty of plenty of spots.
Yeah, used to be a spot that I parked at before there's a circle k like no, No, it was right off Campbell and Sixth. It was east. Yeah, there's a little lot back there that It was like fifteen or twenty bucks and yeah it was great. Yeah, I would go south where the circle k is. Yeah, that's where I think the best parking is if you can get down there early now.
Because there's a spot there to the left looking South the garage.
Yeah. You know what's really exciting radio is when you talk about parking spots. Yea, thanks just sky and though you want to know where to go. The most important thing you said. Interesting thing you said, I gotta go smoke the spot. You relaxed before the big game.
I thought he was doing five right now. He's always There's no one has a better life than Neko. I love it, not even your boy who called you blocking. Yeah, Michael fa like, yeah, that's so funny. You're going to the game on Saturday. Probably, Yeah, I think it's a game. I think it's all league games one pm.
Okay, I didn't sign up in time for the tickets. You only got to a couple, have you. I saw you like they came down him and Henry came to You can't get him a presstest. No, No, it's a standing room only. What do you think I am? There was something I wanted to bring up. Oh uh. When we're talking about Jim Small, we do definitely we never we need to have him back on because I do
want to ask him questions about Harry Carey. He's got a he's got a pretty good uh, he's got a couple of pretty good stories about that, and then I want you to talk to him about living in Japan and how he played and playing golf in Japan, where it would you have to set aside a full day to play eighteen holes in Japan, so you had to show up, and it was like you'd show up, you'd go sana then to do a massage, and then you'd have breakfast, and then you go play nine and then
you have a three hour break between that nine to have lunch and hang out and do another sound standard that was like standard this. So he would have to take a full day out to go play eighteen holes of golf, Like it's wild, some of the stories from over there. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's true.
You know, I've traveled a little overseas when I worked for U Saurday and and the and the Olympics covering the Olympics.
So in Greece it was kind of like that.
It's like, not like here, when you go to a restaurant, they come and get you the feed of your food day once you in and out, boom bom boo boom.
In Greece it was like what can I do for you? Take your time don't worry about it, you know, check, no, no, don't worry about it. We get I think we had like a four hour dinner one time in Italy. That was crazy. Yeah. I got a call. Okay, let's take it. Hello, you're on the airline on the ball. Who's this? Heys, here's co what's up? Yeah?
You know.
I essentially I was talking about let's show up with the Baseball Classic. But what you got to remember is you can't rape people. My concessions and parking prices and ticket prices of the bad take some posts and mouth when they come.
Yeah, so let's let's talk about that. I love that.
So.
Uh, mission is fifteen dollars. Uh. The preferred seating is twenty five parkings five dollars. Thursday night, we've got one dollar hot dogs and two dollars beers. What's your thoughts on that I have? Well, that's great.
I'm just telling what you can't do is happy ople paying like kind have a bunch of park and ten bucks for beer and stuff like that too.
I'm going to come back.
Yeah, I mean we did a market we did a little bit of market study and research there, but I believe this is going to be the cheapest event that you're having in state.
From a professional standpoint, No, I think this is a great call because that's yeah, it's true. You're in a different market.
Yeah, and you want to be able to experience the event, and you want to be able to afford it, and you want to be we want you to be able to afford to go to multiple games.
Right, Oh yeah, No, I just understand. I mean I'm going because I'm a baseball guy, so you know, I was going as soon as it came out a lot to a lot of really you know, quote baseball people walk golf if they fill at the internt off with prices.
Did you guys, did you go to the mixigan here? Did you go the Mixican Crystal Baseball? I did. How it's kind of similar in it. Yeah, they're working on it with us. That was yeah.
So I mean that's fantastic because it's a party, I mean baseball yeah.
Yeah, oh yeah, the fans was.
A big party of course, you know.
But and also this will be somewhat similar. I know, it's a bit more serious, I think, right, but.
I hope it can be.
It can be kind of a jovial atmosphere like that other events.
So right, no, thanks, we'll call good call. No, that's a great call. Yeah, you appreciate it, Thanks for listening. Yeah, thanks for calling.
Yeah yeah, yeah, So.
I'm sure that's kind of what was the what were the early discussions like this is what's important? Like what do you mean, like, okay, this call is places and stuff. What what's going.
To make it good? Yeah, that that conversation happened. Yeah, that conversation happened eight months ago. Because you're you're right. I I originally wanted to charge ten dollars for parking, and we came back to five. And I think at that point I was so used to driving up and anywhere you park up North is forty dollars, right, So,
and so it's just a different change. But yeah, those I mean, the pricing model is such a key model for us, you know, to the point where and I'm saying this openly, like if we can break even, like if the authority can break even from the standpoint, this is a huge one. And that's this is our give back. This is something that we want to continue to bring. Were you part of the first one. I wasn't part of Pema County Sports authority, Dan Schneider, Tom Tracy, and then Edgar Soto.
Was okay, and they would they say to you or advice or did they? Yeah they're my I mean they're my menumtors. Yeah yeah, yeah, and there are visors for SASPA and then Edgar's our chair.
Okay.
Yeah, so they were on the verge like I said earlier, and then they just didn't happen.
Yeah, we almost had five teams from a spring training standpoint, right. I don't think anybody knows that, but that was really really close. Right, So tell me the teams again where they coming home? Germany, Columbia, Brazil and China. A variety of ethnicities. Yeah, you could say that cultures, cultures. Yeah, that's food, drinks. You're gonna have continents, You're gonna have food. We are a see. Yeah, they're going to have that on on site for for all the games. Yeah. About that,
I'll definitely go. I'll definitely go after the show. Yeah, you're not just going to drive by in the knock it out like you did on the kickoff. I told you too much. You should at least, Hank, that was really rude. I looked I kind of jove by said, Oh God, listen, I spent misery with Blake a week. The two hours kill me, as can you tell me who this person is? Yeah, yeah, I'm a little shy. Yeah no, I'm sure. How was it? It was good? It was great. The kickoff an event was great and
we took a week about a hundred people. The purpose of it, I think getting everybody in the same room and talking. I mean it was We had people from the movie industry all the way to municipalities, Pema County and just getting him in the same room and talking.
Outside of this how much time you have minute? We got to wrap it up. Next time we'll have you talk more about film and stuff. Yeah, try, I can bring our film chair on people talking about stuff like that, he loves sports, he doesn't loser's food.
That's like he check that.
Okay, Thanks Kobe for taking control of this. Thanks great for this. Thanks we'll see you next week. Thanks everybody,