It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day, Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we
are get off our show, idiot. The kids are playing a trail off.
The countries are screwing it up. Gold Play inter Murals, Brother,
gold Play Intermurals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not.
Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you kidding me?
Now? Here's Nick Coffee? Well, not exactly, Nick Coffee.
Just call me your substitute teacher. Good afternoon. I'm Scott Fitzgerald, filling
in for Nick Coffee on a well deserved time off for Nick. We're gonna
keep you company on your way home, and it's it's just a pleasure to
be back here, of course, with the great John Alden down in where
it's I gotta get my studio straight, John, I'm all turned around here,
but we're in Studio B and I'm in studio E. Oh, I
got you. I'm used to being in a you know, A or D
I don't know where I am, dude, I don't know, but it's
all good because I can see you. You can see me and great to
be back with you. Man, it's a pleasure. I won't the last
thing I remember that happened. Whenever you were doing the Oaks Day coverage for
US down at Churchill Downs you you were talking about the end of the race
and mentioning how Brian Hernandez was going for the double. And that's exactly what
happened, isn't it. It wasn't that a wild as wild? It was
wild on all accounts. It was. Let me tell you something, let
me tell you what the spring has been like. I just put it up
on X by the way, if you want to follow a long I mean
s fits underscore eight forty whas. It has been a wild November. I
was got home, so I when did I get home? Jeez, everything's
in whirlwind. I went to the PGA, got home Sunday night, and
okay, it started with thunder over Louisville the top of the Alley Center.
We were broadcast in live out there. Beautiful night, beautiful night, big
crowds awesome. Went from there, did the Oaks with you, did the
Derby with Venetti, and then took off and went to the NFL Draft man
and then and then went to the PGA last weekend. I told my wife,
I said, I am going nowhere this weekend. In fact, I
had some folks say, hey, you want to roll up to Indy.
They wanted to go to the Indy five hundred, and I'm like, I'm
done with crowds, gag no offense. It's been a fun ride, but
dude, I am done with crowds and it's but it's been fun. I'm
truly blessed to be able to do all that, and it just was crazy,
and of course we thought would get a triple Crown winner. Sees the
Gray was your Preakness winner for d Waye Lucas. Couldn't ask for a better
storyline there, and we'll see how things unfold into the Belmont and boy,
Oi, John do we have a lot of sports to unpack over the next
three hours. I'll start you off And in case you're wondering, University of
Louisville baseball losing today to Miami eight to five at the ACC Tournament. They
are in pool play, so we'll be able to get another shot in and
they play Clemson on Friday again. Pitching continuing to be a struggle for the
Cards, they just can't get out of their own way when it comes to
pitching. Evan Webster was your starter, or excuse me, not Webster.
It was Patrick Forbes, the freshman out of Bowling Green was your starter.
He went five innings game, two hundred runs to five hits, by the
way, and struck out five. It was Patrick Evan Webster coming at the
end of the former Ryle County stand out. He got rocked as well.
He gave up three runs on four hits, only struck out one. So
the Cards took it on the chin, and they'll try to look again against
Clemson. We'll see what they can do on Friday, and we'll break down
more college baseball as we go on through the afternoon. This afternoon, we
got Will Clark coming up with us, the one and only Will Clark,
you know, used to be in our newsroom. I don't know if you
remember squatch there, John. I'll tell you what he is. Definitely one
of the most I don't even know how to describe it. He's probably the
biggest character, at least for the few years that I've worked here at iHeart
and the family of stations that we have, he's the biggest character and no,
pun intended that. I've been around for sure. And I mean when
you said the biggest character, literally, he's the biggest character. I saw
him. I saw him at Derby and he came clumping up there under the
grand stand. I mean, dude is just growing. He keeps growing.
I was interning for Howie Lindsay back in the summer of twenty nineteen. That's
back when we were still over at Newburgh Road, obviously, and I didn't
know who Will Clark was, but I remember that there was a monstrous human
being who would run down the hallways to the newsroom, right and I was
just like, what is this guy doing? Man, what's his deal?
It was? I mean I learned all about it once I came on board.
He almost collided in the old studios with Paul Rodgers come around the corner.
It was hilarious. He was running. I mean, he would you
talk about Terry Tait. I mean, he clearly would have shot Paul Rogers
across the newsroom had he hit him. But he's gonna join us one because
one he was at the PGA. I'm gonna get his thoughts on the PGA.
He also the Indy five hundred is his baby. He's in Indiana Native
that is something he's very very close to. We'll get the loaddown on there.
They had their final practice yesterday. Carb Day is Friday. We'll get
the straight skinny. No, it's not the bad carbs. You're not eating
bread or anything like that. It's literally carved day. We'll get the straight
skinny from him and what we can expect. Of course, all eyes will
be on Kyle Larson, who's going to what they call the double that is
run Indy and then go run at the Coca Cola six hundred and Charlotte.
That is eleven hundred miles if I'm not mistaken. So we're gonna talk to
him about that and get his thoughts on what he did. We'll I's gonna
talk with Jeff Milby, and if you listen to our show on Saturday mornings,
Jeff comes in. We do footy talk, and he's of course the
radio voice of Racing Louisville and lou City, so we're gonna talk to him
about what's in store for both clubs. Racing Louisville had a better than expected
performance that against North Carolina over the weekend, so we'll talk to him about
that and get his thoughts as both those teams will be in action too.
I mean, is we're gonna talk that we got? The NBA Playoffs are
back on tonight. This should be a heck of a series. A Pacer
fan, I'm in partial here, Okay, John, I know Nick is
a big Pacer fan. He is a big Pacer fan. Where do you
lie? So I would say, if I was picking a camp, I'd
pick the Pacers. I haven't followed them as closely as a lot of people
have, but one thing you can't ignore is just the fact that what they've
done to get to this point. You're in the Eastern Conference Finals. A
lot of people thought that this would kind of be another rebuilding season for the
franchise, and yet they're doing I don't want to say the unthinkable, but
they've defied expectations so far. I mean, you're going in Hang I don't
care who you are. You going in Hang twenty one on New York.
I mean, that's something special. That's you're really doing something special there.
So that's what they did to get there, So we'll talk about them.
You got Karl Anthony Towns and of course the Minnesota Timberwolves. They're making some
noise out there. Going to be an exciting time. And I know there's
a small hockey crowd. I won't dwell on it. I'm a hockey guy.
I won't dwell on it. But the NHL playoffs are back, so
we'll give you a full service. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna
talk about the PGA Tour definitely. With motorsports being on everybody's mind, F
one is starting to see a resurgence now as well. And it's apparently they
got the TV ratings are in from the Miami Grand Prix and they did very
well when they went head to head against There were some other factors, but
they did very well when they went head to head with of course, NASCAR.
So the important thing to remember is that when someone I do this all
the time too, because I have a lot of favorite radio shows that I
like to listen to. When someone new comes in, you're like, oh,
man, come on, I was used to Nick. I need my
Nick fix, and I can tell you one I'm not Nick. Nick's not
me, but Nick and I had a very long conversation at the Kentucky Derby
off the air, off the record conversation. He and I have a lot
in common. I mean, he's we we could we definitely can't have a
beer together. In fact, we did and we really shared kind of the
same thoughts. But I may deviate a little bit a little bit off,
Nick, I'll be with you today and tomorrow we are going to talk.
By the way, Tomorrow, we're going to talk some horse racing with good
folks at Racing Dudes, And if you follow, you can follow my next.
They're awesome and they're talking all things horse racing and what's in store.
So if you want to little win a little money there, you can.
I gotta say something real quick to you, Scott, shout out to you
for being able to call Twitter x and not even blink and eye about it,
because that's something that both myself, Nick, and several other people that
I talk with, we still can't not call it Twitter. Well, to
your point, my question is when are they going to get rid of being
able to log on Twitter? Yeah? You know, when when is it
gonna Because it went to did your I guess everybody's feed went to all black.
It's the one thing that I do al like whenever I'm typing in all
of my tabs for the show always type it still lets me type into Twitter
dot com. Yeah right, but it'll it'll it'll recalibrate itself and show it
as x dot com. So still lets you type it in that way,
but it redirects you. Yeah, And you know it's funny when when when
Eon Elon Eon went to when he had his little spat with the public,
so many people I'm getting off Twitter, I'm getting off Twitter, and and
every everybody made that fun jump to to what was it? Threads? That's
right, Instagram affiliation. Threads is like the new Coke Zero of social media.
I mean, that was an abysmal failure on every life. And it's
one of those things that it had such a strong day or two that if
they would have put the right resources and maybe some money into it, some
promotion, it had a chance to compete with Twitter, and whoever is in
charge of doing that, they just kind of let the ball. They drop
the ball. Yeah, yeah, you're right, And I think I think
Twitter's become such a way of life or x It's become a way of life
for all of us. I use it more for informational purposes than I do
posting anything. I'm more of a casual. I'm an observer of social media
more than I do post, and I feel sometimes if I post too much,
you know, people are just kind of like, come on, you
post it again? You post this? I mean, you gotta think before
you post. I am. I have zero problems with TikTok. I'll go
on the record as saying that I know it scares some people. Tony Cruz
and I go back and forth all the time in the morning about it.
I think TikTok, but then it was a very late adopter with TikTok.
I was late. I was like coming to the party. Now I can't
put it down, dude, Now I can't. If I'm sitting there watching
the game at night and I'm flowing through TikTok, I'm like, I'm going
down this rabbit hole and i gotta put my phone. I gotta put it
down. But there are some entertaining people on TikTok. The only problem is
now if my daughter sends me one more TikTok and then asked me, you
said, tiko talk, see that TikTok, see that TikTok uh. But
I I like TikTok Tony's scared of it. But then again, he was
scared to bank. He's scared of everything he did. That's a shock to
no. No, he was scared. He was scared to do online banking
when that first came out in the coffee shop. He's scared of he was
gonna hack his WiFi. So so, I'm a big TikTok guy. But
again, I don't post a lot on it. I'm simply there just to
see what's out there. Now if I'm at an event, like when I
was at the PGA, Now that you know I was, I was posting
on our has X feed. That was because there was you gotta have some
meat and potatoes. When you post. You can't just post for the sake
of posting. And there are certain people I follow just because I like what
they have to say. I like you know, I like their takes,
I like what they do. And I was trying to think of how many
people. I was looking to see how many people I was following at this
point, I have way more people I am. That's I'm on seven nineties.
Now let me go over to mind I am. Let's see, I'm
gonna look at my pro file. I am following about twelve hundred people right
now as opposed to my followers. And and that's fine, and I appreciate
everybody who's following me, but if you're looking for a massive entertainment from me
by following me, it's just not there. And it's so funny how in
society we're all we're all on board by how many followers we have. You
know, I used to be the kind of off I lost a couple followers,
like what did I say? What did I do? And there used
to be and I think there still might be some apps that would tell you
when somebody unfollowed you, Yes, you could do that, there was a
way you could do that. Now I left Facebook years ago, I mean,
and this is like six years. I mean, I still have the
problem is is I still have my Facebook profile and everything, but I've got
so many pictures on there from when my kids were younger, and I just
made a conscious I think it was one time somebody, I'm somebody was complaining
about something I was. I'm a political atheist. I have zero political affiliation.
I don't care. I really don't because nothing's changed and the forty years
I've been able to vote through nothing has changed. I like that term,
by the way, political atheists. Yeah, I mean nothing has changed.
So you know, and so what I I think I got to the point
I saw somebody posting something really stupid on Facebook about politics, and at that
point I said, I'm done with you all. I'm done. And now
Instagram I love because Instagram just gives you random, random posts, like I'll
see somebody's post from six days ago, and it's very simple, yes,
yes, and it's more photo driven than anything else, so it's it's easy
to catch up on. In for sports, I think Instagram is fantastic.
I'm a big minor league baseball guy. I love like the intricacies the nuances
of the minor league when they play as Team B, like when the when
you get the bats, they'll go on play as the Masters. And I
follow a couple of Twitter feeds that watch that stuff. So that's the kind
of stuff that I follow on social media. And you know, I don't
know, you don't need to comment on every post, you know, I
like just scrolling through and sometimes I see so many places like it's like people
in this business who used to say, like your biggest mistaken in fact,
our first programming director Kelly Carl's, the first one I worked for, told
me. He said, do not judge your strengths and weaknesses on the air
by the number of phone calls you get, because they said, on average
they've done studies about three percent of all people listening actually called radio station.
I got to thinking about it, when was the last time I saw something
on TV and I called the radio station? In fact, it was Christy
Dutton who said it to me. She used to work for Wave three when
we were partners with them. She said to me, somewhere she said,
somebody called the station and was complained about something I wore. She goes,
who calls the station? Who does that? And so and so. Now,
so like when I look at my you know, so many people out
there that and I feel bad for like cause I talked to my son and
daughter about this all the time. I feel bad for that kind of generation
coming up because if they're not getting likes or they're not getting you know,
the attention on social media, that's that's a problem for them. But then
again, that's the world they live in too. And it's like if we
went to the mall and nobody talked to us when we were growing up,
then you'd be like, what's wrong with me? If but to follow on
social media and Twitter. I think I think X is fantastic for sports.
In fact, that's one of the first places I go for sports. I
love it, dude. I love it because I can go there, I
can get the scores I need. I think I think sports organizations have done
a fantastic job of keeping you updated and posting. One that comes to mind
is UOL baseball. I think if I'm not in a place where I can
watch the game, like actively stream the game, then uo L is great
about posting when they score and it's a short, simple score. Now it's
not like I can't, you know, call it my phone and type in
Google, you know, and just typing little baseball and moment pops up.
But they give you a little bit more background. So that's that's my big
me. That's my big use for social media. And when I was at
the NFL Draft and I was able to post up to there. If you're
interviewing people man on the street, that kind of thing, that's it's great
for it. But you know, it's so hard with social media. You
can't paint every single user with the same brush because everybody has a different meaning
for it. And now there's so many people and it's probably across all social
media. They don't use the real name, they don't use the real profile,
p sure, and they kind of use it as an avenue to kind
of hide behind something yep, to be able to say whatever they want.
And that's when you get this tox success pool of people who you mentioned.
They comment on everything. They sometimes say things they probably shouldn't and that's the
downside to the social media stuff right right. Well, for example, I
still I do get on Facebook to post for over at whas because we do
stuff for the shows and for my actual position, and we have access to
the inbox that we get and you should read some of the stuff people send
it. Is it nasty? Oh, I mean it gets It's just awful,
dude. And the problem is what's interesting about Facebook is it's almost opposite
of what you're talking about. There's their profile. Like one time we had
somebody I won't even repeat it, but it was it was politically driven,
it was vile, and yet the guy had pictures of he and his kids
up there and join a camping trip in his profile picture. I'm like,
dude, is this the same guy? So so it's it's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing. Though when it comes to sports. I certainly
understand where marketers are coming from when it comes to social media, because there's
an avenue if you're a quote unquote influencer. I understand that because if you're
if you're an influencer, you're valuable to a marketer. And but that's just
for me. That's not really my cup of tea, not at this point
in my life. I get it is for some people, but certainly not
for me. But you know, it is. It is a way,
it's it's a way of being. I think the one guy who has mastered
social media though, is Nick Coffee. His his vibe checks are amazing.
They are. I was like, dude, where did you come up with
that idea? When he was it louder than Life? That was? That
was So we played best of Yesterday and the day after we did the Louder
than Life vibe check he talked about on the show obviously, and we replayed
that segment because Nick was so taken aback because he had never been in that
kind of environment and the amount of people that you see excuse me, yeah,
excuse me, not of people you see it louder than life that just
come from all walks of life in different parts of the country and even across
different countries. It was mind blowing to him and well, and Nick does
such a great job of just capturing He's a master interview is what I like
to He's he's got a very open mind when interviews. He lets the person
talk. He interviews, you know, he gives him time to talk.
He's here, and he keeps an even head to him about it like nobody
I've ever seen. And I told him that when we talked at the Kentucky
Derby, and it's just he does such a great job with that. And
he utilizes social media very well. I enjoy reading his stuff when he posts.
That's the other thing I do like about social media. And I follow
a couple of people that for the teams that I follow, whether it be
the Red Wings, there's there's a podcast that I listen to for the Red
Wings, and there's people that so they live tweet during the game. That
feature I like when if you can find somebody that gives you a solid tweet
during a game and gives you their thoughts and they're not just you know,
spouting off random stuff. Like I've seen Nick before, he's offered up some
analysis, some insight as to what's going on. And I've done that at
games and followed him there, and I do the same thing with the Red
Wings. That's where it comes in handy and you're able to really just kind
of kind of utilize it. It brings another level to sport. Now.
I did do one thing along those lines. I was in the treadmill last
week and for whatever reason, it just struck me. I watched the nineteen
ninety one Detroit Lions Dallas Cowboys game because it was Barry Sanders. It was
Barry Sanders Nimmitt Smith. So it was really weird watching that dude with with
like you didn't have all the fancy graphics hitting in the face, you didn't
know how much time was left, you didn't know what the score was.
And Verne Lunque it was with Vern Lunquist and Dan Fouts and all you had
was their commentary. And it was at that point that I realized, this
is a much better way to watch a game. We weren't. And again,
it's it's old school. So I don't know that it would work with
this generation because a lot of people are just used to Once that genie is
out of the ball, it's hard to go back to it. But you
heard Vern Lunquist give you the stats that normally you would see flashed on the
screen, and Vern would do it in a way whereas he was just having
a conversation with you. But I get with fantasy sports now and with betting
and with analytics, you can't get away with that because people want to know
the numbers right now. In fact, we went to PGA. My son
was live betting at PGA. Yeah, so you you got to have that
info right in front of you. But I did appreciate I did appreciate the
fact that I was really kind of listening to it. It wasn't laid back.
The game was exciting, it wasn't laid back, but it also wasn't
the hit you in the face graphics that they tend to give you. And
I kind of asked myself. I was kind of thinking, could we do
this today? Would people embrace this today? And honestly, I don't think
they would, you know, And being a NASCAR fan, I was watching
some of the older races in NASCAR, and that was before they had the
big graphic where all the drivers were at and how far they were behind.
And nascars had to adapt so much over the past ten or fifteen years as
well. They used once they implemented the chase and all that kind of stuff.
That's when everything really began to change for NASCAR. It did, You're
right, John, and they really embraced the social media aspect because for so
long NASCAR was just a good old boy sport and they were real resistant to
change. And I think just a few years ago they got fully on board
with having solid they got on board with having women drivers. I'll put it
that way because when Hailey Digan was racing last week at Darlington, she was
running Dale Earnhard Junior's old old logo on her car, and I was on
social media and I was reading some of the stuff people were posting, and
and there's still some people that got to learn this twenty twenty four. I
mean, you know, it's just it was one thing, but it is
funny to watch how social media has changed the game. And of course now
we have the big storyline. We'll talk about that as we go in through
the morning. The big Anil story that broke this afternoon, where you have
a former player now suing a coach and a program because they pulled a deal
out from under them. And I've got some thoughts on that as we move
forward, but it's kind of like, this is what we've come to,
is that now we have players. In some ways, I get his point.
I get why he's suing. I mean, you're throwing life changing money
at these guys and suddenly you're pulling the rug out from under him. But
it's a wild place to be, dude. And I said, for the
longest time, and I had a college football show on this station for nine
years, and when college football started looking more and more like the NFL,
I'm like, I'm just going to the NFL. College Football's got some questions
right now, a lot of questions. But and there'll be a whole generation
that that's what they know. So we got a lot to unpack here,
a lot going on. He's John Olden, I'm Scott Fitzgerald filling in for
Nick Coffee today and tomorrow right home with us. Will you if you don't
like what we say, I totally understand ten percent love me ten percent hate
me. The rest of the village just don't care about me, So won't
leave it at that. Take a break here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Great choice, John, you have me all fired up playing a little crew
right there. Great choice, buddy. Welcome back. I am Scott Fitzgeriald
filling in for the vacationing Nick Coffee, taking some well deserved time off.
My man has been working his keyster off. John. We gotta get you
some time off, buddy. It's coming up here in a couple weeks.
Good good. You going somewhere special, Just going to kind of out of
the ordinary place. We're going to Delaware, me and my wife. Oh,
I want to talk to you about that. Okay, let's talk vacations
when we come back at some point. We got we got plenty of sports
to unpack again. Just want to bring you up to speed real quick.
Louisville losing at the ACC Conference Baseball tournament to Miami eight to five. We'll
talk about that more as we go on through. But you heard Jay Cardosi's
forecast. It's hot. That must mean it's time for what the Indianapolis five
hundred. Yeah, they had their final practice yesterday ahead of it was ahead
of a Friday's carb day, and then, of course we have the one
hundred and eighth running of the Indianapolis five hundred and was reigning Indy five hundred
champion Joseph Neugarten leading the way with the best lap of just over two hundred
and twenty six miles an hour. Colton Herda, who qualified thirteenth, posted
the second fastest time and had this to say about his practice session. I
definitely felt very good. I felt very confident in the car and what it
was able to do, especially with the tailwind where you usually get big under
sears, you know, out of turn two today and the car just felt
solid, was right underneath me. I think the guys that you would expect
probably look at like New Garden look good unless the Penske Scott was okay,
but I didn't really run around him though that much. I thought my teammate
Kyle looked good. And then there are some guys that seem to be struggling
too and joining us now, guy who knows a thing or two about the
Indy five hundred, Indianapolis's favorite son this side of Jim Nabors. I think
the big the one and only Will Clark. Willie, how are you,
buddy? Doing good? Well? My man? Are you excited? Dude?
You're like me? Man, I was. I was talking with Tony
on the air and I told John when we came on, I said,
look, I've done thunder over Louisville. I've done the NFL Draft, I've
done Oaks and Derby and then the PGA last week. Unlike you, I'm
going to sit on my couch this weekend. I can't do that. I've
got so much Indy five hundred of my blood that yeah, I like the
thought of not going right to the speedway on race day. He just drives
me up the wall to the point that. And my wife didn't realize this
at one point, but she scheduled a vacation. She goes, oh,
yeah, we'll come back on that Memorial Day Sunday. I was like,
no, No, this was like a full blown Disney vacation. And we
moved it back like a day or two. So we flew back the night
before the five hundred, and I took a nap, went to the race.
Oh my god, well Willie again, we're talking. I want to
let folks know we're talking to Will Clark. He's our former news guy here
at at iHeartMedia and Louisville News Radio eight forty WHS and we and we miss
him dearly and we give anything to have him back. But he's doing bigger
and better things now. And Willie, where did your love affair with the
Indy five hundred start? I think it goes back to my mom lived behind
the track for a few years before she got married to the like close enough
that she could sit on the back porch and like listen to the PA and
I like, you're the track. Yeah. And my dad worked up there
for I bet he did thirty five hundred, twenty five or thirty with the
state police because they just kind of like how Kentucky State Police come and do
the derby, they bring Indiana State Police in from all over the place and
they get certain assignments. And he had Gate ten for years, and you
know, you get everybody in before the race and he'd come wandering, watch
thirty laps or so, go take a nap and then reverse the traffic pattern
everybody goes home. So it was always one of those things that it was
just unspoken that and at the time it was still the two weekend qualification process
that oh okay, well dad's going to work three weekends in May and Indy,
all right, and then you watch the race and you knew when the
race was over, it's about six hours later he'd be home. So it
was always just kind of that part of May for me, right right,
what a lot of people do for Derby, gain Will Clark joining guys,
he's going to be covering the Indy five hundred. I assumably you're going to
be covering for ABC Sports as well, right, yes, okay, yeah,
because you covered the pg I'll get your thoughts on the PGA here too.
Coming up. Wellie, when you think as many as as many Indy
five hundreds as you've been to, what's your what's your most favorite memory?
I guess of an Indy five hundred? What do you remember most? What
sticks out in your mind? Oh? There's a lot of another of us.
Probably the most bizarre was the fanless five hundred, which you know,
right up there with the fanless Derby when we're all standing there and it's it
had been moved from May. They were trying to hopefully they thought, well,
we can pull it off maybe with some fans. Later in the year,
and as we learned with Derby, that's just it didn't work out.
And to be standing there and there's maybe maybe two hundred people total in this
place that's built a whole two hund and fifty three hundred thousand people, and
they're going through the full process of the pre race ceremony with the invocation and
taps and all of that stuff, and they give the command to start the
engines and there's no one in the stands. It is just the creepiest thing
that I've ever seen. And it was I mean, I'm glad that we
had a five hundred that year and they were able to persevere through it,
but it was just you realize at that point how much the fans make the
place all right right, and they're expecting another Is it sold out yet?
Are there still tickets available? I know it's got to be getting close to
it sell out the last number I saw. I think that they're within ten
thousand or so. This is about a week or two ago, now ten
thousand or so of selling out the reserve seats, but the infield it's again
it's a lot like Churchill, like theyn't sell it until the fire Marshal says,
ooh, that might be a problem. While we're talking with Will Clark
again. You know his voice, you know the Will Clark he was with
us here at iHeart Louisville News Radio eight forty whs with us in the mornings
for a long long time. And Willie, as I understand it, we've
got a special pace car driver at the five hundred this year. Yeah,
Ken Griffy Jr. Oh cool. Yeah, I really didn't see that coming.
I didn't either. I looked at that they put the release out and
I was like, whoa wait, wait a minute. I wonder if he'll
bring his camera because now he's turned in apparently an avid photographer. Yeah,
him and Randy Johnson seemed to be making the rounds taking pictures. But I
mean, it kind of makes sense from a local perspective. Indianapolis is kind
of sort of a Reds market, kind of sort of a Chicago market.
Of course, they've got the farm team for Pittsburgh is up there with the
Indians, so, right, a weird hodgepodge of because that's the one of
the major sports they don't really have a grasp on, right, That's I
mean, I guess it it makes sense in a way, and then a
way it doesn't because I don't I just don't understand it. Yeah, but
I mean that's it's cool. I'm glad he's going to do it. I
mean, it's I'm sure when Indy calls you and says, hey, you
want to drive the pace cards, you don't know I can exactly say no.
Well, I talked to you a little bit. We'll get we're talking
about Little Clark, former news guy here at iHeartMedia here and news radio eight
forty whs. He'll be covering the Indy five hundred for ABC Sports. All
Right, let's take it on the track, Willie and Uh. The biggest
story this side of Joseph's New Garden has got to be Kyle Larson. I've
been watching him on the tube. He's been talking about going back and forth
between Charlotte and he's going to do the double. In fact, I think
it just came out late today. That is it real? Well always name
is the scheme of But Kyle it says he wants to give it a shot.
Team owner says, yeah, he'll back them one hundred percent. You
go eleven hundred miles. Tony Stewart is the only driver to be able to
do this without falling off the lead lab. Is Kyle Larson capable of pulling
this off? I think so. I think the potential is there. I
think his biggest obstacle is going to be dealing with the weather. Yeah,
what is the weather by the way for Sunday? About? Like what it's
they're calling for here? Just kind of a chance for some thunderstorms. But
the window is so tight for him as it is now to get from Indy
to Charlotte that if you throw in a rain delay in there, he's gonna
have to probably throw in the towel at Indy and just say I'm going to
Charlotte. Yeah, I think I heard. I think he's publicly said that
Charlotte's going to be his priority if he can't do Indy. Do you think
is that a big storyline up in Indy right now? I mean, it's
it's not unprecedent yet, it's unusual. I think Kurt Busch was the last
one to do it. Is that going to get a lot of media play
up there? Do you think the day of it will? I mean it
got a lot of media play last year. Yeah, when they made a
big deal of bringing out the car to show off the scheme and kind of
showing it off. And I think it's great. I think it ought to
be kind of a triple crown sort of right, you throw in some bonus
if you can pull off the Memorial Day double. I think it should be
a thing. I think the NASCAR and IndyCar could use a few more crossover
stories like this. Oh, I agree. I agree. Talking with well
Clark, our former news guy at news radio eight forty WHS and big player
here at iHeartMedia, and again we're going to continue every time he comes on
with us to try to rope him back here, but he can't get him
away from his present gig that he loves and as he should. And we'll
talk a little bit about that Willie as we go through here. I do
want to get your take. You were at the PGA. I was there
as a fan, you were working there, and it was very jealous walking
past the media area because it looked very nice there. But what were your
thoughts of the PGA this past weekend. I think Valhalla hit it out of
the park. From a local perspective, was a little worried, maybe no
knock on the new ownership group. But you know, when you go from
being owned by the PGA to local ownership groups, you would expect maybe there's
some level of drop off. But the course and everything around it seemed just
as good as it was in twenty fourteen, if not better. I think
so. I mean, I think that if they're making an argument for a
future tournament, they've done everything they could do that they could control, and
I think that they're deserving of it. You know, I'm glad you said
that, because it seemed like and there were people in this building that were,
like, immediately after the Scottie scheffer thing with Dot was all I'd say,
we're not getting a tournament. We're never gonna get it again. Like
why don't you all let the cake bake here? Why don't you all relax?
I mean that you don't invest thirty million dollars in the facility without seeing
it long term. And if something like the Scottie Scheffler circus is going to
derail any future tournaments from coming here, then the sport itself has bigger problems.
I think. I will say that you know that Valhalla, from the
shuttles to the people, to the volunteers. It was a fantastic day on
Sunday, top to bottom for us. We loved it. It was warm,
but we loved it. And I would be shocked if a big tournament
did not come back to Valhalla. I mean, I think that the course
is deserving of it. And yeah, the Scheffler incident notwithstanding, and that
will run its course. Whatever did or didn't happen there, right, But
and whatever again, whatever did er didn't happen there, there's things to be
learned on both sides. Maybe it improves the traffic patterner look at the very
middle m h. But if you're going to use that to judge the entire
week at large and the course itself and the actual en course facilities, amenities,
all that, then you're from the whole point well right, And I
think, you know, reading some comments on social media about you know,
you got the ya who's that are sitting home on their couch, sitting on
mick lights, going oh the course, there's too long scores for that course.
It's too easy. Really really, there was a lot of drama unfolding,
you know, Sunday after late Sunday afternoon. What I thought was interesting,
bro is we parked ourselves. My son and I parked ourselves on eighteen
and at the end there and there were a bunch of people sitting down.
They all had chairs, and my son goes, oh, this is great.
We're right on eighteen. We can see it. I said, dude,
don't hold that thought, bro, because everybody is going to stand at
the end if this thing comes down to what I think it's going to come
down to. And sure enough, and it was the people we were all
standing behind. I didn't care personally because I could see on the jumbo trone,
but people were getting upset at all those people who were camped out early
in chairs. Everybody stood up and so they couldn't see anything. But I'm
kind of like, what do you guys want them to do? I mean,
this thing is coming down. I mean they've been sitting here all day.
They kind of marked their territory. You know, if you wanted to
be on eighteen, get down here early and you can mark your territory.
But when it was all said and done, everybody was on their way home.
I think I did think. I think I read it right where TV
ratings were up ten percent as well. I think those were up so I
think it was a good day had by all. Yeah, I think it
was a good week at the course. And this is coming from somebody who
couldn't hit a round under part or they live right all right, Willie?
Quickly, I gotta let you go because they've got to hit a break.
So what are you up to now? Let fill folks in on what you've
been doing since you left us at iHeart, I'm out at the University Louisville
working with the TV production. So pretty much if you've seen a UFL game
on TV, it came through our facility. Nice setting up cameras and then
checking equipment all that stuff. So still out and about, just a little
more behind the scenes, you know, like being over there at UO L.
I know you're always big on the production side of it, Bro,
and I've seen it in a couple games. We can't miss you at the
basketball court. Even amongst the other tall basketball players, you'll see Willie out
there. You'll see him for sure. No, I still get it down
in front. So are you gonna keep busy in football? You looking forward
to football season? Bro? I am? I am. I look forward
to all seasons. Yeah, you know, I'm a junkie for that sort
of thing. I know you are well, Willie. Enjoy your time at
Indie brother. I look forward to getting your reports. We'll carry you via
ABC News. I wish we were carrying you for us, but enjoy and
we'll catch up after you get back from Indy and talk to you a little
bit about that as well. All right, all right, that's will Clark,
Ladies and gentlemen. There he goes. One of the best in the
business. And boy do we miss him dearly around here. We do.
You think I'm kidding when I tell you we try to get him back every
time we talked to him, like Willy, come back and work with us,
bro, come back, and he's like, no, I'm loving life
over. He loves working for UO L that's for sure. Hey, he's
John Alden, I'm Scott fitz. We're way with you for the vacationing Nick
Coffee, who is just having the time of his life and well deserved by
the way, John. I did see our Paul Miles out of our newsroom
posted about two hours ago. The Krispy Kreme Donut place on Barstown, Roban
was on fire. Really, Oh yeah, it's a disturbing image. That's
wow. No donuts from that Krispy Kreme and they were heavy hitters too.
So we'll follow that story longs and we come back and talk to John about
his vacation. We're back after this on Sports Talk seven ninety. You just
want to do whatever it takes. I mean, we got to score one
hundred and fifty to win, and we gotta be able to score one to
fifty. But I don't see it being like that. I think obviously like
they have a great offense, like you know, down, but just trying
to slow them down. That is twenty seventeen first round pick of the San
Antonio Spurs out of Colorado via Colorado Colorado Springs. Derek White are now in
place for the Celtics. Is they get ready to open the Eastern Conference semifinals.
T I'm Scott Fitzgerald. Welcome to your ride home. It is May
twenty first, three fifty two in the afternoon. It's a hot one out
there on your way home. Gonna be a hot one, toy night.
The Pacers, by the way, a ten and a half point dog to
the Celtics. The Celtics won the regular season series three games to two,
winning both games in Boston, taking one of three in Indie. John and
we were talking before we came out in the this one's going, this one's
shaped up, This could be good. Yeah. That ten and a half
point spread, that seems like a lot. I get what they're basing it
off of. Obviously, the Pacers coming off a hard fought seven game series
with only a day of rest in between, and you're also playing on the
road to a team that has had an opportunity to rest. So I mean,
I do think it wouldn't be super surprising to see the Pacers steal game
one, but it also w wasn't surprised me to see the Celtics win by
twenty right, right. The one thing I liked about what I saw on
the Pacers against the Knicks was their depth. I mean, the Pacers will
go nine deep in their rotation and if you can hustle on Boston because during
the Cleveland series there were some weaknesses that we saw. They're not many,
but there were some weaknesses by the Celtics, and you know, you keep
an eye on. I mean, look at a guy like Al Horford,
thirty seven years old. My man was a first round pick, I say
two thousand and seven. I say that affectionately, dude. I mean,
we're three years away from that being twenty years ago. That is crazy.
I feel like you just won a national championship at Florida. But you know,
if he can get his game going. But more importantly, it's gonna
take a lot for the Pacers. To your point, I want to see
it. Maybe they're gassed a little bit. Everybody expects the Celtics to win
this series. I wouldn't mind just seeing a great series. If you could
take this one to six or seven, I'd be okay with that. And
the Pacers they can afford to kind of take the night off. I know
that's kind of weird to say, but what's important is protecting your home floor,
and I think stealing Game five. If you're really serious about getting to
the NBA Finals, you're gonna find a way to win one of these road
games, and I think the most likely if they take care of business on
their home floor. They need to do it in Game five. You know
what sucks for the city, Well, I guess for TV really, because
they had a chance her I didn't think about this to I was sitting on
the couch this weekend. I said, they almost had the Boston New York
matchup in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, and almost had it in the NHL.
Oh wow, they almost had the Range and the Bruins. That would
have been like a windfall for the networks. I mean, talk about two
huge media markets. Not to take anything away from Indy, And to your
point, if Indy can steal one and make this a series, this one
will have some ratings to it. Although a lot of people are really kind
of getting in Minnesota's corner. They're they're liking what they see out of there,
out of Minnesota. The story with Karl Anthony Towns of course lost his
mom to COVID and has now had to come back. And I mean,
I'm pulling for the Tea Wolves. I'm gonna pull form it now. You
know, I'm kind of impartial here. I don't. I think Boston is
a really cool sports town. Although I hate everything about the Bruins and Brad
Marshan, but I think Boston is a really cool sports town. And to
be honest with you, if I my wife and I we went to Cape
Cod for our honeymoon when we were married, and we took the five dollars
at the time, five dollars two or a Fenway, and I fell in
love with that ballpark. And you know that although if I lived on the
East Coast, I would be more partial to the Yankees than I would the
Red Sox. But but I think they really missed an opportunity. So I
hope both these games go well. If we had, say a Minnesota Boston
NBA Finals, I think that might be a good rating scrabber. If you've
got Anthony Edwards, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean it's you
would ever need, so either way, you can't lose. I'm looking forward
to this one tonight. This is gonna be the time of year where I'm
just gonna have my hands on the remote. We were talking about TikTok earlier.
That's my go to in the commercials and not gonna go back and forth.
But I love I love Spring crossoverseason almost as much as I like to
fall because there's so much going on. Hey, when we come back,
we'll talk a little, we'll talk a little other sports. We talk about
John's vacation. Jeff Milby is going to join us at the bottom of the
hour. We're gonna talk not only racing Louisville and lou City, but Jeff's
been calling college baseball and we got the Cardinals. They were in action today.
We'll update you on that talk a little. Every local team's in action
and we got some and they were seated pretty high. So we're gonna take
a break. He as John Alden on Scott Fitzgerie. We're back after top
of the hour. You're listening to Sports Talk seven ninety