Steve Rivera and Jagan Saliz. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports Big Yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeart radio.
Wham, Welcome back to ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
your host, Jagan Zalaz. My buddy Steve is on the road today.
So I've got a great guest host here in George Martis from Showtime Cards,
and we got Ryan here getting ready to go with breaking news Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. Hit it again, Ryan, Hit it again, This says I
on the ball, Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right,
Ryan, go all right, So the first thing we'll start with in the
NBA Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert, let's find seventy five for money sign gesture towards
the referees on Sunday. Well, I mean that's I guess that's about right,
because if you throw stuff at the ref like Jamal Murray did the other
night, you find one hundred thousand dollars. So so that's just making a
gesture seventy five thousand dollars. I guess that's about right. And I'm sure
you know not all that painful for him. Do you think no pocket change?
Exactly, it's it's in the ash tray about But all right, so
was it. I didn't see it, so I don't know, you know,
how it happened or what happened. But obviously he was unhappy about the
officiating last last night. Yeah. So he was going up for a rebound
and he kind of shoved one of the players in the back, so it
was it was a foul, but he was walking away and he just kind
of put his head down and just kind of did a money justter sign towards
the rest. You know. I guess, oh that they got a little
I guess that deserves the fine. I don't think you can do that.
I'm pretty sure it was. It wasn't like out there like he just kind
of did it. Oh I see. But anyway, all right, so
the next Ricky news is Doug got Leave is hired as the new men's basketball
coach at Green Bay. Yeah. I saw that. I mean, just
out of nowhere, right, guys had the radio show before ours on the
fuck right, you know, and he's been a you know a long time,
he's been a play by play guy. I know he's done you know,
I remember he did some Arizona games. Uh, probably for Fox,
since that's what that Fox is where his radio show is. Sure, so
he was here in town a few times. A basketball player at Oklahoma Stake
got off a little trouble, little credit card issue when he was in college,
but you know, he's kind of fought that off, and so now
he's going to be a college basketball coach. What do you know? And
sometimes it happens when coaches, I think the Indiana football coach did that.
Does that shock you when when they go from like broadcaster or analysts into like
a head coach position. Yeah, I mean who knows. I mean like
they're talking about JJ Reddick being the coach of the Lakers. Guys never coached
in his life, right, and now he's gonna be the coach of the
Lake he podcast? Yeah, I mean, yes, yes, he was
a good basketball player, you know, arguly during his time, one of
the best basketball players around it at that particular time. But he's been a
TV guy in a radio or whatever. And now you say, well,
he can be an NBA coach and I don't. I don't get that sometimes,
you know, but you know, I mean Jed Fish, right,
all of a sudden, he comes out of nowhere and he's a you know,
didn't play at all and becomes a coach and then works his way up
and he's you know, he's now coaching at Washington, one of the top
programs in the country. So it just depends. And I'm not saying that
you have to be you have to grow up in the business to do it.
God, he played in college. I mean Green Bay is a mid
major at best, a logo major, right, So I mean, yeah,
I guess you know, if he's got basketball knowledge, he convinced somebody
that he does, and so yeah, I guess h we'll see, Yeah,
we'll find out what happens in the interview that. I just hope he's
good with the media, rights, good with the media. He treats him
well, answers questions, you know, is open to stuff, because sometimes
you get to that side of it, you go, Okay, now I
know why that coach didn't talk to us much, and I'm not talking to
you guys. I hate that. I hate that, all right. Interesting,
Let's switch over to University of Arizona the men's golf. Sam Summerhouser,
he led the Wildcats in the second round of the regionals. Well, I
think that was yesterday, the second round today. What place are they in?
Because they were in second place going into today. I thought I saw
maybe they were third place. What's today Tuesday? Okay, because I I
well, sorry, that was that was just oh, Summerhouses in fifth place.
Okay, let's see. I'm trying. I'm trying to get it up
right now. I believe, Well, you have one. You have to
be in the top five in order to in order to be UH to make
the nationals. We saw that the women finished sixth last year. Last week,
so they did not they did not get into the UH, into the
region, into the national tournament. Uh. The men, Uh, they
were they were the two seed in the in the UH tournament. So here
we go. They are in third place. Now, Uh, there's six
strokes out of second place. Purdue passed them up. Uh they're nine under
par. The sixth place team is two over. So there are eleven strokes
within the qualify. You know, where they want to qualify to get into
the tournament's Vanderbilt, Perdue, Arizona, New Mexico, then Florida. So
you know, they just hold the ground Tomorrow they get into the national tournament,
and that's what they're trying to do. All right. The last thing
here recording John g Gruden case up. There a lot of court orders John
Gruden case to go to NFL arbitration, oh regarding it was it was a
defamation case. Yeah, I think he was terminated back in one. That
sounds right, Yeah, yeah, I mean, I I can see how
he's upset that that stuff got up. But it's in writing, isn't it,
and stuff like that. You're talking ten fifteen years later, you know,
it's just they're digging up so much. You know, it's You're right,
it isn't writing, and it's a shame and I think, but it
is a long time ago, so it's it's up to the judge, you
know. Well, And and again I'm sure he wants to get back in
the end of the end, absolutely, you know, but you said what
you said, right, yep. And I don't know that he necessarily got
defamed. Word got out about things that he said. That's not being that's
not defamatory. That's what you see in writing, right. Yeah. A
lot of times that doesn't change, you know what the type of person you
are, so well, as in a scene in the movie Social Networks.
What's on the internet. It's in ink and it's not technically an ink,
but it's out there and you can erase it, and uh and me,
you know, so many, so many things. You know, you say
something you think was innocent when you said it, and all of a sudden
you lose your job over it, and yeah, what are you gonna do?
All right? College football? They they announced the football opener ABC.
It's going to be Notre Dame and Texas A and m oh, okay,
do we know is it is? There? Is there an Ireland game again?
This year's Notre Dame? Is that game in Ireland by any chance?
Because I know they played who they play a north Western there or somebody there
last year? Right, they opened it up in Ireland. I don't know
if they're doing nothing there anything about it being over in Ireland again? Yeah,
that would be cool. Yeah, Yeah, it's fun. It's fun.
And this thing's still coming along. There's still stuff coming out. But
it looks like the University of California Border Regents is deciding how much money cal
is going to get from UCLA for going to the Big Ten. And it
looks like it's gonna be ten million dollars a year for they're trying to decide
how many years. But I saw calculation the other day that in the end,
after UCLA has to pay cal and then you throw in travel expenses above
and beyond what they were paying while being in the PAC twelve, in the
end they're gonna be there with a new TV deal in the Big ten.
They're going to get forty three million dollars, which is really only about ten
million if they stayed in the bid state in LA because they are saying that
if u c l A had stayed in the PAC twelve and the PAC twelve
had survived, they probably would have gotten a thirty three to thirty five million
dollars a year contract. So is the eight million dollars worth everything the breakup?
That's what started the breakup? Is that really going to be worth your
while to have done what you're doing? It doesn't sugn you know you USC
is gonna get all kinds of money because they don't have to share it with
anybody. But yeah, CAL is gonna have U c l A Is gonna
have to give up. They're calling that calimony. I love that. I
thought that, I said, as he doesn't have to give up us,
he doesn't have to give up any because they're private. The private school again,
right, you know CALS U c l A is part of the UC
system, which you know Cal is and so the regions are saying CAL is
losing this much money by U c l A leaving, So UL has to
make that up to CAL, which is what you get. That's the way
it goes. Man. Sometimes you bear, all right, what else?
So going back to the island, it's going to be Florida State and Georgia
Tech. They're going to be kicking off week zero. Oh okay, oh
in Ireland. All right, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
But okay, you know Notre Dame in Ireland said right right, But
Florida State and Georgia Tech, you said, all right. You know what's
fascinating to me about that. And even when you see the the the NFL
games that are played in Europe is how many of the fans there get the
gear where the gear they it looks like an NFL stadium. And you know
the Notre Dame game last year, they all had Notre Dame gear on,
right, and like they mind it because they know who Notre Dame is,
or they buying it just because that's a team that's playing. I would say
a little of both, you know. Yeah, some of them are true
fans, some of them become fans. Some of them witness like what an
NFL experience or a big experience, are like, this is cool, you
want to be a fan? You know, this is the first game I
got to watch. The team was, you know, Notre Dame. So
now I'm on Irish. Yeah, yeah, And I mean they draw huge
crowds because those stadiums are huge right there, thousand, Wembley and and all
of those, they're massive stadiums. But yeah, I mean Mexico, Mexico
City. Yeah, it's but I remember watching the watching that Notre Dame game.
The pregame on it, and they're showing the fans out in the streets
and they're all in the gear and the scarves and the beanies and the pennants
and the jerseys, and I'm like, it looked like that that game was
a Notre Dame, right, it was pretty funny. It's pretty funny to
me. Interesting. I mean they're starting to yeah, well yeah, I
mean they they're you know, they there was a South Korea series, you
know, the Dodgers and the Padres. Uh, somebody just went down and
played in Mexico, right, I don't remember who I think. I think
no, because the Padres played the Dodgers in Korea in South Korea, so
I remember what it was. But yeah, I would think they were taking
somebody like Miami down there, or somebody like that right from Houston, or
somebody from one of the southern you know, border cities with a lot of
Hispanics. My thought right now, it's it's still major League Baseball to them.
Yeah, all right, that's it. Okay, So all right,
we're gonna have you here in a couple of minutes. Kenzie follower Kensie follower,
Quinn. She said she's married a former Arizona football player, and uh,
she'll she'll be joined us. She's an ESPN announcer. She's at Stanford
Regional, which is she's she's got got to shut it down. Uh,
but now I can't remember who else is over there there Friday there, Friday
through Sunday Regional. Arizona's in a Friday through Sunday Regional and Fadeville, Arkansas
they've got Villa Nova on on on Friday. But we'll get some hert thoughts,
not just on on the national tournament, but as well. You know
the PAC twelve teams who are in it? I think there's seven. I
want to say, Uh, Stanford, Ucla, USC, I think USC,
Arizona, who else? I don't know. I can't go through it
all, but interesting that the number one seed in the tournament is Texas and
not Oklahoma. Oklahoma kind of faded a little bit this year. They looked
unbeatable the last couple of years they've won the last couple of national championships.
Oregon is in it. Oregon is in the is in the Oklahoma Regional.
Who else? Uh? Looking through this, I see UCLA is the sixth
seed in the tournament. PAC twelf Championship. I don't know. Washington is
in They're in the Columbia Missouri regional. As I mentioned, Stanford hosting,
which is where Kenzie Foller will be. Cal is at the Baton Rouge Regional.
They're not They're not seated. And then I think that's all of them
in Arizona. So there you go. That's so that's where and who the
PAC twelve has got in its last year as a league, which is still
makes me sad. All right, Kenzie Foller coming up, we'll pick her
brain about the national tournament bout Arizona, some of her thoughts on that.
And she's a local, so she's from Cdo her her alma mater just got
beat in the state championship by Cell Point again and so I know maybe if
we get a chance, we'll ask her about that. So stick around,
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the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Welcome back
down the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jaconnzales, my usual
co host. Steve Rivera's on the road taking in the Reds Diamondbacks game tonight
up in Phoenix. So I've got a great guest co host with me today,
George Matas from one of our great sponsors, Showtime Cards. George is
here and on the phone, We've got Kenzie Fowler Quinn, the former Arizona
All American UH now an ESPN UH broadcast analyst of covering college softball. She'll
be working the Stanford Regional this weekend, but we want we're gonna ask you
a little bit about what you've seen from Arizona. So, Kenzie, welcome
to the show, Thanks for being here, Thanks for having me. Let's
talk a little postseason. Yeah, it's that time of the year again.
Right, how far how fired up do you get for this? You know,
having played in it, been in a college World Series, Just how
did your juices get flowing about this tournament every year? Yeah? And the
way it starts, you know, Regionals it's my favorite week outside of maybe
the World Series, because you have sixty four teams. Everyone has the same
you know, hopes and dreams. It's a new season, clean slate for
everyone, and there's usually some pandemonia that goes on because there's just so many
games that are happening. You can't watch anything else, and you'll have upsets
of the higher seeds and you know, whether top seed comes through and they
have to play the extra game. All the dramatics you don't really always get
these kinds of dramatics. And maybe the World Series, but just I don't
know. It's all the mid majors coming together against the Power five conferences.
You know, teams like Arizona having to hit the road, Arkansas not really
wanting to play a team like that, Right, I don't know. Regionals
has a little something extra to it. They usually do. They usually do
as mentioned, you're going to be at the Stanford Regional. Arizona is in
Arkansas, and you just you just mentioned that, you know, Arizona and
not not you know, not seeded. They didn't get one of the sixteen
seeds, but they're a number two seed. You know, they've got as
good a shot as anybody, you know going on the road and winning something
like this. How strong was the Pac twelve and that How good of a
shot do you think Arizona has at this regional. I think it's a great
draw for Arizona. When I saw their name come up on the board,
I was pleasantly like excited that My first gut reaction was like, yeah,
okay, they can do this. This is a team that they've already played
twice, have already beat once. And this is a regional that just a
couple of years ago, this freshman class won on the road to go to
the Women's College World Series in this same ballpark. Karlie Scoop and Ali Scaggs,
you know, players on the team that went set twenty twenty one his
Calde World Series out of the Supers on the road. So I like their
draw. I think even advancing out of the regional in Arkansas. You know,
you pair up with what could be an Oklahoma State team. I don't
know. I think it's a really good path for Arizona and they're playing well
right now. So what tell us a little bit about your what your impressions
of this team, what it's done this year, strengths, maybe some weaknesses
of what do they have to do to get out of this region. Yeah,
going into the season, you know, with all of the pitching injuries
that they've had, you know, missing a couple of really big arms,
people kind of forget about that a little bit. So the weakness going into
the season definitely was in the circle just because you have, you know,
injury, there's three of your best pictures. It's gonna weaken what you can,
you know, do on the field. But I've been pleasantly surprised with
what they've been able to do. And if anybody's tuned into their games,
they use their their three arms, so they consistently use sometimes you'll see a
fourth and Ali Blanchard, but they'll use Aissa Silva, who's their main picture
there Ace if you will, Miranda Stoddard and Brooke mannon a freshman, and
they'll use them every single game. Like a pitching staff, you'll have your
starter, you'll have your middle reliever, and you'll have your closer, and
they mix it up. So it's very hard to scout and predict on who's
gonna get the start, who's going to come in for middle relief, and
who's going to close. But they've done a really good job at managing that,
and they've hit the ball really well as of late. You always want
to make sure that you're peaking at the right time. You don't want to
be peaking in February or March, you want to be peaking in May.
And they're solid defensively. They're the second best defensive team in the nation if
you go by fielding percentage, and you know, you return the gold Glove
of Ali Skaggs, the second base, the shortstop Taylor bial just won Pack
twelve Defensive Player of the Year. So for a team that doesn't have that
All American you know, strike out twelve. You know, hitters a game
type of pitcher in the circle. They are very comfortable with pitching to contact,
letting their defense do the work and scrapping a couple of runs across on
the board. When when you have a pitching staff like that that you know,
just game to game and you're you're pitching towards situations. That's kind of
the best you can do, right if you don't have a so called ace,
and and the pitching coach that they brought in, Christian Conrad, it
seems like he's kind of having to manage it every single game. Yeah,
and there's so much scouting that you can do now, even that wasn't around
when I played. There's so much data that I use for my broadcast,
so I can't even imagine what they're breaking down inside the clubhouse and what's just
available to anyone to just go on and break down every single hitter and the
stats and the spring charts and all the things. So if you don't have
a strikeout pitcher, and you utilize the data and really study the spring charge
and what the hitters are putting out on the field, you can shift your
defense. And they'll do that a lot. If you watch Arizona, they'll
even bring in Reagan Shockey from center field to have five infielder's just skipping over
to the left side of the infield, pitching into the defense, not going
for the strikeout, literally saying We're going to let you hit the ball,
but our defense is going to get the outs. And they've been very successful
at that this season. Yeah. Now I've seen that where they they'll one
position in the outfield, there won't be anybody out there. The other night
they had nobody in right field. For better that. You know, there
will be a couple of times where you know, you look at the statistics,
it might burn you, but you wanted to play the odds right.
And if you're going to say ninety five percent of the time we're going to
be successful with this, you take those ods absolutely. Analytics go into everything.
Kenzy, I'm going to like go away a little bit from softball,
but keep it in women's sports. Right now, it's tremendous with obviously with
Caitlin Clark. Is there anyone that you see nationally that could elevate softball?
Not to that level obviously, but even take it up a little I do.
And I'm going to be calling her recental this weekend. So I'm very
excited about my assignment. You know, it's interesting. We had our ESPN
production call this morning and the first thing that you know, ESPN was talking
about is the numbers that just came in for the regular season of all of
the ESPN networks, and the ratings were up thirteen percent from a season ago,
and they were the highest number since twenty fifteen, which is this a
year away from when I last was on a ballfield. So kind of puts
in perspective where we're at. And I think it's just a culmination of women's
sports. And people are excited WNBA opening night tonight, and it's flooding my
social teas right right. It's a very cool moment to be a part of.
And you want to talk about a star, I think Nijah Kennedy could
be that future star. Kind of been hidden a little bit over on the
West Coast in the PAC twelve, but she's just a sophomore. And if
anybody tuned into the postseason run that Stanford had last year, they were a
couple of pitches away from beating Oklahoma and the Women's College World Series with her
in the circle. She's an electric pitcher. She's a righty. She throws
seventy two seventy three miles an hour with a rise change. Combo. I
called her in the PAC twelve tournament, and I'm putting up quotations in the
air right now. She had an off night with ten straight outs and six
walks, and that was I'm gonna be honest, probably the worst I've seen
her pitch. But she doesn't she doesn't give you outings like that. She's
gonna get fifteen strikeouts and you're gonna have to find a way to score against
her. But she's probably who I circle in terms of who could be the
future faith for our sport. Yeah. And when you you know, you
get into these uh, you know, the these tournaments and you start getting
the attention, and you know, obviously the key is to get to the
College World Series because that's where you really get the spotlight on you. But
that, you know, that's when you find out, you know, what
kind of I don't know, staying power a player like that, you know
might have going forward. You've got this, You've got this regionally up up
at Stanford. Tell us a little bit about the teams that are there.
Yeah, we have a couple of conference champs and Saint Mary's, cal State
Fullerton, and then an at large bid out of the SEC in Mississippi State.
Karen Mowett, a name that people know very well. Coach for Mississippi
State. So excited to be reunited with her and chat it up a little
bit with her on Thursday when I get to head down to practice and scout
the teams a little bit, and then of course the top eight seed and
Stanford as the host. So Misssippi State a very good team out of the
SEC, having themselves a career year, finishing above five hundred in the conference
for the first time in over a decade, and their pitching numbers are really
good with coach Moet coming in, So yeah, I think it'll be a
really fun regional. We're going to have the primetime games. Being on the
West Coast, we'll have I think at ESPN two Friday night at seven ish,
our time game on Friday. So yeah, it'll be a good start.
Okay, well, you brought up Mississippi State, which takes me to
the bone that I said I had to pick when you were off air.
How is it possible that you can finish in last place in your league and
still get in the post season. Every SEC team got into the tournament.
And I don't care what the RPI is, what the analytics are, all
the whatever the computer says, You've got to finish better than the last place
in your league to be able to play in the postseason. I'm really upset
by this that every SEC team I hear. Yeah, it's valid, that's
a valid criticism. You're not the only person I've heard share that frustration.
But you know, there's all the numbers and the selection committee and all the
stuff that you're talking about. The one thing that helped that was that we
have all of the automatic qualifiers and the conference tournaments championships, and there weren't
any quote unquote stolen bids, if you will. So like the favorite going
into the tournament this year, almost I think maybe one, but almost every
favorite won their tournament. So you usually you'll see this in like mid majors
or maybe even the Big ten or Big twelve or ACC where you have a
team that makes a run like NC State last of Men's March Madness right where
they don't expect to win the tournament or even be in the tournament, but
then you win your conference tournament. Well, that didn't happen in our sport.
All the favorites won and so there weren't any you know, bubble teams
that you know, got left off. They all got in. So yeah,
it's a valid criticism. No, I hear you. I mean,
I'm just saying. I mean, there should be a rule if you're in
the bottom three of your league, whatever league it is, you can't get
in and somebody else should get in. I don't care who it is,
you know, whether it's from a smaller conference, you know, whatever it
is. But I'm sorry, you just can't. And it had a decent
record though, I mean old, I don't care they finished last. I'm
upset by this, Kenzie, I'm upset. I'm here for it. Bring
the passion, you know, that's how things could change. You got to
put your your grievances out there. I'm like, holy cow, all right,
Okay, I got it out. I got it out. It's it's
a second day in a row that I that I've that I vented like this.
But you know all this, as you said, you know we're heading
towards the College World Series. You've got super Regionals next week. It's fun.
This tournament has It's just become such a thing now, and not just
because we're here in Tucson and Arizona was in it is in it every year.
It's become a thing. All over the country and and you know,
girls are playing softball all over the place. It's great. You know,
it's it's a great spectator sport. It's fast, the games don't last four
hours. It's a lot of fun, and it seems to get bigger and
better every year. Do you agree with that? I do? And you
know, I'll make a plug for our coverage this weekend. If you don't
really know where to start, first to turn on ESPN, because there's probably
be some sort of softball on one of the networks. But if you don't
know where to start and you want to kind of take it all in a
little bit, there's a really cool platform that they have on ESPN Plus called
seven Innings Live, and it's the whip around. So when you have sixty
four teams and you have one hundred and twelve games that are going on in
front of us in three days, you got to figure out how you can
see all the good highlights. Well, that's a really good place to start.
They have coverage from sun up to sundown, and they'll jump into when
a team has bases loaded or a team's about to walk it off, like
the big moments. It's kind of our red zone, right, So it's
kind of like that half a red zone. You know, I'll put a
plug for that if you want to get into it. I think that's a
really good place to start. Yeah, I didn't know. Well, you
know, these days, especially as Arizona heads to the pack Big twelve,
you're going to need to get ESPN plus a subscription to that because that's where
stuff is going to be. All the games that you see on PAC twelve
network, softball games, baseball, some of the other sports. That's where
you can find them. And they have a big part of the I'm looking
through the schedule here, a big part of the the the tournament, all
the regionals on there. So yeah, that's where you got to go,
Kenzie. Uh, Safe Travels will look for you at the Stanford Regional.
Appreciate the time today, And oh, I guess I should mention this.
And you paid attention to your CDO softball team made it to the state championship
but did quite get there. Well you know, I mean, look,
I give you give your school some profits because they did get there. Right.
Yeah, anytime you can make your high school safe championship, that's such
a big deal, right, So yeah, they had such a good season,
fall short in the last game, but yeah, they're continuing to be
strong. Like talk about softball and Tucson. It was strong when I played,
and it's so strong now. Well, you were a big part of
softball. Yeah, you're You're a big part of making it what it is.
So Kensie, thanks, thanks a whole bunch. Have fun this weekend
and we'll be in touch at some point. Thank you, thank you,
thanks for having me. Kenzie followed Quinn uh covering the Stamp Regional for ESPN
this weekend. If you want to catch her games, or you can watch
Arizona there in the Arkansas Regional. Arizona plays at three o'clock on Friday against
Villanova on ESPN Plus. All right, we're gonna take our last break.
We'll love to take your calls. Five two zero four one' six seventy four,
forty We'll be back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you
know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take a look back
at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was
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built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot
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dot Net. Breaking down all the exus and ohs. It's Steve Rivera and
Jagen Salvis. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Welcome back trying the ball here, Hi on the ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen to fifty. I'm Ja Gonzalez, my usual partner. Steve Rivera's on
the road today. He's headed up to the Reds Diamondbacks came up in Phoenix,
but I'm brought in a great co host to able to phillishues. George
Miners from Showtime Cart has been here. Have been having a great time.
It has been fun, you know, talking about Arizona baseball today and back
in the day a softball, you know, with the h Street there and
the NCAA tournament starting. Kensey Fowler, one of the great pitchers at Arizona.
Oh, she was a great personality. Yeah, yeah, she does.
And she does a nice job with the with the broadcast. So she'll
be at the Stanford Regional. Arizona is at the Faydeville Regional. They'll be
taking on Villanova on Friday. Most likely if they win, they'll take on
Arkansas the host on Saturday. So we'll see how all that goes. But
all that stuff's getting going. Arizona in its last PAC twelve series here this
weekend. You know, I start, I mean I remember going to the
games when they were in the whack, right, I mean I was in
you know, elementary school, teenager. Then they got to the Big twelve.
Now so in U C. L a USC they're all coming to town.
They had the six pack, the pack, well, the PAC twelfth
Southern Division was what it really was called, but we used to call it
the six pack because there were six teams in the pack and they were the
Bay Area schools. The LA schools, the Arizona schools such a great time.
Those games were were incredible. The atmosphere at Sanset Field on campus.
For those of you who are newcomers to us, the Sanset Field was where
the foot indoor football practice facility is. That's what the baseball field was.
Did you know that, right, That's where we would go, you know,
and it was right on campus, so you know, you could get
out of class go catch a game. Uh, you know, it kind
of got outdated concessions and all that kind of stuff, and you couldn't serve
beer there and all that type of stuff. Greg Burn and his administration got
the greatest, one of the best moves they've ever made in any sport was
to move baseball out to High Corbett Field. I know a lot of people
thought, well, it's off campus, you're going to lose the ambyance.
Well, this has the ambyonce. It's even though it's a pro stadium,
it's a college field to it because it's Arizona and people go out there for
that, right right. So yeah, and so it did work. They've
been leading in attendance. You know, I be surprised with how Arizona has
been publicized. In this series, we've had Chip Hale on, we have
Brian Jefferies today. I would hope that at least five thousand at these games
this weekend. Which what did he say we needed fifty said they needed twelve
twelve for the three game series to lead the league in attendance. Again that
first day in the game Saturday, Thursday through Saturday, six o'clock. It's
a great time. You know. I don't know if I've gone to any
games this year you've gone, but you sold me. Ony. It's a
blast, it's a it's a lot of fun. You go, right,
you said, Ryan, I went to went to a couple of games at
the beginning of the season. They were struggling a little bit. Yeah.
I kept up with them like a big winning streak. Yeah, sure,
you know, but it's you know, you go to these games and it's
you know, the thing that I remember about going to Sansettfield is it could
be a three and a half or four hour game. You're sitting in these
hard bleachers. There's no shade, you know, you think about it.
Back then it was uncomfortable, and now we went and we did it.
We stood it because the team was good, and you followed the team.
But the comfort of High Corbett Field. So the old senset was on fifth
east of the it was across the street from McHale. Okay, So across
the street south of McHale. You know you've got the you've got the the
academic center there, you've got the the practice football facility, the indoor,
and then the grass field next to it. That it was on that corner
facing south east okay. Okay, So it faced uh beyond right, beyond
left, beyond the left field fence. Looking out of the left field,
you were looking out on Campbell Okay. On the right, in the right
field fence, you were looking out on sixth Street, Okay. So it
faced south and east. So center field was the intersection. I think that's
either Martin or Warren in sixth Street. That that was center field. And
and that's you know, and it was there for one hundred years. I
mean, when I started going to those games, it was bleachers. It
was just bleachered like high school bleachers. And that's when you know, if
they knew the ASU series every year that played at High Corbett Field, and
it was a big deal, you know, eight nine thousand people would go
to that game. They had people sitting out in the warning track, you
know, and if the ball went into the into the into the crowd sitting
around the warning track, it was the ground will double. So a guy
had to cut it off, you know, to keep it from being that
they sit along in the grass. And he did the same thing at Sanset.
So a lot of great a lot of great times with that. And
then again, you know, they got the bright idea to to move this
and the stadium stayed up for a while because they made the grass. They
made the field just an all grass field and uh and you know that was
where football practice. And then they knocked down the stadium and built the indoor
practice facility. They as well as that academic center, the Jenny Clements Academic
Center across the street from macad that's what it was. Yeah, it's a
great space now. And and again allowed them to build that indoor facility,
which is you know, you know for recruiting and all those things that it's
a you know, it's a great thing. It's a great thing for them
to have some of the u of a guys, let's talk about let's go
back and back in time. Who you know, we're talking about cards and
things like that. A guy like Trevor Hoffman, he's in the Hall of
Fame. He was a leader. Yeah, I know. I think Mariano
Marin all time saves, but Hoffman's in the Hall of Fame. Those guys
have some value. They have card, but you got to have almost a
sentimental attemental like we talked about it, regional value here, you know.
Yeah, Okay, an athlete that has the most valuable piece of memorability,
whether it's a card or a jersey or any sport. For Arizona, Arizona
a lot. Okay, Yeah, green Kowski's still up there. That's a
good question that that is a good Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr not a lot,
not as much as you would think, yeah, because I mean he's
a good player, not a great player, not a great But as in
coaches, even more of the most recent like Ben Mathern has way more value
than Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott or any of the older players. Is that
because he's just more recent and people they're more recent. Absolutely, you know,
once they're done, people forget, you know, once you retire,
Even Derek Jeter, you know when he tired a couple of years later.
People are not buying it stuff, So it's just yeah, yeah, interesting
because you're out of sight, out of mind. Yeah yeah, it's okay.
So right now, you know, they really haven't had a basketball player
that's jumped out outside of mathrom Right, it's been a while since they've had
somebody that's really kind of made an impact. Yeah, man was the most
recent. He was a number six overall draft. So and this year we
might not have any Yeah no, no football players have him along really since
no, I mean since Gronk and our quarterback folds. Yeah, I mean
he'd beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Yeah, so that that was
pretty big, and he were asking on his stuff. We sold a lot
of his you know, but that was tremendous. Okay, And and he's
still a backup somewhere. Yeah. Well maybe maybe I don't know he's gonna
I don't think he got he's gonna get in the camp this year. I
don't think so. Yeah, But okay, and interesting, So maybe Gronk
is the sort of the most pop I think so. Still it's still and
one thing he always talks about Arizona. No matter what he always puts a
Zona people. You know, he was just on the on the Tom Brady
Rose and they're you know, they're clowning on him. In terms of college
athletes, though, how much of a market is there for for college athletes?
Guys were still in college, right, say Caleb Williams, Uh,
you know some of these guys were top draft picks. Now it's huge.
It wasn't. Oh yeah, now they have cards, Now it's huge.
With the NOL agreements, it's it is big time. It is you know,
a bigger than others or or is it just depend on the guy footballs
the biggest Yeah, yeah, yep, well kind of I mean that even
over overcomes basketball. Yeah, Caleb Williams card, you know something like that.
Who else is in that neighborhood in terms of value coming out of college
right now? Well, we had six six quarterbacks drapped in the in top
ten, I really, you know, or the first round, first one.
Well, six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks, in the first of
twelve picks, which is the most average. So all of them, all
their cards are you know, doing tremendous right now, every single one,
and so what I can't believe it? Or not Caitlin Clark still out sells
them. Really yes, interesting, maybe not Caleb Williams as far as like
autographic cards, but more than the other ones. But those guys, so
you know, they're at a certain value right now. Now we've got to
see how they play. Yes, right, of course, let's say bon
Nicks falls flat on his face and stuff. If you buy one of his
cards, well, good lucky, yeah, put it in, put it
in the box and right, oh yeah, yeah, okay, said guy
like Joe Burrow, right, came out when the Heisman Trophy, he's been
to a super Bowl. What's a guy like, what's a guy like that
to bring? He was? He was huge. I mean he had a
huge National championship LSU over Clemson over Lawrence, uh Trevor Lawrence Lawrence. Yep,
that was big. And then he performed well in the pros. So
that's as big as it gets. He kind of stays steady. Oh yeah,
he's one of those cards so high, they so well, they so
hot. Yeah when you say hi, depending on what does it depends on
the card? The brand card? Yeah? Absolutely, you know you can
have a card that we might think it's five hundred dollars as high, but
in card terms, it could be a fifteen thousand dollars card. Whoa yeah
uh a wem Beat card, Wemby yam my card that just came out.
It's called the Kaboom. It's an insert. It's a regular standard insert card,
one per case. But if you get wembyt you know, recently sold
for twenty three thousand. To me, that baffles me. That card should
be maybe five thousand, four thousand, but it went for twenty three somebody
paid twenty three thousand four And that just happened this week. Wow, even
with that bad commercial that he made. And it's not numbers, so it's
not I don't know how rare it is. Yeah yeah, wow, okay,
wow when Bayama, Yeah, bringing the Bucks, bringing the Bucks man,
Oh man, that's crazy. Yeah yeah. And there's there's Connor Dart
the hockey player. He's doing tremendous or he did tremendous. You know.
He was the number one overall pick for the for Chicago Blackhawks and we just
sold a ton of his stuff and it it actually carried the hockey market more
than it has in decades, does it? Going? Spurts is going run
yeah. Yeah, people buy hockey for a while, then they go buy
baseball for a while. Is it because usually itsant season? Yes, Okay,
that makes sense. It makes sense. All right, all right,
let's take this call higher on the air and nine on the ball. Hey,
I had a question about the Drew Jones card that just got released.
Came out like last year and they were everyone was freaking out about it.
It's gonna be the number one card worth like a million dollars and now he's
looking like you're going to get out of low way. Yeah, and that's
what happens too, you know, like one year it could be tremendous and
right now it's still in cruise. He was the the number one or number
two overall pick and everyone's going crazy on his cards and he's really not doing
that good in the in the minors. But the same thing with Drew Jones
from Arizona. He was the number two overall draft last year. People were
playing crazy money on his cards and now they're I mean people got hurt on
those. Wow, I just put it that way. Interesting. Did you
get one of those? No? I didn't get one, but god,
I think they said that that one that was chrome or something that was going
to be Someone was offering like a million dollars for him out of the box.
I think it was the Yeah, the top scrobe super fractor, and
I think it was like one hundred thousand. They just set bounties on these.
The Dylan cruise bounty was recently set at two hundred thousand. Someone pulled
it and he didn't take it. Wow. Interesting, All right, thank
you for the call. Appreciate it's it's it's mind boggling to me. What
would you do? Jay? You pull that card and you tell me it's
worth two hundred thousand dollars. I'm selling it. Keep it? Are you
kidding me? It's gone, man, I'll deliver it to you, bring
it in a pretty box for you in the whole deal. Same, you
know, I feel the same. Yeah. So I mean like, okay,
at some point, you're gonna get me a show hey card, and
I I want that a little case. I want to give it to my
grandson and let him, you know, down the road, whatever he does
with him. But to me, that's a there's an attachment to it,
it's a souvenir. I want him to have it. I want him to
know what it's meaningful right to show he's a big deal to us, and
to me, that's that's what it's the value of that. You know,
I've told you I've got a Luis Gonzalez signed World Series Baseball. You know,
I just love having it, sure, and you know, I like
yes, and I love having that. I've got a jersey signed by him
and won by Randy Johnson from around that time. He's got a great signature.
Yeah, So you know, good stuff, all right, Hey,
George, thanks again, man, always appreciate the fun stuff. Talking about
your business, George, George Martis from Showtime Cards address real Quick fifty to
one East Speedway, fifty to one E Speedway, Showtimecards dot com. Yeah,
Showtime Cards dot Com and there check it out, all right, man,
go in there and check it out. Thank you. Nice job again
today. Appreciate it. Thanks everybody for being here. Steve will be back
tomorrow. We'll bring in some more great guests and we'll be talking some more
postseason softball and probably some baseball. So see you tomorrow.