This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart Radio while just Surgery
High on the Ball Talking Back Times volume on Fox Sports Sportsteen fifty on Jagonzalas.
My co host is Mike Bader, long time baseball and football exec here
in uh here in Tusi. Because Stevens decided to take some time off away
from us, so it's time for This is High on the Ball Breaking news
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, Michael, Well, well we've
been waiting through all this, uh Colorado leaving the Pac twelve news. A
couple of significant injuries and or kind of significant injuries in the uh the NFL.
Jalen Ramsey uh tournament is probably a future Hall of Fame cornerback for the
Dolphins as a torn meniscus. There he's having surgery. Uh, and they
say he'll he he might be ready at the start of the regular season.
They won't. And what I read is sixt eight weeks. Yeah, you
know, so it's it's I don't know, I mean, it's not major
surgery, but it's still knee surgery. Yeah, when you're when you're a
defensive back and you could run and you got to do things. The prediction
right now, which is not breaking nose, the New Orleans Saints will win
their division, even with Sean Payton over in Denver. And you saw it
he said to that, Yeah, man, did you see that would be
that would be breaking as we said, put that that the job that uh
what was his name? Quote? Uh yeah, Nathaniel Nathaniel Hacket may have
been the worst coaching job in the history of the NFL. You just don't
see. Robert Sala came in and said, I'm not going to comment,
but you know what, we'll see you in week five. Yeah. Yeah,
but you know to say that about another coach that's so unusual, well
then you know another whether it's breaking or not. Aaron Rodgers giving up thirty
one yesterday and you know that'll be Aaron Rodgers must feel good about what's going
on there in the prediction. Is you know the running back that's going to
go there? The Delvin Cook. Oh yeah, yes, yes, they're
trying to get him. Yes, with the date a good young running back
to last year. So no, it's you can't keep up with this time
it's hard then the other one um uh. A quarterback Joe Burrow who does
not have a contract, who is right, he's not one of these high
priced guys, right, although he's trying to get his contract. Was was
carted off the field today. There was some moreity that it might be a
u a achilles, but now they're officially saying that it is a calf string.
That's good, so that he'll he'll just probably be out some some time
during um UH. During a camp um, Albert Breer reported that early signs
are are good, that it's not worse than that, which is an ideal,
but much better than it looked on video. I haven't seen the video
of that, but it sounded like, I mean, look, when a
guy's getting carted off, you think it's more than a calf strain, right,
especially when you're somebody's grabbing their calf. You're thinking that's it and achilles,
and that's a year, a season, two seasons at least thout.
You know when it happens. Right now, you're talking about possibly you know
two seasons that you're out. So anyway, so he's if you know that
the NFL would miss him oh well, that was a question. That such
an exciting player when you got him Patrick Mahomes and and uh and Jalen hurts.
Jalen hurts, you got uh uh Herbert Um the Buffalo quarterback. When's
your fantasy draft? I want to be in your lady, Mike, Steve
and I in here. We forget, we forget a major name, Hey
waiting two or three ever? You get it even worse. Well, it's
it's pretty bad right now and we get called on it. But but yeah,
all that that, all those quarterbacks, right, any one of those
guys being gone for a season is not is not good? No, because
you I mean you turn on the TV to watch I turn on the TV
to watch uh, to watch those guys? If you do, you turn
on I don't. I don't know if disqualifies or breaking news? Do you
turn on the TV to watch a running back? Nope, I don't.
How about what's going on with the running backs in the NFL? Incredible?
What's going on with the running backs in the NFL? Wow? You know,
and we were having that, We had this conversation earlier this week.
It's like se Quombartley was talking about holding on. I'm like, so,
okay, so you hold out, you don't get the ten million dollars.
Where do you think you're gonna get that ten million dollars? When? Where
do you think you're gonna get that back? I don't think he's overjoyed to
get eleven, right, But you know, and then that was the other
thing. It's like, okay, what was the difference, right, you
know with it with the contract? Did did it just make you feel better
that you kind of said, well I want this too and you got it?
And it was another hundred thousand dollars, I mean another million dollars.
But thing in the NFL, in most of the positions other than quarterback,
they're non guaranteed contract. Well yeah, well look and look and we saw
that, uh be Jean Robinson got a thirteen million dollar contract. He hasn't
played it down in the NFL. Right, And yet that you weren't you
weren't going to give Sequon Barkley eleven right. It's just I you just don't
know what you know, what guys are thinking out there there? All right?
Um? Smaller, smaller breaking news just just came across USEF could see
who was a discus thrower for the for the U of A won the Canadian
Track and Field Champion chip in the discus, so another athlete probably I would
imagine he could probably be an Olympian for uh, what's the name of the
shot putter. That's that's his name, you sef, that's the shot putter.
No shop oh oh oh, the shot putter is a Jordan Geist.
Right, yeah, he'll he'll be competing for uh for shot at the Olympics
as well. But uh uh, this discus thrower for the U of A
won the when the candidates, that's great, that's very cool. I was
cool to see if those guys do well. All right, um has mentioned
we are gonna have Michael lev coming on. We're gonna you know, kick
this uh Colorado stover. He just posted a column that I'll try to read
during the break before he comes on. But he's basically saying PAC twelve Air
Zone's gonna get the hell out of the pack, out of the PAC twelve
and get over the Big twelve. But a thing that did come across as
a statement by uh by a Colorado and and you know, and what I'll
bring this up to Michael. But here here's the key. It's it's not
a super long statement, but here's the key piece of the statement to me
say what it says. The Big Twelfth Conference recently signed a Meteorites Agreement extension
that will make them partners with the countries two largest sports media companies, ESPN
and Fox through to the twenty thirty thirty one season. This national exposure through
linear television and streaming, which is a you know, a key thing in
air quotes right, combined with the Big Twelve Conference's footprint across three time zones,
will not only make See You more accessible to alumni and fans nationwide,
we introduced the bus to countless new potential students and fans. And the thing
I kept hearing as as as as we were waiting for this vote to come
up, and and and during the vote, you know, listening to the
regions, they kept talking about stability and that that's the thing that seemed to
be the most important thing to the regions of that's the same school that had
their new head coach come in and said you might as well leave because we
don't want we don't want well. And there's another aspect that's Dan Sanders.
There's another aspect of this there's a lot of there's a lot of conversation that
they did this. Part of why they did this was for Deon Sanders,
for the guy who everybody believes be gone three three years. He's gonna be
gone in three years, but that still you know, he still lives in
Texas. He's got property and tact. I actually worked with him with the
Austin Wranglers. If he wasn't one of the owners. Wow. And and
that that he wants to recruit in Texas and that that a big not a
big, but a piece of it, right, is that the Dion Sanders
wanted this as well. I mean, that's that's crazy. What was he?
What was he like? Dealing with him? He was interesting guy,
a little different than the guy that and I worked for goals without saying interesting.
He was funny. I mean it was you know, he his personality
is bigger than life. And and he wasn't he was living in Dallas and
we were in Austin, so he would just come in for the games.
His entourage was crazy. Yeah, one of his the big entourage was Nancy
Lieberman. Wow. She she was with him all the time. But he
he's you know, he's prime yeah. Uh, and he'd be on the
sidelines, you know, he'd be before the game. We'd take him over
and introduced him the sponsors, and he'd be great. Do you see him
being a really good college coach at this level? No? I mean I
could see. I could see that it worked, you know, at the
HBCU level, but at this Hays as good as his staff. Well,
of course, what a lot of coaches are, right, No, of
course fish, So does does Dione have a good staff? I don't know.
I really don't know. But when you think of all the other things
that come with being a college football coach at this level, things that we
know coaches who have even come through here didn't want to do that. I
don't know how well you knew Mike Steps, but he did not want to
be He did not want to be the CEO of the program. I don't
think rich Rod did either. You know he was, but he was such
a dam good didn't someone didn't want to be here. That's a whole note.
That's a whole note, the level of not wanting to be something.
But well, Diane will be as good as as his offspring. Yeah,
yeah, his son is the quarterback, right, and and then and you
wonder how does that play with the players, Right, isn't that always an
issue? Well, we got a good wide receiver out of it, Yeah,
we did. The guy who just tore it up in the spring game.
Yeah, But you know, I I don't know. I just feel
like, um, you just look Dion's Dion And I don't know Dion from
Schmo. Right, what I see of Dion? I question how he's gonna
put up with the non glamorous parts of being a college football coach. Maybe
he loves the recruiting and he loves going out and picking guys, you know,
like he's going to the grocery store. He's better in the NFL than
he is in college because he doesn't have to be the CEO. Right,
But how much is he gonna love when some boosters holding out on giving the
football program two million dollars and they want Dion to come and you know,
bow to those guys like like we know boosters want coaches to do and he
says, well, I'm not going to do that. Well, then I'm
not going to give you my two million dollars. Right, how's that gonna
fly? Right? Those are the kinds of things that. I wonder about
whether he can do the job. Can he coach on the field like he's
that's just gonna depend on whether or not he's got a staff that that that
can. But you know, we know that being a college coach now at
the Big twelve level, for him, it's more than than being the guy
on the field, and it's more than being the guy that goes into a
house. What's the over under how many wins Colorado has this year? It's
three and a half. What do you think if I had to bear If
somebody said you have to bet this, you have to bet it, I
would take the under. I would agree with that. I take the under.
If so, it's somebody hard to win. So what does that mean
to the fans? I do you have the patience? Well, if they
wait it out, if they win three, it's more than it's two more
than they won last year. Wow, you know, I mean, look,
I was happy with Arizona's five wins. I was ecstatic with Arizona's five
wins. Right if you look the Arizonas over under last one was two and
a half and I took it. I bet it. And if they had
gotten to three, I was happy when they got to three, I said,
the rest of this is great. And what's the over under this year
at five and a half or its five? Now, what do you think
I'm taking the over again? Good? Well, I hope you're right.
I think they're gonna get to six. It's hard for me to look at
the schedule and see which six they're gonna be, right, right, I
can think of two, right, you tap and you you tap in au.
Those are like, even though they lost to you type a couple.
Those two are you know, two foot puts, right, two foot puts
on both of those, you know, But a scu is not a two
foot put. Uh, Stanford is not a two foot put and Colorado's not
a two foot put. And those are the three teams that are being picked
below Arizona. No, you know, winning all three of those is not
going to be really easy, although I think they should win all three.
So let's say they win those three in the two. Now you've won five
games. Now you just gotta go win one of the other games. But
it is asu not a mess. Right now. They're less of a mess
than they would have been had herman words stuck around. Okay okay um who
who do we talk to about about them? I think we talked to I
can, Ma'm Mournino. Yeah, I think it was Matt Mournano, you
know, recruiting rivals guy, you know, a su just they're they're kind
of like where you have a was not as bad as you have a wasn't
Jet Fisher's first year, but in that neighborhood, and that they're short on
players. But that doesn't mean they can't beat it, right, you know,
I mean Arizona lost NAU again in that season. So and then you
know, let's say you know you got a rivalry game. Let's say you
gets to the end of the season, they've won a game or two,
they feel like they can feel good about themselves. Game right, keep keep
Arizona out of a bull game, and the game's up in Tempe. Arizona
can go lose that game, right, Um, Arizona's got to go to
Colorado. What's that atmosphere gonna be like that? You know, they've sold
out a couple of games already. I think they're playing Nebraska and that game's
a sellout, you know, so what's what's that gonna be like? But
and it could be that it crashes because there's all these expectations Colorado and they
don't come to fruition and maybe by the time Arizona plays them, they suck
and Arizona can go in that game. But if they get some excitement going,
that's gonna be a tough, tough game to win, you know.
And then they get you know, they get Stanford, they go, they
go to Stanford early in the season. So there's I think they're six wins
in there. I just don't know which ones they are. As a fan,
I hope you're right. All right, we're gonna talk talked a little
bit more about this. Michael Left coming up a columnists senior rider for the
Airs on the Daily Start and get his thoughts on all the stuff that's been
going on. I'm sure he's a busy guy working on stuff as we speaks.
He's put out a column, so we'll talk to him about that and
we'll see what he says about the Cats and maybe going to the big calls
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put the work in for you. Steve Vera and Jacob Solids they have their
eye on the ball. On two Sons Sports Station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Welcome back to the Falling Here on Fox Sports sporteen fifty on Jacob Gallas,
your your host with my guest co host Mike Bader, former well you're
still you're still a baseball exact right with the people with a Mexican baseball jes
So we can call yourself that year. You've got a title with that and
every Yeah, I'm president, filling in for Steve who's out some twelve years.
We're waiting to get get Michael lev on the phone to talk about,
you know, the stuff that's been going on regarding Colorado going to the Big
twelve and really from an Arizona standpoint, Now, what does this mean for
Arizona. Mike has posted a column that he just uh that he just uh
put up, so I haven't had a chance to go through it as well.
We'll ask Michael about what, you know, his apion. I did
read the headline that basically said Arizona needs to get the hell out of the
Back twelve. And I know that there's going into this. There are a
lot of people who are thinking that. Anyways, Um, I'm still touring.
I really, my son and I are arguing about this this morning.
And I guess I'm a loyalist and a traditional guy. Yeah, so I
guess I'd rather see him, you know, stay there. They don't need
to go to Connecticut to play you know, and some of the other you
know, and well, right now it would be they have to go play
West Virginia. And the thought of that to me is like, what the
hell? West Virginia doesn't move the needle for me. And maybe part of
it is like, because I'm a purist like you, I like the teams
that Arizona has been playing for all these years. I'm used to them.
I know who they are. M I feel I know who Arizona should beat
and who they shouldn't beat. But yet, on the basketball side, I
love what Tommy Lloyd's doing about playing the big boys. Not if you're all
of a sudden you're playing You're playing Kansas, and you're playing you know,
you know, Michigan State. No, Michigan States in the in the Big
Ten. Oh no. I mean, but if you're playing no, But
if you're playing Kansas, said, you know, home and home, and
you got Baylor, got Texas Tech, you got Houston State was good last
year, the basketball would be better. I'm a little I kind of don't
like the road trips though, you know, I mean, I don't like
trading you know, La and San Francisco in Seattle, Eugene, you know,
or you know Waco and love and all that. So I think it's
Michael right now. All this Michael, No Michael, no modern technology I
know. All right? Uh yeah, I hope, I hope. Could
you pay for the Twitter feed? Did you switch to the other kind?
All this Michael? It is Michael. Thank you for calling. I'm sorry
about that. I was I was dialing you, and it was saying,
can this number cannot be reached. I don't know what they are probably say
it's something on our side, for sure, but I appreciate you sticking with
us and giving us a call. So, um, well, we obviously
want to talk to you about this, uh this thing that's happened in the
last couple of days. Let me ask you first, is it days or
hours? Well, yeah, twenty five. Let me ask you first,
mayhem, maybe longer than that. You know, did you take anything that
had happened in the last week out of PAC twelve Media Day and stuff like
that, Maybe things that have been said and reading into stuff to think that
what happened yesterday was going to happen. There's been a lot of rumblings about
Colorado specifically. I'm sure you've heard all of the talk about the so called
four corners right schools being um, you know, optics of desire for Brett,
Yourmark and the Big twelve pretty logical based on geography, on field success,
popularity, brand names, all of those things for them to pursue those
four those four beings Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona where everyone knew that.
I would say that the fact that the Pact twelve had nothing to present
to the membership and that George class Cost is basically on the defensive talking in
circles at Pact twelve media day was a bad sign, right right, Um
if he followed this saga. This has been going on for the better part
of a year, well over a year since US and UCLA left. You
know that it's been all about this media deal, right, the media deal
that needs to get done to sort of ensure the survival of the league.
The value of the league was greatly depressed when those two schools left, and
we've just all been waiting in and you know, oh it's coming soon.
It's a matter of weeks, it's a matter of months. It has to
happen before pack to a media day because you know, they want all the
attention to be on the on field product and then it didn't happen. And
from understanding things correctly from Colorado's side, they were just like, we've run
out of patients here, you know, right, Like we're looking for a
more stable situation, and the Big twelve presents that to us. And hey,
if you're Colorado, it's not like you've been in the Pac twelve or
Pac ten or pack whatever for decades and decades. They've only been here for
twelve years. Yeah, so they're just kind of going back to their roots.
And it's not really all that surprising. I don't think anything really should
be when it comes to conference your alignments question now is you know what effect
does this have on other schools in the conference? Right? Well, you
you've you've posted a column in the in the last what a couple hours or
last hour? I guess that says Arizona should get out, get it,
get get out, get over to the Big twelve. Uh with with Colorado.
I haven't had chance to read the column, but tell us you're thinking
behind that? Yeah, Um well, I mean I kind of said that
from the beginning and haven't really changed my stance all that much. But I
think it makes a lot of sense to leave, like it just feels like,
um, the Pac twelve is dying. You know. I hate to
put it into dire terms, but man, they only have nine members left.
The flagship program is gone, the LA market is gone. There seems
to be no viable media deal out there. Um. Yeah, any sort
of um reasonable price or amounts that um would even even be enough for George
clapp cop to make a presentation that he feels good about. Right, So
why not make the move? Yeah, you know, I mean the Big
twelve has to deal with ESPN and Fox as much as we're all about,
you know, the shift cutting the cord and moving over to streaming and all
that stuff. Hey, linear TV. He'll get the most eyeballs, the
most exposure. It was revealed yesterday by Brett McMurphy that there's a pro rata
clause in that contract where if the Power five team comes in, they don't
get the same amount. So it's not like one of these deals where oh,
you're a new member, you're only gonna get you fifty percent for the
first two years and then up to seventy percent. No, it looks like
Colorado is going to get the full thirty one point seven million dollars from ESPN
and Fox. Culturally, I mean, we're pretty purple state, I would
say. I think it's it's not such a bad fit culturally to be in
the same conference with schools from Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas and other parts of
the Midwest and Southwest. If you want to call, you know, parts
of Texas Southwest. I think you can do that. And the sports that
Arizona is really good at are sports that the Big twelve is also really good
at and passionate about men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, football.
Hey, the football team is on the rise. It's improving the very competitive
and servant football league that you'd be joining. And then on top of all
that, I think just if you look at the big picture, you want
to get yourself into something of a super conference. Right you're trying to compete
with the ACT SEE and the Big ten m they've already gotten up to I
think sixteen teams a piece and probably going to add more in the future.
I don't see a pass to the Pac twelve to do that unless they work
to out and out like merge with the ACC for some sort of cross country
version of Conference USA. But there's a pretty easy path to get to sixteen
in the Big twelve. And if you bring your rival along with you,
bring Utah along with that's a really that's a pretty darn good conference. Yeah.
I think a really fun conference that would be super competitive and all of
what you call kind of the big five sports around here at Arizona. I
didn't get a chance to say to you before you you came on. Mike
Vader is here with me today, not Steve, So Mike, I heard
about that. Hey, Michael, is this a record for Tucson having two
New Tray graduates on the same radio show? I am actually okay, I
am actually not a new Trier. Sorry, several family members who are future
graduates actually went to a public school in the city what Chicago. It was
Mather High School. Yeah, I know where it is. Yeah, on
the north side. All right, So I got a question for it.
You were you were talking about and just clarification me, I'm not too smart.
Uh. You said that Arizona would potentially go with Colorado. Are you
saying that would be the only school that would leave the Pack twelve to pair
up with Colorado or or is it back to what you said about the four
corner types. I really, I really don't see a scenario where Arizona goes
off on its own without Arizona. Statement. Okay, well, Bobby Robinson
said, I mean they they joined, they joined the pack together right back
in the day, nineteen seventy eight. Right. Um, they're the bitterest
of rivals, their freenemies through and through um the you know, much like
the Colorado Border Regions had to sign off on this thing today, the Arizona
Border Regions would have to sign off on something like that, and they they
their their pur view includes Arizona and Arizona statement. Well, I really don't
see just Arizona going. I think if Arizona really wanted to go that,
the two schools would probably sit down and have a conversation and be like,
yeah, we're we're in this together. Um let's go and let's see if
we can, you know, bring Utah along with us, right. You
know, Well, I was gonna say in that scenario the school hanging out,
there's Utah. Now, look as U has public and Ray Anderson and
I don't know if Michael Crow's publicly said it, but Ray Anderson death Flag
director Dasio has definitely said this guy I heard him say, we don't want
to go. We want to we want to stay in the pack, in
the pact or whatever the pack number is. Boby Robbins has said, we
don't want you know, we can go without a su if we want.
So the doors open to do that. But if let's say, as you
said, they sit down, they talk about say look, let's both go,
and then let's go get Utah. Has there been any conversation with anybody
from Utah that has said whether or not they're inclined to jump on this and
go as a group, because I know we've talked about the four Corner schools
a lot. That name came about because of all this. You know,
we've always haven't ye. Everything that I've seen in terms of public statements from
the leadership at Utah has been similar to what you've seen from ASU. You
know, they have expressed a desire to remain in the PAC twelve. But
you know what, these situations are so fluid, right, Everything changes on
a dime, Like I mean, George Kopkoff said Friday, It was Friday
last week, right on the twenty first of July, there we are.
It's the twenty seventh of July, six days ago. Oh yeah, everything's
great. Haven't heard a thing. Everyone wants to stay just a matter of
time before we get a deal done. The longer the longer we wait,
the better. It was working behind the scenes, yeah, to engineer this
deal. Right. He even said cleft. I even said the longer we
wait, the better it gets. Oh yeah, right, sure, I
mean that's I don't know where he came up with that, but I mean,
sorry, yeah, that's that's just an absurd state. Well I'm clearly
not true. Okay, So I had a conversation with somebody, you know,
my kid, right Adam. We talked about we compared the football conferences,
all right, and he's saying, I don't know why we're making such
a big deal about jumping to the Big Twelve as a relationship football, because
when you look at the football conferences, even though there's more teams than the
Big Twelve, the conferences are comparable, and in fact, you could argue
that the two best teams when you're combined the two conferences are still Oregon in
Washington. You know it's not I mean Oklahoma State, right, maybe Kansas
State TCO. I get TuS in the natural championship, but that came out
of nowhere, and you don't know if they're gonna have any staining part.
But you could argue that if you put those two conference football conferences together,
that Oregon and Washington are still the two business. So he said, I
don't know why we're so quick to jump, although I will say that if
you're going to say the conferences are equal, then the reason to move is
because of basketball. And how much is that going to enter the picture as
far as all this goes driven back. I think that's a factor for sure.
But I think I think the key word that the Colorado leadership put out
there today is stability. Yeah, I heard that about you know. I
mean, it's feel like you've just you're entering into a more stable, long
term situation. Whereas with the PAC twelve, I mean, who knows what's
going to happen. I know that the Big Ten keeps saying I don't want
to add anyone, Oh where did with what we've got, We're just focusing
on USC UCLA. But I mean, would it surprise anyone they're common if
next June they announced that they were at in Washington and Oregon. Another they're
common that Washington, Banford and yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's certainly
not inconceivable that that could happen, Right, and then what then what do
you left with? Yeah, they're basically left with a glorified version of the
Mountain West. Yeah, no offense to the Mountain West, right, No,
well, no offense to them. But that's the big fear when this
first happened, When the first thing, the first thing I thought of when
USC and UCLA left was, holy hell, we're in a situation where Arizona
could wind up in a conference that looks a lot like the Mountain West.
And and that's that's the big fear. And that's what kind of tells me.
I don't know where I'm at right now. I mean I was kind
of like, let's yeah, let's get out, let's go to the Big
twelve. Um, I think the football is Look, I'm not looking forward
to the to the road trips, right, I'm not looking forward to,
you know, to Lubbock and wake Up and skill Water in place of San
Francisco and Seattle in LA. But nonetheless, to me, the football is
kind of about the same the basketball would be an incredible conference. I mean,
look, you can say what you will about no truck stops here and
all that business, but those fans are super passionate and super into it.
I mean that they're all there are a lot of true blue college towns right
in this new fangled Big Twelve, and there are certainly some really good college
towns in the Pac twelve as well, But there are also some that are
now they're in city where you know, they're not the number one team in
town, like like like Arizona is here, right, you know, so
I think that there's you know, that kind of off set a little bit.
Maybe they're not as glamorous of destinations, but you might be playing in
front of a packed howl. It's been a really good fun atmosphere with an
awesome talegate and and all of those things that make you know, college sports
so special. All right, last question, when do you think we hear
something from coming out of the Arizona administration on on this in terms of what's
in now the next step? Man, I would say not not anytime soon.
Although it seems like Colorado had felt pressure from the Big Twelve that the
Big Twelve wanted them to do something before August first. August first, it's
coming around the corner. But I mean everything that Robbins has said, President
Robert Robbins, Um, head of University of Arizona, is that they want
to see what the numbers look like before making any decisions. And if we've
learned anything over the past hour many months, like those numbers are not they're
they're not forthcoming. They're not around either anytime soon. If he had,
if he had the numbers, he would have presented the numbers, right,
I mean, Michael, one last month, has anyone seen them? No,
they don't. They're not tell us. I don't believe they're there.
I just watched the election. I'll be joining one of your co workers in
Israel. Uh, my wife and I are going to tell to see the
UFA basketball team playing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And I heard that I think
Bruce is going right. That's the rum. Okay, okay, it's a
very very cool. So we're excited. So two weeks from yesterday, we're
laving. All right, Michael, Well, thanks so much for taking the
time. I know you guys are busy with all of this. I appreciate
it. And uh, we're going to keep up picking your brain on this
because you know more than everybody else, so I appreciate it. I don't
think you're right, but thanks for having me, all right. Thanks calcul
later Michael lev columnists and ride with yours on a Daily Star. So hey,
let's take let's take our last break. When come back, we'll kick
around. Some of this stuff has some really good points to make. We'll
be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's
been successful for newly forty years. I don't take a look back at the
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today at a Team security dot net. Steve Ravera and Shaken Salez they have
their eye on the ball on two Sons Sports Stage Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty
streaming live, I mean I heard Radio WAB Welcome back the Valling on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jago Dalas, my partner, my
usual partner schever VERI is on the road, taken the vacations. I invited
Mike bader Opal and long time two Sons sports guys've been here. We've been
having fun, yeah, talking about you know, old man stuff. And
came here in nineteen eighty nine. Nineteen eighty nine, that was my first
year and two sons. By that time, I was like a professional in
this town. That's rich. Isn't really true? Because I was with the
two Son Mavericks for Oh my god, with the hockey team Merl Miller,
Oh my god, that you. I didn't. I didn't know you ever
with the hockey team. I remember the Mavericks, So you weren't with the
two Sons sky back in the seven l That was when the Mavericks it was
their first year that they never won a game. I was just there in
the off season and I left. I never saw him win and I was
there two months. Wow. And then, uh, all those years with
the Tours. How many years? How many years with the Pearls Sidewinders and
two son Padres fifteen fifteen? Right? Why does it seem like it was
so much longer than that. I don't know. Well, because the Toros
have been here since nineteen sixty nine. Yeah, yeah, and that's that's
when I I mean, I was ten years old started going to those games
back then, bat Day, ball Day, hat Day. Come on,
we did that stuff. We did all that stuff, you know, until
you couldn't do bad day anymore because people beat the crap out of so Mike,
we've been, we've been, you know, kicking around these uh this
thing with football. Well, we'll talk about some other stuff tomorrow for sure,
because I think things will settle right in the sports. Well, this
has happened in terms of the Colorado stuff. It's news. I know there's
a PAC twelve, a board of directors meeting coming up tonight, and there'll
probably be some nears out of that, but I you know, it's it's
baseball season, and I you know, you and I are big baseball fans.
Um, I'm a Dodger fan, you're a Cubs fan. Chris was
just in here, he's a Yankees fan. But that's not probably not hit
totally his fault. But um, you know, so much going on in
baseball. We saw. I love what you know what Showyotany does something cool
every day. Right today, he throws a one hit shutout, complete game
one hit shutout. I guess Troy comes back and saying game hits two home
runs, right, I mean, there's just never been anything like this,
No, and there probably will never be again, right, Right. But
then the argument because who's he gonna play for? Well, I guess we'll
find that out. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad that the speculation is
over. Yeah, and that he they say they're keeping him the rest of
the way. I think it'd be a nice story if the Angels got in
shroud, you know, got healthy, right, and to see what the
two of those guys, you know, one of the best players right now
besides show his Mickey moniac. Yeah, he's having a great year. Yeah,
there's you know we're talking to there's so many young guys. And have
you been doing this thing the Immaculate grid or do you know what it is?
I've seen it, but I I've been doing it. I got my
my buddy Dale that I went to high school, so he's basically my age.
And then he's got a son and I've got a son and they're about
a year apart. So the four of us do it to get kind of
compete against each other. To do it. And it's funny because we if
for those of you who don't know what the Imaculate Grid is, it's it's
this new online game and you get a grid of nine boxes and they give
you categories and you gotta pick like a guy who's for the Giants and the
Mets or a guy who played for the Giants and had two hundred hits.
And so there's this grid and you got to fill in the grid with all
these players. So we we send our grids to each other with with who
we picked. Once everybody's picked, we send it to so we can all
see. And it's funny because people cheat online, you can, but we
don't. Okay, we don't, just because it's fun. So you see
my grid, and you see my buddy Dale's grid, and it's you know,
it's it's Tom Sever, it's Joe Morgan, it's you know, it's
Steve Garvey and and all those guys. And you see their grid and it's
all these guys who are playing now and they know all that you as funny
as hell, and and you know, like my son Adam could not get
u. There was one it was The category was a gold glove and no
way, No, it was it was a gold glove and forty Homers,
so you had to pick somebody. Uh No, I take that. It
was a gold glove and San Francisco and he didn't think of Willie Mays.
Wow. Right, And I got that one just like that, right,
I got Willie May. And he wasted. And if you guess and you're
wrong, you lose that guess. You get nine guesses to fill the nine
box. Right, so if you miss a guess, now you can only
get eight. So he wasted four guesses on that box and never got it.
Wow, Adam, Willie Mays, he goes, Dad. I have
no idea who Willie made as funny as how when I was growing up,
it was in Bridley Field. I grew up in Chicago and sat in right
field and with the you know in the bleachers, and I could still tell
you most of those players. But but you know, my god, the
guy who played in front of me a lot played for the Pittsburgh Pirates with
the number twenty one on his back. That's where Berto Clemente. Yeah,
no idea where Berto Clementi? Wow? You know, I mean you do
you do Pittsburgh and you know there was one that was three thousand hits,
and then there were three teams that you had to pick a guy on each
of those three team, and one of them was a Bertalment. I got
that in three seconds, right, And and those guys didn't get it.
Wow. Right, You couldn't think of a Pittsburgh guy that had three thousand
hits, right, So it's just they You know, they might have gotten
Barry Bonds. I think Barry Bonds got his three thousand hits, right,
Yeah, so they might and because all you had to do is play have
played for Pittsburgh at some point. So that's how the grid works, right.
We have a blast with It's a lot of fun. But the daily
every day, the new one comes out every day. The contrast of their
players and our players is really funny. Like I keep turning up Tommy John.
I hated that guy from what he did. You know that that the
Dodgers saved his career, built him a new arm, and then he went
to the Yankees. But I know all the teams that he played for,
So every time the Dodgers and that team comes up, I don't tell me
John in there. You know I have some of these go to guys you
know, another another a go to guy that played for a bunch of teams
and was a Dodger for reperiod. Gary Sheffield played a bunch of guys like
that. So you remember all these things and then then other times, you
know, you know. One of the things that I do was I go,
I say a box, I miss. It's got like like, I
don't know anybody from the Marlins except my Piazza. People forget that when he
left the Dodgers, he first went to the Marlins before he went to the
mess. But I don't know any other Marlins, you know, And it's
crazy to the Marlins come up and I'm like, I'm not gonna get any
of those. Gary Sheffield, well Gary Sheffield, but you have to match
up on another team. But it's it's fun. But the point being that
today I don't know who these guys you see, I do because I'm in
I'm in too fantasy. Yeah, well I'm in a fantasy league too,
But I couldn't name you my whole team right now. I know some of
my guys. I know the Dodgers on my team, right I know,
I've got not well he's not a Dodger again, key K Fernandez. I
know, did you see him dancing in the DIY I did well? He
I said, you know, he played when I went to Fenway's he was
the starting shortstop that day. He was like, he was one of my
favorite guys on the World Series team. But you know there's guys like that
that I know some of these guys. But honestly, I swear to God,
I could. You know, I could probably name you eight of my
guys because you know you got it. You go on, you do the
draft ESPN. They give you players, right, you take the best available
and that's who you got. You know, I know I've got three.
I know I've got three, uh three Diamondbacks. I've got Christian Walker,
can Tell Marte and Zach Gallant. Those are good, really good guys.
Well, the first two are doing pretty well. My team sucks, right,
my team sucks, But I've got you know, I've got uh Will
Smith catching for the Dodgers. Good player, good good player. I've got
Manny Machado I took and I got one. So those are the guys that
I can think of. That's what's killed me right now. We can talk
about baseball tomorrow, but watching the pontres I. Still I was sure they
were gonna make the playoffs this year, even lately, and I thought dated
chance. Yeah, and they're just, oh, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Terrible. Come on, they've been terrible. And you know, and
Machado and Soda they're okay. There's a lot of players who have their stats,
right, a whole bunch of guys that have their stats, and it's
it's it's frustrating for me. And but you know, my my my team
goes through spurts, and right now it's in another bad spurt. I've had
more bad than good. I think there's where we're a twelve team league and
six teams make the playoffs and I'm like an eighth right now, I'm not
even in the playoffs, right, I don't know. It's you know,
when I first started to a fantasy baseball, I remember my first year of
Fascy Baseball nineteen eighty eight, and uh, you know, we're you know,
we had to get the sports page out scores down. Then you knew
the players because you had to look up every day. I check on my
team every two or three days, right, you know, because it's not
a bunch of money or anything like that. So that's that's what I do.
But I'm at a loss for a lot of today's players. Now,
I will say that today, Um, when I had to get was it
was forty homers and the padres for not a tatoos. I was all over
that. I knew that one right away. But that's that's the that's the
exception when it comes to the guys that are playing today. So anyways,
but crazy stuff, Mike, Uh you know, I'm like you. I'm
like I wish things just wouldn't have all the way back to when Texas and
Oklahoma left the Big twelve. Wish none of this were happened. I liked
it the way it was. It's the almighty dollar, right, I liked
it the way it was. Right, It's not that way. It's never
gonna but it's my dad, you know, since passed, I couldn't follow
baseball in the later years because of all the trades. You never knew who
was on your team, right well, you used to follow teams now you
fright players, right right? You and I still follow teams, right right.
I'm still a huge Dodger fan, but I can't name me the whole
Dodger starting lineup the way the way I could in nineteen eighty eight, in
nineteen seventy seven, and you know those World Series eighty one, those series,
I can still name the you know, the starting the starting lineup for
maybe not the batting order, but the positions. I can do that for
the Cubs in the sixties and seventies, seventy seventeen, seventy seven and seventy
eight teams that they went to the World Series. You know, for the
seventy three team that went to the World Series, I could name all those
guys, right, you know, the Garvey, Lopes, Russell and say
right, and I'm I'm William Santo and Banks exactly exactly, and I can
name some of those guys. All right, Hey, I appreciate you being
here and look forward again. You over here again. Tomorrow we're gonna agree.
We're at Brian Jeffries. We'll talk about Arizona football, uh more from
you know, on the field standpoint, what Brian looks to, looks to
see happening. They start practice next Wednesday. Media day is Tuesday, and
then Jake Fisher will commando. We'll talk to him about the Colorado stuff,
so we'll be we'll be back tomorrow. So thanks for being here and thanks
for listening, and we'll be back tomorrow