Wednesday, January 15, Hour 2

Streamy live on the Ihearts Radio, while this is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to win the one hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera.

You're Blake from Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and film authority and seem to be the World Baseball Classic qualifier.

We'll go there after we get break just to wear tickets and stuff like that and how that's going.

And we have one with breaking news.

This is I on the Ball, Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Happy Wednesday, everyone out there, yours truly mister goody two shoes, Mihitolindo.

Going going into a quick look ahead.

Women's basketball does play at Kansas State tomorrow five point thirty, looking to snap a two game losing streak.

That that program and I know you don't cover that program one, but it's out a crossroads. It just is I mean, does it seem and like you can help me with this. Does it seem like a long time ago? They were in the championship game? Yes, and I was at that one and then not how old were you, like seventeen eighteen? And it seems like I'm about to graduate. It's been it's been good. It's been good, but not that good. Since then?

No, I think you had one good year with Kate Reese. They made it look like a little bit of a tournament run.

But since then, Yeah, it's a crossworlds.

What do you think that is? What do you think is changed there?

We've talked about culture almost all day, and I think something somebody switched it, doesn't They don't look like they're having fun out there most games, you know, they it takes a wild shot or something to get them going, and even then they might end up losing by twenty.

Are you are you? You coached for how long? Fifteen years?

So those fifteen are you a fun coach or a good coach or a penning You ask coach, what kind of coach?

Right?

Do you want to play for? Yeah? This has kind of some self evaluation there.

So yeah, you hope that your player will run through a brick wall because you would do it for them, right, And there looks like there's a there's a sense of disconnect, disconnect and I'm I mean, I know I don't want to get taken through the drag through the mud. On this but there looks like yeah, disconnection, dysfunction a little bit. You've got to create a balance. I think that's where you have to understand that you create a fat Dictoby's perfect, you create a family atmosphere.

Sure.

Sure, but let's also let's also say this about to tell me because I covered for three years, it's it's it's Arizona football. It's not I'm using the level here way high and it's not way low. It's kind of in the middle. But that's where Arizona football is and it's not always been. How do you like that spot? I mean we talked about this time. Yeah, that's where I want to be. I'm sorry you don't want to be there, Well,

I mean, is that what you want? I don't listen as a you have a football fan?

Do I want? I want consistencies. We talked about this last time. But you're gonna strive. We're never sorry. I don't believe that we will be in elite program. You're not going to be in the top four.

You're you're not.

But we're looking at now, you're looking at in il we're not even the top you know whatever.

So so both of you guys, because you're grat and you're gonna be whatever, seven and five and six and six and eight and four is good enough?

Okay, Now this is a question.

So every four years you have a six and six, an eight and five, a seven and three, and then all of a sudden you win a conference.

Well I'm okay with that.

You're stretching it there because part of that's going to be seven and four and seven.

And yeah, that's true.

Fining just happened, right, So yeah, maybe I'm speaking out to side to my mouth.

So what do you think? I mean.

It just just where I've seen this program, you know it truly is the seven and five, six and six win a conference?

Now? You're two and two and ten.

That's been your life. Yeah, you've already become accustomed to it.

When when I wrote preseason about what the skin what the fans should expect, I said, fans should expect to go to a bowl game because I still think that that team was good enough to make a ball if they were to get healthy. Sure the ball bounces their way a couple of times, and that that should be a stepping stone to what the standards should be.

You haven't been that team since rich Al I left and then and then he left under his conditions. But uh, the festival a long time ago, ten years ago. Hey, basketball, And I'm sorry to remind you guys, and I did it to jail time.

He hates me for it. Ninety seven we just talked about. No, you don't. I mean two thousand and one is the last time we went to the Final four, right, So I mean you even mentioned blue Blood in the conversation.

Yeah, I mean you're just thinking that that people think about that when you're thinking about the program. And then we talked about Miller's legacy. Miller gosked to three Elite eights, right, I mean, there's a there's a start of a legacy. Again for us, that puts us back into that blue blood and I think Tommy's been able to carry that torch. But March is what matters, right, So for you a football what matters? Bowl games? Should you be competing for?

Teams, so or an issue?

Yeah, So if you're seven and five for the next ten years straight years, what would be that legacy?

I mean that's a great question, Steve.

That's I mean, you know, I mean, what's what's been in the last ten years before this? Would you take the previous ten years or would you take the next ten years knowing you're seven and five you're being a top twenty five team.

Wow, that's going.

But I would side with the looking forward future, right because you already know the past.

We talk about legacy.

That would be ten winning seasons for Brett Brannan out of out of eleven, right, Yeah, that's pretty dang good compared to the history of Arizona football coaches.

Yeah, it's very bizarre because this is a good place.

I mean, we've we've seen that it can be done basketball wise, and a lot of different areas.

It just can't turn the corner for football. What other what other college town or city do you know that's our size and supports their college the way we do. I mean, yeah, but they're but they're they're they're loaded in yeah yeah, loaded in this town.

But they have a lot organ sounds not a million and a half people. Yeah, well, you know that's what I mean.

It's funny because we had Chuck Culpepper here, were you here with Chuck? Chuck well, very bright dude, and he talks about well, it's like listening to the Texas and lumps who think they've won five national titles or whatever it is, and they they they're not there. They think they're better than they are and they're not.

But they're Texas football or Indiana basketball, right, the same things.

Where who cares? And that was so long ago that no one really gets a crap. Yeah, it's funny.

My uh, my cousin, so my mom's side of the family is from Cleveland area, Ohio Akron so uh they're die hard Ohio State fans, right, and so they lost to Michigan and again this year and they had a meltdown. My cousin's telling me it's more important than we beat Michigan than national championship. I said, you know we're talking to you're talking to you have a football fans out here, like you have no idea what you're now. You're probably going to end up winning a national championship. Yeah, so

And then of course men's basketball beat number twenty five Bailure last night, eighty one to seventy. We've talked about it for most of the show. Their next trip road trip to Lubbock at Texas Tech out of eight at noon, and then they're still on the road till through Tuesday, where they go to Stillwater, Oklahoma State seven o'clock.

Yeah, that's a normal game. Time o'clock feels good, Cools good.

Uh So, Arizona football got a pick up through the portal. Actually, I guess so you call it a rebound from the portal and defensive lineman Tia Savella coming back from Texas.

Right, he was here for a couple of years, left to Texas. This is the perfect example. Is the shinier shining Your penny is is not always as shiny as you think it is. It's still a penny. Grass is never always greener. Sometimes, yeah, she's a pretty girl. Maybe I'll drop my girl and then go friend, And it's really the pain. I better come back.

That was also a terrible sentence. I said, I never and then sometimes and it should never go in the same second.

Yea, yea.

The Phoenix Suns played last night. They faced the Hawks in Atlanta. They did lose one, one seventeen.

If you want to talk about a city and whatever that desperately needs success, it's Phoenix. Yeah, because the Suns have been whatever for years. The Cardinals got to a Super Bowl maybe twelve years ago, whatever years ago, and who the Sons and then the Baseball Diamondbacks gave him the title in two thousand and one, and it was the you know.

What I'm saying, It's just been kind of like the step child. Yeah, but the Diamondbacks are two years from going to the World Series. Yeah, but they didn't win. They didn't win close. Yeah, you're right, you're right.

I mean we can point out other cities in the country, like Detroit two that are in that same boat.

Yeah. Uh.

And so with that loss, they went out and got some help or try to get trying. They're gonna try and get some help. The Sons acquired Nick Richards from the Hornets. They're gonna trade Joshua Kogie and three second round picks.

And you're talking Spanish to me, I have no ideayeah, but again you're talking about their big three.

You make that trade to get Beasley in there, and now that Beasley's not even starting. So it's it's just they gave up so much and they have no depth. You're you're writing that same boat.

And they've been doing that since they went to the finals. Yea, three four years whatever years ago. That another another four years. Yeah, it's been it feels like forever.

Jimmy Butler reiterated to pat Riley that he is demanding a trade. So maybe that's something to look out for for the you've been married.

Divorced, I've never been divorced, okay, which I've been.

Married three times, but never divorced. Just don't tell anybody. Okay, we've talked about that.

It's like a it' said with a group of guys that was with this week playing talking about well we're going to counseling, blah blah blah. Once you go to calsor that's over, Baby's I've never known anybody to have something solved that way. They said, you know what, maybe it opens our eyes to say you say it's over like a black idea.

You just say you don't. We've reached the point of no return, you know what I'm saying. It's Jimmy Butler.

Once, how many times can you say I want out? Yeah, I just went out, give me out?

Yeah I will.

I will point to a very specific instance. The only time that I've seen that work is what it's like. Please tell me the Lakers piece of it with Kobe and no Phil when after that first sure they couldn't stand each other, and then Phil came back afterwards, and then they ended up mending that bridge, so they realized that they need realized each other.

Yeah, I'm gonna try to speed run through some of these because we're running out of time. The NBA has rescheduled nine games in due to the result of the wildfires and some of the ice storms. Looking at February's last March games, but they are being rescheduled. More than twenty four vehicles were broken into at a high school a lot during the Michigan basketball game. As nearby high school by the University of Michigan, twenty four vehicles were

We'll see what happens with that.

If anything does happen with that, wide received Deontae Johnson was waived by the Houston Texans and immediately picked up by the Baltimore Ravens this morning and go ahead some Texas as. The Texas players have declared for the NFL drafts, first being Isaiah Bond, probably their best receiver this year, as well as star starting quarterback Quin Yours.

Yeah.

No, we get to see the manning. Yeah, I'm I'm excited for that. I think it'll be interesting see if he stays well. You never know what happens this offseason. Oh, so, do you remember that UNLV quarterback that had the whole drama with nil? He has chosen James Madison for his next stop.

Yeah, so it was not as the latter real move right now, he's just hoping to get paid.

Yeah.

Quarterback Cam Rising is no longer on the Utah football roster.

Yeah, which doesn't say what is high school? I think he's two years older.

And then the twenty twenty five colleg Football Hall of Fame class was announced today, some of the headlines being u former Ohouse state head coach Urban Meyer as well as recently retired Alabama football head coach Nick Saban.

Are you skuys Yeah? First ballot?

Okay, cool, We're done. Let's go talk to Michael lib on the other side.

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This is Ion the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio just searched Eye on the Ball.

Hey, welcome back to Win the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is Blake Eager.

We got one at the controls now we have Michael lev of the Eros of Daily Star. How are you doing, Michael? Did you get some sleep after last night's Late night.

I'm doing well. Thank you.

Went to bed around one thirty, got up this morning, wrote a column, So all get good.

No one talks about that part of the life, right, Oh, you go to games, you get to meet the players, blah blah blah.

No I gotta stay up till one thirty.

Yeah, so literal, they're way they're way worse.

Jobs.

I was just gonna say that. Yeah, you were working on a roof here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, tar No, You're you're right. So what did you make of last last night's game? You asked some good questions last night of Tommy. Uh did you were you impressed with last night's game?

Well?

Yeah, I mean definitely the first half they dominated.

They played with great intensity, especially on defense.

Really kind of shocked the Bears, I think with their physicality.

Obviously, that was a big point of emphasis.

Coming into the game after a poor rebounding performance against UCF. Also, Baylor, you know, one of the bigger, better front lines in the Big twelve, maybe even all of college basketball.

So that was good. I think Tommy's looking for more.

That was the kind of the theme of his postgame speech after that game against UCF, and he kind of got what maybe thirty I'm sorry, twenty five minutes of really good basketball in this game and fifteen minutes of you know, so so basketball. But it's a process, right, These are young kids. Can't expect perfection every time out. Bottom line looks really good. I mean, they're five to zero in the Big Twelve. You know, everyone thought they'd come into this league and have a tough time, and

So yeah, that's all good.

Okay, Yeah, I mean, and Michael, this is Blake. You know, we were talking about that. We've been talking about expectations so much, right, so you brought up a good point and that it looked like out of that forty minutes last night, maybe twenty five. You know, these are college athletes, right, These aren't professional athletes, even whatever you want to say from nil, they're not professional athletes. So what are our

Here's what I would say, when do you want to see this?

Yeah?

Yeah, but I think you have a fans want to see this in March, right, Like there have been a lot of really good November teams under Tommy Lloyd, and really good regular season teams and even teams that have won conference championship games, and then they don't have that really good solid performance when it comes to the to the NCAA tournament, which is what you're what you're measured by, right, So to me, you want to build up toward that, right And I think it helps to play a lot

It's a little bit of an unconventional team.

In ways because the guy who was supposed to be their best player has really has not had a great season and might be the third best player in the team, maybe even the fourth best player in the team, which you know, doesn't speak well for the way things are going for Caleb Love necessarily, but I think it speaks well for the way.

The rest of the team has developed around him.

Michael, I was trying to think the last time I saw you've a team like this one where you started off this way. Our expectations weren't met early on, but in the last seven to eight games, it looks like we've taken a step forward in each one of those games and gotten better and gotten better, and that to me tells me that we are building towards March and that it's more of a team culture with this team.

Ooh, that's a.

Good question, because I was talking to a friend of mine before the game season ticket holder, and I commented to him before tip off, like, if Love has a three for twelve type of game, they're not going to win. Well he did, and they did. They won anyway. Henry Basar continued to be excellent. Jayden Bradley steady as he goes. I thought Casey Lewis had a really good game. I would say it would certainly help if Caleb Love was kind of in that PAC twelve Player of the Year form.

There was definitely a like a pattern of correlation.

Before where if he didn't play well, they would almost certainly lose, and they've kind of broken out of that, So I think that is a good thing for the team as a whole. But to win it all, maybe you get like the performance you're getting out of the other guys, and Caleb Love is at the top of his game, then you're talking about a really, really good team.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree, And I still believe that he's going to have to come through for six straight games. If that's going to happen, he's got to come through. They're gonna need us scoring at some point along the line. Let me ask you, I got a text from somebody this morning about the crowd and Tommy referred to it. I thought it was a very and you were there. It was a pretty It was maybe eleven strong, very loud for what it was worth. The top was empty.

But what do you think, Well, I've been here almost ten years now, Steve, if you can't believe it really only covering basketball for a few of those mostly you know, football and baseball before that. But I thought a good crowd, I'd say, maybe like a b BB plus uh somewhere in there. I was impressed with how many people got the memo about wearing red. The redout worked. I thought that,

With the way this shapes up to.

Definitely a little adjustment for people. I think with the with the Tuesday game. You know, we had that whole conversation with my colleague Bruce Pasco about like Wednesday is Sunday now, that kind of thing, Like it's it's a very different pattern and feel to the to the conference season because of these Monday and Tuesday games.

But I thought, good crowd, but capable of a little bit more.

Yeah, it's just it's not even close to what it used to be Underloon because it's just it's just.

Not It's just not now.

It's probably someone said it was maybe not even in the top five whatever over the Big twelve because we've seen those crowds are crazy. It just needs to get better, even though if it's late, I don't know. I don't even know what to solve is.

I don't I don't know either. I mean I think it was a I think it was, like I said, a good crowd. Yeah, but I went but I think.

I don't know if we talked about this on your show, but I went to the Kansas North Carolina game and Lawrence as a fan with a friend of mine and wrote about that experience that was different. Yeah, granted, I mean it was a very special occasion of North Carolina coming to Kansas for the first time in late sixty five years. But still, I mean you could just get a sentence for things that was different. I think it's different when

It, Texas, you know where like that Dicks you know.

I mean, it's a little bit bigger of metropolis, and I think that does hurt a little bit sometimes.

I mean I was a getting I was, like the game last night. I can understand. We went to a couple on the road. Last year. We went to California, which was I mean, it's a big arena, but there was yeah, I mean I think there was two thousand fans. Right Stanford was a smaller area, and I thought that

Right.

So so Michael, just sorry to mess really question because we're gonna run out of time.

So there are fifteen more games right in the in the league.

They're five to zero right now, and I've said this from a show this morning. They ask me, so what's the difference now? Well, they're playing better, and that's easy, that's how you know, what kind of evaluation is that. But they haven't really played anybody in the league yet. Wait till they start to play the league. So I'm not sure if you agree with that, But they have fifteen left. What do you think is going to happen in the next fifteen record wise?

Well, I mean, you see that is pretty good first of all, and you see to attack this tack on the road. They just beat ASU and they handle them pretty soundly. And Baylor's pretty good too. Now, they're not the elite teams in the league. The elite teams in the league.

Are probably Iowa.

State, Houston, and Kansas Kansas. And I think they played Iowa State twice in Houston and Kansas. Went's a piece on the schedule in front of me. But hey, look, if you're if you can finish above five hundred in the Big twelve, that's a good season, that puts you in good shape for the NACA Tournament. But I think the expectation since we're higher now because they are five and oh, I mean if they finished eleven and nine after starting five and.

Oh, that wouldn't be very good, right, So I don't know.

Let's say they go eight and seven the rest of the way, thirteen and seven record in the conference something even that might not be good enough based on what people think right now.

So I think this guy's a limit for this team.

The way that they're playing. I love what Henry Basar is bringing to the table. We talked to him last night, asked him some questions that tell me some questions about him. He's that's a game changer. You can get a seven footer who can do all the different things that he can do. I think that really changes the outlook for this team. Hopefully he will continue to play at the level that he's played at over the last nine games.

Yeah, no, I don't disagree with that at all. Just move to football. Since we just have you for a couple more minutes now, you like what Brennan's doing did you yeah?

Do you like?

You? You must like given the situation.

Well, I like the coaching moves for sure.

Seth Bage was very impressive when we talked to him, the young new offensive coordinator. They needed to do something different on that side of the ball. They needed to hit the reset button, start over, and he's bringing fresh ideas. He seems very confident, he seems to have a plan, So I think they're going to have a better direction on that side of the ball. I think the move of bringing in Joe Salavea was a brilliant stroke. I

I did not think that.

I mean it was particularly well coached last year, especially when it came to discipline against things that you know ran Joan Reid plays.

The edge containment was poor.

So I think Joe will improve those areas and he's going to bring people here too. He is a an established, an effective recruiter in the areas where Arizona needs to recruit. As far as the transfer portal goes, that to me is TBD. Like I like the idea of what they've done.

They've got drought in.

A lot of players who have produced at lower levels, but you never know how those players are going to translate onto the.

Highest level of college football.

So I'm kind of in waiting steam mode when it comes to the players. But they have done a good job of addressing most of the need that they had going into the offseason.

Just real quick, we last question, and I don't think I've asked you this on the show yet, Michael, and disregard injuries, and I know that's going to be one of the things.

How did how and why did it go south? Last season?

Okay, well, I'll try to be to think about this. I think first number one.

We all.

Estimated the losses that they suffered to the NFL, the transfer, portal graduation, et cetera, especially when it came to depth on the offensive and defensive line.

So that was the biggest thing.

I think The second thing was hiring you know, Babers as offensive coordinator was a mistake that just did not work out. The system uh never fit the player's strengths.

The offense never clicked.

They weren't able to make adjustments over the course of the season to get that right. And then I think the third thing was the injuries they lost, you know, several of their best and smartest defensive players, and their offensive line was banged up the whole year, and it's really hard to operate when your offensive line is not functioning at its best. So those, I would say, are are the biggest factors. And you know, hey, they've been busy at work trying to fix all that stuff this offseason.

Yeah, okay, Well, the guy that you didn't mention was Brennan, so I guess he's done in the top three, which is good.

Well, I mean, look, he's over he's overseeing all of it, right, I Mean he said it many times like that's the buck stops with him, you know, like he's responsible for the direction of the program. So you know, that's that's ultimately where the blame lies for everything that happened last year, and a little bit of credit for what's happened so far this offseason.

Yeah okay, Michael, So as always, thank you very much, appreciate it.

All right, take care.

Michael leb from The Daily Start will go and come back with another ten to fifteen minutes. Selling your home want to get more money for it? Well, Danny Roth can help you. He told me about is You Flip the Home you Own program. The program allows for a homeowner to fix up their home to sell without using any of their own money. They will be able to sell the home for a much higher price. Danny Roth with Omni Holmes International is the real estate consultant in

It's time for the Colo Guard Classic by Exact Sciences March seventh through the ninth at La Poloma Country Club and the Weston La Paloma Resort and Spa. Come see some of golf's greatest players competing for the coveted Tucson Canquisador's helmet. It's PGA Tour Championship Golf at its finest.

Streamy Live on the iHeartRadio app is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Blake?

Did you?

Did?

You just did? What's my last name? Eager? You nail?

My problem was I used my last name and I couldn't kind of and you're one because I never used one.

Can I ask this question when we're on the air, so like when we have when you when you have when you have guests on, should I say hey, this is Blake Eager? Or should I just say hey this is Blake?

No, that's fine? Yeah, yeah, whatever you decide. Yeah. Always may have like ten nicknames here, so I call you Jay. Yeah, Yeah, here we go, Yeah, Jami hit the window. Can you two shoes?

If you guys want to call in and let us know if you went to the game, did you you know, stay for the whole thing with your experience. I think we talked off the air about, you know, the experience, it needs to be better. Fans help uh and and if it's the tickets are on the market, you want to go.

Try to buy.

Yeah, I mean we had this conversation, but we are we are more problem driven as two son ins. I think a lot because of the history we've had here opposed to solution. And that's we talked about this that we don't we don't know what the right answer is, but there's if we have a chance to go look at other programs that are doing things that we're not

It's another discussion for another time, probably not on the air, but my thoughts on that han't been there for a long time. But you're going to be busy here in the next two months, right less.

Than two months, seven weeks.

I mean, well, okay, and you're going to be here every now and again on the show. I'd love to be Yeah, this has been fun, This has been good. So tell me World Baseball Classic No March March second to the sixth.

Okay, yeah, So we've got double hitters March second, March third, March fourth, starting at eleven am and six pm. And then March six is kind of the championship playing game, so two teams will advance between Germany, Brazil, China and Columbia.

So this might be a naive, dumb question. Fans from those places do they come?

Uh, we're hoping. So how about that? You've got one point eight billion people between the four countries. We're hoping to get at least one hundred thousand of them here.

How about that?

Oh, we got a call before I answer that question. You're in the air nine on the ball.

Who's this?

So forever I've been a big proponent of taking all the white hairs off the TV screen, like all the supporters of the illumni, the boosters get their old asses off the TV making that called Cameron has their You want to show off the kids, right, you don't want the white hairs. That's hout be fat people that sit in front fortunate fat guys that get good seats from time to time to sit down.

Well alone there, mister, you're not alone. A few people are. And his name is Blocke. Is Blocke eager? Yes, I've seen that a couple of times. You're not alone.

I know, Steve Union Denis who's gonna pay the bills? Who's gonna pay the bills? The kids aren't gonna.

Pay the bills. I gut who pays the bills.

But it's just it's been a theme for more than fifteen years, all the time. And we love we we we love see I guess Jim Klick and smoking Joe Morales. We love seeing you guys. No, we don't love seeing you. We want to see these energetic kids. Because you could always go back to the to the Iowa game on that Saturday night where our and this is football, our student section, the zoo was going off the chain and that made a good rep where if they would have showed the rest of the stadium it was empty.

But in beast about we actually filled that thing up.

Put the kids on, let the white hairs to you know, climb up the fourth row or make skyboxes for them or something. Mister mister Rivetta and mister Iger eager close.

I'll take both.

Yeah, well I understand, and you called for a purpose to to rant about that, but it ain't gonna happen.

And it's something that i've you know that, you know, while even when they renovated, you know, I got I was too fat for the seats.

But that's why I don't go to basketball. But like as always, bear down, Okay, bear down.

Thanks, Thanks Michael for listening and paying attention from this one. Hey, you're on the air and nine the ball?

Who's this.

Georgia. I'm not gonna follow that, Mic Man, come on, I'm not cool.

Yeah, you know it makes sense. That will help.

So I'm just saying, uh, you know, uh yeah, last time I was there, I was told to sit down when I was clapping.

I don't want to go.

Then, man, where were you?

I was to the right hand side, kind of in the corner, next next to the student section, and I was told to sit down.

Yeah, okay, where are you at? That was probably my wife. I told him.

No, but you know so then after a while you're just like, that's no fun. And then yeah, like now that I have kids, Like, I can't go in to school night. I got to get up at six am to start dinner or start breakfast for the kids and stuff and get them off to school at seven.

You can't go.

I live in Oral.

Valley, man, that's an hour drive back after traffic.

Not if there was like a rail system or something, you know, like like a tram.

Do you guys want to friends toast and and all that stuff.

Do you have tickets normally or no? You just get to get them randomly.

No, I get them randomly for you know, I buy them my friends, or I get them from friends, or I buy them when it's like a big game, Like you know, we went to North Carolina, we went to Kansas, we did we do all that. But uh, we used to have a friend that they had season tickets and it was right on the halfway court, I think.

It was row ten, And it was a right behind.

That first bar, and you could put your feet up all amazing seats so eye level with the baskets.

Have you been amazing, George?

Have you been here all your life? Who want to raise So I have a guy in the building here with me who's been here all your life. I've always since said this, Tucson fans of uahans are a fickle You gotta one. You've gotta be winning. They got to care about you, and you've gotta be financially able to pull it off. That's a lot of ifs ands or butts right, And it's not like that a lot, especially

That's not you. Yeah, yeah, you gotta be.

I mean we want winners. We want somebody to the root for it. I mean nobody wants to go see uh.

I don't know ten and twelve team or whatever, you know, like nobody wants to see that you want to go like when we're.

Twenty and six's actually.

But do you get to choose when you're you're a fan? I mean I'm a Cubs fan too. I don't get to choose when they're good. So I still follow them every I mean we watch every game I can, so I don't think it's fans.

I watch every game, but that doesn't mean I show up. Do you go to every Cubs game?

Well, I'm not in Wrigley, so I'm not in Chicago, but then they're here, yeah, George, Georgia.

Right, no, but you know what I mean, George, do you fly out? It's the same thing, do you like you don't fly out, and I don't drive down.

It's the same thing, you know, like that.

That's the car for me to go, come, but you don't.

Go and come because it's a big costs.

The same thing, George.

If if this game had been at six o'clock and you have four tickets and you hit, would you have gone?

I would have gone.

I would have taken my kids, then my wife and I would have gone if it was at six, Yeah.

I think more people would have done the same thing. Yeah. Absolutely.

And he's gonna time with kids, Yeah no, but it's a reasonable time with kids on a school night.

But like if it was a Saturday, you know, that'd be different. Like me and I could take a buddy and we could go, but on a school night you can't go.

Do that, well, Georgie, g just what, There's gonna be a lot of late games eight nineties and thirties, So I'll see you in the in the Northwest Side somewhere.

It's always been like that.

We always play lates. That doesn't matter. We thought that ESPN was going to change the Oh we're gonna be on.

Prime time, it's gonna be different every time.

It's gonna be at five and six. No, we're still at nine o'clock at night, eight o'clock at night. Seven. It doesn't matter to Georgia.

Why did this? Why did I mean they're both preseason top ten teams. Why did we get a nine pm game for Baylor? What happened there on a Tuesday?

That doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, Like, I don't know the hell out of you.

Thanks appreciate how much time we have. We take another coffee? You want two minutes? Well that's it already. Wow, that was quick to your point. Anything else you want to talk about with the WBC. So you said one hundred thousand people realistic?

No, no, no, I'm just yeah, listen, it was a quick turnaround, right, So this is one thing I will tell everybody. We we finalize the contract November twelve, So it's not like we've had this on our plate like being able to propose, but it is the first time we've had Major League Baseball players back in Tuson since two thousand and nine. Like it's the this is a big deal. Well another thing.

If the people are going to bitch about it and say we want this, we want that, guess what prove it?

Yeah, listen, we can change if we have Mexican baseball of fest is a perfect example.

Right.

It took them a long time to build this culture and we're feeding off that table right now. It's going to take this as a full culture aspect. If we want professional sports back in Tucson and we want to expand our professional sports, we need to find a way to support them. And a lot of it is a cost point right in price point. But when it's here, we can't bitching and plain when it goes away because we never went to game.

Sure sure no, no, and two stun is not getting smaller, it's getting bigger. So the audience is helping, should should help. Yeah, absolutely right, We'll see what We'll see what happens because like you said, well we thought the times are going to be different. No, they're not going to be different. Things don't change. We'll see if it changes for your attendance. Yeah, it's it's always gonna it's a well, we hope that

It's it's going to lead to things in twenty twenty six at Steve, you and I will be able to talk about you.

Still lacking We got about a minute. Are you lacking anything? Sponsorships?

You need? What do you need?

Yeah?

I mean we need everything right now. Right We're we're making our first hard push from a marketing standpoint starting next week, but we would love engagement from the community from a sponsorship side. If they want group tickets, we can set that up. We've got a lot of things there so they can reach out to me. So you can go to Southern Areazona Sports Tourism and Film Authorities website which is s A s t f A dot com. Or if you want tickets, you can go to World Baseball Classic dot com.

And what would an event in two sound without having volunteers? You know, you have the Arizonable, we have the tour we have a lot of different things.

You need those as well.

Yes, So Steve, I'm gonna just I don't want to hijack this, but you have seven entities, right now working in the same direction on one project. So it's it's Sasva, It's it's Arizona Ble, it's visit Tucson, it's Pema County, it's Keino Sports Complex, it's Mexican Baseball Fiesta. There's so

Yeah no, no, pull on on the same rope we got to go. Hey, thanks for joining me, Thanks for having me, Steve. I really appreciate you. Got it, buddy, one of these days we're gonna be luck. Yeah, thanks Bud. Thanks So we talk to you guys tomorrow. Thanks Jay, Thanks guys,