Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / David Kaplan talks Caleb Williams, Cubs & new Bears stadium, Brian Walton on the Cardinals & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

Transcript

David Kaplan talks Caleb Williams, Cubs & new Bears stadium, Brian Walton on the Cardinals & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:01
  I'm #2 Millery Condon, welcome back, Iowa Sports Radio Network,
• 0:05
  wherever you're listening in the state of Iowa, we are grateful
• 0:07
  that you are and trust you'll keep it with the drive that
• 0:10
  comes up at the top of the hour is Heather and Lucas take you
• 0:13
  until 5:00. Let's talk to our buddy David
• 0:16
  Kaplan. Centurion Stone of Iowa sponsors
• 0:18
  KAPI on a weekly basis. ESPN 1000 and the Caps YouTube
• 0:24
  channel continues to blow up. CAP, good to talk to you as
• 0:27
  always. Trenton, Ken, How are you?
• 0:30
  I am awesome. I wish the weather was better,
• 0:33
  but other than that, you know, that's small potatoes.
• 0:37
  Everything else is good and we're.
• 0:38
  Blessed and you live in a wonderful city, no doubt about
• 0:41
  that Cap, I want to start with you because it was shortly after
• 0:45
  our conversation last Wednesday that the the news broke about
• 0:48
  Caleb Williams etcetera. I don't have a problem with it,
• 0:52
  but I'm guessing that that probably wasn't the consensus in
• 0:57
  the in the city of Chicago with some of your listeners.
• 1:00
  The dad was trying to, you know, look out for the best and
• 1:03
  seemingly like Caleb Williams, if he did have some concerns
• 1:07
  about Hallis Hall, etcetera, those are a thing of the past as
• 1:11
  he seems like he's all in now. But how did the revelations go
• 1:14
  over prior to being drafted last year Cap?
• 1:17
  How was that with the your listeners etcetera?
• 1:20
  I don't think our listeners really had much of a problem.
• 1:23
  There were a couple, but most I think understood it was a dad
• 1:28
  looking out for his kid. And if you put your Bears fan
• 1:32
  cap to the side and you think about it, it is where
• 1:37
  quarterbacks have gone to die here.
• 1:39
  I mean, whether you drafted Kate Mcnown or Rex Grossman or
• 1:45
  Mitchell Trubisky or Justin Fields, none of those dudes have
• 1:49
  made it. Now, some of that obviously
• 1:52
  falls on the player, but some of it falls on the lousy job that
• 1:59
  this organization has done at supporting their quarterbacks
• 2:03
  and making the right choices. And you know, they go get Jay
• 2:06
  Cutler, who I was no fan of. I didn't like to trade the day
• 2:10
  they made it upgrade. I didn't at all.
• 2:13
  But they did. They upgrade the online.
• 2:16
  No, Johnny Knox and Devin Hester are your top 2 receivers.
• 2:20
  Enough said. So they've made more than their
• 2:23
  share of problems as an organization.
• 2:26
  And I don't think most fans here had a problem that Carl the
• 2:31
  father decided, hey, man, I want to look out for my kid.
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  I don't want him going to Chicago.
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  We get one bite at this. And that's what we're hoping,
• 2:40
  that he becomes this legendary player.
• 2:43
  Now that it's Ben Johnson, I think Caleb's all in, and I
• 2:48
  think Caleb has been all in. But I do think he had concerns.
• 2:52
  And I can't state strongly enough how awful a head coach
• 2:56
  Matt Eberflus was. Awful.
• 3:00
  Couple of with the decision to bring in Shane Waldron for year
• 3:03
  #1A guy that there were reports out there last summer that this
• 3:06
  guy was already in over his head and we saw he didn't even make
• 3:09
  it halfway through the year, just how ugly that it was.
• 3:12
  My one concern would be when that rough stretch happens, if
• 3:17
  there's something negative that is out there, that this is just
• 3:21
  more fuel to the fire. The hope is obviously you don't
• 3:23
  have to worry about that. But that next downstretch and
• 3:26
  the fan base starts to say, well, it didn't even want to be
• 3:28
  here and just the negativity, it's just not needed.
• 3:31
  And and that's the frustrating aspect to me.
• 3:32
  Kathy, how about you? Yeah, you mean you're talking
• 3:36
  about the negativity from Caleb? Well just the fan base has more
• 3:40
  ammunition now when there is that bad game, when he does
• 3:43
  struggle because he's not going to be perfect every game.
• 3:46
  Yeah, I don't think the fan base looks at.
• 3:48
  I do think the fan base looked at it in large part.
• 3:52
  And I mean, we got, you know, tons of calls.
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  It's a dead story. It's old.
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  It's not as though Eva Flus is still here.
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  Caleb is all in. They hired the guy he wanted.
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  They drafted the wide receiver he wanted.
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  They have upgraded the offensive line like he asked.
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  They have put everything around him.
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  And now you know the excuses, probably they have to go to the
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  side there. They have done all they can do
• 4:21
  to support this young quarterback going into Year 2.
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  Now it's on him. He got his coach.
• 4:27
  Now let's see what you can do. Yeah, and and it's going to be
• 4:30
  fun to watch, Cap, because I think they're headed to the
• 4:32
  playoffs. But we got plenty of time to
• 4:33
  speculate on that as we get closer.
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  The Cubs are currently in action there.
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  If they're through three in Miami, it's 11.
• 4:40
  Kyle Tucker is homered again. Cap, any help?
• 4:43
  A homered yesterday. Where?
• 4:45
  1:00 today for those those of us that played it.
• 4:48
  OK, good. Nice.
• 4:50
  Well done. You've got that one in the win
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  column already, not? First inning I was like, get out
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  of here. Really, it did.
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  I'm. Like, you got to love those,
• 4:57
  right? Yeah.
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  I was surprised. I thought he was a better
• 5:01
  defensive right fielder early. I mean, I thought he cost him
• 5:05
  the game, I guess what I thought.
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  But he cost him the game the other night.
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  I mean, he misplayed that ball late in the game, did he not?
• 5:12
  He's got to make that catch. I mean, I think he took a bad
• 5:16
  route on it, no question. I mean, I don't know what the
• 5:20
  stat cast analytics or baseball savant analytics say the catch
• 5:25
  probability that ball was smoked.
• 5:28
  It would have been a hell of a play.
• 5:30
  But and I like Daniel Palencia. So this is not me being Daniel
• 5:35
  Palencia throws 101, but OK, so that guy's on second base.
• 5:40
  You can't walk the 9 hole hitter.
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  You can't and then go that can pull up the overhead shot of the
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  game-winning hit. Michael Bush is like 12 feet off
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  of the first baseline. Why are we not in a no double S
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  defense? And that's the ball game.
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  So yeah, that again, I think Tucker's a very good defender.
• 6:03
  I think he's an outstanding baseball player and I would pay
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  the dudes sooner rather than later.
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  Will he accept it if they tried? Yeah, I think if they came
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  correct, you know, if they come in there and go, hey, we'd like
• 6:15
  to pay 10 million a year, he would be like, you're funny.
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  But you know, if you come correct, he's going to, he's
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  going to be 29 before next season January he turns 29.
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  I would think he'll get 10 years, maybe 11, because the
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  longer the deal, the less it is per year I would think they'll
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  offer him. I'm going to guess we'll call it
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  11 years at 440 million, something like that.
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  And if he does get that offer, I think he absolutely takes it.
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  Glad he got over 5. Yeah, but glad he did it over 15
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  years. He's 25, so it's different.
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  I think he wants average annual value as opposed to how much
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  he's going to get in terms of length of contract.
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  He's not getting 15 years so that he signed till age 44.
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  No one would do that. So that's where I think the
• 7:19
  number will come in like 40, let's call it 4243, something
• 7:25
  like that per season. Give us a quick take on both of
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  the young guys we got to see a ton here.
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  Your thoughts on Kate Horton after his two appearances and
• 7:34
  Ballesteros making his way back down?
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  What you've seen so far from both those guys?
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  I I like them both by Esteros. I think it's going to be a
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  really good player. They just, there was a numbers
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  crunch and he had options. So I do think could he be the
• 7:51
  centerpiece or a big part of a trade for pitching in July?
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  No question about it. That's maybe why they brought
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  him up. And he was not a guy that looked
• 8:02
  over Matt. He did not.
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  So I think he has a chance to maybe be in a deal.
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  I don't know where you're going to play him otherwise.
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  Where does he play? You've got 2 catchers.
• 8:14
  You've got them both long term. Carson Kelly has another year in
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  his deal and Maya hasn't even reached free agency yet.
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  He's not going to play first. So I don't know what you do with
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  him. He got Saya as the DHI.
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  Don't think you're going to put him as your DH and trade say
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  that. I don't think they would do so.
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  I like him. And then Kate Horton I'm a big
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  fan of. I think he has a chance to be a
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  really, really impactful starting pitcher for the Chicago
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  Cubs. He's, you know, raw.
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  He's young. He's 23.
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  This is third game in the big leagues.
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  Going to take him some time. We've seen him struggle at the
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  start of his appearances last week against the White Sox.
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  Today, he loaded the bases and gave up a run.
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  And then Nico Horner made a hell of a play to end the first
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  inning. But I do think he has electric
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  stuff and I do think he'll be a really, really big part of their
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  rotation for a long time. I know it's only what, 3 Game,
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  2, two or three, two games? I think.
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  Today's his third game since Matt Shaw has been recalled and
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  has taken his place at third base.
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  Any concerns about the hitting, at least early in his return,
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  look to be alleviated. Looks like when he came down
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  here to work on cap, he took those lessons to heart.
• 9:30
  He looks like he's a Major League third baseman at least
• 9:34
  three games into his return. Yeah, he made a really big stop.
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  They didn't get the out. He made a heck of a stop in the
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  first inning today with men on. And so I like him defensively
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  and he's the first two games he's been back here.
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  He had two hits each night and he smoked one the right field
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  today, but it hung up and was caught.
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  So he looks better to me. They've they were talking on the
• 10:00
  broadcast. The video didn't really show it.
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  But if you watch the games, his leg kick is lower.
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  He's not got this pronounced leg kick anymore.
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  And I figured that would be something they'd get rid of.
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  And Craig counsel said that we need to get him more on time to
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  the baseball. The leg kick was delaying him
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  and his timing. So yeah, right now I think he's
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  looking like he has made a lot of progress.
• 10:27
  The Cubs bullpen ERAI believe is 21st in baseball.
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  Now, one bad inning, couple bad innings like Porter Hodges had
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  really could have changed that with a bullpen ERA when you're
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  looking at kind of those simple terms.
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  But you know, I threw a theory out to Ken yesterday, not going
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  out and getting a big name, a big arm, a closer at this point,
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  but just some depth for that bullpen because you're going to
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  need it throughout the course of the year.
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  Starting to make those calls for, you know, a fist 6th, 7th
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  guy from the Rockies, from the Marlins, from those types of
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  teams. Is is that on the radar?
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  Not an impact guy, but going out there they're giving up AAD
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  level prospect to just get a little bit of veteran help for
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  that bullpen. Yeah, I think you need more than
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  just a little bit. I think you need a very
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  impactful high leverage reliever.
• 11:13
  Now, what you could do, and I said this on the air today, is
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  take Ben Brown out of the rotation and make him your 8th
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  inning guy, potentially your closer.
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  I think that absolutely could be in play, no doubt about it,
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  because he's really a 2 1/2 pitch pitcher.
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  He's not a four different pitch mix guy throws hard.
• 11:39
  He's 96 as a starter. Usually as a reliever, you'll
• 11:43
  pick up 2 miles an hour. That is the average.
• 11:47
  So now all of a sudden you've got him at 98, he's got swing
• 11:51
  and Miss stop. He struck out eight the other
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  night. And then you can go get yourself
• 11:56
  a lefty reliever and go get yourself another starter to plug
• 12:00
  and play in the rotation. You have a managa.
• 12:02
  You have Tyone, who pitched really well last night.
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  You have Kate Horton. You're not going to get Justin
• 12:09
  Steele back. You do have Matt Boyd who's
• 12:11
  pitched very, very well. But if you could get a high end
• 12:16
  starter and move Ben Brown to the bullpen, I think that'd make
• 12:19
  a lot of sense. Cap what's behind Dansby
• 12:22
  Swanson's resurgence? Was it nothing more than a slow
• 12:25
  start? I'm not sure that's the case
• 12:27
  because, you know, he had a bad year last year, was coming off a
• 12:29
  bad year, relatively speaking. Slow start this year, but man,
• 12:33
  has he been on fire since late April.
• 12:36
  What's behind it? His wifes pregnant that's.
• 12:40
  What it is? He, he talked about, he said,
• 12:43
  you know, we learned we're having a baby and my perspective
• 12:46
  and all of that. And then he's just been working
• 12:48
  hard with Dustin Kelly and he's locked in.
• 12:52
  He's not trying to do too much at the plate.
• 12:55
  He does have double digit home runs already, which, you know, I
• 12:58
  find surprising me too. But you know, he's not going to
• 13:03
  hit 40 bombs. He's a guy who's probably a 22
• 13:07
  home run guy. But you know, here we are in May
• 13:10
  on the 21st and he's already at 10.
• 13:13
  So maybe he does hit you 2728 home runs.
• 13:17
  I think his career high one time was 27 with the Braves, but he
• 13:22
  absolutely, absolutely has gone from hitting like 180 something.
• 13:26
  I think he's got a 20 game on base streak and he's hitting in
• 13:30
  that streak now, 37368. So he's really, really amped his
• 13:36
  game up. The Bears are back, now focusing
• 13:40
  on Arlington Heights for the stadium.
• 13:42
  You were right, Cap. Yeah, I told you.
• 13:44
  Yep, it's just how do you deal with the Chicago, the Illinois
• 13:48
  politics or Chicago politics? What a mess you guys have over
• 13:51
  there. Goodness gracious.
• 13:53
  It's the worst, the absolute worst.
• 13:56
  And I'm not taking sides. I'm not telling you this is
• 13:59
  Democrat, Republican, whatever. We've had Republican governors,
• 14:02
  we've had Democratic governors. They all suck.
• 14:06
  It's absolutely ridiculous. And then, you know, the mayor
• 14:10
  here in Chicago, I do not believe he'll get elected to a
• 14:15
  second term. The last time they made his
• 14:17
  approval rating public, it was 6%, six.
• 14:21
  I've never, ever heard of a politician on any side of the
• 14:25
  aisle that disliked and he wanted to keep the Bears here.
• 14:30
  I thought it would be a win for him and his administration.
• 14:34
  Well, you had Pritzker, the governor, and Chris Welch, the
• 14:37
  speaker. They said there is no appetite
• 14:40
  to help billionaires get a stadium on people's dollars, tax
• 14:45
  dollars. And so eventually the Bears are
• 14:49
  going to take on private equity. You watch, they'll take out like
• 14:52
  the Eagles just did. They'll take out some private
• 14:55
  equity. I think up to 10% of your
• 14:57
  franchise can be owned by private equity.
• 15:00
  They'll do that. It'll get a valuation of
• 15:04
  somewhere around 6 to $7 billion, so you can bring in a
• 15:08
  ton of money. And there's part of your
• 15:09
  collateral to build your new stadium.
• 15:12
  And then the state will help with the infrastructure.
• 15:15
  In Arlington Heights, you're surrounded by I-90 and you've
• 15:20
  got state Route 53. And so those are going to have
• 15:24
  to be widened and the exits widen.
• 15:27
  All that's fair, but that's also going to be a big help to the
• 15:31
  community. But the stadium itself and the
• 15:35
  complex, I don't want my tax dollars given going to George
• 15:39
  Mccaskey to build him a stadium to make more money.
• 15:43
  Absolutely not. I'll pay for infrastructure.
• 15:46
  But the stadium? No.
• 15:49
  You're a billionaire sports team owner.
• 15:53
  Sorry you pay for. It will there be a roof on it?
• 15:56
  Yes, that's 100%. Retractable or permanent?
• 15:59
  No. No, won't permanent not
• 16:01
  retractable. Interesting.
• 16:03
  And they'll play their first game there in what, 2030?
• 16:07
  What cap? I'm going to guess that they
• 16:10
  play their first game there. Let's see, this is 25.
• 16:18
  I'm going to say they're going to shoot to play in 29 and
• 16:20
  they'll end up playing in 20-30. As a Chicagoan, so I have
• 16:26
  friends and family that Arlington Parks is their home
• 16:29
  and guys that I went to college with and at Iowa, they that's
• 16:33
  where they are and now they move back there.
• 16:34
  For them, they're incredibly excited for the people of
• 16:37
  Chicago, for the Bears fans. Is it that big of a deal?
• 16:40
  Is is it taking it out of Chicago?
• 16:43
  What's it look like overall? I know everybody's different,
• 16:45
  everybody has an opinion, but if you're just general consent, the
• 16:48
  feeling of moving the Bears out of Chicago, but not real far.
• 16:53
  I don't think it's a big deal at all.
• 16:55
  You know, we had some people in Chicago, politicians who said we
• 17:01
  want to have the, you know, the money shot on Monday Night
• 17:04
  Football of the skyline. And I said on the air, OK, so go
• 17:11
  get some B roll and that's ATV term.
• 17:13
  Go down, film the skyline, show it, and then play indoors in
• 17:19
  Darlington Heights. Who cares?
• 17:22
  It does not have to be on the lakefront.
• 17:24
  And there are friends of mine who are not from Chicago.
• 17:26
  They're reading an article, Buddy Mike calls.
• 17:28
  He goes, who are these friends in the park?
• 17:31
  And how can they have all this juice about where the stadium
• 17:34
  is? I said, this is not a bunch of
• 17:37
  blue haired men and women in their 80s playing pinochle
• 17:41
  sitting around talking about how beautiful the lakefront is.
• 17:44
  These people have all the juice. They control what's going to go
• 17:49
  on that lakefront and they are not going to let you put a new
• 17:52
  stadium there. They're not.
• 17:54
  That's just a fact. And so eventually Kevin Warren
• 17:58
  and George went, Yep, we don't have the political abilities to
• 18:03
  be able to get A, the financing and B, to get those people to
• 18:07
  let us do what we want to do. And you own 326 acres in
• 18:12
  Arlington Heights. You can build paradise and it is
• 18:16
  what it is. I love that name good stuff
• 18:19
  capital. I'll get you out of here on
• 18:20
  this. What night do we have no NBA in
• 18:23
  Monday right, So I watching baseball done with baseball
• 18:26
  Cubs. It got beat Tucker looked awful
• 18:29
  right field at the end. I told you that earlier, but so
• 18:34
  I went to ESPN Plus and I started watching Last Dance
• 18:37
  again. I'd forgotten what what's what
• 18:42
  Jordan had mentioned about Pippen.
• 18:43
  How about there is no Michael Jordan without Scottie Pippen or
• 18:46
  there there are no championships?
• 18:48
  Where are they now, Cap? I mean, obviously there was a
• 18:50
  great appreciation for what Pippen did for Jordan.
• 18:53
  And this is right out of Jordan's mouth saying that where
• 18:57
  are those two guys at now as far as their relationship?
• 18:59
  Do you know Cap? Is it better?
• 19:01
  Yeah, no, I don't think it's good at all.
• 19:03
  I do not. I think Scotty's made some
• 19:06
  really stupid comments about Michael and then he blows like
• 19:12
  the wind where one day Lebron's the greatest and Michael was not
• 19:17
  a good teammate. Michael did.
• 19:20
  And then you interview him again and he's like, oh, Michael's the
• 19:22
  GOAT. It's not even close.
• 19:23
  He's the greatest, but I don't think their relationship's in a
• 19:27
  good spot. So that's where it's at.
• 19:30
  Good stuff, capper. Thank you buddy.
• 19:31
  Have a have a good weekend appreciate.
• 19:33
  By the way, did you see journalism in the Preakness?
• 19:36
  I did. That was a hell of a run.
• 19:37
  Unbelievable. Have a great week, capper.
• 19:39
  Thank you buddy. You too.
• 19:40
  Thank you. Yep, you will.
• 19:42
  David Kaplan, ESPN 1000 and his YouTube channel.
• 19:45
  YouTube channel if you're a Cubs fan and Bears fan, Chicago
• 19:48
  sports fan. Cappy recaps every single day on
• 19:51
  his YouTube channel. Don't ask me where to find it.
• 19:53
  I have no idea, do you? It's YouTube.
• 19:55
  Just YouTube and search David. Kaplan pop right back up.
• 19:58
  As simple as that it. Doesn't take much, even you.
• 20:02
  Would be able to figure. It out?
• 20:03
  I don't think so because I'm waiting for one of the kids to
• 20:05
  come over because I've got closed captioning on my TV and
• 20:07
  it's driving me absolutely nuts and I can't get rid of it.
• 20:10
  Well, I'm trying to think of next time I'll be in Ankeny.
• 20:13
  That's just, well, Danes coming this weekend.
• 20:15
  OK, good. Have you you've tried all the
• 20:18
  buttons? I think, but I'm getting, I
• 20:20
  mean, it's just, I mean, the colours are off now 'cause I'm
• 20:23
  tapping everything, sure. Then all of a sudden the closed
• 20:26
  caption goes to Spanish, which actually is better.
• 20:29
  Oh, is it? It is because you know why?
• 20:30
  You're not paying attention to. It I'm not paying attention
• 20:32
  because I can't read Spanish. That's.
• 20:35
  But when it's in English, you've got my.
• 20:36
  I found myself look reading instead of listening.
• 20:40
  Well, the good news is you handle things so incredibly
• 20:42
  well, I bet there was not a swear.
• 20:45
  To be found? Nope.
• 20:46
  Nope. Oh, getting old.
• 20:48
  I'm my grandparents. I couldn't I remember shaking my
• 20:51
  head. I I bought my my, my Manana a, a
• 20:56
  VCR in like 8079 somewhere in there because she wanted to
• 21:02
  watch some of her shows and it was really easy, right?
• 21:05
  I think you just got to do this and this you're going to be
• 21:07
  watching. And I couldn't figure out for
• 21:09
  the life, because she's a smart person, why you can't do this?
• 21:12
  You should be able to figure this out.
• 21:14
  You should. Be a now on that person, yeah.
• 21:16
  And you will be. I'm getting there.
• 21:17
  You will be. There's a couple of things.
• 21:19
  Every once in a while. I like it.
• 21:21
  The closed captioning drives me bananas.
• 21:23
  Anyways, let's do this. It's time for somebody to try
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  More keywords coming up with the drive with Heather and Lucas.
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  This the contest bonus box contest in its final couple of
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  days. This go round is sponsored by
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  Suntan City locations throughout central Iowa 125.
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  Well, the Cardinals are here. It's the first checkpoint in
• 21:58
  Major League Baseball. Is it sustainable?
• 22:01
  Brian Walton will opine on that with Trent and I.
• 22:03
  Next, it's the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 22:06
  Mary Condon, welcome back just past 130 on a Wednesday.
• 22:10
  Top of the hour with the drive Heather Lucas to until 5:00.
• 22:14
  Well, these Cardinals just continue to I think maybe fool's
• 22:18
  not the right word, but certainly have Major League
• 22:20
  Baseball fans attention. As we thought, you know, wait
• 22:24
  till the schedule gets a little bit tougher.
• 22:27
  The waters about to get deeper into Philadelphia.
• 22:29
  They go, they win the series. Kansas City, they win the
• 22:32
  series. Detroit's in town now.
• 22:33
  They're in a real tussle here today.
• 22:35
  But scuba was not overwhelming. 1 little bit we've been talking
• 22:39
  about it. Is it sustainable sustainable
• 22:40
  with these Cardinals are doing and Brian Walton
• 22:43
  thecardinalnation.com, he joins us again.
• 22:46
  I think this one of the more positive stories record wise of
• 22:49
  the of the major leagues, quite honestly, Brian, because a lot
• 22:53
  of folks that cover baseball on daily basis watch it have an
• 22:56
  opinion about it thought that this was not going to be the the
• 23:01
  the best of years in the arch city.
• 23:03
  But my Oh my, they're proving everybody wrong and it's a great
• 23:07
  story. It really is.
• 23:08
  Brian, good to talk to you. Yeah, you got.
• 23:10
  I got to agree with you, Ken. The Cardinals record, you
• 23:13
  mentioned Philadelphia, they and Saint Louis are tied right now
• 23:16
  for the best record of the National League this month at 13
• 23:18
  and five. And Saint Louis won two and
• 23:20
  three from the Phillies, you know, and on their turf.
• 23:22
  So, you know, Saint Louis Cardinals have have really
• 23:25
  relished this underdog role. They're playing very well.
• 23:28
  And you mentioned their success against School Bowl last night,
• 23:31
  although they didn't win the game, they they certainly could
• 23:34
  have. And they've also had success
• 23:36
  against the other Cy Young Award winner last year, Paul Skene.
• 23:39
  So you know, when they and they did well against Wheeler and
• 23:42
  Nola in in Philadelphia. So they've done well against
• 23:44
  some some very good pitchers. They stayed close.
• 23:47
  The last three losses that they've had have all been by one
• 23:49
  run. So, you know, they've been in
• 23:51
  all these games where they've had this nice long streak.
• 23:54
  Want to get your thoughts on Ivan Herrera who is red hot at
• 23:58
  the catching position? Still only 24 years old and he
• 24:01
  comes up as a very young catcher.
• 24:03
  Obviously at the Major League level.
• 24:05
  You look at him, great ball skills in terms of just making
• 24:08
  contact out there. Is he still got a chance to
• 24:11
  develop a little bit more pop that he becomes not a guy that's
• 24:14
  crushing 30 home runs a year, but he can be up there pushing,
• 24:17
  you know, upper teens, twenty home runs a year.
• 24:19
  Do you see that kind of upside with the bat with Herrera?
• 24:22
  I do I do Trent Yvonne Herrera has always hit well in the minor
• 24:26
  leagues and you know, since he's been back, he had a he had an
• 24:29
  injury that kept him on the injury list for a while for his
• 24:33
  back. But since he's been back, he's
• 24:35
  in A10 game hitting streak and to the PowerPoint he's slugging
• 24:39
  eight O 7 in those ten games. Not granted now he's not going
• 24:41
  to have a thirteen O 7 OPS for his career, but Yvonne Herrera
• 24:45
  is a very, very good hitter. The question is, will his
• 24:49
  catching defense be enough that he can be an everyday backstop
• 24:52
  or are they going to have to rotate him in designate, you
• 24:54
  know, with a designated hitter position?
• 24:57
  And that's what remains to be seen.
• 24:58
  Her started started quite a bit last year when Wilson Contreras
• 25:02
  was hurt and other teams ran almost at will against him.
• 25:05
  Now, they didn't give a lot of help from the pitching.
• 25:06
  But the fact is that, you know, the thing we have to watch with
• 25:09
  Herrera is can he be a full time starting catcher?
• 25:11
  Because if so, if he can be an average Major League catcher, I
• 25:15
  think we're talking about a guy who could be an All Star.
• 25:18
  Maybe not this year. No, he's certainly, He's putting
• 25:20
  up some terrific numbers, no doubt about it.
• 25:22
  From a pitching perspective. So is Steven Matz and I watched
• 25:26
  him very closely when he was a Blue Jay back at the beginning
• 25:29
  of this decade. Was it the COVID?
• 25:31
  You know, I don't think it was. It was after the COVID year.
• 25:34
  It was a one year Blue Jays, Cardinals got him.
• 25:36
  I was disappointed that they did.
• 25:38
  And then I saw the early returns and I wasn't so disappointed
• 25:41
  because it looked as though, you know what, this guy's not going
• 25:43
  to be able to reach the heights that I thought he was going to
• 25:47
  in the American League. But he's coming out of the
• 25:49
  bullpen. He's asked to do a lot of things
• 25:52
  and he's having a terrific year. What's behind this turn around?
• 25:55
  You know Brian. I I wish I knew because if I
• 25:58
  would, I would have told him the last three years to do the same
• 26:01
  thing. You know, Matt is 34 years old
• 26:03
  now. He's in his last year of his
• 26:05
  four year contract with Saint Louis.
• 26:06
  He started a couple of games. He's done pitching long relief
• 26:10
  primarily. I think the most things most
• 26:12
  impressed me about him is he's not walking batters.
• 26:15
  Part of the problem Matt has had first time is he'd he'd walk
• 26:18
  batters and get into trouble. He only has three walks and 31
• 26:20
  innings this year, 25 strikeouts and match has been a guy that
• 26:24
  they've been able to plug in anywhere, which has been
• 26:26
  important to them because on paper their bullpen looked like
• 26:29
  it was going to be down this year.
• 26:31
  But he's really stepped up and and filled some very important
• 26:33
  innings. And and we shouldn't overlook
• 26:35
  the starters either. If you look at the at the at the
• 26:38
  wars of the starters, the worst starter of the Cardinals have is
• 26:41
  that is at a .40 point four wins above replacement.
• 26:45
  Everybody has a positive ERA plus over league average.
• 26:48
  So, you know, the rotation has been doing well as young guys
• 26:51
  like Libertor and Polano, they have stepped up.
• 26:54
  We were talking Ken and IA little bit yesterday about Eric
• 26:57
  Fetty and he wasn't great yesterday, but what he's been
• 27:00
  able to do now he's 32 years old.
• 27:02
  I mean, you kind of feel like you're you are what you are at
• 27:05
  that point. But Fetty, can he morph into in
• 27:09
  this squad at minimum a number three playoff starter type of
• 27:12
  guy. If they go out there and maybe
• 27:14
  look to bring somebody else out. What do you see the the rest of
• 27:17
  the year out of Eric Fetty? Yeah, it's a very interesting
• 27:20
  question. I think that the biggest
• 27:21
  question is going to be what uniform is he going to be
• 27:23
  wearing at the end of the season?
• 27:24
  You know, coming into the year, you would have given probably
• 27:27
  good money that he was going to get traded at the deadline
• 27:30
  because he's an impending free agent and he's a solid pitcher.
• 27:32
  I mean, let's face it, the Cardinals give up Tommy Edmond
• 27:35
  to get Eric Fetti, which doesn't look like a great trade right
• 27:38
  now, but the but Fetti is certainly an above average Major
• 27:41
  League starting pitcher. And the Cardinals, the other
• 27:43
  thing the Cardinals have done is they've avoided injury to on the
• 27:46
  on the on the whole and they've stayed healthy and he's allowed
• 27:49
  Fetty, he's made ten starts already.
• 27:52
  So, you know, he's on pace for, you know, 30 plus starts this
• 27:54
  year. And if the Cardinals stay in
• 27:56
  contention, they won't sell off Fetty, they won't sell off
• 27:58
  Helsley, the two big guys, they won't sell off Mats, the guys
• 28:01
  who are, you know, scheduled to be free agents after the season.
• 28:04
  And that isn't what we expect, a lot of us expected from them
• 28:07
  this year. That's a great point.
• 28:09
  So what does this do as far as in the in the GM's office and in
• 28:13
  those offices that are determining what this roster is
• 28:16
  going to look like? Because I'm, I'm like you and I
• 28:18
  think like baseball just assumed, well, let's take a look
• 28:21
  at the Cardinals roster might be able to pluck AB and C off of
• 28:24
  it. But I, I got to think that maybe
• 28:27
  the business model for 2025 has changed due to the start that
• 28:33
  this team has gotten off to. There's going to be some
• 28:35
  difficult decisions, I think, Brian, in the in the months
• 28:38
  ahead. Yeah, there's there's two
• 28:41
  factors here. I can I take 1 is the one you
• 28:43
  mentioned the obvious 1, you know, are they going to continue
• 28:45
  to win games? And if they continue to win
• 28:48
  games, fans will start to come back.
• 28:50
  Right now, the Cardinals are in an unfamiliar place.
• 28:52
  They think they're ninth in the 15 team National League in
• 28:55
  attendance. Now they're always, you know, in
• 28:57
  the top two or three in attendance.
• 28:59
  But fans have stayed away because the last couple years
• 29:01
  have been disappointing. But the more this young underdog
• 29:04
  club plays hard, plays well and and wins games that they're not
• 29:08
  expected to win, Fans are going to come out this summer.
• 29:10
  And if fans come out, that will improve their business model,
• 29:13
  which means they'll be less inclined to dump salary and dump
• 29:16
  players then they they might otherwise. 31,000 and change in
• 29:20
  attendance last night and not exactly a beautiful night for
• 29:23
  baseball schools still in. I think there's hope for those
• 29:26
  attendance numbers certainly to take a big jump up.
• 29:28
  Have you noticed, are they doing more marketing than they
• 29:31
  normally have to? I mean for how many years,
• 29:33
  Brian, it was just open up the doors and they're going to come
• 29:35
  through. Has there been kind of a
• 29:37
  marketing? Yeah, they've had some very
• 29:40
  aggressive promotions and they, they, they have for the rest of
• 29:44
  the year as well, from anything from Bleacher seats to all
• 29:47
  inclusive tickets and against teams that you wouldn't expect.
• 29:50
  I I saw one promotion they just announced and included like the
• 29:52
  Dodger Series, for example. And they do, they do them
• 29:55
  against, you know, when the Cubs are in town, which, you know,
• 29:57
  would normally would be guaranteed sellouts in the past.
• 29:59
  So you're on another point, which is that we we can't see
• 30:02
  the revenue picture, but it's not just attendance, but it is,
• 30:06
  you know, how bad do they have to discount the seats to get the
• 30:08
  customers there and how many of them are actually showing up who
• 30:10
  buy tickets? Brianwaltonthecardinalnation.com
• 30:13
  Brian, thank you as always for doing this.
• 30:16
  We will talk to you in the weeks ahead.
• 30:18
  I hope they keep it going. I really do.
• 30:20
  It's good for business. Cubs, Cards, both in the hunt in
• 30:22
  the National League Central. Thank you, Brian.
• 30:25
  Should be a fun race. Absolutely, I'm all for it.
• 30:28
  Take care. Good to talk to you, Brian
• 30:29
  Walton, cardinalnation.com as we check in on the Redbirds.
• 30:33
  I I like the story. Maybe as positive a story.
• 30:36
  Am I missing one in Major League Baseball?
• 30:39
  That's kind of maybe the Giants. The Giants would be, yeah.
• 30:44
  That was the other one that I was thinking of, possibly the
• 30:47
  Red Sox. The A's are in last place.
• 30:51
  The Reds. OK, All right.
• 30:53
  Yeah. Yeah, they were.
• 30:56
  Now they kind of are. What you thought about a 500
• 30:58
  team, but because they're in second place, Detroit's.
• 31:01
  Start as good as it's been. Oh.
• 31:03
  Man, 32 and 17 and there's not many things that you can point
• 31:09
  at and say, well, this is going to regress.
• 31:13
  This is going to be what's going to pull them back.
• 31:15
  Enjoy it now because it won't last long.
• 31:18
  I'm with you. It's a.
• 31:20
  Good baseball team. They are a good baseball team.
• 31:23
  And they were hopelessly out of it in the middle of August last
• 31:26
  year and it got red hot. And they did.
• 31:28
  They found their way in the play offs more sustainable.
• 31:30
  The Cardinals are the Twins. The Twins, that's not a Homer
• 31:37
  pick, Korea, Buxton are going to come back.
• 31:41
  That bullpen is as good as anybody, the rotation is solid
• 31:47
  and ultimately the Twins, I don't believe are going to be
• 31:51
  selling off pieces. I I still wonder about the
• 31:56
  Cardinals. Yeah, I do.
• 31:57
  Too, and that's if you're just hovering.
• 32:01
  And this Miss Zalox last year. If you're just hovering, though,
• 32:06
  we can't catch the Cubs. What does a play?
• 32:10
  I don't know. It's tough.
• 32:11
  Try to dump Arnotto during the offseason.
• 32:14
  He's obviously still there. I think of the two, it's the
• 32:17
  Twins. So let me phrase it this way,
• 32:19
  because both of these teams look like they were going to have
• 32:21
  trouble drawing fans. We know the Twins have.
• 32:24
  We knew the cards were they're seemingly starting to trickle
• 32:26
  back into into Bush. Which fanbase embraces their
• 32:33
  team in the summer more? Saint Louis They're the self
• 32:36
  Precanian best fans in baseball. Twins are not.
• 32:40
  No. And and they're and they're
• 32:42
  still not. No, they're still not showing
• 32:44
  up. No.
• 32:44
  Are they home all weekend or do they go on the road after after
• 32:48
  the Cleveland series? They're home for Kansas City.
• 32:52
  Well, we'll see how they draw this weekend, right?
• 32:55
  Memorial Day. We now they're on the road for
• 32:56
  Memorial Day, though they leave for that.
• 32:58
  They got a long road trip. Tampa.
• 33:00
  Didn't that used to be where you stayed at home?
• 33:02
  I thought. So too for four days.
• 33:04
  Yes, a wrap around series. And that is for a while now that
• 33:09
  has not been the case. Well, and, and the past couple
• 33:12
  of years, haven't there been teams that don't play on
• 33:14
  Memorial Day? Absolutely.
• 33:16
  One of the more baffling things that I can think of.
• 33:19
  Memorial Day and no baseball for your team, right?
• 33:22
  Whether you're home or on the road, right you.
• 33:23
  Got to be playing somewhere. I'm looking through.
• 33:26
  I believe everybody does do. They this year.
• 33:29
  The way it should be. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
• 33:32
  All right, Trent's plays of the day are coming up.
• 33:34
  We've got a basketball game one game one in the East.
• 33:38
  The Pacers getting 4 1/2 last tie looked game one in the
• 33:43
  Western Conference of the NHL stars Oilers and is that a pick
• 33:47
  em gotta be. I mean the series price at it's
• 33:51
  got to be really tight. Stars -130 is the first price I
• 33:55
  see. We'll take a look at both of
• 33:57
  those, see if Trent's got any baseball.
• 34:00
  The fancy catches his fancy. That's next.
• 34:03
  Circus Sports sponsors this segment each and every day.
• 34:06
  Miller and Condon Iowa Sports Radio Network I'm millory Condon
• 34:10
  welcome back about 10 minutes before 2A little housekeeping
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  Before we get to trent's plays of the day, I neglected to
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  St. in Des Moines. 5525 NE 22nd St. in Des Moines.
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  Normally they do have Saturday morning hours, but again, check
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  that in advance if you're headed out the Saturday morning hours,
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  8 until noon. Caveat again, little asterisk.
• 35:06
  Holiday weekend. Centurion Stone of Iowa sponsors
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  Cappy on a weekly basis. All right, NBA tonight, NHL
• 35:13
  tonight. If you could only watch one of
• 35:16
  one of the two, it's it's basketball.
• 35:19
  It's still basketball for me, you know the I'm sorry.
• 35:23
  No, no, no. If there was a rooting interest,
• 35:25
  if there was a more of a, if it was the Blackhawks or even the
• 35:28
  Blues, of course the Wild, even your Jets, I'd be more
• 35:32
  intrigued. But yeah, without that.
• 35:34
  I've got the country pull going, pulling my way in 93 since the
• 35:39
  Stanley Cup was won by. Canadian teams The Canadians in
• 35:42
  the final season of the Norris and the Smite.
• 35:45
  That was the final year. Wow, I didn't realize.
• 35:47
  That as I was looking that up yesterday when we were going.
• 35:49
  To flaunting your hockey. Knowledge.
• 35:52
  So what are you betting on tonight?
• 35:54
  I have 3 plays currently. I am.
• 35:57
  I am looking, though, right now as I'm scrolling through my list
• 36:02
  of college baseball games because Iowa tonight spell.
• 36:07
  This out for us, what does it mean?
• 36:09
  So Iowa, the way that they set up this pool structure, it's
• 36:12
  really. Weird, I couldn't understand it.
• 36:15
  If you tie, the top seed gets moved on to the semifinal in
• 36:19
  your pool. Well, the problem is Rutgers
• 36:21
  upset Indiana. So the three teams at Iowa's
• 36:24
  pool is Iowa. Who's the top seed out of their
• 36:26
  group? Indiana's the two.
• 36:27
  Rutgers is 3. However, Rutgers wins tonight.
• 36:30
  They'll be two and O in Pool play, automatically advancing on
• 36:34
  to the semifinals. That makes this a must win today
• 36:37
  for Iowa. However they win.
• 36:40
  Yes, you punch your ticket. There's still another game to be
• 36:42
  played in Pool play against Indiana on Friday.
• 36:45
  I would anticipate they'll throw nobody.
• 36:48
  Because meaningless. Because I was chances of an A
• 36:50
  large bid to the NCAA tournament.
• 36:52
  I think they're off the table. I mean so much would if.
• 36:54
  They make the championship, is that good enough?
• 36:56
  They have to win it. I think they have to win it.
• 36:59
  A win against Rutgers is going to do very little for the RPI.
• 37:02
  Win against Indiana probably won't do much.
• 37:04
  A semi final win against UCLA would help.
• 37:08
  I don't know if it's enough though to push them there
• 37:10
  because then we talked about another loss in the championship
• 37:12
  against whoever that would be. So all that put together, I
• 37:17
  think that we're gonna see with the win tonight against Rutgers,
• 37:19
  Iowa is gonna basically punt their game and get ready and get
• 37:24
  their arms ready, most importantly.
• 37:25
  Victim network for the game. Yeah, tonight 6:00 Iowa on the
• 37:29
  money line -230 against the Scarlet Nights.
• 37:32
  Too steep of a price there. You can lay 2 1/2 though about
• 37:36
  laying 2 1/2 runs -105 yet not going to jump in.
• 37:39
  Instead, we're going to play 2 baseball games.
• 37:41
  Can I stop it for just a second? Yes.
• 37:43
  It's happening to your team again.
• 37:45
  The Twins are up five, two. It's the 9th inning, there's
• 37:47
  nobody out, and the Guardians have runners at 1st and 2nd.
• 37:50
  Here we go. It is unbelievable how the
• 37:54
  Twins, when they play this team, they can't close them out.
• 37:57
  Speaking of that, I should see the live line.
• 38:00
  I was going to play the Guardians as long as the twins
• 38:02
  hold on here in Game 2 of that doubleheader, but that thing's
• 38:05
  not over yet. What is currently the live line
• 38:08
  with the Twins and the Guardians?
• 38:10
  As I'm scrolling through? I'm not seeing it on here right
• 38:12
  now, at least over the DraftKings.
• 38:14
  But that aside, going to play yes the Guardians in game.
• 38:17
  Two, assuming the Twins win game one.
• 38:20
  OK. Give me the Grom and the Rangers
• 38:22
  tonight in Yankee Stadium even money there.
• 38:25
  See, Bochy got tossed yesterday. And I'm going to take the
• 38:28
  Pacers. You're taking the points 4 1/2
• 38:31
  for. Five 4 1/2 is what I got at
• 38:33
  Circa. All right, good stuff.
• 38:36
  We will correct your work tomorrow, and we'll talk about
• 38:38
  those games when we reconvene tomorrow at noon.
• 38:41
  But up next, it's the drive. Heather and Lucas take you until
• 38:46
  5:00 and we'll be back tomorrow. Trent and I will be at noon to
• 38:51
  talk sports with you, as we are every Monday through Friday,
• 38:55
  noon to two on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 38:57
  Enjoy the rest of your day.