Latest / The Craig Way Show / White Sox, Padres and Yankees Punch Divisional Tickets, NFL and CFB Talk

Transcript

White Sox, Padres and Yankees Punch Divisional Tickets, NFL and CFB Talk · The Craig Way Show

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It's a Thursday, and kind of wet in the area,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and I hope you stay dry on that. But we're
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: getting closer to the weekend, and that's always a good thing.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program here on Sports
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Radio AM 13 Under the Zone, and where you can
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: listen to us absolutely free of charge on the iHeartRadio app.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: My name is Craig Way. I do thank you very
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: much for joining us. The producer is Jay Carman, who is...
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow we'll be heading out, and he'll be heading off.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We'll get some more details from him on his weekend plans.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: They were pretty good. But last night you were kind
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of doing what I was doing, I think. I think
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you were watching the Major League Baseball playoffs last night.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Yep, full playoff platter, so to speak. And it's, like
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I said, to open the show yesterday here. One of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the best things in all the sports, if not the
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: best postseason, in sports, the Major League Baseball postseason. I
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: try not to miss a pitch of it. I try
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to get local broadcasts. I try to listen whenever I'm
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: in the car. This is a great time of year. But, Craig,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: it was also yesterday, the last day we'll have without
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: football for more than two months.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, Gary, is it going to be one of those
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: deals where you have at least one football game every day,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: college or professional?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Either Division I or pro football every day for the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: next 61 days. I got that from Brett McMurphy.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: But so yesterday, we had more than enough baseball to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: make up for it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And there's still a little more to happen tonight to
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: finish off round one. But three of the four wildcard
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: series are in. But more on that in a moment.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you what's coming up on the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: program here. In a few minutes, we'll have our regular
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: weekly Thursday conversation with Roger Wallace, my broadcast partner on
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Longhorn Football. And of course, Roger, the day job is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: sports director for KXAN. And they have a high school football.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: There's a Big, big game tonight that they'll be carrying tonight.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: How about Westlake and Round Rock?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how about that?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's important. So they'll have that. And then Roger
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: will be calling Wimberley, not Wimberley, Fredericksburg and LBJ tomorrow
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: night from Nelson Field.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: You ever done a game in Nelson Field? I had.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: That was the first time I ever called a game
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: with Cameron Parker.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Over on the east side?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: LBJ was playing La Vega.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Okay. Ooh. Good matchup.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Turned out to be a bit of a slobber knocker.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: 21-7 the final.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. And La Vega's good again this year.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: LBJ trying to fight its way through some things. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Fredericksburg comes off a win. So we'll get Roger's thoughts
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: on that coming up. We do have Inconceivable this hour.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And one of the elements of inconceivable could, and I
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: just say could, directly affect the health and well-being of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: our own Cameron Parker.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: We'll tell you about that coming up in inconceivable. So
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: we'll get to that coming up. In the three o'clock
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: hour of the program, we will have some other things.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: We're going to hear from Hiro Kanu, aren't we?
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's, you know, we didn't get to talk to,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: as the media, that kind of we, didn't get to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: talk to Longhorn players with this being a bye. And
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: so the Longhorn players, including Hero, have been appearing on
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: some other shows. So we'll bring you some of that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from the national perspective. So we'll hear a little
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: bit from him on that. Also, we'll hear from Brian
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Schottenheimer and from D'Amico Rimes. You know, it's even more interesting.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: And we hear from both head coaches every week. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: we do this for several reasons. First of all, they
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: are the two NFL teams in the state of Texas.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And while the Cowboys are kind of ubiquitous and there's
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: fans of the Cowboys around the world and they have
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: their own, I don't know how many people know this.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: The Cowboys have their radio network. And of course, we're
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: one of the affiliates of the Cowboys radio network where
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg and Christie Scales call the action.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: And we hear.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: their broadcasts on our sister station, 98.1 FM KVAT, the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: home of Austin's all-time country favorites. So we'll have their
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: broadcast for this noon game coming up on Sunday. We
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: also carry the Houston Texans broadcasts. And, you know, those,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you know, can be heard right here on Sports Radio
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: AM 1300, The Zone.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: And we.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: We carry those every week as well. So when the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Cowboys play the Texans, you get a chance to hear
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: both broadcasts. You get a chance, you could flip back
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and forth. You could hear the Cowboys broadcast on KVIT-FM.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: You could hear the Texans broadcast here on The Zone.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: So we have both. So when they play each other,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: it's all the more interesting. And what I started to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: say was, is that Not only are we affiliates, you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: they are the two NFL teams in the state. So
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: we try to present the comments of both head coaches.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And we do have that today. You'll hear from the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Cowboys head coach, Brian Schottenheimer. You'll hear from D'Amico Ryans,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the Texans head coach. So we'll have that for you
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: coming up on the program as well. We've got some
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: usual offerings, and then, of course, we have the offerings
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: beyond that, some things to do. Well, some other college
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: football things. My alma mater, the Mean Green of North Texas,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: are playing tonight at Tulsa, trying to bounce back with
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a win. They've had two up and two down, so
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: they've had a couple of wins and a couple of losses,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and so they'll be back in action. They're playing Tulsa.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I think it's on ESPN2 or U. It's on one
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of those, anyway, on the platform. But I'm probably going
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to be flipping. And game three of the National League
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: wildcard series between the number three seed, the Atlanta Braves,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and the sixth seed, the Philadelphia Phillies. Braves won game
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: one on Tuesday and won that one four to three.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: They got a three-run homer, or five to three, I guess.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: They got a three-run homer in the bottom of the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: eighth from Austin Riley. And that happened in game one
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Yesterday, it looked like the Braves were going
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: to sweep out the Phillies. Bryce Harper misplayed a fly
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: ball out of right field and off the glove. It
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: opened the door to two runs scoring. One run scored
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: directly on the play and another one came in afterwards.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: And they were up 3-1 going to the top of
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the eighth inning. The Phillies tied it on home runs
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: from Kyle Schwarber and the guy who.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Made the outfield touchdown.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Mistake Bryce Harper back-to-back homers to open the inning and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: so as a result of that the game was tied
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and wound up going extra innings and then Alec Boehm
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hits a home run and the Phillies wind up holding
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: on and they get the win four to three so
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the series is tied at a game apiece and they'll
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: play one more time tonight in Atlanta they've been playing
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the the first game of the day the first two
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: days of you know four games a day of these
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: wild card series with the Astros and White Sox following,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: then the Yankees and Red Sox in primetime, and then
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the later game out in San Diego, the Potters and
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the Cubs. Well, those three series, those other series are
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: already done. The only one that's left is the National
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: League Wild Card Series between the Phillies and Braves. So
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: they'll play tonight. I think it's 7 o'clock Texas time
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: when they play tonight in Atlanta. The winner will move
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: on to the National League Division Series, and they'll take
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: on the Los Angeles Dodgers beginning on Saturday. The other
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: three series are all done. I don't know if no
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: big surprise is quite accurate, but I don't think anybody
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: was stunned to see the Yankees beat the Red Sox
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and sweep the Red Sox, but they really dominated them.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: They beat them last night 9-2 and didn't even give
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: up a run in the entire series until the sixth
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: inning of game two and just kind of blew them out.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Ben Rice.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you know, also Cody Bellinger at home runs.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: They had the 9-0 win in game one.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: They outscored the Red Sox 18-2 in the two games
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: at Yankee Stadium.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I'll say this, Craig, as a Dodger fan, but really
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: if you're any fan of a team in the Major
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: League Baseball playoffs, you're lucky you didn't have to face
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the Yankees in a best-of-three. There might not be a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: team that's better built for a best-of-three series than the
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Yankees with who they can put out there on the
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: front line with Schlittler and Freed.
• 9:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Can the pitching stretch out into the best of five,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: best of seven formats? We'll see. And can the bats travel?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: The Yankees didn't hit so well away from the stadium,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: as they call it, this year. So that's what I'm
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: watching with this Yankee team as they head to the trop.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll play the Tampa Bay Rays there in St.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Petersburg now.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: But at least when you get to the division series,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: it alternates home. Whereas the wild card, all the games
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: are in one ballpark at the higher seed. So the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: first two games will be in St. Pete at Tropicana
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Field at the Trop, and then game three will be
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: back in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium. If there is
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: a game four, forget that, it would also be at
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium. If there's a game five, it would be
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: back in St.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Pete.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So that's one of the series in the American League,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: division series. Raise your hand if you had the Guardians
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and the White Sox In the American League Final Four.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Put your hand down. You're lying.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I'll put my hands down. I didn't have either in
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: my playoff field preseason.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: That's right. But there they are.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Cleveland won the division, so they got a bye, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: they were the two seed. The reason they were the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: two seed is because the Astros won the American League
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: West with a level 500 record. 81 and 81. The
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: first time a team qualified for the playoffs in a
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: full season. with a non-winning record. They were level 500.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: They played like a 500 team. They lost to the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: sixth seed, the White Sox, who had three more wins
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: than them. And this White Sox team that supposedly is
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: arriving well ahead of schedule won the two games, never
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: trailed in the series. It got close a couple of times,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: but they never trailed.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: They scored early. And they held on to the lead.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: They won 6-3 in Game 1, and they won 7-3
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: yesterday evening in Game 2. And they did it with
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: bullpen arms doing that, timely hitting, the kind of stuff
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that's carried this team to this point. And so the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: White Sox win the series, and now they go to Cleveland.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Guardians in the division series and by the way Chicago
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: won the regular season series between those.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Two yeah and I was listening to Len Casper on
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the call for the Chicago White Sox radio and I
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: think we'll be able to hear some of those calls
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: a little later on in the show as we get
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: into this but they were they were talking about the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: way the White Sox won these games in this series
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and the way they did all season, in that it
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: wasn't straightforward, but the small ball things, the little details
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: added up. And this team really believes in the fact
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: that baseball gods reward them for doing the little things right.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Well, they got the Pope on their side too.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Well, there's those kinds of gods as well.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: For folks who don't know that, you can check it
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: out there. Pope Leo is a big, big White Sox fan,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: having grown up in Chicago on the South side, and
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: he's a big I don't know if you saw the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: gifs that were going around showing his holiness standing there
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and he had a White Sox cap on. But that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: was like AI generated.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: But he probably has a White Sox cap, I would think.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And word was that at 2 o'clock in the morning
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: in the Vatican, they had the game on.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: That he was watching the game.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: And he was thinking, why are there four people in
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: the booth? Oh, no, that's a side note.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Are you down on that?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: I'm... I love some of the individual analysts that are
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: getting their shot on these big games. Joey Votto, yeah.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Clayton Kershaw, yeah. Adovino.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, all good stuff on the field.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: They're the inside pitch guys that are down in the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: camera well by the dugout.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: All that's great. I just found myself feeling like the
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: broadcasts were a little crowded, especially in that Yankee series
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: at times. And I love every person that was in
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: that booth and hearing them, especially Jason Bonetti, the way
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: he can manage a three-man booth. He's done it all season.
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Four-man booth.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I couldn't hear the crowd.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: That means that much to you to hear the crowd?
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I love the crowd. Let me give you a quote
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: from our good friend and broadcast partner, Keith Moreland.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Quote, we got pictures.
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: We got pictures.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: You can see it.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: You can see what's going on. It didn't bother me
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: at all because of what you said of having the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: expert analysis from the field.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Kershaw was unbelievable.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So it didn't bother me that was it Mark Grant
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and Jim, the Shays were there in the booth with
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Dave Fleming. You know, Dave Fleming bothers me sometimes, but
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that's an entirely different issue. But, um, but that didn't
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: bother me.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: He was laying out though. Dave Fleming.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was. Uh, and Grant could be pretty entertaining.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I've watched enough Padres telecast. So he's, he's pretty entertaining. Um,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: so anyway, that, that's the, the way that those are
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: set up now, uh, with the, uh, with the National
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: League and American League Division Series. So we'll find out
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: where it goes from there after the Braves and Phillies
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: meet tonight. All right, coming up next, we'll visit Roger Wallace,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: my broadcast partner on Longhorn football, and talk about his
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: high school schedule and get some Longhorn thoughts from him
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: as well as we continue on the Thursday afternoon on
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Each week, when we have Roger Wallace on, we have
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: as a return cut an offering from the late, great
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett. Roger is big a Buffett, not only a fan,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: but really.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Kind of a Jimmy Buffett historian.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: He's been able to educate us on some of the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: backstory of some of Buffett's songs. So as he joins
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: us here, and we leave it to Jake Herman's discretion
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to pick out the specific song every week. He decided
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to go with Havana Daydreaming. So is there a specific
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: story behind this particular tune, Raj?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: I missed the song, Craig. I couldn't hear you.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, we're coming in with Havana Daydreaming.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay. Yeah, that's certainly one of the anthems.
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: You know, Cuba, obviously warm to his heart because of
• 15:25
  Speaker 7: the proximity to Key West and He often references 90
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: miles from Key West. But, yeah, I mean, that's one
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: of the original, one of the very early albums, too,
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: was the Havana Day Dreamin' album. But, you know, kind
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: of encompasses that lifestyle of, you know, in the tropics.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Dreaming your life away.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Dreaming your life away.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Would it be safe to assume that there is
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: not at least.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Charted, charted. There is not a single charted island in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the Caribbean that he didn't either sail to or visit
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: at some point in his life.
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: I would say that's probably a pretty safe bet other
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: than some that maybe nobody knows about unless they are shipwrecked.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right. A la Gilligan's Island. Yeah. But yeah. And
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I was thinking about this this morning.
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: I was thinking about because Jake played the Nashville, Tennessee
• 16:27
  Speaker 7: reference last And so I was sort of thinking, what
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: about other states? And it's funny because I don't think
• 16:35
  Speaker 7: he has any Oklahoma references in any song that I
• 16:38
  Speaker 7: can remember.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Well, we can all be thankful for that.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Jake, don't even try.
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Noted.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: We'll go another way on that.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: We can all be thankful for that. Don't even try.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: We've got Will Matthews coming on tomorrow. And we've got
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Kale Gundy coming on tomorrow. So there'll probably be an
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma reference in there.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Okay. All right. So....
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: This is always a curious week where, especially if both
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Texas and Oklahoma are on bye weeks, if they have
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: open dates. And you remember what Greg Davis used to
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: tell us when we meet with him. He'd say there
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: are such things as good bye weeks and bad bye weeks,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And then he said, and that's
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: up to us, to the coaches, to make sure the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: guys are dialed in and playing and performing well. And,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of course, there wasn't a Thursday media Zoom like there
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: is every week with Sark. this week because of the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: open day. So there was only the Monday. So we're
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: left to kind of gather and guess that, that, that,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that they've gone about their business in a, in a,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: in a pretty professional way, given the close call they
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: had at Tennessee last Saturday.
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 17:44
  Speaker 7: I'm going to guess this is a great bi-week for
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: a number of reasons.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I think this team needs a break.
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: I think Arch Manning needs a break physically, mentally, physically,
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: along with the rest of the team. I think maybe
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: they need a break of being out of the spotlight.
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: It seems like it's been shining on the number one
• 18:02
  Speaker 7: team in the nation for the wrong reason a couple
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: of times, which is kind of odd, but that's just
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: the way things shake out.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So I would say that it's a great buy.
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: I would say it's a little different than Oklahoma's buy,
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: where they're trying to regroup and hope that they can
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: kind of kickstart it all, where I think Texas is
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: trying to take all the good that they've done And
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: then build on that and know that they can be
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: a lot better. But isn't it funny, Craig, the theme
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: and the storyline, the narratives are all about what's wrong
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: with Texas. And they're sitting there with two great wins,
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: a number one team, a road win against the top
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: 15 team, two non-conference, non-power teams that they just kind
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: of did what they needed to do. And yet all
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: the talk is about, How good is Texas? Which I
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: think all of us are wondering, but they certainly have
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: done what they needed to do in this first month.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had somebody ask me, I'm interested to get
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on this. I had somebody ask me how much,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: because we talked about some of the offensive inefficiency that
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: happens in the game. I had somebody ask me how
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: much I don't know if directly responsible is the right phraseology,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: but how much contributing was it to not have Hollywood
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: smothers on the field? And the knee-jerk reaction is to say, well, yeah,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: certainly it made a difference. And then I think, and
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, and Raleigh Brown had some good runs.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: That second down and 18 run on that touchdown drive
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter was massive. He had that, that, that, uh, uh,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the Saquon Barkley spin move earlier in the game. He
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: scored two touchdowns and, you know, that kind of thing,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: but still in all, not, having Smothers who can break
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: it big just like Brown can, I think that's one
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: less item in your tool.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Chest, right? No doubt.
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: I mean, you know, they play off each other and
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: they can help, you know, wear down a defense when
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: you throw both of them. They're pretty similar. It's not
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: like the, you know, the Thunder and Lightning combination, but
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: just the fact that They have a little fresher legs.
• 20:11
  Speaker 7: I think what Hollywood or Raleigh Brown touched, I think,
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: 19 times with carries and a couple of receptions.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: And you figure some of those are going to go
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to to smothers.
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: And and you get fresh legs as explosive as they are.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Maybe they pop one.
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: But, yeah, I think I think it only stands for
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: and Sark likes to play them both in the backfield together.
• 20:30
  Speaker 7: We saw that as well. that kind of gives him
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: a different look to give to defenses as well.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You mentioned, well, in the news conference, you specifically asked
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Sark about Arch and how important he thought it might
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: be to get both the mental and the physical break.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: And Sark, as he kind of does sometimes, he can
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: get philosophical about things and talked a little bit about
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the philosophy, saying that he thought he played pretty well
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: given more limited opportunities. And yet came back to the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: thing is if everybody's doing their job, the offensive line,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the running game and all that kind of stuff, it's
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: going to make Arch a better player.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: But I think the.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Thing that we've continued to discover about Arch Manning is
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: his grittiness when he's kind of taking shots and he
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: got sacked six times, he got hit other times in
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the pocket, all those kinds of things.
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: And, you know, sometimes you ask a question and you
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: know what you mean, but sometimes Sark hears it and
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: interprets it a little different. I wasn't really referring to
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: how well or any struggles that Arch had, just that
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: he's endured a lot. And I'm certainly taking into consideration
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: the off the field stuff after Ohio State, as well
• 21:45
  Speaker 7: as what you just talked about. He's been hit a lot,
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: especially the last two weeks. The Tennessee game, he got
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: hit around. Of course, UTSA, he took the big hit.
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: where he got his helmet knocked off. And then there's
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: just the fact that, you know, he's the quarterback at
• 21:59
  Speaker 7: Texas and all that goes with that. I think it
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: wasn't really a shot at his, his performance as much
• 22:05
  Speaker 7: as just a chance to exhale before they get into
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: this eight week run. That's really going to define, define
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: their season as far as, you know, at least putting
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: themselves in a position to, to get to the post season. So,
• 22:17
  Speaker 7: but yeah, I think, I think Sark's, exactly right about
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: you know everybody's got to do their part and if
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: he's under pressure on first down when they think that's
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: a down they can maybe catch the defense off guard
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: uh throwing it and all of a sudden it's second
• 22:31
  Speaker 7: and 18 that's you know that's not on our Georgia
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: is not.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: On the Texas schedule uh not in the regular season
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: anyway and neither is Alabama but are you curious I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: know I am to see what happens in Starkville on
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Saturday between Alabama and Mississippi State No doubt.
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: You know, I thought Missouri had a great shot to
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: win that game, but I'm, you know, all of a
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: sudden Alabama goes from a question market quarterback. And now
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: we're seeing Russell's name, you know, you know, in the
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: distant Heisman talk. And obviously we saw Camario Taylor, what
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: he's done so far this year.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And, and Sark mentioned what, what I'm sure you and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I were thinking.
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: We saw him in person go down there and throw
• 23:11
  Speaker 7: a touchdown pass in that game in Starkville.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: So yeah.
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: I'm fascinated by so many games because it's the cannibalizing
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: yourselves and can Texas, you know, just keep kind of
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: punching their ticket here week to week and let everybody
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: else beat themselves up. It's unrealistic to think they're going
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: to run the table in the SEC. But what I
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: will say is you get a win and that's a
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: credit in the bank and you move on and try
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: to get another one.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how much OU is struggling. It's the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: same idea.
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: Just Keep stacking those wins and moving on and give
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: yourself a little bit more of a margin for error.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Roger Wallace joining us here on 13 Under the Zone.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Let's jump to the high school because I always ask
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: about the televised schedule. And it's interesting what you have
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: in store because instead of your regular Thursday night offering,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: you have another Thursday night offering because of the Westlake
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: crew and what a game that is. Followed by, I
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: think it's a pretty unique matchup, you have an Elson
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Field tomorrow between Fredericksburg and LBJ.
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah, first off, the Westlake game, that's the way Round
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: Rock has played in the non-district. That has turned out
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: to be one of the better games on the schedule,
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: I think, in Central Texas this fall. And we'll see
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: what they can do. They're going to start in an
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: hour early. They announced that last week, so it's a
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: 6 o'clock start at Chaparral Stadium on KBVO. And it's
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: odd to think that this is a district matchup now
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: with the realignment.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we're going to be in Nelson Field. And
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: LBJ has had.
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: a bunch of injuries, and we talked to Joe Rawls, and,
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: you know, it starts with their 1,500-yard running back Marquise Murray,
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: and he's been banged up, and this is a team that,
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: going into this year, they lost one district game since 2017.
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: Now they're 0-1, and they got beat pretty handily by
• 24:58
  Speaker 7: a really good Tybee team, and they're going up against
• 25:01
  Speaker 7: Fredericksburg tomorrow night, trying to avoid a second district loss,
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: which hasn't happened in a decade, but they're shorthanded. They've
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: got injuries up and down, but When you talk to
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: Bill Wilder at Fredericksburg, obviously concerned about that skill. And
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: then they just keep churning out outstanding players at LBJ.
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: So I'm fascinated by this one tomorrow.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Hopefully it'll.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: They'll stay dry over at Nelson Field. Yeah, and I'm
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit intrigued by Fredericksburg's team as well, and
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks remember Coach Wilder was the original
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: coach at Vista Ridge when the school opened. In fact,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my son played for him a while, and then he
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: was his video coordinator, and that launched... Andy Way into being, what,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: now seven years at KXAN now as.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: An employee there.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, one of our veterans. It started off with him
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: being the end zone camera operator for Vista Ridge when
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Bill Wilder was the coach there.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: And it was Wilder's thought. It was his.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Idea to have Andy transition into the video side of things.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: So I give Bill credit for that. But he's been
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: able to, in some really, really tough districts— that the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Billies have had to be in to still be able
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to kind of push through and at least get to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: some postseason appearances.
• 26:20
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and they're one of those teams that you look
• 26:23
  Speaker 7: up in three and seven, how do they get in
• 26:25
  Speaker 7: the playoffs? Well, you get four chances in your district.
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: So if you get beat up in the non-district, that
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: doesn't matter. In fact, they lost LBJ in the first
• 26:33
  Speaker 7: round last year in the playoffs. So we'll see. They
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: opened up with a win over Travis. So they're three
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: and one. Their loss was to Wimberley. They're not a
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: big team, but they've got a veteran at quarterback. He's
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: just a junior, but he's played a lot of football
• 26:49
  Speaker 7: in Crestmore, and we were joking with him. Keith always
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: likes to talk about the geography of districts, and he said.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not getting any favors over there.
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: He's got to come to Nelson Field two weeks in
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: a row, and first thing he mentioned was the Austin traffic,
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: which is.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Kind of funny to hear a football.
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: You don't really think about that when you think about
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: a football team playing an away game, but But certainly
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: that's a real thing. And if it's raining, we know
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: what a mess that's going to be tomorrow afternoon.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 290 could be a problem going through Stonewall if
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the rain's happening there. Before I let you go, tell
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: folks a little bit, because KXM Plus has been a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: real repository for seeing other action. I know that I've
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: been able to watch it a lot at home, be
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: able to flip around and catch different games. And some
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of them are unique. Some of them have, like, the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: full announced cruise and things like that. And then some,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you're just getting, you're getting a stadium camp, but you're
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: at least able to follow what's going on in a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: given game.
• 27:45
  Speaker 7: We're looking at it as the more games we can offer,
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: realizing that, you know, like you said, some are a
• 27:52
  Speaker 7: little more basic of there's the game. You don't have
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: the graphics. You might not have announcers, but a chance
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: at Kelly Reeves to watch those games. We just figured
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: out the technology at Bob Shelton. Might be a little
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: lopsided tonight with a really good Smithson Valley team against Lehman.
• 28:12
  Speaker 7: But the bottom line is more opportunities for people to
• 28:15
  Speaker 7: go to KXAM +, download that app, and at least
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: see what opportunities are out there to watch. And so, yeah,
• 28:23
  Speaker 7: we'll have a couple tonight and a couple more tomorrow night.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: And then we look to just to keep building it.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Here's an idea.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: In like NFL red zone to just like flip it
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: around from game to game. All right, now you're taking
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: a look here at Kelly Reese.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's been brought up.
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: Has it really?
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I don't think it hasn't.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's been brought up.
• 28:44
  Speaker 7: The problem is that the host would have a trouble
• 28:47
  Speaker 7: sometimes following because like I said, it's you get the game,
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: but you don't get a lot of the frills with
• 28:53
  Speaker 7: the game. So they might have to manually keep up
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: with what down it is, et cetera. But you know, it's,
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: It's better than not being able to watch the game.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: That's true. No doubt about it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, Rog, thanks for the time. Have a great call
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: tomorrow night. And we will– are you coming out, weather permitting,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: to baseball?
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: We'll see you at the baseball diamond.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Why not on an off week go to the Dell Diamond?
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: That's the way we looked at it.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Rog. Appreciate it. Thanks, Greg.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: That's Roger Wallace, my broadcast partner in Longhorn Football. And
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: he'll– and, of course, sports director at KXAN. They'll have
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the call of Fredericksburg and LBJ tomorrow night. But again,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: that Westlake-Round Rock game tonight on KBVO, and it's a
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: 6 o'clock kick now. They moved it forward because of...
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the weather and things of that nature. All right, we
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: have Inconceivable up next on 13 Under the Zone. Second
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM 1300.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: The Zone here on a Thursday. Be careful out there
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: with the approaching, in some cases, some areas already falling
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: rain in the area. So do be careful out there
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: if you're doing that. We talked some football in the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: first hour of the program, and we'll talk some more.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: But I want to start off with baseball again. Of course,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: there's one... playoff series left to be completed at the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: wildcard stage. And that will be in Atlanta tonight with
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the Braves taking on the Philadelphia Phillies. And that's because
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the Phillies drew even with the win they got 4-3
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: over the Braves yesterday.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: And it was really kind of unusual.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if unusual is the right way
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to describe it. It had playoff drama to it. It
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: was a 1-1 ball game, and Bryce Harper misplayed a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: fly ball that opened the door for two runs for
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the Braves to go up 3-1. I believe that was
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: in the sixth inning. No, in the seventh. And so
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: this defensive gaffe really looked like it put them in
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: a bad spot.
• 31:04
  Speaker 9: Yet.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Harper himself chipped in on turning it around in the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: top of the eighth, Kyle Schwarber with a leadoff homer,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: and then Harper behind him with a home run, tied
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the score at three in the eighth.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: They eventually ended up winning the.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Ball game on an Alec Boehm home run, and that
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: happened in the 10th inning. but uh harper was asking
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: me he's a veteran he's an all-star i mean you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: you cheered for him when he was playing for uh
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the nationals.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Correct yeah it's that that same swing from the left
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: side hadn't hadn't changed much over the course of his
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: of his career nor has his personality.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah you did talk about rebounding from that and bryce
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: harper was asked about that.
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: I'll tell you what i was thinking about crew uh
• 31:49
  Speaker 9: my son you know what i would say to him
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: in that situation um You know, I think it's a
• 31:53
  Speaker 9: learning situation, not for myself, but everybody else as well.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: You know, right.
• 31:56
  Speaker 9: I think you try to flush it as quick as possible.
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: And I grew up playing a lot of big games
• 32:03
  Speaker 9: and not just I mean, I've said it in the
• 32:05
  Speaker 9: past about the postseason and, you know. But playing huge
• 32:10
  Speaker 9: games that people are counting on you from the time
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: you're 10 years old all the way till now. Um,
• 32:16
  Speaker 9: I don't think people understand what that feels like or
• 32:18
  Speaker 9: looks like. Cause when you guys were 10 years old,
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: you probably weren't playing in front of 3000 people, you know,
• 32:24
  Speaker 9: yelling and screaming at you, wondering why you're not the
• 32:29
  Speaker 9: player you want to be or anything else. Um, so
• 32:32
  Speaker 9: I've been through a lot of situations to get me
• 32:34
  Speaker 9: to this point. Um, and you know, you make a
• 32:37
  Speaker 9: play like that and I'm hearing it out there, obviously. Um,
• 32:40
  Speaker 9: but how quickly can I turn the page? Um, and
• 32:45
  Speaker 9: just get past that moment knowing that I'm still coming
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: up to plate, uh, to hit, um, and knowing that
• 32:53
  Speaker 9: in the post season, it doesn't matter what you did,
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: the at bat before the inning before, um, it's what
• 32:59
  Speaker 9: you do in that moment. So for me, everybody's going
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: to make mistakes at some point. Um, but it's how
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: you come through in the, in the next situation. So
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: it's not that serious to tell you the truth. I
• 33:10
  Speaker 9: think people take it very seriously. And don't get me wrong,
• 33:14
  Speaker 9: I take it serious. But I think there's a mindset,
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: especially for kids nowadays, is parents and coaches put so
• 33:21
  Speaker 9: much on kids these days to have to come through
• 33:25
  Speaker 9: and be great. But for me, it's how can you
• 33:28
  Speaker 9: learn from each situation that you're in to come out
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: great in the next one.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: So the Phillies and Braves will get together one more time.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: And they know each other very, very well. and in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the same division. The winner of that series is going
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: to move on to Los Angeles and play the Dodgers
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: starting tomorrow.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: So that's going to happen. For the Houston Astros, the
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: season is over.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: After losing two straight at home to the Chicago White Sox.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Remember they did this last year? They lost two in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: a row to the Tigers. That knocked them out. So
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: it's been tough. on Joe Espada and the Astros falling
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: to the wild card White Sox, who won their post-season game,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: won a post-season series for the first time since winning
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: the World Series back in 2005. And coming up on
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the 4 o'clock hour, we'll visit with Gene Watson to
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: talk about that momentous season the White Sox have had
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and is still ongoing. But Espada, the Astros manager, was
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: asked about the difficulty of this series.
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it was difficult.
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: But again, I'm just proud of how we fought the
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: whole entire time just to get to this point. they
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: look completely different in May and the way we got
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: back and we fought back and, you know, we set
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: our goal to win this division and we accomplished that.
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: We wanted to play deep in October. We, we came
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: short on that, but just to wait our guys stay
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: together and we're able to get this far.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I'm extremely proud.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: Of our team.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: So those two series were sweeps. The other one that
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: was a sweep in those two series, what I meant
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: by those two series, the White Sox Astros and the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Yankees Red Sox. And the Yankees just kind of bludgeoned Boston.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: They kept the Red Sox from having serious scoring threats
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: until the middle part of Game 2. In fact, they
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: didn't even score their first run in the series until,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I think, the sixth inning of Game 2.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Well, and then you had Contreras trying to milk it
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: for everything it was worth.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Man, you could have timed him with a sundial on
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: that trot around the bases after hitting the home run
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: that he hit.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: But- Was it Nick Sogard that put the hat on
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: when they were down 8-2?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: And they just cut to him in the dugout, kind
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: of slumped shoulders.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: So that was a sweep. And then the one other
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: one that was a sweep was San Diego and Chicago.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: So we'll ask Gene Watson about this, this whole thing
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: about When teams spray champagne at each level of, first
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: of all, even qualifying for the postseason. Clinch a playoff spot,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: clinch a division title, whatever. Spraying champagne for that. Although
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: I've noticed it's almost equal amounts of champagne and beer.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Because Budweiser is a big sponsor of all that stuff,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: so you see a lot of Bud. Whenever the Dodgers win,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Max Muncy passes on the champagne. He's all about the Budweiser.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. I mean, stuck in that beard.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Um, so the Padres had done it for the second
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: time in six days. Cause remember they did not clinch
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a playoff spot until last Saturday, but they did. And, um,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: they were able to do that, uh, a month ago,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: they were really kind of struggling, but after beating the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Cubs last night to sweep that wild card series, they're
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: off to the national league division series. to play the
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee Brewers, who had the best record in baseball. The
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Padres continued to get contributions from a variety of areas.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Gavin Sheets, big blow, two-run homer that opened the lead
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: to 4-1. Xander Bogarts has played really well for them
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: so far.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: You heard the crowd on that, by the way?
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, the crowd.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: On the uh gavin before the gavin sheets home run
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: during the at bat i wonder and that and that
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: all came from what from don orcillo's call yep yep
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: i wonder if longhorn fans would ever make a serenade
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: based on one of your calls probably not baseball lends
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: itself to that a little more it might it might.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: But um so the padres uh win and they're on
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: a roll now and i would say they kind of
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: qualify as being dangerous. Even though they're playing the team
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: that had the best record in the majors, Milwaukee seemed
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to be the most sound.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Yep, steady was the word we used yesterday talking about
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: it with their pregame host, Hunter Baumgart.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they just are very, very solid, make very few mistakes.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: But the Padres, I kind of almost put it in
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the same category as as the White Sox. Now, the
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: White Sox were a sixth seed. The Padres were a
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: fourth seed, so a little bit different. The Padres got
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to play at home. But they've got young guys in
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: addition to veterans. Yeah, sure, they've got Manny Machado, and
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: they've got Fernando Tatis. They've got veteran guys on that team.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: But they have a young guy like Ethan Salas, 20
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: years of age, and he became the youngest player to catch...
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: in the Major League Baseball postseason.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: How about that?
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Age 20. And became the youngest in Major League Baseball history. So,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: pretty impressive. He was the youngest to do it. Kyle Teal,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: not that much older.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: What's that?
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Kyle Teal, not that much older.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: And the Padres, they called him up on September 1st.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: He became the youngest player to catch in any Major
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: League game, regular season, although since Pudge Rodriguez did it
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: for the Rangers... In 1991, I remember when Pudge came
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: up and he was 20 years old and everybody was very,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: very excited about him. Salas was born in 2006. And
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: he went 10 for 24 to finish the regular season.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: So he did well after going hitless in his first
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: 15 big league at-bats.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: And you remember.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Jake, when they were really slumping and the Padres were
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: below 500 and they were like.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Couldn't hit. Yeah, and like 12 games up.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: People were talking about them firing Craig Stammen after one year.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: It looked like Tatis was never going to hit a
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: home run again. It looked like Machado was pouting over
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: people pointing out analytical flaws in his swing. It looked
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: like the starting rotation was banged up.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: And here they are.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Amazing that it happened like that. But they turned it
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: around and did it. So now the Padres go on.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: They'll play the Brewers. The winner of tonight's game between
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: the Phillies and the Braves will play the Dodgers in
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: the other National League division series. And in the American League,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: it's the Yankees at Tampa Bay and the White Sox
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: at the Guardians.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: Think about that.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Either the White Sox or the Guardians are going to
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: be in the Final Four of baseball. Either the White
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Sox or the Guardians are going to be one series
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: went away from playing in the World Series.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Hey, I know that... Astros fans are disappointed about the
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: result from last night, but as a baseball fan, hey,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: it's better than the AL West having that ticket in there.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, boy. Yeah.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, if we're being real, the Astros actually finished
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: 81-83 because they lost their last two games after going
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: to 81-81 in the regular season and became the first
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: team in a full season with a non-winning record to qualify.
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: For the postseason.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: So they made history. Put that on a t-shirt.
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: In a different way. I guess you might say they
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: had a different way of making some history.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Well, look, Craig, I said it about a couple weeks
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: ago when that White Sox and Guardians played that awesome
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: series in Cleveland with the Peters 18 pitch at bat.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: We thought that was going to swing the division the
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: White Sox way. The Guardians got off the mat and
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: responded to that. I said, give me a week of
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: these games and that's what we're going to get.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: And I think the next round could be a lot
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: of fun. All four series. regardless of who wins in
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Atlanta tonight. But we'll see. We'll visit with Gene Watson
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: to talk about it coming up next when we continue
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: here on Sports Radio AM. Actually, he'll join us next hour.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Gene will be with us next hour. Up next, more
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: pro football when we continue on Sports Radio AM 13
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Under the Zone on the iHeartRadio app. Yeah, we've all
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: seen the rain. All of a sudden, when we went
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: weeks without seeing it, we're seeing it now. Hope you're
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: staying warm and dry. Be careful about that. We'll continue
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: here in this three o'clock hour. And one thing I
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: wanted to do before we go back to the NFL
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: here is to hear from Hiro Kanu. Now, there was
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: no player availability for the Longhorns this week. That's what
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: always happens on the open day, the bye week. There's
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: a Monday press conference like normal. with Steve Sarkeesian. And
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: then that's the only media availability for the entire week,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: coaches or players. And then they'll start it all back
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: up on a regular schedule next Monday, obviously Longhorns Monday
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and Longhorns Monday of Texas OU week. However, Hiro Kanu
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: did make an appearance on National Radio Outlet.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: It was on Jim Rome's show.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: And Hiro was asked about a variety of things as
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Rome was trying to find out some things about him.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: He was asked about learning football, remember, he was growing
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: up in Geltendorf, Germany, and coming to America at the
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: age of 16.
• 43:13
  Speaker 10: Yeah, actually, in the city, like small little town next
• 43:19
  Speaker 10: to Munich, It was probably like 1,000 people or so,
• 43:22
  Speaker 10: and I had a friend.
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: His name is Phillip.
• 43:24
  Speaker 10: He already played football, and he was connected with his coach,
• 43:26
  Speaker 10: Brendan Collier, who ended up being my coach who brought
• 43:29
  Speaker 10: me over here to America. But I was just out
• 43:31
  Speaker 10: on the soccer field kicking the ball around, and I
• 43:33
  Speaker 10: seen him throw the football.
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: I'm like, what is this? Let me try this out too.
• 43:37
  Speaker 10: So I went to try it out and he said,
• 43:39
  Speaker 10: I got like a natural talent. You know, obviously I
• 43:41
  Speaker 10: was throwing and catching the ball, but he was like, man, you,
• 43:43
  Speaker 10: you athletic, you know, you got understanding for, for the game.
• 43:47
  Speaker 10: When he explained it to me, he said he wants
• 43:50
  Speaker 10: to introduce me to his coach.
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: And I was like, okay, why not?
• 43:53
  Speaker 10: And a couple of weeks later we had like a
• 43:55
  Speaker 10: little like workout in Munich. And yeah, he had a
• 43:59
  Speaker 10: talk with my mom was like, Hey, I don't know.
• 44:01
  Speaker 10: I know he doesn't play football, but I think he
• 44:04
  Speaker 10: might have a legit chance. And, I kind of grew
• 44:06
  Speaker 10: soccer at that point. I mean, I was like 240
• 44:09
  Speaker 10: at that point. So yeah, I needed something new. Oh, dude,
• 44:13
  Speaker 10: that is so good. I love that story.
• 44:15
  Speaker 11: I mean, when you say you outgrew soccer, you mean actually,
• 44:18
  Speaker 11: like literally, you were too big to play soccer.
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: Yeah, really.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: So how old were you at that point?
• 44:25
  Speaker 6: I was 14. Yeah, 14, probably 240 at that point.
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: Okay, so you take on football.
• 44:30
  Speaker 11: So when you first started to play football, did you
• 44:32
  Speaker 11: take to it really quickly?
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: Did you like it at first?
• 44:35
  Speaker 6: What was it like? I liked it, and I ended
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: up watching it a little bit.
• 44:40
  Speaker 10: I think my first game was the Eagles versus the
• 44:43
  Speaker 10: Commanders now, back then Redskins. It was my first game
• 44:46
  Speaker 10: that I watched. I was like, this is moving so fast.
• 44:48
  Speaker 10: But I kind of found a liking to it just
• 44:50
  Speaker 10: because of the violence of the nature of the sport.
• 44:54
  Speaker 10: And I kind of enjoyed it, and I was like, okay,
• 44:56
  Speaker 10: why not give it a shot?
• 44:57
  Speaker 11: All right, so Hiro, you're from a town of like 1,000 people.
• 45:00
  Speaker 11: How did the opportunity to come to the U.S. come
• 45:03
  Speaker 11: to be?
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: And then what part of the country did you move.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: To when you came here?
• 45:08
  Speaker 10: So the opportunity just came with like a couple weeks,
• 45:11
  Speaker 10: months training with Brendan Collier. He went down to come
• 45:15
  Speaker 10: see me. I went up to see him. Just trained
• 45:17
  Speaker 10: posting videos on X, on Instagram, everywhere. And, you know,
• 45:22
  Speaker 10: kind of like the opportunity came, presented. And I was like,
• 45:25
  Speaker 10: you know what? Why not come to Orange County, California
• 45:28
  Speaker 10: and play some high school football there, right?
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: Southern Cali.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Bro, I love that so much.
• 45:33
  Speaker 11: So I don't know if you know this or not,
• 45:34
  Speaker 11: but we broadcast from Orange County.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: I live in Orange County.
• 45:37
  Speaker 11: This studio is not far from Santa Margarita High School
• 45:40
  Speaker 11: where you went. In fact, we live pretty close to
• 45:42
  Speaker 11: that school. In fact, I have friends who work there.
• 45:45
  Speaker 11: I have friends who used to work there. I know
• 45:48
  Speaker 11: that school really well. And for those who don't know,
• 45:50
  Speaker 11: that school produced athletes like Klay Thompson and Carson Palmer.
• 45:53
  Speaker 11: So this thing had to be happening so quickly. What
• 45:56
  Speaker 11: was the transition like when you ended up in California
• 45:59
  Speaker 11: and you're an O.C.
• 46:01
  Speaker 10: So actually, it was a little bit scary just because
• 46:05
  Speaker 10: it was my first time in America.
• 46:06
  Speaker 6: I just turned 16 at that point. Just turned 16.
• 46:10
  Speaker 10: It was the middle of COVID. So I come to America.
• 46:14
  Speaker 10: I land in the airport in LAX. And I'm getting
• 46:17
  Speaker 10: picked up. I had a host family, right? hey, we
• 46:20
  Speaker 10: got a little problem. I'm like, what do you mean
• 46:22
  Speaker 10: we got a problem? I just landed in America. It
• 46:24
  Speaker 10: was a 12-hour direct flight from Munich. And I'm like,
• 46:27
  Speaker 10: no way, we already got a problem. In the middle
• 46:29
  Speaker 10: of COVID, my mom is not here. My siblings aren't here.
• 46:31
  Speaker 10: I'm like, dang, this is going to be interesting. But yeah,
• 46:35
  Speaker 10: they said my host family is not in time because
• 46:38
  Speaker 10: of a family emergency. So I had one teammate that
• 46:42
  Speaker 10: just raised his hand and was like, hey, we can
• 46:44
  Speaker 10: take him in for the time being until they come back.
• 46:47
  Speaker 10: And that's a whole different story that That relationship went
• 46:50
  Speaker 10: on forever. I'm still in contact with them. I'm actually
• 46:53
  Speaker 10: going to go visit him this weekend.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Bro, that's incredible. That's not one little problem.
• 46:58
  Speaker 11: That's not a small little problem. The host family's gone.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: I'm getting off an airplane.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: And I have no host family.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: And I'm 16, and I'm in America for the first time.
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: That's incredible.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: So you have a teammate raise his hand and say,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I'll take you in.
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: It's all good.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: That's amazing.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Next, another thing that kind of was asked by Jim
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Rohn was about the leadership that he is seeing on
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the other side of the football for March Manning.
• 47:21
  Speaker 10: I mean, as a teammate, he's one of the most
• 47:23
  Speaker 10: humble people I've ever been around. You know, having, you know,
• 47:26
  Speaker 10: the magnitude, the connectivity that he has to people. And
• 47:28
  Speaker 10: obviously with his last name, starting with his grandpa and
• 47:31
  Speaker 10: his two uncles, you know, being NFL legends or football legends,
• 47:35
  Speaker 10: you know, it comes a lot of weight comes with that.
• 47:38
  Speaker 6: But he's so humble.
• 47:39
  Speaker 10: Um, you would think he's, you know, how he behaves
• 47:42
  Speaker 10: like a regular guy, you know, he doesn't care about
• 47:44
  Speaker 10: the flashy things. He's all about connectivity. Uh, but he
• 47:47
  Speaker 10: has grown a lot, a lot, a lot more vocal
• 47:49
  Speaker 10: from the first moment I met him. Um, and he's
• 47:52
  Speaker 10: just stepping up in his role.
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: That's one side of a conversation I play. Here's the
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: other side of a conversation. You knew Jim Rowe would
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: ask him about that. The Colin Simmons celebration that drew
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and, uh, you know, the, the,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: issue that that can create as well so he was
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: asked about that.
• 48:12
  Speaker 8: Oh my goodness it was just a funny moment first
• 48:14
  Speaker 8: of all like he got that sack and I'm running
• 48:17
  Speaker 8: after him I'm trying to celebrate with him and I
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: look over I'm like Oh, this is going to be
• 48:23
  Speaker 8: a fact.
• 48:24
  Speaker 10: But this is absolutely not who he is off the field.
• 48:26
  Speaker 10: I was just in the heat of the moment, you know,
• 48:28
  Speaker 10: making a big time play in a big time game.
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: But yeah, we working on those new celebrations.
• 48:34
  Speaker 11: I don't know, bro. I know you're being careful and
• 48:36
  Speaker 11: you're being diplomatic. My take was you get five sacks
• 48:40
  Speaker 11: in a game. You get five sacks in the game.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: All he did was simulate urination.
• 48:46
  Speaker 11: To me, if you get five sacks in a game
• 48:48
  Speaker 11: of that magnitude, go ahead and take a dump on
• 48:50
  Speaker 11: the field if you want.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I'm fine with that.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: I'm good with that.
• 48:53
  Speaker 11: But let me ask you, though, like, do you understand
• 48:55
  Speaker 11: why folks were so offended? Was there any part of
• 48:58
  Speaker 11: you that want to say, can we all just just
• 49:00
  Speaker 11: lighten up a little bit, a little bit?
• 49:02
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I do understand. We understand that as a team.
• 49:04
  Speaker 10: He understands that just the people that he represents here,
• 49:07
  Speaker 10: you know, University of Texas, and we want to be
• 49:10
  Speaker 10: putting our best foot forward.
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: And that's just not who he is and who we
• 49:14
  Speaker 6: are as a team.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: So there's some conversation there from Hiro Kanegawa. with Jim
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: Rome to talk some Longhorn football in specific, college football,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: but obviously some Texas Longhorn football in specific. So a
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: couple other things to get to about this Some bad
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: news for Tennessee. We knew last week we were told
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: that Wendell Moy, their all-SEC offensive guard, was not going
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: to play. It was a lower body injury is the
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: way it's described. It was announced now on the SEC
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: injury report that once he got out there, he got
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: injured early in the game when we knew he was
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: not going to come back. That happened in the first half.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Didn't return. Fifth-year senior. was on the Lombardi Award Outland
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Trophy preseason watch list. Last year, he played both left
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: guard and right guard in first team all SEC. He's
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: done for the season. So he's out. And they have
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: moved Shamarad Umarov to right guard. Umarov was the guy
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: who was called for a late penalty in the game
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: when Tennessee was on that last desperate drive. And Umarov
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: was called for a penalty. And they moved Donovan Haslam
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: to left guard on that. So that's obviously bad news
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: for Tennessee as they try to turn things around and
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: get ready for the matchup with Auburn this week. If
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: you're one of those people who likes to follow the
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: hot seat stuff, there have been several different names of
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: people that have been brought up. One of those is
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Mike Loxley at Maryland.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, what are.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Folks saying back in the, what do you call it,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: the DMV, the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, D.C.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: Area around the Beltway about him?
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I think folks in the DMV know that the investment
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: has finally caught up with what he has asked for
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: as the head coach. I think those wins over Texas
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: bought him a lot of good grace, and that time
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: is now starting to run out. You can't lose by
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: 51 points. in your Big Ten home opener.
• 51:34
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: Doesn't matter who you're playing, but in this case, they're
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: playing UCLA, who was only a one and a half
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: point favorite in the game. So his goodwill is down
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: to its last drops, I think. That game was at
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Bird Stadium? I mean, that was a home game.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like played over in Northwest Stadium like they
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: did when they played Texas.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: It was a home game. It was a good crowd
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: that emptied out at halftime.
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: And it was UCLA's biggest win since 1997.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: Think about it.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: 1997 was 66-3 over Texas.
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, signaled the beginning of the end
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: of the John McEvick time at Texas as head coach
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: and led to Mack Brown coming in. But Locksley was
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: kind of in that hot seat discussion before the season started.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: And two straight losses to teams of new head coaches,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Virginia Tech and UCLA.
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: So now.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: The Terrapins supposedly were making progress, but apparently the weekly
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: meeting between Loxley and the athletic director, Jim Smith, apparently
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: came and went without any real drama. At least that's
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: what the coach said at his news conference this week.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: He said it was a typical weekly meeting where we
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: discuss the program where it is. It was a standard meeting,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: personnel matters like we always talk about. And he was
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: asked if he's been assured of anything regarding his status.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: My focus has been on getting us ready to play
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: up at lincoln they got to go to nebraska no
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: need for assurance nebraska's unbeaten aren't they they got to
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: play a hot huskers team.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: So well unbeaten untested are are the same thing in
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: that nebraska football team right now but.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: You think they're going to be tested by maryland no
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: i think lincoln.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: I think they'll be tested by indiana in a couple
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: of weeks i can i can assure you that hey
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: they got a road win at michigan state you don't
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: have to think much of the spartans but you know
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: that's a decent road win to start the conference.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Right right exactly You know, the Terrapins had a stretch
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: from 2021 to 2023 where they won three straight bowl games,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: which they'd never done before.
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: But they went four and eight in 2024.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: Well, the quarterback is back, Washington, and he is a
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: lot expected of him. He hasn't necessarily shown the progress.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Well, they blew that big fourth quarter lead they had
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: against Washington at home. Oh, I forgot about that game. Yeah,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: and then a smaller lead at home against Nebraska last year,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: and they didn't win another game.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: They had Ohio State on the ropes at home.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: They did.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: One-year Ohio State was a playoff team, and they could
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: not get a stop.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: They've dropped 17 of their last 19 Big Ten conference games.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: So again, from the department of how things could always
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: be worse, there you go.
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: We'll go back to the NFL coming up next here
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: on 13 Under the Zone. Thursday afternoon on Sports Radio AM,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: 13 Under the Zone. Let's jump to the NFL. Brian
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: Schottenheimer asked yesterday about his team. And first of all,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: how did he manage the rest and the practice coming
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: off of being in Rio and getting ready for the Texans.
• 54:46
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, we're mindful of that. Today, we're going
• 54:48
  Speaker 12: to go out there, run around an individual for about
• 54:50
  Speaker 12: 15 minutes. We're going to do 10 carded full speed
• 54:54
  Speaker 12: plays each, and then we'll slow it down. We'll do
• 54:55
  Speaker 12: more of a special teams and a rest of the
• 54:57
  Speaker 12: team mock. And then tomorrow we'll rip and roll. But
• 55:01
  Speaker 12: we did want to be smart with them today, get
• 55:02
  Speaker 12: them back moving. And tomorrow will be pads and Friday
• 55:05
  Speaker 12: will be shelves.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: So.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: All coaches are asked about the leadership and the examples
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: they had. You know, Steve Sarkeesian talks about, you know,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: having Nick Saban and Pete Carroll as mentors. So who
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: is Brian Schottenheimer asked about to lean on.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: As a mentor? I talk to a lot of people.
• 55:23
  Speaker 12: A lot of my peers, you know, I've built up
• 55:27
  Speaker 12: some really good relationships. Bill Cowher is a guy I
• 55:29
  Speaker 12: talk to, you know, a friend of my dad's. You know,
• 55:34
  Speaker 12: but it's different. It's different for different things. You know,
• 55:37
  Speaker 12: and the cool thing about this is when you walk
• 55:41
  Speaker 12: through things like this that are, you know, tough to
• 55:43
  Speaker 12: swallow and tough to say, OK, hey, look yourself in
• 55:45
  Speaker 12: the mirror and say, man, mess that up. Is, you know,
• 55:48
  Speaker 12: people in this business get it because they've made errors
• 55:52
  Speaker 12: as well. And they've faced the criticism that comes with
• 55:55
  Speaker 12: this position. And so it depends. But there's a lot
• 55:58
  Speaker 12: of people. I do rely on a lot of the
• 55:59
  Speaker 12: guys on our staff.
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: Talk to Will. Talk to Jerry. You know, there's a
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: lot of people.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Of course, he's got a young defensive coordinator in Christian Parker.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: So as a younger coach, would it be safe to
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: say that Parker leans on the head coach, Shottie, as
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: a mentor, him being a younger coach?
• 56:17
  Speaker 12: Again, I don't think you need to have age necessarily.
• 56:20
  Speaker 12: I mean, Derek Ansley is a veteran football coach who's got.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: a lot of, what do they say, pelts on the wall.
• 56:27
  Speaker 12: He's been around a lot of great defense. He's been
• 56:29
  Speaker 12: a coordinator. You know, so I think, you know, we
• 56:32
  Speaker 12: have a nice mix. And I don't think that, you know,
• 56:35
  Speaker 12: just because someone's old means they're a good football coach.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: Shotty was also asked if how he's, you know, different
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: coaches have different ways of dealing with.
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: The inside noise.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is in your headset,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: As the head coaches, because the coordinators are talking, the
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: position coaches are talking, and some of that can be
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit traffic-y. But Shottie was asked, does he
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: like to have a lot of voices in his headset
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: for game management? No, I'm more of a quieter guy.
• 57:07
  Speaker 12: Like, I think that's the thing that, you know, really,
• 57:10
  Speaker 12: you know, historically with feeds has been really clean. Certainly
• 57:14
  Speaker 12: wasn't clean enough this past game. But, you know, I'm
• 57:17
  Speaker 12: not a everybody talk guy. I like to hear a
• 57:21
  Speaker 12: voice or two. With game management, it's usually feeder. If it's,
• 57:24
  Speaker 12: you know, offensively, a lot of times it's Clayton. If
• 57:27
  Speaker 12: it's defensively, it's Christian. But everybody's different, you know, Todd. So, like,
• 57:31
  Speaker 12: some people have been on headsets and it's pandemonium. And,
• 57:34
  Speaker 12: you know, I think Kellen.
• 57:35
  Speaker 6: Was that way.
• 57:36
  Speaker 12: Like, I'll give Kellen a lot of credit. Like, Kellen,
• 57:38
  Speaker 12: when he was here, I was on the headsets and
• 57:39
  Speaker 12: it was crazy. I mean, he could just block all
• 57:42
  Speaker 12: that stuff out. And that's not the way I am.
• 57:44
  Speaker 12: I like to hear a voice and then my mind's
• 57:47
  Speaker 12: always working. So, I think it's different for each coach.
• 57:51
  Speaker 12: So they get ready to take on the Houston Texans.
• 57:53
  Speaker 12: Here are the Texans at 0-3 and needing to get
• 57:57
  Speaker 12: something figured out. And D'Amico Ryans, first of all, is
• 58:03
  Speaker 12: happy to have his number one receiver, Nico Collins, back
• 58:06
  Speaker 12: on the field.
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: We're excited to have Nico back out at practice.
• 58:09
  Speaker 13: Everyone understands and knows the type of player Nico is.
• 58:14
  Speaker 6: He's an explosive playmaker.
• 58:15
  Speaker 13: Anytime he's touching the ball, anytime he's on the field,
• 58:18
  Speaker 13: he's a threat. defenses have to prepare for him and
• 58:22
  Speaker 13: they have to, you know, do different things to adjust
• 58:24
  Speaker 13: for him. So we're happy to have Nico back out
• 58:27
  Speaker 13: practicing this week.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Looking at it from the other side, from the defensive side,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: you know, Ryan's will tell you, you know, his defense
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: is looking at two really good receivers. The Cowboys have
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: in CD lamb and George Pickens. What kind of pressure
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: does that put on a defense?
• 58:42
  Speaker 13: Two really good players. CD and George are both explosive players.
• 58:47
  Speaker 13: cd does a great job of you know being able
• 58:49
  Speaker 13: to stretch the field vertically but also having the ability
• 58:52
  Speaker 13: to line in a slot get a match up and
• 58:55
  Speaker 13: make a play uh george does a good job whether
• 58:58
  Speaker 13: it's a slant a short pass his run after catch
• 59:02
  Speaker 13: is really great and he also has the ability to
• 59:04
  Speaker 13: go up and go get contested catches so two big
• 59:07
  Speaker 13: time playmakers at the wide receiver position like you have
• 59:10
  Speaker 13: to make sure we can handle them we're uh we
• 59:13
  Speaker 13: love the corners that we have we know it's going
• 59:15
  Speaker 13: to be a big challenge for our guys but they're up.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: For it so how much does facing nico collins in
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: practice help his young corners who are still trying to
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: get better as the weeks have gone forward Our.
• 59:28
  Speaker 13: Guys get the best when they line up, right, versus
• 59:30
  Speaker 13: Nico every training camp, every practice. So it's great for
• 59:34
  Speaker 13: our guys. We talk about iron sharpening iron all the time.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: It's good on good.
• 59:38
  Speaker 13: So Kamari and Sting being able to work against Nico,
• 59:42
  Speaker 13: I think it's been beneficial to both sides for Nico
• 59:45
  Speaker 13: and also for our corner.
• 59:46
  Speaker 6: So it's a cool matchup, right? We're excited about it.
• 59:51
  Speaker 13: You know, they're two talented players, have a ton of
• 59:53
  Speaker 13: respect for them. and how their offense functions with Dak
• 59:57
  Speaker 13: being able to get those guys to football and get
• 59:59
  Speaker 13: them opportunities to make those plays.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: And one more from D'Amico Ryans was asked about how
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: he balances the use of motion within his offense to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: try to get things jump-started for his team.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 13: Motions have been beneficial, I think, across the NFL. This
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 13: offense is utilizing more motion and the tempo of the motion,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 13: the snap point of the motion.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: It really.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 13: puts defenses in a bind. You have to communicate the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 13: proper way. You have to make sure your eyes are
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 13: in the proper place. Any type of motion, you want
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 13: to get guys out of position just a hair so
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 13: you can have a better angle in the run game
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 13: or get guys looking at the wrong thing in the
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 13: passing game and you got free access. Utilize motion the
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 13: right way and keep mixing it up. It can be
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 13: beneficial for your offense.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: So there they are, the two head coaches, and we'll
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: hear more from them coming up, you know, today and
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: also tomorrow, getting ready for the weekend. The Cowboys will
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: play the Texans Sunday at noon. You can hear the
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Texans broadcast here on AM 13 Under the Zone. You
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: can hear the Cowboys broadcast. on 98.1 FM KVET. We
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: have more coming up when we continue on Sports Radio
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: AM 13 Under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app. Third
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and final hour of the program here on this Thursday
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: afternoon on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone. Craig
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Wade joined by the producer Jay Kerman. Glad to have
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: you with us for another hour here. Coming up in
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: a few minutes, back we go to Major League Baseball.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: and we'll visit with Gene Watson, our MLB insider, of course,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: from the Chicago White Sox front office to talk about
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the White Sox sweeping the Astros and advancing to the
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: American League Division Series matchup with their division rivals, the
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: Cleveland Guardians. The White Sox actually won the regular season
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: series between the two, but kind of faltered down the stretch,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: and the Guardians took the division title undaunted. The White
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Sox then turned around and went to Houston and won
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: two games there at Dyken Park and beat the Astros
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: to advance. It's weird and kind of ironic. Baseball, sometimes
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: these weird things happen because baseball is such a long,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: long sport of history. So the White Sox, as I mentioned,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: won their first playoff series, first postseason series since 2005.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: The 2005 series, the last time they won was the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: World Series when they beat the Astros. And when they
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: beat the Astros at then Minute Maid Park. I think
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: they'd already changed their name from Enron Field to Minute
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Maid Park. But anyway, it was in Houston. It was
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: in that same ballpark. That's the last time that the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: White Sox had won a postseason series, the 2005 World Series.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: And then they beat the Astros to win that. So
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: now they play the Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees, who look
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: very impressive, beat the Boston Red Sox. They're headed to St. Petersburg,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: Florida to play Tropicana Field and play the Tampa Bay
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Rays in that. So that's in the American League. In
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: the National League, of course, tonight's winner between Philadelphia and
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: Atlanta will go to Los Angeles to take on the
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: Dodgers beginning Saturday. And then the other matchup already set
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: in the National League, the Brewers and the Padres as
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: the Padres just absolutely took the Chicago Cubs apart. Going
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: back to what we talked about earlier, the big news
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: from the Cowboys today with Joey Porter going from Pittsburgh
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: to the Cowboys for a six-round draft choice for next
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: year and a 2028 second rounder. Now, Porter has to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: be on the Cowboys game day roster for two games
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: this season. per conditions on that 2027 pick, apparently. Todd
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: Archer had reported that. The trade marks the end of
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: that month-long saga that stretched through the offseason as Porter
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: was trying to get a contract extension and then was
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: sidelined by a back injury. You're talking about a guy
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: who was one of the Steelers' second-round picks in 2023.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: So apparently at the crux of the deal was guaranteed
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: money within the structure of the contract. So they never
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: really made some good progress on trying to agree to terms,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: despite discussing it and negotiating it pretty late on this,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: all the way right up to their regular season opener
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: against the Falcons. And then the Steelers halted the talks
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: because it's their policy. They don't negotiate during the regular season.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: That's their organizational pattern to do that. So as a
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: result of that, Joey Porter is now a Dallas Cowboy.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: And on Instagram this morning, he said, here I come, Dallas.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: So something that helps. Definitely something that the Cowboys need help. Obviously,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: they've had the injuries and even some performance issues in
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: the secondary.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: So it certainly helps them.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: Helps them no matter what they're going to see on
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: the other side for the Texans this week with Nico
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: Collins trying to make his return. You could always use
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: more help in the secondary. It is so tough on
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: teams early in the season when injuries all pile up.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: at the same position. I think we're going to see
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: that with Carolina. Like I told you about on the
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: show yesterday with the injuries that are piling up for
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: them at the cornerback position. So look, the Cowboys still
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: feel as though they can win and make waves with
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: this roster. I think you watch the Philadelphia Eagles play
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: on Monday night. You can't think anything, but this division
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: is still wide open, still right there for the taking.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: And they went out and got their guy.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: In case you're wondering, How soon, how ready could Porter
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: be to play for Dallas? Adam Schefter had reported that
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: there was a chance that he could be ready to
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: go Sunday against the Texans. So they want to try
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: to get him ready because of all the injuries that
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: the Cowboys have had in the secondary, let alone the
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: issues they've had with– some of the performances. Well, Porter
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: had been a full participant in the Monday and Tuesday
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: walkthroughs for the Steelers before their game in Cleveland and
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: was tonight and was ruled out earlier for their game
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: against the Browns.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: So we'll see how all that goes.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: All right, coming up next, we jump back to baseball
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: and we'll visit with Gene Watson. our MLB insider from
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: the Chicago White Sox front office, get his thoughts on
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: the White Sox rather eyebrow-raising advance to the American League
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Division Series. We'll do that when we continue right here
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: on Sports Radio AM 13 under the zone at the
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: He swings and drives one in the air.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 6: It is deep.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: It is back there at left center.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 10: It is gone.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 14: It's a three-run homer for Chase Babe Ruth Meindroth. Oh, my,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 14: did he stay on the ball. Looked like a cutter
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 14: that he just leaned into and crushed it out of
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 14: here to left center field. What a swing. What a
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 14: time for it. They've got their four-run lead back.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: Here's a 2-2.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 6: Swing and a miss. Strike three.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: Ball game over.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: Series over.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: It's a sweep.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 14: And we're headed to Cleveland.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 6: How about that?
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: The Chicago White Sox, their first playoff series win since
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: the World Series championship season of 2005. As they sweep
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: out the Houston Astros winning yesterday and 7-3 after winning
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the opener 6-3. And so they win it two games
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: to none and it's on to the ALDS lineup. And
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: a matchup with their division rivals, the Cleveland Guardians. We
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: welcome you back here on Sports Radio AM 1300, The Zone.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: And it is time.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: You know, we have a regularly scheduled conversation with our
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: MLB insider, Gene Watson. He just happens to work in
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the Chicago White Sox front office. He just happens to
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: be a big part of the reason why the White
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Sox have turned it around. from three consecutive 100-loss seasons
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: into becoming the first team in Major League history to
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: reach the postseason after three straight 100-loss campaigns. And Gino's
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: been there for two years now in getting this thing
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: turned back around. So should I even ask you what
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: time you went to bed last night, even though the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: game ended probably around just after 7 o'clock last night?
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 4: It wasn't that we went to bed late. is that
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: it felt like it was three o'clock in the morning.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: And it was, uh, such a, such a special, and
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: I just smelt my hands.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: They smell, smell like champagne. I got to go wash
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: my hands.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 4: But it was, uh, it was an incredible night to have,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: you know, my kids, my grandkids, my sister, her husband,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 4: everybody on the field after the game. And it was just, uh,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: a magical night. And, uh, You know, I don't think
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: this team's done. We're young and dumb and playing dangerous.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: And so we're going to move on to Cleveland and
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: see what we can do.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: Linda asked me to ask you, because I was coming
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: back from campus and I didn't get home until the
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: coverage had kind of ended on Peacock. Were you in
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: the clubhouse? Because I know you've been in the past,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: like with the Royals and the Marlins. So were you
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: in the clubhouse during the celebration?
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 8: Oh, yeah.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: There's some pretty good videos. I got a lot of
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: people sending me pictures and videos. It's funny.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: You engage with the players and you lift them up
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: every time you see them. I can't wait to watch
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: you play tonight. I would pay to watch you play tonight.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: The message to the players yesterday for me was, we
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: got them on the ropes.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 3: Let's knock them out. And so.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: In that moment when it's over, you know, all those
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: conversations throughout the season, the things, the little things you
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: say to the players to encourage and lift up, you
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: find out who that matters to. Because I had guys
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: dumping champagne on me. I'm like, I had no idea
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: you even knew who I was.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: It was a special moment. There's no burn in the world.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: Like the burn of champagne in October. It was really something.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: And I heard some guys, it might have been C.C.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Sabathie who was talking about this, or a couple of
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: different guys. I know your old cohort, Eric Hosmer, who
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: had been with Kansas City, of course, all those great
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: years with the Royals, and he was part of Peacock's
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: coverage in the studio. And they were asking them about,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: because people do this every year, Gino, every single year,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: there are some people out there who say you know
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: they're celebrating they just won a wild card or they
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: just made the playoffs or rather celebrate it was champagne
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: absolutely and they were saying you should celebrate every single
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: step that you make it along the way that's what
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: makes but one of the things that makes baseball different
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: than than say some of the other sports you get
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: a chance to celebrate every step along the way and
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: these guys certainly earned.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: It no question you have to celebrate and honor You know,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 4: your organization, your players, the history and every every market
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: is a little bit different. What the expectations level level
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: level is and what the experiences are.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 3: But but you cannot take any of this for granted.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: And if you.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: Look, I mean, you play 162 games and in two games,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 4: your season's over. So you have to celebrate every little
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: moment that you can. And it's a building block. for
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 4: the future. We will have guys on this team that,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 4: that won't be here next year, but the people that
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: are a part of this now and moving forward, these
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: experiences are what's going to carry us through in 27
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: and 28, 29.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Many, many flowers being given and rightly so to will
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: Venable and what he's done with the management of this team. And,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: you know, and they were showing him when he was
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: on the ranger staff, there's a coach and, and then,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and then what he's done. as skipper of the White Sox.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: What do you think is his best gift, his skill set,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: his toolbox that has enabled him to manage this club
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: to achieve some things that have never been done before?
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: Well, I say this a lot.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: I have so many friends that have been major league
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: managers that I knew when they were minor league players,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: major league players, even front office executives before they moved
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: in that chair. And oftentimes guys move into that chair
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: and they feel like they have to change their personality.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 4: They have to take on this tough guy personality. They've
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: got to fight and sound angry. And Will has never
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: changed one bit since I saw him play in college
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: at Princeton in the minor leagues with the Padres.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: He was the.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 4: Same guy last night after that game as he was
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: back in the day.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: It's just his patience and his mind.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 4: And really the ability to surround himself with some really
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: smart people, great people.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: He's an unbelievable listener. And we're just so fortunate to
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: have him and Chris gets as our leaders of this organization.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 4: And he's a, he's a special baseball man, special husband,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 4: special father. And when you get those three things combined,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: it's a very, very special human being.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: So I asked you that part. Now I, you know, what,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: You and I have talked about this during the course
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: of the season as the season progresses, progressed that here
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: was a milestone. Here was a mile post. Here was
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: another mile post. And your ball club continued to be
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: in first place or in the race or whatever all
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: the way through. And all along, you said, yeah, we're
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: kind of ahead of schedule. We're kind of ahead of
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: a schedule. What made it ahead of schedule in not
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: only what Will Venable did as manager, but from your
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: executive position, looking at what happened on the field, what
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: accelerated all of this to make this possible that now
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: you're in baseball's version of the Elite Eight?
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: I think you have to connect the dots on player evaluations.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 4: And I would say the first one was Miguel Vargas,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: who we got from the Dodgers, who everybody, it's well
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 4: documented the struggles he had the first really season and
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 4: a half that he came over here and just being
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 4: traded from the best team in the world to the
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: worst team in baseball history and what that does to
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: your mindset and your psychology.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: And do I really believe that I can do this? Well, okay,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: what do you do?
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 4: You bring in Minataki Murakami and just the relationship that
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 4: they have. and how they have carried each other and
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 4: lifted each other's up.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: And protected each other and loved one another.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: And then you add Colson Montgomery, who led Major League
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 4: Baseball in strikeout history this year, but also hit 30-plus
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: home runs. You add a Braden Montgomery. You know, you
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 4: get Grant Taylor in his maximum role. You just sprinkle in,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 4: you know, every day in this game is a chance
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 4: to improve your 26, your 40-man, your minor league.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: System via different vehicles.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: And if you work hard every day and you filter
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 4: players as hard as you can every day, You're going
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 4: to wake up one day and you're going to have
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 4: a very good minor league system and you're going to
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: have a very good major league team.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: But a lot of it on the major league.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: Side is the complexion of the character and the makeup.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 4: And these guys are just not afraid. And Mike Bassel,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: who's been on the aisle all year long, has been
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 4: one of the leaders of this team and bringing everybody together.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: So it's just a really unique situation. I've seen it.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 3: You know, we had it in Miami. We had it
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: in Kansas City. And now we have it in Chicago.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: Talking baseball with Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: here on 1300 The Zone. I want to ask you
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: about some strategy things, what you've noticed. And these are,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: you know, Will Venable and his staff. One of the
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: things that comes to mind was after the Astros had
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: narrowed that 4-0 deficit to 4-3, you've got Jordan Alvarez
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: coming to the plate with two runners on base. And
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: so Venable comes out and he brings left-hander Anthony Kaye in.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: who had worked almost entirely as a starter during the year.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: And he gets Alvarez on a sharply hit fly ball
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: for the second out of the inning. And then after that,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: and by the way, Alvarez goes one for eight in
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: the series, including 0 for 4 yesterday. And then the
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: decisions made to walk, well, Isak Paredes walks. And then
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: Altuve comes to the plate. He'd homered earlier in the game.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: and then they get him. Kay retires him on a
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: fly ball to right. The pitching decisions seem to be
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: strokes of genius at times, and I know there's a
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: lot of people who say with the way that the
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: White Sox play, approach this, that it's not sustainable to
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: continue to do bullpenning or by committee and this sort
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: of thing. But I also know from what you told
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: me is that, you know, there's been times during the
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: course of the year you had to do it. And
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: so we obviously had no hesitation.
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: Going to this.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 6: No question.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 3: You know, I was actually, I was so nervous.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 4: I was walking the stadium and when Altuve hit that ball,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 4: it was coming right to me and I thought it
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 4: was in the stands. And he did such an amazing
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 4: job of, like, I advanced the Astros for 11 games
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: coming into the series.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 3: And we had a.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 4: Game plan for him. We had a game plan for Jordan.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: And it went fairly well. But Altuve made some tremendous
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 4: adjustments from the series in Sacramento.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 3: To this series. And that's what makes him such a
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: special player.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 4: But, but, you know, Craig, you know, the average start
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 4: in major league baseball now is four and two thirds innings. And,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 4: you know, there, there are some very talented teams right
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 4: now with the New York Yankees, the Phillies, the Padres,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 4: the Dodgers that have great rotations. And that gives you
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 4: somewhat of an advantage. But the fact of the matter is,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 4: if you've got 13 guys that know their role and
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 4: can execute their role, you have a chance. We knew
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 4: that Anthony Kaye, with his breaking ball, had a chance
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 4: to have an effect on Jordan, and it did. And
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 4: we're just super proud of the way we game plan
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 4: and the way the players execute it.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, so now it's matching up with the Guardians. And
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: one thing that can certainly be said about this division
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: series matchup is that the two teams know each other very,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: very well and that the White Sox actually won the
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: season series from Cleveland. So what do you consider as
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: the ball club leaves today for Cleveland to be the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: biggest challenges that the Guardians pose for the White Sox
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: and what the White Sox pose for the Guardians? since
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: they won the regular season series between the two.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, they are such a talented team offensively.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 4: When you talk about Travis Bazana and Rice Hopkins, Nate Lowe,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 4: Jose Ramirez, I would consider to be their Yorda on Alvarez.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 4: You just can't let them beat you. They played well.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: They played together. They're the more experienced team for sure,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 4: even though we did win the season series against them.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: But our guys aren't afraid.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 4: And when you have a team like we have, The
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: opponents are somewhat faceless. And so, you know, we're going
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 4: to go in there and play our best baseball and
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 4: put the game in motion and do everything we can.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 4: But I think it's going to be a wonderful series.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 4: I expect it to go four or five games. It's
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: going to be really cool. Two great baseball cities with
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 4: baseball fans. And it's going to be a dogfight. It's
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 4: going to be a great series.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, let me get your thoughts on the other series.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: We know the other ALDS series, the Yankees, looked very
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: impressive in sweeping out the Red Sox. Now they go
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: to St. Pete. Tampa Bay had the best record in
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: the American League this season. How do you size up
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: this matchup between the Devil Rays and the Yankees?
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: Well, the Yankees have tremendous starting pitching. It was a
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: blow that Judge wasn't able to play in that series.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know if he'll be back. um, uh, for
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: this series, but, but they're starting pitching extremely well. The
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 4: biggest thing, and I think we saw this going back
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: to when, uh, you know, Elliot Johnson ran over Francisco
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 4: Cervelli back, you know, like 2012 is Tampa Bay.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 3: They don't fear the Yankees anymore.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 4: They, they feel like they are the superior team, the
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 4: superior organization. And, you know, talk about pitching chaos. That's
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 4: kind of what they do. Similar to what we've done.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 4: I do think the Yankees are kind of really hot
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 4: right now. I think that, that for, for as experienced
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 4: as they are and what the expectations are, are for
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 4: the New York Yankees. I think there's kind of this
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: us versus the world feeling for them. And I know
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 4: that they're tired of getting beat by Tampa Bay for
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 4: the market size and the way they do things. And
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 4: this is going to be another tremendous series for baseball.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: You think Rice and Bellinger pose the biggest threats to
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: what Tampa Bay does pitching?
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 3: No question. You can't let those guys beat you.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 6: And no matter.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 3: For me, and this is just... We had.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: It first line on our advance report. Do not let
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: Jordan Alavarez beat you. So in those moments, you're willing
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 4: to roll the dice on the hitters behind in those
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 4: moments to maybe pitch on the edges to try to
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 4: get themselves out.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 3: But it's just.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 4: It's just mind-boggling to let somebody like that beat you.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: So that would be the most important thing.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 4: But they give you a lot of different looks on
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 4: the mound, a lot of different velocities, a lot of
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: different arm angles. And so it'll be interesting to see
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 4: how the Yankees perform. But it's going to be a
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 4: super series.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: Gene Watson, our MLB insider, joining us here for a
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: few more minutes here on 1300 Zone. Let's jump to
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: the National League. You mentioned it a couple of weeks ago.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: You said the Padres were about as dangerous as anybody
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: could get. And they certainly looked the part in sweeping
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: out the Cubs as well. So now the Padres are
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: going to deal with the Brewers, who had the best
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: record in all of baseball and won 103 ballgames this year.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: How do you see this San Diego-Milwaukee series shaping up?
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: You know my.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 4: Biggest fear with any team. I'm not about the sit back.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, the Cubs... had a very good team. They
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 4: were able to dispose of them too, which, which.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: Doesn't tax the pitching as much.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: As, as if the series had gone three, they're going
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 4: to get a couple of days off. But this Padre
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 4: team is super dangerous right now. They're the most experienced
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 4: team that they've had since 1998. When we went to
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 4: the world series, they're going into a really, really incredible
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 4: environment in Milwaukee, an incredibly managed team. but momentum is
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 4: your next day starting pitcher. Jacob Misurowski is, is arguably
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: one of the best in the game.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 3: And so it's going to be.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 4: A great series, but, but the, again, the momentum of
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 4: having to keep playing. And I truly believe that's what
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 4: helped us is not having to sit for five days
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 4: and then go play whomever us having a young players
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 4: having to keep going.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 3: I think that momentum sometimes.
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: Is very hard to be in the Padres are on
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 4: a mission and, And this is going to be a really,
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 4: for all the built for 162 that you have in
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 4: that roster in Milwaukee, the Padres are the more experienced team.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 3: They're the hotter team. And this is going to be
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: a really, really big series for them.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: I have a theory on this. See what you think
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: about this. I did a little research. I did a
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: little digging, looking that since the wild cards, since MLB
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: went to the best of three wild card series, which
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: started in 2022, The teams that were most dangerous that
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: had to play in the wild card were the teams
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: that won quickly, that won two in a row and had,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: as you just mentioned, a day or two off as
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: opposed to the ones that got extended to a third
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: game and only got one day off and had to travel,
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: which is going to be the case for the Phillies
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: Braves winner having to go to LA. But the dangerous
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: ones like your ball club, And like the Padres and
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: like the Yankees are the ones that are best positioned
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: perhaps to pull the surprise in the division series because
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: they had just enough rest, but not too much rest
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: to run the risk of rust. And we're ready to go.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: Does that sound like it makes sense?
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 6: No question.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 4: It's a very fine line. It's a very good balance.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 4: And the thing you just don't want is you don't
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 4: want your hitters to be sitting and lose the sharpness
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 4: of seeing the velocity and just the in-game mentality that
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 4: comes with.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: The offensive approach.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 4: For the arms, the rest is always good. It's more
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 4: about your offense and keeping those guys sharp because you
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 4: can't emulate in-game, even with the tracks that they have
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 4: now with the pitchers that you can actually see the arms.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 4: It's just not the same as a third deck, the
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 4: lights on, a full crowd, a packed house.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 3: You don't get that adrenaline rush and that momentum that
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: you get.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 4: So I think it's super important that you don't get
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 4: that rest, that you stay sharp. But the one thing
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 4: that I would love to see is once the season
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 4: is over, you do a little receipt because there are
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 4: some series like the Yankees and Red Sox that I
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 4: just don't believe should be, should be over in two games.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 4: That that's too good for baseball for that to happen.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 4: And I think the reseating of the playoffs is something
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 4: that they need to look at.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you about now Phillies and Braves. They've
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: had all kinds of drama. Austin Riley gets the three
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: run bomb in the eighth inning, a game one to
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: give him the lead. The Phillies are down three to
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: one in the eighth after Bryce Harper makes the, the,
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the defensive mistake. It wasn't charged as an error, but
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: the misplay on the fly ball, they get down 3-1,
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: and then Schwarber and Harper go back-to-back to tie it,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: and then Baum gets the home run to win it
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: in the 10th. So now they've got one more between
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: these two, and then the winner has to go to L.A.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 3: And face the Dodgers.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: So let me get your thoughts, first of all, on
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: game number three tonight, the only wild card series that's
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: going to do a decisive third game, and who you
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: think the survivor might be and how they match up with, the.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 4: Dodgers yeah well any matchup versus the dodgers is going
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 4: to be difficult especially flying cross-country uh what that does
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 4: to your body physically and the time change and just
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 4: the the lag of the flight but uh you know
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 4: in philly there's just something about you know this team
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 4: that that i'm i'm concerned for atlanta and atlanta you
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 4: know they're probably going to have multiple arms Grant Holmes,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 4: Brent Suter, Kerr, they're probably going to have multiple arms
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 4: that have to split the load to get them to
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 4: the later part of the game.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 3: And their offense has got to come out and hit.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 4: But there's just something about the Phillies right now that
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 4: I think Same type of thing. They've got a little
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 4: something to prove. They have not played great down the line.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 4: Bryce Harper makes the error yesterday when he goes from
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 4: sunlight to shade. There's just something about this team that
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 4: I think they're going to show up today and get
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 4: it done.
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 3: And move on to L.A.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 4: But as I've said before, the 162 for the Dodgers
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 4: doesn't matter. They wish the season away to get to October.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 4: They know this is their time. And the biggest stars
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 4: shine this time of year for them.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 3: And they're still... the favorites to win the world championship
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: He's gene watson uh mlb insider for us front office
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: man extraordinaire for the chicago white socks who are moving
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: on to the alds gino hey enjoy the uh the
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: trip up to cleveland have a great weekend on it
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: we'll visit next week hopefully we're talking about the socks
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: and the alcs at the end of next week appreciate
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: All right, Craig. Thank you. Appreciate you. Take care. You bet.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: That is Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox. We
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: have more coming up here on this Thursday afternoon on
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 3: And the iHeartRadio.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: All right, so the celebration continues. Thanks again to Gene
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: Watson joining us on a very busy travel day with
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: him taking off to Cleveland now. Not only are the
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox celebrating, but the New York Yankees and
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: also the San Diego Padres. If you saw, yeah, the
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: champagne gets sprayed around. We were talking about it with Gino,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: and again, I heard, I think it was CeCe Sabathia
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: talking about it and Eric Hosmer. that you celebrate every
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: step because it's different in baseball than the others. So
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: we'll see what happens with Philly's Braves game three tonight
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: to see who goes to Los Angeles to play the
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: Dodgers in the NL division series. But I want to
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: go back to that White Sox thing for a moment.
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: I saw this as well. Minataka Murakami, whose command of
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: the English language is about like Shohei Otani's. It's not great.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: but he was visiting a locker room. And I give
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: the locker room reporter for Peacock credit for trying to
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: get some good celebratory responses from him.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 2: Hey, you gotta tell me, what are you feeling right now?
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 4: 100!
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: 100?
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 9: Not a thousand this time?
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah, 100!
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 2: I am Japanese!
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 12: Hey, it's early in Japan.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: They're celebrating with you.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 13: Anything you want to say to them?
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 3: Same, hi. Same, same.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 13: Same.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he's the rock! He's the rock!
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: Pointing to his translator.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: But he's drunk.
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 2: You told me you didn't need him.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 7: I'm drunk. Yeah, yesterday, maybe hungover.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow hungover.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 7: No, no, yesterday.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 3: Tomorrow.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah, sorry. I don't speak English.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: You don't need the translator.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 3: Congratulations.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: His English might actually be better than Shohei's a little bit.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: He might not have the command of the English language,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: but he commands the English language.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. So there was that.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: All right, let me jump to the NFL and some
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: more from Brian Schottenheimer. And he was asked about his
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: team's response on the practice field, what that has been
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: like this week.
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 12: Again, I think it's hard when you give them two
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 12: days off. They're ready to move on. They're ready to
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 12: get into the prep. But I felt it was really
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 12: important for us to see the film. So we literally
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 12: started with the film. And the reason we did that
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 12: is I wanted them to see some of the really
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 12: good things that we did in the game, whether it
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 12: was third down and fourth down defense. whether it was
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 12: the running game on offense. I wanted them to see that.
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 12: I thought that was important. But this team is resilient.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 12: They're ready to get on to Houston. We talked about
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 12: being mentally tough and blocking out the noise. There's always
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 12: going to be noise when you go through tough times
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 12: like this. But we're three games in, and I do
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 12: see us playing better. I pointed a couple of those
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 12: things out. The red zone two weeks ago was really,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 12: really good for the defense. Third down this week was really,
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 12: really good. We got the running game going. very businesslike today,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 12: very businesslike.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: So the Cowboys are one and two, but they're playing
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: an 0-3 Texans team. And when you are winless in
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: the early stages of the season, you are described as
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: being a desperate football team. So does Shottie get his
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: guys to lean into the fact that they're going to
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: be facing a desperate Texans team on Sunday?
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 3: No, I think both teams are motivated.
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 12: Both teams, you know, as we look at the next game,
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 12: you know, we know that we want to focus on us,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 12: but clearly when you watch them play, they're not an
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 12: Owen three team. Their record says their own three, but, um,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 12: hard pressed to find a better defense than this front. Um,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 12: the two corners are outstanding, you know, um, safeties are really,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 12: really good. So it was very, very talented. They're beat
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 12: up right now at linebacker on defense. And then they've got,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 12: you know, uh, the quarterback that's very, very talented.
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 3: They got Nico.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: I think we expect to have him back this week.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 12: We always prepare for that to have the guys come back. Um,
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 12: And then, of course, they're a well-coached team, so they'll
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 12: be ready to play back at home.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 3: So it's two teams that want to win.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: So Houston has had problems protecting the quarterback, and C.J.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: Stroud's been under a lot of pressure. So Schottenheimer's asked,
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: is this an opportunity to garner some sacks?
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 12: You know, again, I think he's got a good feel.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 12: They're a big QB movement team. So they're going to
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 12: change the launch point and boot them and do things
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 12: like that to change the spot.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 3: But if we can get them into.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 12: Enough long yardage or longer yardage passing situations, there are
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 12: some things from a matchup standpoint that we like from
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 12: a game plan standpoint that we talked about yesterday that
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 12: we feel good about. But it's not just like we said,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 12: getting them off the spot. We need to try to
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 12: get them on the ground.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Andy was asked about Malachi Lawrence. Could he see some
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: more snaps? And will we see more rotation out of
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: the defensive line?
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I think part of early season football is figuring
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 12: out the RPMs that these guys play at. I think
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 12: you saw us do that a little bit with Quinnen
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 12: and Kenny. We lowered their snap count. I think that helped.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 12: So we'd like to balance that out for sure a
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 12: little bit. Malachi is a young player. He needs to play.
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 12: He's going to make mistakes. Vaughn's a guy that's always
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 12: going to be on pitch count. But if we can
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 12: take a little bit off of RG and easy and
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 12: give it to those two guys, I think that will
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 12: certainly help us. But That's a pretty common theme during
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 12: the early stages of the season because you're trying to
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 12: figure out these guys don't want to come out. And
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 12: it's our job to make sure we manage it so
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 12: they feel great going into the fourth quarter when you're
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 12: going to really need them.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: Now from the other side, hearing it from D'Amico Ryans,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: the Texans head coach, he was talking about his defense
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: and what goes into tightening the defense defensively. in the
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: passing game, especially over the middle where some big gains
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: have been achieved against the Texan defense?
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 13: Okay, in the passing game, in the middle of our defense,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 13: where some plays have gotten out on us is it
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 13: comes down to tackling. I think that's the main thing.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 13: A couple times the ball got checked down, specifically last week,
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 13: the ball gets checked.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 3: Down over the middle of the defense.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 13: We've got to do a better job of having our
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 13: cleats in the ground set, ball out breaking, and making
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 13: sure we're wrapping up.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 13: We missed a lot of tackles that led to some
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 13: positive plays happening on us in the middle of the defense.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 13: Don't think it's just an issue with the middle of
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 13: the defense. It comes down to tackling.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: It's a tough deal for Mario Edwards being out for
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: the season and as he's out here, potentially missing time
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 13: Really tough news hearing Mario be missing the rest of
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 13: the season. Like Mario, he brought a different intensity to
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 13: our defense. Like outstanding energy on the field just seeing
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 13: his effort seeing his tenacity every single snap like he's
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 13: we're gonna miss him a lot miss him being in
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 13: the building miss him gonna miss him on the field
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 13: so guys have to step up you know in the
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 13: area where he was i mean he was really dynamic
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 13: as a pass rusher as well so we're gonna miss
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 13: him a lot and with the z's you know we'll
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 13: with Aziz possibly missing some time and other linebackers.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 6: We got young backers.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 13: We got to step up and play. So those guys,
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 13: we're preparing them the right way. We're training them hard
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 13: to make sure they're on the details. As I'm telling
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 13: those guys and coaching them up, man, it's just about
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 13: your eyes got to be right, right? And we just
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 13: got to go play fast. Don't overthink it. It's still football.
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 13: Like you played linebacker before. Just be where you're supposed
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 13: to be. Communicate the proper way, go play fast, physical,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 13: have some fun.
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: Injuries, he was asked also about the progress that Reed
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: Blankenship has made.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 13: Reed has progressed from week one to week three. He's
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 13: definitely gotten better. Did a great job of just being
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 13: in the proper position and attacking the football the right way,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 13: getting us the football there. Late in the drive last
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 13: week was big for us, and he'll continue to improve.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: And with all the injuries the Texans have sustained, including
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: in that linebacking spot, as well as some of the
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: other things, he was asked about the challenge of new
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: players having to step in and fill the void there
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: at linebacker.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 13: The biggest thing for me when you have new guys
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 13: step in is not trying to overdo it when you
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 13: step in. You don't need to fill anyone else's shoes.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 13: You just have to be the best that you can
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 13: possibly be. And that's all I ask of those guys.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 13: Give me all the effort you got, all the communication
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 13: you have, pre-snap, making sure we're all working together. They're
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 13: not out there by themselves. And the game isn't just
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 13: on those guys. They are just a piece of the
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 13: puzzle in my mind. So you have to do your
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 13: piece the proper way for the puzzle to work.
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: So there it is, comments from the head coaches who
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: will oppose one another this Sunday night. They're at Reliance
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: Stadium at noon, and that'll be the Cowboys and the Texans.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 3: Brian Schottenheimer, the head coach of the Cowboys. D'Amico Ryans,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 3: the head coach of the Texans.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: We'll be back to wrap up today's edition of the
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: program here on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: and the iHeartRadio app.