This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most prized possessions.
Hey, goodenough to do it, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in today with me as a co host Larry Gilman, former sports reporter in Cincinnati Milwaukee. At least that's where you were at, right, Yep, welcome Gilman. You were with me for you talked to you were on the show a bit for the Pete Rose passing, right, you were kind of how you describe the relationship with Pete Rose.
Well, it was sort of a combination relationship because I covered him as a sports reporter, but we got to be close friends.
At the same time. Oh, at the same time. Oh, that's not a good thing to happen. Well it maybe back then. It was.
I was, you know, in my late twenties, and I was just overwhelmed by the opportunity to get close to the these people I was.
You know what I'm saying, Because if you get too close, then it's hard to tell the story. If you get too close, maybe later in life, I agree with you.
One hundred percent. But because I was so close is how I got the story I buy.
I guilty you that way. I'm guilty of that too, I get it. Yeah, and you you want to be close but not too close.
Right, And I think that quite frankly. I mean I was learning my way in the business. And uh, the fact that a guy like Pete Rose, you know, and what we really did together most of always go to the racetrack.
Yeah, he was like the ponies.
He liked to gamble on pretty much everything. Yeah, and uh, but yeah, we'd go to the track with his family, and then I'd see him socially and we'd go to sporting events together. And we went to Japan together on a good will trip with the Cincinnati Reds and that was a lot of fun.
Do you think he was and I'll hit almost a month since he's passed, right, do you think he was? Miss? I don't know what the word is, not misidentified, but he was beloved back in the day, right, And then he got into the trouble. But was he how can I say? People? Was he polarizing or because I thought the world of him when I was growing up, because the way he played he was a great player, could
hit any position he wanted. But at the end, it was like, you know, he's this guy, this figure that was either cranky or you know what I'm saying, Am I wrong?
I know what you're saying. And in terms of my own relationship with him, I was in Cincinnati for three years and he was a player the whole time. A big story back then was, which you know, free agency was relatively new, and Rose was born and raised in Cincinnati, and then he played for the Reds his whole career and then all of a sudden it became clear that there are issues between him and management and he was going to start testing the water ended up going to Philadelphia.
But the big story at the time was which city he would go to and how much money he would make and that kind of thing. Yeah, the controversy came up four or five years after I left, because he had gone to Philadelphia then came back and was a manager of the Reds, right, and that's when he got in trouble, and I was not with him or part of that aspect of his life. He always loved to gamble, but the kinds of trouble he got himself into over sports.
Gambling was something I did not walk through that with him or was never a part of.
Right did you? You must have? And we'll talk about your career real quick, because we're don't talk about sports obviously. But you did what you've always wanted to do. You were able to You're like me. I was able to be in sports, and I've done it most of my life, if.
Not what I wanted to do since I was a little kid. Yeah, and I grew up in Saint Louis, and I used to take the bus downtown and go to fifty or sixty Cardinals games every summer, and tickets back then take us back then. We're seventy five cents to get into the cheap seats, but I didn't have to pay it because my father worked with a guy who moonlighted as an usher and he would let me walk through his turnstyle free, so I would get in
for free. It was thirty five cents each way to take the Redbird Express.
Down town, so seventy cents anyway. Yeah, and so.
Yeah, it wasn't a high budget day.
Yeah. Nice, So that's cool. You were what ten?
I was in probably junior high high school.
Yeah, yeah, Okay, So those nice little childhoods watching games like that.
Yeah, I've you know, I've always lived in cities where they had big time sports, and I've always been a fan and like being part of it.
And now you live in Tucson will have some big time sport, you know, basketball.
Well, you know, I'm older now and quite frankly, you know, I do go to the basketball games when I can, and I got when I came here twenty years ago to Tucson, I went and got season tickets for football because that's all I could afford to get on the waiting list do it for basketball. I was when Loot was here, sure, and so.
She'd only been here twenty years, so twenty years ago four when Stoops came right, so kind of at the beginning of the end of lout it was twenty years ago because he's been out to about fifteen ish years.
Right, right, I lived through all that, and uh and UH wasn't here for the championship. I wasn't here you know, for the mine.
That was twenty seven years ago.
Well, you know, we're not talking that much longer, but still it was still.
Did you meet him because he was he hung around some of the guys you around.
Yeah, I met him. I played golf with him a few times and got to know him, and I'm I'm fairly good friends with his daughter and uh okay, you know there my wife is so yeah so yeah, yeah.
In any event, so it was, you know, special. I remember once I was playing golf with him and he introduced himself to the people in the four somebody he said he was Ludos and I looked at him, and then he took off his hat and all his hair showed up, and I said, oh, that is because without the hair, I didn't even reckon.
How long had you been here?
I had only been here a couple of years? Oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, ten years. Sure.
Sure. And he was a different, different man back then. You know he was because he'd walk in the room and you knew who loul Olson was, right.
Well, but that the hair gave it away.
Yeah yeah. And the golf course he was dressed differently, right, right, right, all the entire Yeah. No, okay, we'll get back to some remembers. She's in a bit, But talking about racestock, I was at the del Mar last week. It was a bucket. This's item for me and I ran into Bob Baffort and reintroduced myself. Yeah, yeah, caause he'd been on the show before, I know, a billion on some of the family. So can you come on the show? And he said, yeah, I'm just hoping, he answers his
phone because he says, remind me of reminding me. So I reminded him a couple of times. And then you kind of you've you've kind of started, and you're not started. But you were part of the horse racing industry in a weird way back in the day.
Well, when I was growing up in Saint Louis, they had race tracks in Illinois right across the river, and that Cahokia downs at Wheremount Park. Yeah yeah, and I would go over there with my friends and you know, we chip in and each split a two dollars show ticket or something like that, you know, whatever it was in our budget paid. I loved I loved it back then. And I mean I wasn't friends with Pete Rose by accident. We both liked the gamble a little bit, and uh
so that was part of my past. And then I started a tip sheet when I was right out of college, when I was twenty two in Maryland and sold the tip sheet at the racetrack there for four weeks.
And.
I became a stockbroker eventually. But I think the same kind of the same my direct sales experience came from the you know, the racetrack right right, looking at analytics, numbers, right, all things like that.
That's it's right in the same kind of ballpark.
Very much so so. And one of the big appeals of sports to me always was the statistics and the numbers and you know, playing with that. So it's it's all sort of got a common thread. But in any event, I've I've been very lucky. As I tell people, I mean, I'm seventy six. It pretty good for seventy six. I was, maybe so they can't see them the radio, but I'm saying, my eyes must be deceiving me now. But I have always loved sports, and it's it's always been a big part.
But I've had jobs that I would have done for free. I mean there's things that were interesting and fun and compelling, and.
Well there's sometimes in this business of your TV business and other business mine here in the newspaper, it seems like you are doing it for free.
Well that's the reason I got out of the business. I mean I was getting paid, but not enough to support my families. So I became a stockbroker. And that's why I'm here in Tucson, because I wouldn't have been here if I had just stayed a sports writer.
What did you you twenty years ago? Had you retired?
No, I moved here twenty years ago when my youngest kid went away to college, but I was still working out of my home. As a lot of people started doing then, I was doing it back then and retired about five years ago. So I did the stockbroker and money manager think for about forty years. Oh nice, after I got out of TV news.
Yeah yeah, nice. Nice. Well great, and you get to do what you always wanted to do, was become a sports castor or in somebody involved in sports. Absolutely the best, biggest, biggest moment, biggest moment of your sports career.
Well, i'm working I think the series. I'll remember I just came to Cincinnati in nineteen seventy six, and I was getting paid overtime to cover the World Series, and I was pushing myself constantly because this was the best machine. They were facing the Yankees with Catfish Hunter and all these people, and I was running around. I was supposed to be doing interviews. I was getting autographs. I mean, Johnny Bench and seven close to thirty. But it was just a dream come true.
And they were the defending champions after winning seventy five.
I think if you take away the pitching staff, so it was probably as good a team as there's ever been in baseball. If you're just talking about the offense. Sure with I mean every position was a sure could.
You and I can both name those out because.
I was a right position position by position?
Yeah, yeah, yeah?
And iconic basic man, I mean he's a big risk.
Right right on the iconic names with Bench and Geronimo and Rose of course, Paris and those.
Guys Foster and Reason and concepts Morgan, Joe Morgan. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Were going to bore people with all this these names. But you know the old people know, yeah no, But let me tell you said, that's who's listening to a bunch of old people. They like this going back in time and talking about the GOODLD days. We'll talk obviously current stuff. Football. You still have your football tickets for the.
U of A. Yeah, I don't because I've started going away in the summer and I don't get back to October and the seasons half over. Yeah, but the attention to the team.
Yeah, just your quick thoughts on what's going on.
Well, I think, uh, you know it. From my point of view, it seems like when they had you know, Fish here and and uh, all of a sudden started winning all these games and getting so much better, there was this I don't think anyone saw that coming, but everyone really enjoyed it when it happened. And now he's moved on and we're into a different phase and it seems as though they're attracting some really good talent, but they just haven't found a way to put it together yet.
Yeah. Well, that's you're being kind to Larry. I'm okay with that. They haven't put together at all. And and you've covered teams, and I've said this before, there seems to be a disconnect between the players and the coaches. New coaches coming in, well the same players or not their players, you know, and there's some kind of disconnect whatever that means to you or to me, But they're just not to me, whether it's playing hard or listening
or disciplined or whatever. There's just a lot of things about you know, abc D, there's just so many things.
Well, I think that you know, whether it's college or pros, I mean, having the great athletes makes a huge difference. Once he asked Josh Passner when he was you know, how much of a success of a team is recruiting and how much of it is what you do with the players after they get here. Good question, and he said about ninety ten recruiting, and I thought, I.
Don't know about that.
Well I disagreed with him, but the point was, I mean, but that's what they do. They spend their whole lives just going out and making sure they're trying to get the best players out there. But I think there's that culture, that chemistry that that team, whatever you want to call it, that at the end of the day, always seems to be there for teams that have success, and it just never seems to be there for teams that have great players but don't have that other people.
Without question, I told you you've you've covered enough games, and that's why I asked you you've seen it. The best teams don't have the best players. Chemistry huge factor if you throw a little spot, you know, the stew of success, chemistry and talent, but you don't have to have all the coaching. One thing I learned is coaching matters. You have to have that coach who has a not an iron fist, but they respect the hell out of them so they play hard for him.
Well, I think we saw it this year in the in the Baseball playoffs, because a lot of the teams that were supposed to do well and with the high seeds went out early. Teams that went all the way to the finish seem to have that special chemistry, and particularly the Dodgers, but they.
Are also the two of the highest paid teams and some of the best players.
But other teams like the Mets and you know that that weren't supposed to get past the first round, made it deep. So I think that you saw that sort of right in front of your eyes.
Right, Okay, let's take the break now, yeah, and come back and see if we can get a hold of all baffort, your chance to win.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio just search I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is Larry Gilman. And now on the phone we have Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffort. Bob how are.
You, David, Thanks for having me on.
Great to have you. Great to see you last week. Let me say you're like the mayor of del Mar. How is that.
Well, I think I've been going. I've been there, going there so so many years now, it's been like thirty years.
And you know, it's just we just love it down there.
Especially in the summertime.
All the Zonies come to San Diego for vacation, so you see a lot.
Of them there at the races.
Yeah, no question in a couple of you have a couple of Zonies. I mean Luke used to go there and see you guys with his car Boys, and I saw you right before that race on Friday, and then you pull them off to finish a second. How big of a thing was that for that horse?
Yeah, I mean we were really I really thought they both had a really good, good chance. And I think the the carboys was gaming. I mean, he ran a great race. The other horse has got to jump on him, and uh, and that's horse racing. But I'm proud of both of them. They're really good horses and they're horses to watch, you know, down the road for hopefully for the Kentucky Derby and maybe you'll see him down the road.
Right.
You've been with the car boys, I want to say, Carl Watson and mister Whiteman and Paul Whiteman for a number of years. They found you, I don't know, maybe thirty some years ago when they wanted to get into the business.
Well, they happened to me. My brother, Bill Bafford is a is a realtor there in Tucsons, and he got to know him really well first, and he said, hey, they've been thinking about getting the business. And and Carl was from actually he lived in Nebraska, I believe or he used to run horses up there and he liked the horses, and uh and and Paul was from back east, and they became good friends and they decided to be partners.
And we started buying a few horses for him, but they weren't working out, you know, they they were okay. But then I team them up with Mike Pegram where they could, uh we could, you know, gather more money to go out and buy these these top class horses, and all of.
A sudden they just had they just went on a roll.
And they've been really we've been really fortunate. We had, you know, Midnight lou was after Lodoles looking at Lucky when the Preakmans, They've they've had champions, they've had Eclipse champions, they've they've been on a great run. Uh and you know, so I've been trying to trying to get him to the Derby, you know, and hopefully that game I think they named you will get him there, hopefully.
Right right, no question. And I've had some great horses. You mentioned Midnight Lute, There's hot Sean, there's Canrea, the Stoops, all these horses with great u of a names.
Michale, Yeah, we were, you know, we try to we try to name him after a coach and I think Kendra got the worst of it though.
We can't have gotten him a better horse, but it turned.
Out pretty well. And uh, but you.
Just never know, you know, we tried to wait to the last.
Minute because to name them, because you've got you can name them right before they run. So we're well, we're hoping. But you know, Midnight Lout was, uh, he was just a champion. He was a phenomenal horse. And Ludelsen, you know, we got to.
See him run and they was loving, you know, loved hanging around with him, and then he was just what a what a great coach and a great person.
Right, No, it's funny because of the connection with the horse racing. I was on a bus with him and I was close to him. Obviously people know that because they covered him for so long. He says, Steve, I'll never own a horse, you know, in that voice that he has, he says, I don't want to feed some or pay somebody. Who's who's I'm paying when I sleep? You know, he didn't want to pay for the food and all that travel. So the heck come with that?
Well, you have to have a passion for you have to love horses, be horse crazy and uh. And I actually still in contact with the Steps brothers. They're they're in Kentucky, and uh, I get to see them when I go back to Kentucky. And so they're they're still at it, doing well.
Right right, And there's a chance you're going to get back to Kentucky, I know. With the winner. I can't remember the name of the winter on Friday, the two year old the beat the.
Gay Citizen Bowl.
It was the Citizen Bull.
You had one two and four, Yeah, one.
Two and four. You just got knit there for third but uh, no, it's exciting, you know, it's there's nothing like uh having a good two year old uh in the barn. And that's what we all, you know, my program is developing young horses and getting to these big races and my you know, they everybody wants to sit in the front row, Steve, you know, being those big races and so but I'm really fortunate to have great clients. I have really great centre.
No only they're my clients, they're my good friends, you know, Carl Watson, Paul Whiteman, you know, and I know they do a lot for the University of Arizona and and so it's it's good to see it. And actually I have a.
Son going to TCU and the U of A is playing TCU in a couple of weeks, and the whole baffort we travel, well, we're all going before we're to see that so U.
But it's fun, you know.
You know, it's fun. And I'm still, you know, big University of Arizona supporter, and I'll be there in December speaking uh with.
A very tech management program.
Right.
No, I know you come back here so often. I see you sitting down with with your your your but your brother at the front. You know, he's got the front. He's the guy in the front row. Him and his wife Ann, great seats.
He should be the mayor of Tutom Bill.
He should be the mayor of Well. It's funny, you know because, like I said, I've known Luke for a while and he came up with dukie vital, you know. But I said, there's no way Lout with his dry sense of humor, would have come up with that. And I said, I bet you, I bet you anything. It was Billy who said it. And now Luke kind of mimicked it because Billy's.
The only time. Well, we'll always they always introduced him. He's the funny Baffort's funny brother, you know. And so but he's uh Bill Gray and uh you know, he loves to song and he was there, you know, my parents were still alive. He took care of them their last years and he did a great job, you know, keeping the ranch going. And he loves playing cowboy on the weekend.
He thinks he's John Wayne, but he uh you know.
But he loved his son and just loves the whole area there. And so if anybody needs a house. So he's your man.
Yeah, yeah, he's a real real estate guy. So you come back every so often, like you say, you're coming back in December. I'm not sure if you guys still have the ranch. I was lucky enough to go visit the family and do a story on when you were had real quiet way back in the day, and your your dad and your mom showed me around the place in their house where you guys grew up in Nogallas. Well,
what a fantastic child What a fantastic childhood. And then you go to Rili though, just kind of start your career.
Yeah, great memories. I mean I started. I never had any expectations to be a horse trainer, and I loved going to relate with my father. He loved animals, he loved the horses. I was like ten eleven years old hanging hanging out at Rouledo on the weekends and just loving it growing up. And then I, you.
Know, you become horse crazy and uh, and then I tried.
To be a jockey. I actually went a couple of races. There was a jockey and it was fun and I love really though, and uh, then all of a sudden but my I promised my mother I would go to college, and I went to the Uba finished and then I didn't know what to do with And until nineteen eighty I became a full.
Time horse trainer Roaledo and just thing.
Just kids, spile, you know, just got snowballed, and all of a sudden it was I was the top guy in Arizona and then I and then I gave it a I went to losale Meados in nineteen eighty three to start my career at you know, the big Courter horse track. And after the nineteen eighty nine I started getting my seat wet with a ther bread because Wayne Lucas, who came from and within ninety one I was rolling got rid of the court horses.
It was hard to get rid of the court of horses because I.
Still love the court horses and moved to therapy. Was not expecting like I would give myself three years, you know, if I don't, if I can't make something happen three years and I'm out and it happened, and next thing you know it, we're at the Kentucky Derby and it was really nice because I got to share those moments my father, who you know, he loved the horses, and I got They were there when I won my couple of Kentucky Derbys, and so I really got to enjoy it.
They weren't around from my trip around unfortunately, but they went to some of those. But it was just really great memories. And I just you know, from growing up on a ranch and you know, you learn work ethic because you have to care for all those animals and getting up early, and growing up in a small time town like no Galas was, you know, everybody knew everybody. It was really it was really nice, Bob.
My name is Larry Gelman. We've met once or twice so with the McMahon's crowd and with Carl and Paul, but you wouldn't remember me. I was involved in the horse racing game from the other end fifty years ago out in Maryland Bowie and Laurel and Pimlico. I sold a tip sheet and always loved playing the horses and
watching the horses and do something about the business. And I wanted to ask you over the last you know, however long you've been in them is forty fifty years, if you think the business has changed in ways that really affect the way you go about your job and some of the things you have to think about and do.
Well.
I think there's I think it's.
Changed with there's not as many horses as there used to be. When I first got in, I think there was something like forty five thousand foles were born in the year, and that's dan to like about seventeen thousand now. So I remember, you know, people would say, you know, there's thirty five thousand foals for in a year, only one can win the Kentucky Derby, the odds of that, you know. And so but now it's gotten, you know, we wrote racing in the seventies was mainstream. Matter of fact,
Lafite pink Kai was the famous jockey. He was probably the highest paid athletes in the seventies. He was making more than any athlete at the time before things went crazy with television and so, but then all of a sudden, horse racing didn't become the main sport. You know, everything on television, football, baseball, and everything got bigger, and we sort of we sort of stayed stagnant, you know, and
so we weren't really on television. Maybe once in a while they had the Breeders Cup Kentucky Derby was always on television and that's and the Derby has like always been it's like a bucket list race. You know, everybody wants to go to Kentucky dear every one time in
their life, and they should. And so but it's changed now where it's it got to the point where it's probably more scrutinized now and you know a lot of regulations and it should be, you know, and so it's very it's not as popular as sport as it was, you know, four thirty forty years ago. You know, I remember when I went to San Nita. It was in the weekends. There was you know, twenty five thousand, thirty
thousand every day. And now you know, you'd be lucky if you got you know, three four thousand people there, you know. And so because it they've made it easier now you don't have to go. You can watch the races on television, you can bet on your phone. So you know, I think and when you lose the uh, i'd be like having a football game and you know, everybody can watch it at home. And if the stadiums, you know, have empty, it's it doesn't have the same vibe,
you know. But but on the big days they do show up.
It's funny because I was there obviously, I saw you last week and I ran into Boom Phillips. I mean, he's an horse owner. It's a it's a rich man's game, that's as they've always said this, but an old man's game. I'm sixty years old and I'm sitting in the press box with a bunch of guys who are like a hundred They feel to me, they looked old. I'm thinking, God, these people who are writing about it have been here forever, and you play know them all.
Yes, I mean that's the thing. I mean, it's the most of the you know, everybody. We it's just the same, you know, we've gotten older and and you know they're just die hard. You know, most of our media people are. You know, they've been in it for the last thirty forty years. But it's you know, and it's it's changed.
You know.
We don't get the uh like I remember. I remember when I was in Nogalls, we'd get the Arizona Daily Star and we would when they would run the derby, there'd be four pages of the about the derby, about the result, and I didn't because our TV was always out, you know, it was we hadn't ten and the cows would knock it down. We never had television, you know, so we would Uh. I'd get the paper and I could see and the show a whole picture of the start, the.
First quarridor the picture of where they were and how they.
Finished, like about four or five pages of coverage, you know, and now you're you know, we're lucky if we get a little you know, the only time you read about anything is something.
Bad happening racing, you know. But actually I.
Think I think the world that would you know, we don't get pretty used.
Right, Yeah, no, no, there's only four pages in the sports section at all. Right, do you miss This may be a dumb question about but you do you kind of miss the small time, you know, no galls even Tucson a little because you know, you grew up in it. You probably have some a lot of friends here.
Yeah, I really I follow, you know, Like to me, the first Saturday in May, which is a Derby, used to be Sonoita, Arizona, and that was our big, big thing, and so it would be packed and we'd be there and my father and my uncle they got together and they made a futurity for corter horses. They they they put it together and so we raised horses. They weren't really that good, but that was our That was my first Saturday May has tried to compete there and finally
we didn't have good enough horses. And when I went to California started training horses, all of a sudden I started getting I had nice horses. I couldn't wait to ship a horse to Sonoya and I went to Sonoia Maturity twice. One time I couldn't stay. I leave there with my father. Here, you train them, you're there at the ranch, just take them up there and he'd would. He won twice and it was to me, the biggest thrill for him. And it was like, I really miss annoying.
I really enjoyed Sanoia. And for some reason they had the best cheeseburgers. They're on the fair ground. I don't know why, but.
Well, you guys, you must have been sand banking with those horses coming in from Sa Santa Nita. Of course, Uh, how do you from most of the means em it makes sense to me that you were you were a corner horse guy. Because the way you train, you get them out early, and you make they get out early and they run fast.
Well, I mean I buy a fast I try to buy.
A horses speed. It's all about speed.
And so the uh my horses are you.
Know, they're they're trained well where we're going to fit and and they're and they're good horses. I mean, I'm I'm in a position where I have great clientele and they let me pick out this horse. When I first went over the I used to buy horses. I didn't know how they were bred. I had a budget and I still was I got like I bought a horse for seventeen thousand that won the Kentucky Derby Real Quiet
Silver Charm. He cost eighty thousand. And then once you get going, then people started saying, hey, you know, buy me some horses, and that's that's the way. And I just got you know, bigger. But I keep my numbers. I don't like to have more than like one hundred horses and training because and that might sound like a lot, but the big guys have like three.
Hundred four hundred horses back case, you know, I don't, but I just like quality.
Let me ask you one last question. So you I know you followed the basketball program. I see you at some of the Western regionals every now and again. With the football program, you've come to a few games year. What do you think about what's going on at the football program.
Well, I think in the football program, I was talking to different coaches you know, in different areas, and it's just changing with this new NIL and.
It's really it's gonna.
I don't know, it didn't didn't sound really unless you've got a strong, uh school that will you know, where it'd be Like me here, I've got Citizen bull and gaming and uh, all of a sudden in January, if they go into portal, somebody can snatch them from me, you know what I mean. It's so and to me, I don't think it's healthy. And I think you know, they all feel like it's going to affect other sports and to be able to compete with a.
Budget, you know, and uh you know, yeah.
So unless you've got some great alumni that you know, like USC has got the you know in Oregon they've got the strong you know, they can compete, they could b YU all of a sudden b YU just you know, Uh, it's like and what and what coach Prime is done in Colorado proves that, you know, you get those guys open up their checkbooks. There's you know, there's college kids making more than the rookie quarterbacks at the NFL.
Sure, no, hey, that's why. That's why I'm sure Bob Beffort's on their speed out. Bob, you saw the game last week. Could you give us some money to get a player or two?
I'm telling you it's I when it comes to football, that's a tough sport, you know, and it's uh you know, and it's like our sport. You have to keep everybody healthy and that's so hard. And but to me, I love college football. That's my my favorite is college football. I love watching all the the uh you know. I was lucky enough to be I was at a horse sale and they got to see the Stoops hang out. You know, they let me. They played Georgia and they
just lost by one point. It was just sickening, you know. They you know, Mike's I think he's a great coach, almost pulled it off, you know. And so you know, you see these I love watching these, but the sec and they're getting so powerful, you know, it's.
Just really powerful. Right. Well, Bob, we appreciate your time. Thanks for reminiscing with.
Us up, thanks for calling me, and you guys can have me on anytime hostfully. Oh, these horses stay healthy and that's the whole thing. And we'll get those carboys. We got to get those cars.
Second, as we get closer to the many, I'll hold you to it and get to get them on. Get you guys, got it, Thank you man, Thank you about all right. I appreciate it, all right, love baffort from uh obviously the Hall of Fame trainer horses. You got to go way over. So it's fun. That's fun for me.
Well, it's fun for me too. I mean he's a legend.
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Streamy live on the iHeartRadio WAB. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera.
On Fox Sports Sports.
Hey, welcome back to wing the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is Larry Gilman or more sports castor out of Cincinnati. I had a lot of fun with that. I don't know if you did with Bob.
Yeah, oh that was great. I mean, like I say, I'm an old time yeah horse racing Johnkie.
I ran into him last week and he was, you know, in his yellow tide and his power tide and you know his horses that I've said, Steve, oh yeah, blah blah blah. But you can tell that they love him. There'd be come on, they love him.
There.
Southern California tracks.
He's really uh, I mean he's earned it. He's become a legend with not just his personality but his uh, his performance and in sports, you know that's anything in fact.
Well, and now he'll be able to probably get some horses back to the derby. We all know. I didn't talk about it, the suspension for three years from Churchill downs from Medina, the Medina horse who had tested positive for steroids. I guess so. But now he could be back with a couple of horses, maybe a Tuson's connection too. I was gonna say back in the day, and I'm
not too far back going back. Uh, And you've been here twenty some years, so you kind of you kind of know who would be your all time and we can get some calls on this. We don't have very much time. Uh, the Mountain rushmore of you wait, people athletically ker curR definitely for sure.
I mean I came right when he was right, you know that whatever days. But but clearly I thought that uh.
Uh.
I can't even remember his name because I'm getting older. But a number of the basketball players, oh, Shawn Elliott's Elliott also was before my time, but there were a number of players. Well, yeah, a little bit, but even then, yeah, oh, since then, because I've been here since then. I mean I got here. You know, I showed up at the party right before the cops came. I mean I didn't even get a drink.
But which is fine over the last because I've been here all that time, I really don't. I wouldn't put anybody here since the loot guys left. You know, Eton didn't stay here long enough. Gordon was here for a
cup of coffee too. TJ. McConnell maybe. But back in that wheelhouse of time, it was Bafford, Jenny Finch, right, Sean Elliott, And I want to give you a fourth Baffort, Baffort, Shawn Elliott, Steve Kerr and Jenny Finch because he was winning triple crowns, right, Jenny was the darling of softball in the Olympics. And blah blah blah, Sean. How could you not use Sean because he's like the mister basketball guy.
Well, I have to tell you that since I've been here, which is twenty years now, the people who have made the biggest impression on me, and as far as you a sports are concerned, are our friends who are such amazing supporters.
Uh.
The extent to which the program has developed people who are willing to write checks and show up and do whatever it takes to keep this program competitive and on the up and up. That is amazing to me.
You threw a curveball. I mean, I'm gonna have to say you are you are right, because there's no way. You know, the weekend at Bernie's, you said the two dudes, Well, those are gonna be those are going to have to be the dudes you're talking about the people writing the checks keeping the program up, because there's no way it's going to happen otherwise because they have to open up the checks. We kind of joked it, joked about it
with Bob Right. I'm sure they're checking with him. He says, hey, could you give us somebody?
Sure?
And you know those people because you I know those people. You know, Hey, we're struggling here. We've got to get some players here, you know, can you write me this and that?
And I think that since I've been here, there have been some chatchallenges to the program and aspects of it that not all fans that I've known over the years would have ridden out the storm. These people, it's there for the school, they're there for the team, and they have not been discouraged. They've maybe been a little unhappy from time tonight, but they're always the sure And I think that is something that is super special.
It's loyal loyalty or loyalty and not so much to the person but to the school.
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. It takes a special person, and especially down for football. They're not having if Larry gave twenty five thousand, I'm just throwing that number out, the fifty thousand whatever, and then you get this return and you're thinking, what did I just do? I spend fifty thousand dollars for this team to do well or whatever this player, and it's my return on the investment. ROI is horrible. I'm not going to do it again.
No, I And that would be understandable, but yeah.
You're in your in that business where you know it's cost effective or whatever.
It's just the fact that they love the team and they love the program, and they are committed and you know, and I speak my mind and sometimes you know, you toe up to the line or even cross it from time to time, but when I'm around you of A fans, if I start getting a little bit snarky or whatever, they're all over me right away. They don't want to hear it. They are all in and they you're with us or you're not. And that's a great quality.
Right No.
And the thing about it, Larry, is that you have this group of people, and I'm sure it's small in some places, big in others where they're that for every school you know in Ohio state that must have a contingent Texas they have a contingent of people. But here it's kind of like a tight knit group of people who are opening up their checkbooks or little persons there in the wall that's insane. Here, here's something I'm going to help you try to get some people.
And the other thing that's unique about Tucson that I appreciate because I've lived in other cities where they do have professional sports. Yeah, and it's a big deal, is that in Tucson, the U of A is pretty much it And as a result, the kind of loyalty that might go to the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers, or to this team or that team, it all gets focused on the U of a here, and I think that makes it very special as well.
Sure, sure, no, it's the only game in town. And if you're successful, it's a great Well they're successful, it's a great time. Oh for sure, it's a great time. I'm sure you've seen. Give me, twenty years is not a whole long, long well.
I was here for the heyday of the softball program, for example.
Yeah, well see now you're now you're going into a place where yeah, Mike had it owned and owned it right, but then it started to waning a little. But yeah, you haven't seen much in football you personally.
I've seen nothing.
Yeah, I mean one are two good years.
And again that was just recently. I mean, I but you know, I was right after Macovic I went online. It cost me fifty grand to get on the waiting list for basketball tickets, so I didn't do that. But so when Stoops took over, I went online. I could pick a seat. Yeah, football, I was on the on the forty five yard line, twenty five rows up in the Stoops years, I mean, the whole stadium was available. So I became involved in that. And then you know, we've had a litany of coaches and ups and downs,
more downs and ups. But at the end of the day, they've still got to develop that winning culture, that that that helps generate a loyal not just a loyal fan base, but a passionate fan Sure.
Sure, well, you're a preciated the choir because they've been here forever. You've been here twenty years, you see it. I'm not sure it's going to be possible anytime soon. What'd you go to, coach?
I went to a Division III school in near Cleveland called Oberlin County.
Okay, So I was gonna say, if you had gone to a school you would know what that like, Ohio State or I.
Lived in Columbus and I was covering Ohio State sports back in the Woody Hayes days. Oh okay, So yeah, so you get it. Yeah, Oh no, I've seen it up close. Yeah, but just talking about the places where I live. The Cardinals certainly had that in Saint Louis, and I think they still do the baseball Cardinals, And I think that that was one of the problems I think with Arizona professional sports is that no one, you know, when I got here, no one had grown up rooting
for the Diamondbacks or for the Cardinals. They grew up rooting for the Bears. I grew up rooting for the Packers or whatever. And it takes a while to develop a fan base of people who grew up rooting for the team.
Well, that's it. You are not the anomaly. You are the person that describes Tucson fandom. Now you're not from here. You have to get Arizona's an acquired taste, and then you'll start to fall in love with them over time. Right right, you're you're that guy, because there's plenty of you guys in the stadium now. They just have to keep win, not keep winning. They have to win to keep you guys interested. Yeah, and they know that. I mean, well, of course, yeah, do you have to find a way
to win. That's what it is.
And so that's why we wake up tomorrow. See if it's better.
We woke up today after after last night, so you know, we move on, right, Hey, Henry, how are we doing?
Not like one minute?
A minute? Okay, no, thanks for the first ever good good stuff we're gonna have in the second hour. What do we have?
Oh?
Dave Cosgrove, he's the national champion coach at Pima Men's soccer. I think they just qualified to get to the finals or to the tournament now, so very successful program at PIMA. And we'll talk to him on the other side.
Stick around.
Yeah, yeah, of course we're yeah. Yeah, you can just stay. Where are you gonna go?
Get paid more now?
Yes, you got another coke coming? Yeah yeah, thank you, Henry. And you got breaking news right Henry. Yep, okay,