Steve Ribera and Jacob Salads. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports Stage shat Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back tying the ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now we
have Kevin le breaking news, his eye on the ball breaking news on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. All right, so let's just go ahead and start with
the news kind of touchdown earlier Tommy Lloyd going ahead and leading USA Basketball under
eighteen to the gold medal at the America Cup FIBA tournament out there. Yeah,
I didn't know that. Well, he took some of his guys justin
there's a picture of him. Yeah, yeah, no, no, that's
great now now he just say no, they just started workouts. We saw
some clips right now, there's a there's like a world. What else did
they do they have? I don't think I think that's it. Oh,
that's it. He's done. He's done for the summer with that. Okay,
yeah, all right, And we saw clips about on I'm working out
better winning than losing it, man, for sure. Right, you don't
win one of those things that like, what the hell we invented this game?
Why are we winning this? Yeah? And Steve mentioned earlier that you
know, people expect to win and then when you lose or upset, but
if you win, they're not nearly as happy as you might expect them to
be. But it's funny. He in there. I'm looking at the Arizona
Daily Star. He had a quote where he said, I have the same
pressure in my day job when they asked him about, you know, always
being expected to bring home gold these kind of situations. So I'm good on
him. Where where was this at? You know, Argentina? I think
it was Argentina. Wow? Cool, all right, very good. Five
Arizona baseball pitchers have been selected to the College Sports Communicators Academic All District Team.
That would be Cam Walty, Anthony Sussac Dawson nets, Tony Pluta,
and Casey hints all right and then uh, smart dudes, yes, yes
Smiths McDonald has gotten her one hundredth career steel in uh the La Spark's latest
victory over the Las Vegas Aces. That was fast, yeah, because she
was out for Yeah she did played for a while. Yeah, fast the
century mark even faster hands, you know, yeah, no, kiddy,
Arizona was listed as the number twenty four overall team in the most recent espn
FPI Power Index for the upcoming preseason. At the preseason for coach football,
Yeah, big twelve man, ready to go, Big twelve, let's go,
Steve, I'm ready to go. I don't. I don't even think
we can make a road trip, right, we have to. You know,
all the coaches in the Big twelve football football, No, there no,
no basketball mostly but not football. No, I'm lucky to get third
of them. Yeah, no, I'm I'm the same way. We got
a lot, got a lot of homework to do, Steve before football season
next. Well, I think your idea of getting someone like a sky Riders
tour ye here, Yeah, definitely on a weekly or yeah, I'm going
back to the w n B A. But what are your thoughts on this
whole deal about Kaitlyn Clark not being on the Olympic tak good question. I
don't think that's fine. That's fine, she's not. There's two sides,
and both have powerful arguments. But she's not. She's not. Players.
No, if she's not, probably the top of the top fifteen. So
there might be a player who may not be able to be ready because she's
injured from Vegas. I guess, so there's been a spot open. Possibly
she's still not, she's still not. I mean fair is fair. She
shouldn't be on the team. Yeah, she shouldn't be on the same but
you know, but the flip side is what you know, as you said,
the WNBA has they've got another agenda. They've got to they've got to
get people to follow the sport. Sure, but they're doing that. They're
doing that. No, let me part of horse racing that we did over
the weekend and I do every now and again. Is the beauty is your
money goes against my money, and everybody's money is collected and that's how it's
paid out. Right, So if you want to be foolish with your two
dollars on the win ticket war power, that's you because I'm gonna get that
money if you're wrong, and you're gonna get mine if I'm wrong. So
so I forgot where I was with this. Whereas there's no right or wrong
answer, but she's there's many women who are ahead of her, So so
is there is there a right answer for publicity or for politics or whatever.
Her guess what her time will come? You know, and I just think
with what she's going through right now, with a lot of the uh,
you know, for lack of a very word, the resentment towards her that's
built up, that if she gets on the team, it would just add
even there's some there's already so many people saying what about me? What about
me? And I get it, she's bringing, she's bringing the eyeballs to
the sport, and whether you like it or not, you know, you
need to make the most of that. But on the other hand, something
like this where the olymp being on the Olympic team is about whether you're good
or not sure, not about whether somebody's watching you. I thought it was,
you know, I have zero problem with them not putting it on The
other I was going with the permutual thing is mostly the people who don't know
the game or don't know just have some kind of opinion about it or chiming
in when they've never watched the w but never watched college basketball, but now
have an opinion about it. Have you sat down watching the NBA game,
I still never have. I watched the one where she got bumped in the
bike. Just one Sunday or Saturday morning. I said I'm gonna watch this,
and it was there's no question they're treating her differently. But guess what
it happens in sports, and if you're the star, they're gonna give you
the treatment until you're one of them, until you're one of them, until
you unquote earned it. And see, there's too many people who don't know
the business who are talking to It's like me talking about finances. What the
hell would I know about finance now much just because a dollar in my bucket
doesn't mean much, well, not anymore after after the damn Belmont Stakes.
Right, But you know what I'm saying a lot of people one hundred percent
agree with you that you know, if she's if she's not good enough,
then she should have been on exactly. And the people who are making the
decisions are pretty good at what they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And for the record, people are kind of upset on her behalf. You
know, she came out today and said that she's not disappointed by the by
the snuff, she feels like she hasn't earned a great point and that she's
going to use it as motivation. Sure, that's why she didn't say she'll
have her chance. She didn't say this, but I'm gonna say she's played
a lot of basketball and non stop for the last eighteen months. Yeah,
she's three and a half. You probably ybe Yeah, awesome for her.
She's been through a lot, you know, not nothing too negative, but
just a lot of publicity, a lot of media, a lot of games,
a lot of all of it. This is the worst thing that happens
to King Clark, She'll be okay, Yeah, exactly, a good point.
Exactly. The Steelers have given Mike Tomlin another three year extension. This
follows up the last three year extension that he signed in twenty twenty one.
How old is he? How old is I only asked, because he's been
there forever like one hundred. He could he's never has she ever? He's
next to fifty two? He said, he's only fifty two. He said,
dude, he's been there since he was twelve. Then, because he's
probably the longest tenured coach in the league, probably he looks forty five and
and he's probably can do no wrong. He hasn't. No, I mean,
you know, he's got put two championships. I don't know, I
don't know what I think I thought there's two more than I thought he had.
Yeah, things got too he got he got the one against the Cardinals.
Right, Oh, he was the guy No. Two nine ish.
Yeah, but he was a coach I think he was. Was it was?
He not? Yes, there's two super Bowls. Well that's why he
can do he can do whatever he wants to seven and seven af North.
But he's not because it's not a it's not a it's not the franchise that
used to be. No. Uh, and it's not very exciting, right,
is very exciting? Well they're not. Yeah, they don't, you
know, yeah, they don't. When he did have an exciting team,
those players are kind of loco. So with Roethlisberger and all this guys,
one time he did have some excitement, they kind of got a little too
exciting. So, God, he's only fifty two. Yeah, I would
have I would have put him late fifties, early sixties. Yeah. We
already talked about what happened in LA with their coaching situation with the Lakers,
but their former head coach, Darving him has now returned to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Says there their top assistant, which was his previous role before he was
So what do you think with the Lakers finally get j are they going to
get Yeah, to get that hope. I feel like that. I feel
like he's doing such a good job doing what he's doing now doing the podcast.
It's more it's more about whether can he coach an NBA team? What
the hell? Well, it's it's he's never been to coach. He's along.
He's a lot like Steve Kerr. Yeah, I think he could coach.
I think the kids, no question. And it's whether the people believe
in him and play in the league and all that. I think he's got
a lot of Steve Curry, all right, Yeah, okay, I I
I never paid attention to him except when they were trying to say that he
was a better shooter than than the style. He's very bright. He's very
bright, and he's and he doesn't go back down to the stephen A's and
the and those guys. He's very bright. All right. Obviously he's went
to Duke before. Did Barkley thing? Did you see that? You didn't
see this Charles Barkley want to punch a guy in the face. No,
he was, he said he was going to. He was a guy he's
walking into the arena, you know, for for and there's some dweb I
shouldn't even give him the attention, you know, probably you know, probably
a twenty year old dude yelling at him. You never got a ring you
saw And then and and uh, Barkley was heard on the video. You
know, the guy was doing it for a click, right, somebody's video.
And and Barkley's heard on the video talking to his escort of his bodyguard,
saying, what if I just punched him in the face. He kept
walking. You remember what happened to the last time, through the guy,
through the guy through a window. Right. But you know, again,
just a typical thing, you know, troll out there just trying to get
the trying to get himself on TikTok. And he did. Because there's been
like this video has been seen by like a million. No, I didn't
see that. Yeah, I'm looking at it now. The video of a
young a very young kid, and like Luca donchis Jersey, he's probably like
about like sixteen or whatever. And the quote is you're you're Michael Jordan's son.
Imagine not winning an NBA championship. That was it. That's what he
said. Some dude who probably just learned how to wipe his own butt or
maybe still doesn't know how. You know what I'm saying something one of those
things when people don't know you can see this stuff because well, it's right
to go back and hang out in your mom's basement. Exactly. While we're
on the topic of internet virality, James Harden has gone over the last twenty
four hours. I'll bring this up. Well, I mean, I know
it's an audio platform, but James Harden and his girlfriend we're at a wedding.
Yeah, and they're a part of a lot of a part a part
of a lot of traditional weddings. Yeah. They have the bouquet over the
shoulder and whoever catches it, you know, it's supposed to be next.
Yeah, James Harden's girlfriend so happened to catch it and look on his face.
He got about and wide eyed like, oh no, Yeah. I
saw a clip yesterday kind of similar to that, where the difference between men
and women at at catching the bouquet. Yeah, the women dive for the
guys scattered when when they shoot the garter at you, Yeah, nobody wants
to catch it. But I do have some NBA Finals stuff for you guys,
So this is a pretty interesting stat. Drew Holliday, who might just
be the Finals MVP as it stands right, it's either her, him or
Jalen Brown. Drew Holliday has thirty eight points, nineteen rebounds, and eight
assists with zero turnovers through games one and two of the NBA Finals. Wow.
The last player with thirty eight points no turnovers uh in games one and
two of the finals Michael Jordan in nineteen ninety eight. Wow. Pretty cool.
And then I really thought the Mavericks are gonna win yesterday I did.
First game. Yeah, I just thought they're gonna split the you know,
they canna split the first two games, and they, I mean they were
in. They hung with them for a while, and then of a sudden,
you look up and they were down twelve. And I was telling I
was telling everybody, all my friends that were asking me because my friend's not
the Celtics fan, so they're asking me, you know, what do I
think about the series? I was saying, Celtics and five, we win
the first two, lose three, yeah, and then two and two?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree, totally agree. Yeah. Buster
only twitter account got hacked today? What did he report what did the guy
report? So Buster only Twitter account, which was hacked, reported today the
season is canceled due to COVID. Uh. He also reported that sho Heotani
has been banned for life from the MLB in connection to card with gambling.
His trial is on August twenty eighth. It is speculated that he could get
life. We got a lot of attention. I mean he got he got
almost a million views whenever this got screenshoted, and that that was probably it
was like the guy about about half hour forty five minutes that reported, uh
news coming out soon that that Hurley's going to take the job of the Lakers.
Soon after that came out in the tweet, he was not good with
me and the dude was roasted, of course, of course, and that's
what that's what that's what it's become. Yeah, who's first. That stuff
now is considered media, right, it's considered I wanted to, I want
to. You have a lot left? No, I just have one?
Oh yeah, pretty much. Buster only Twitter account got hacked today and he
had some interesting stories. But Connor McDavid and It's an oiler star admitted that
he felt really he kind of felt some butterfly, some nerves and ahead of
the game one clash in which the Oilers lost three to nothing, which I
thought was pretty interesting that the biggest star in the sport will come out after
they got shut out. Yeah he's good. So so did you see the
exchange between Stephen A. Smith and the guy the former GM with the gold
Golden State. So so they're talking about who the best players in the Boston
Celtics states and a couple of people had your guy who's got and the other
guy in jail? He says that's device, you know device? Uh So
that creates problems within the locker room because people talk about this when it's more
about the team. Do you do you think that happens, not specifically this,
but other places. I think it happens in absolutely good. I think
there are some guys with a personality that I've seen it. Yeah guys,
Yeah, guys with the personality that if you if if people are saying he's
not the best guy, it disrupts things. Absolutely. Quote the quote from
Bob Myers on the show is we tear teams apart more than we ever have,
maybe on purpose. Maybe that guy down there, Stephen A. Smith
and then he was done, and Stephen A. Smith says, not me,
not me, that's social media, not me, which I feel like
that's wrong. He's wrong. He knows, yeah, exactly what he's doing.
You are, so you are the social But that's my point, where
one guy says, there's one says, and then there's strife inside the house.
Yeah, when when there shouldn't be the old what about me thing?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen I've seen it here here yeah,
oh yeah, you see it. Yeah, yeah, you want to be
People talk about the alpha dog, right yeah, and how they don't have
it or they have it or whatever. That's kind of part of it.
Yeah, no, I and there are teams like that, you know,
a lot of teams, especially the ones on sand they're not they don't have
a foundation, right exactly. All right, let's take a break word to
come back to Andy Lopez will be joining us. We'll talk about the getting
ready for the College World Series. Get some of his thoughts on Arizona's baseball
season this last season, and see what he thinks and just what's going on
with him and again, you know, would he have taken the Lakers job?
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free evaluation today. Steve Rivera and Jagen Saliz they have their eye on the
ball on Tucson Sports dig Chet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean
iHeart radio app. Hey, welcome back to ianbout here on Fox Sports twteen
and fifteen. I'm Steve. He's Jay. Now on the phone, we
have former Arizona baseball coach National champion Andy Lopez. How are you? Coachy?
Bill Will thank you for having me. Great, great great to have
you. I always love talking to you one of the best storytellers we have
on our show. Now you have any pressure on me? Now, well
we need some hits, so you who to call it? And so this
time of years, as the World Series begins, do you become more sentimental
or just to kind of happy just to watch? Uh? You know,
I think the further I get away from it in terms of actually being in
the profession, yeah, I do. I do get a little bit more
sentimental. Just a lot of memories, a lot of just a lot of
thoughts, you know, from the five or six times I was there,
and then obviously the two national championships are always great, great experiences. But
yeah, a little bit more sentimental. So as you ause, these teams
are getting ready and as you you would get your teams ready for the for
the College World Series. You know, let's let's say you know you're in,
so you've go on your Super Regional or your Regional or whatever it was
at the time. You know, what's the first thing you wanted your team
to know or do once you knew we're going to the College World Series?
How did you what was your approach to that? You know? And now
was the I was huge on this I really was, and I really think
that that's I really you know, I'm really happy to say this. But
you know, we never went on in too. We always went there and
played for a while. And you know, twice twice in my experience,
you're there for two weeks and won the dang thing. But I think it
had a lot to do with our mindset and the mindset that I always established
and tried to establish. As soon as we clinched it, as soon as
it was Clinton, it was over, and everybody got done with the celebration.
All the rest. I would just tell the guys, hey, you
know what, this is now a reward, Like this experience will now be
a reward, So enjoy it. Like you've got to have a good time.
You've got to really go out and enjoy it. Sure you're going to
be anxious. Sure you're gonna be nervous, and those those are things that
you can't deny as a human being, as an athlete and as a competitor.
But man, you you will regret it. You will regret it to
the day you leave this Or if you go there and you just play tight
and you play timid and you play scared to make a mistake. This is
a reward. Postseason for me was always a reward for a job well done
in a you know, fifteen week stretch. I mean when you're just out
there grinding on a Tuesday midweek game or a Wednesday midweek game, or a
double hitter on Saturday somewhere, or you know, going through the conference,
which is always a challenge for me. I just a postseason. It's a
reward. And if you don't look at it that way, you guys are
absolutely out of your mind. Because I'm looking at it that way. This
is a this is the best time of the year for me. Yeah,
I always enjoyed it. I love to post season. I really did.
You might answer you may have just aswer this question that I was going to
ask you about psychology of the sport. I'm a firm believer in it.
You must be because of this. Go out and have fun, play,
you know, played as best you can. But there's got to be some
outside of talent. You have to have more than just talent, which is
you know, head game psychology of it. How big is that with you?
Yeah? Well, I mean I was. It was huge for me.
I read a book way back called Psycho cybernetics, and you know the
whole theory that your muscles don't know if it's practiced or a game, and
you developed muscle memory and all these other concepts. So I was a big
one. I was a huge one even when I played Steve is a funny
story, but I was at UCLA in seventy four, seventy five, seventy
six, and one of those years and both here was seventy four to seventy
five, I took us a coaching psychology cleft. Lord, forgive me,
I don't remember the professor's name, but he he basically was teaching us visualization,
right, And I was sitting there and I was in. I was
locked in, like, well, what's he talking about visualization and visualizing your
steps and your moves and this and that. Well, there was an a
young athlete like myself in that class, and he was on the track team,
and lo and behold. About a year or two later, I'm watching
this guy in the Olympics and I'm watching him go through the visualization. Dwhite
stones the high jumper, right, and he's and he's in the Olympics and
I'm seeing him go through the visualization and I'm like, Wow, yeah,
that's that it works. It works. So I incorporated into my coaching,
I incorporated in a lot of things that I did, I incorporated in my
private life quite Stanley, I don't think it's hocus focused. I think that,
you know, the mind is a is an amazing thing. And I
guess someone once I read someone where someone says, you know you only lose,
you only use if you're a genius, use ten percent. I mean
I'm using about one percent, you know, my mind. So I got
to work on it harder. But yeah, I really believe from day one,
I mean from the very first time we're on the field, we're talking
about I mean ore too. Like we would always talk about Omaha every day.
We would talk about Omaha every day. If we ran a practice and
it was a really good practice, I would say that practice will get you
to o Mall. On the other side of that coin is if we ran
a practice that was sloppy and careless, I said, fellas, forget about
it, don't even think about it, Like, don't fool yourself. You'll
never get to the World Series based off of today's effort, you know.
And we talked about that a lot, you know, I and I when
I was at Pepperdine in nineteen ninety one, we were eliminated by the eventual
national champions of that year, National champions that year, and I got the
tape that the ncule that used to send out, and I played that the
College World Series tape of nineteen ninety one every single day in the clubhouse.
And the players were they thought I was nothin. That was out of my
mind. But I played it every single day because you know, cleverer and
I didn't go a lot of College World Series and for me to talk about
playing for a national champions for most of people, but it was that's to
be out of my mind. But I played that tape every single day when
they were getting dressed. And then after it was in, I said,
you can put whatever you want to tell them what we played every single day,
and lo and behold, ninety two we go back there and win the
dog on thing. You know, I peper. So, yeah, I
was a big believer. You got to get your mind right, was there?
You know? In terms of that approach? Then was there something different
or something noticeable about the two teams that won the championship versus the teams that
didn't could you know, if you if you think back to that time,
Yeah, from a tangible standpoint day, From a tangible standpoint, pitching and
pitching is the key. I don't care. I don't care what anybody says.
Pitching is the key. If you pitch well, you got a chance
to win. Whether it's a Saturday over the line game or a midweek game,
or a slow pitch game, or a little league game, or you're
in the National championship game. If you pitch well, you're going to give
yourself a chance to win. So pitching was the was the biggest tangible.
That was the biggest tangible. Again, the intangible for me was what have
we been discussing it for LESCo minutes? I just I went to Omahall quite
a few times, or you know, and and I always, well,
there's I won't mention the name of the school because I wouldn't be fairedom But
there was a school that I played when I was at Florida. We played
them on a regular basis, and in February, they and the head coach
they were loose and man, they were wild. They hit and ran,
they stole bases, they laughed, they joked, man, they were out
of them. I mean it was like envious, the man you looked at
them in February. In February went wow, man, these guys are so
far ahead of us, you know, because February is the start of the
season. I'm sitting around looking at my guys, trying to figure lose my
pitch. All rest these guys were just rolling. And we played them in
the Cultural Series three times in my time at Florida three times. Twice we
eliminated them in the elimination games. And oh my gosh, what a difference
February to June. They were tight as a drum. There was not a
smile to be found in that dugout talking to the head coach before the game
in February, laughing, joking, laughing about this and that. In June,
man, it was it was brain surgery. It was brain surgery,
it was heart surgery. It was, man, it was it was dead
serious. And I understand that because you know, you want to go to
a win, But like I said, I always felt like, man,
if you go there that way, you're probably going to play tight. And
we all know as athletes, man, that's not a good result. When
you're tight. Let me ask you a couple of quick questions within one question.
It's been twelve years since you retired. No, No, twelve years
since you won the title and nine years since you retired. Does it seem
so long ago? Or like yesterday? When the World Series shows up,
it seems like yesterday, Like like I'll watch a game on Friday if my
schedule allows it, but I'll watch some games here this weekend. And when
I'm sitting watching and they so shocked to it and talk about it. And
I was fortunate I coached in Rosen Oh. I was pretty lucky in fact
that you know what. I Someone sent me an email about a week or
two ago out and Ray Tenner and the only two guys that won national championships
in Rosenblatt and uh, well what's now Charles Small? I guess yeah,
they changed the name out of the new part anyway, And so I was
really lucky to do that. And and when I watched it, yeah,
it feels like it was yesterday. It really does now when I have ex
players call me up and tell me about this or that. Hey, I
went and spoke to Chips team this year in right before Christmas break to the
Arizona Walcats, right, and one of the players, one of the freshman
players, because I says, hey, coach, how are you doing?
And un introduced himself, Hey, you coach my dad. I said,
I coach your dad. He said yeah, and he gives me a kid's
name beginning your dad's name, and I go, oh my god, I
coach your dad at Pepperdine. And when I walked out of the club off
after I got that, speaking of what wait a minute, that's his son,
Like, man, I'm an old man. Ye, what the heck
is that? Yeah. Well, at the at the top of the show,
Steve and I were talking about the fact that we saw a highlight this
weekend of Rob Refsnighter making a diving catch in the game and the announce you're
saying it thirty three year old Rob Refsnight putting his body out there. I'm
like, thirty three years old. Oh my god. That's when, Yeah,
that's when it hits me a little bit. But no, when I
when I when the World Series comes on, I sit in front of the
TV like everybody else and watched and I do I feel like, Wow.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we were we were back there, Hey
were we back from two years ago? But now I know it's a it's
a great experience, it really is. I'm a little sad by, you
know what we're what we're gonna see. Uh, you know, you're gonna
have two conferences obviously, two conference are gonna are gonna play with a natural
time, right and sec and that that that's a little that's a little disheartening.
But but I think that's just the reality of where we are now in
the twenty first century and in life and college athletics with n I L and
Portal and all the rest. Is that you know, the rich are going
to get richer. And it would it would shock me if we didn't see
what we're about to see this next two weeks in terms of uh, you
know, two conferences pretty much dominating those eight spots. You know, we'll
see how it goes. So what's Chip hal going through right now? He's
got uh you know, he's been to the you know in the postseason three
times now but not done well. And he's got you know, he even
said himself, I got to figure something out. What would you say to
him about about all that? You know what Chip and we texted each other,
in fact, after they were the weekend co scill what have you.
You know, I always I like Chip. I've known him for a long
time, long long since the eighties, and and he's done a great job,
and he'll do a great job here, and he'll he'll get over this
hump. I mean, you know, he's he's a good baseball man,
he's a great human being. So he's gonna get good players in here,
and and they're gonna get over that hump. Honestly, I'll be very,
very blunt about this. I think Chip is gonna is gonna chat. Chip
is gonna his biggest challenge is gonna be with a lot of programs, especially
on the West Coast, are going to face and that's again, it's the
nil It the nil issue. It's hard to compete with people that can offer
a kid one hundred thousand dollars and a new car to drive around for the
year. And I don't care what kind of smile you have. I mean,
that's just the reality. Okay, here's the story. Okay, on
Friday, the first day, the first game on Friday, they played Grant
Canny College grect. That morning, I had breakfast with David Esker. He's
a longtime friend and couch at Stanford University of Baseball because his son Gabe was
on the Wildcats. So David comes into town with Lynn, his wife and
his daughter, and we have breakfast Friday morning. And I hadn't seen Day
for a while, so we have breakfast and we get to talking. Now.
Listen, I recruited against Stanford for twenty five thirty years. Okay,
every time you've heard Stanford was on a player, you pretty much wasted your
time and backed out and went after somebody else for one reason. They told
you, or they told the kid, come here play for us. It's
a good program. It's a very good program. It's a great program at
times. But more than that, you get a Stanford degree, right,
a Stanford degree, right right? Okay. Well, the other night,
my ex assistant and next player, Mark Waisa Kalki, they opened up against
Texas A and M of the super Eagel and bring the Montgommery Texas and the
right fielder breaks the ankle in the first inning there play at the plate.
And I talked to Walla this morning when he was getting on the flight coming
back and going back to the Gene, Oregon. We spoke this morning and
I said, hey, what have the Montgomery said, they broke his ankle.
I thought it's too bad. Well, the breakfast I had with David
Ester, I said, David, a Stanford degree isn't enough anymore. Yeah,
said it's not anymore. Wow, it's not enough anymore. Well,
the thing is not enough anymore. Back back in the day, you competed
with the major leagues coming after you. Guys, obviously give him a ton
of money. Now it's the nil coming after you with a ton of money.
Oh, the Major leagues is competing with the nln OWT too. Yeah.
Yeah, there's players. Now, there's players that are drafted in a
tenth round that are good getting it offered one hundred and twenty five thousand,
and somebody really needs an outfielder really bad and says, we'll give you one
fifty. Crazy. So he goes in place college baseball, Where are you
at? And so huh, Well, I said, where are you at?
Now? Are you sitting on the couch? Yeah, you must be
enjoying left to deal with this car? Yeah, no, I'm Lenna.
Say hey, let me tell you something. Okay. One of my ex
players has got released from his job at Pepperdine three four weeks ago, and
and to be very can with do you someone from the alumni reached out to
me as a coach, Mopez. I watched you on TV a few times.
I talked to people. They say, you're in great shape and everything's
fine. You feel great. I said, well, I don't know if
I'm in great shivvy. I you know, I try to walk every day
and swim during the summer and all the rest. He says, how about
you come back and get us back. I get us back on track,
which get us back on track? Okay? And I said, I wouldn't
do that if you said you were going to give me five million dollars a
year, I said, I said, there's no way I want to be
a part of it. I just I'm I'm astounded by what's going on.
Sometimes I don't even think it's real. Sometimes I get just a bad dream
that I'm going to wake up and shake my head and go, WHOA,
that was a weird dream, right, I mean, they got guys,
right, they got guys. They're just buying players, right. Well,
yeah, we were going to ask you. We're going to ask you coaching
because Harley turned out. When we were joking, would you have taken the
Lakers job or something similar or something similar, like on a major league Yeah?
Did you? Did you ever turn down a big job like that,
you know, something bigger, maybe something bigger than where you were. Well,
yeah, in nineteen ninety six, I turned down the Texas job.
I was at Florida. I was at Florida University of Texas. Call.
They were going to increase my money and all the rest of the things to
miss and that, and and and my wife and I we looked at each
other with no, you know, no, that's okay. I'm gonna hey,
here's the deal. I'm thirty two years old. I'm like cal State
Deminga's Hills, right, I'm at hell State Deminga's Hills, a Division two
program, no money for assistant coaches. I dragged the field every day,
even before games, in my own personal car, my own car. I
hooked the drag on the back of my bumper and I dragged the field with
my with my own car. That was my life. I'm thirty two years
of age. There was a gentleman named John Scollis who's passed away, who
was one of the greatest coaches ever Division two coach were a Division two teams
and a great Christian man and a dear, dear friend and an unbelieved other
than my father, one of the greatest influences on my life. He comes
to me and he says, hey, I hear you're in the running for
the Pepperdine and the Long Beach stage job. And I said, well,
yeah, they've they've reached out to me, coach, and he says,
he grabs me his shoulders. He looks me right in the eye and he
says, hey, Annie, that's a rat race. And I went,
okay, Coach. He says, do me a favor if you take one
of those jobs, be successful, but don't become a rat. Let me
let me ask you one quick question. We're kind of over, but uh,
in today's world and you you did this game for a long time.
What makes a good coach? Now? Oh? Wow, you only have
a couple of minutes. Wow, I mean I obviously obviously, he obviously
you need to be a good teacher. Obviously you need to be a good
teacher. That's why she's gonna be fine. He's a great teacher. But
boy, you know, Steve, you know you're wearing a lot of hats.
Man, you're wearing a lot of hats. Now, I mean you
got to go out. You got to get an i OL money some way,
somehow. If you want to compete, you gotta get in IL money.
Then you got to figure out who you're gonna You got to keep him
so happy that they don't leave in the transfer. Wow. Uh, you
know what, I can't answer that. Take take your time with well.
I just I obviously that. Okay, the tangibles are you've got to be
a great teacher, and you've got to have a you've got to have a
desire to lead, right, You've got to have those other lead young people.
I think every young person wants to be led. Okay, perfect,
Those are the tangiles. But now you've got these other tangibles that have showed
up. I've got to get nil money. Why because my best picture might
leave me this year because someone in the SCC or ACC is going to offer
money and I don't have any money to give them. Yeah. So now
now I gotta go out now, No, Now I got to go out
and be a fundraiser, I mean a really good fundraiser. Right, Okay,
Now, I've got to make sure that I've got a pulse on every
single athlete in my program in some capacity, because that second line guy that
I know in two okay, in two thousand and eleven, Brandon Dixon.
In twenty eleven, Brandon, Brandon Dixon doesn't play a day in the in
the lineup at the Universey Arizona. In twenty twelve. We pinch hit for
Brandon. We pinch hit Brandon Dixon. He gets to double in the national
championship game and we win the national title. Right. Yeah, he's not
an everyday starter for two years. Brandon Dixon doesn't start at Arizona in two
thousand, In two thousand and ten and two thousand, I'm sorry, twenty
eleven, twenty twelve, Brandon Dixon doesn't start. Twenty thirteen. He's the
Pac twelve Player of the Year. He's a third round draft pick. He
plays in the big leagues for seven years, but he doesn't play us first
two years here. Yeah, he's not here. Day's world. Yeah,
he's not half world. Yeah. What does Brandon Dixon doing. Yeah,
he's gone. He's gone. Unless he's got phenomenal parents who've really established commitment
and loyalty and all the things that everybody says are stupid and corny, but
truly are the biggest thing on the greatest thing on earth, and we're not
seen a lot of it anymore. Right, right, We'll have to get
this again when the next time you come on, Andy, as always,
thank you, you're the best man. Hey, thanks for having me Philowsky
be great job, great, Thank you, Henny Lopez. Yep, I
want to go back to that once we come back. As we're way over,
I want to talk to you about something like that, he said.
Okay, sounds go. Let's go and take a break. We're gonna be
back when. Would love to take your calls five two zero four, one
sixty. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful
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Extreamly live on the iHeartRadio app. This is Eye on the Ball with
Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back
joining the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, You're Jay Kevin
with us today. Got about nine minutes, went over, but it was
well worth it. Enjoyed talking to him. You mentioned something at the end
of and this was brought to be about a way about ten days ago.
I was out somewhere and in your coach and you dealt with this. What
are the things that makes good athletes and good kids are parents? He talked
about that, you know, to get the bag or there there, and
they want to be coached. Uh. And people are asking me, so
what makes that? What's the mix the difference between a good dude or a
good athlete and their parents because they know one not to be yelled at,
but they know the difference between whatever. And I'm sure you you, having
coached you pay had to deal with this. No, I certainly did.
And you could tell which kids were you know, brought up in a way
you know, they had respect, they had Oh, we got to call
it coming. Let's take this call, hire on there and the ball.
What's hey? First thing? Man, that was a great interview. Thanks.
Yeah. We got a couple of messages saying the same thing. Thank
you, Nico. He's probably one of the best you have. No,
we love he's we love and and he's great everything every single time. And
uh, Steve, I want to thank you man. Hello, Hello,
about why I want to thank you for nipping that Dodgers you go, thank
you for calling in. I can't hear that stuff. Did credit man,
he's passionate. Man, it sounds like he's pitching in his pants. I
don't think we have to block that out, dude, But I've never even
heard that before. You go, that's a good one. I'm just saying,
man, it's like I know more about the Dodgers in the diving back.
I want you to go, thank you. Oh that's because the Dodgers
are good. Good to hear from you before. You have never heard that.
I've never heard that before. Okay, we didn't. I feel like
I've heard a lot of stuff. Okay, So you're going with the kids
with the kids, Well, I was gonna say, you know, you
could tell, but I fortunately had you know, was in a program where
you know, all the kids are you know, good, yeah, pretty
good kids because you know, I mean you're at a school that is you
know, of money to go to and not and and uh you know,
I mean kids from a lot you know, because through scholarships and stuff,
you had kids at all levels, you know, but you felt that if
their parents cared enough to put them in this school, they really cared about
the kids, right right. So let me go somewhere to we might get
another call here where we know this because we see it, we hear it,
and we know the people with a lot of a lot of high schools
in this town where the parents are dictating a lot of these the athletic decisions
with coaches, because can we see a lot of coaches leave, A bunch
of coaches leave, successful coaches and we don't have to say schools of where
it's happened. We know who they are. But we know who they are,
and it's happening more and more. Yes, it is, which is
sad it is, but you know, and they and you know when you're
making it hard on coaches to coach, Yeah, because because of that,
you know, you know, you as a parent, who are doing doing
things that you think are helping your kid. Maybe they're helping your kid,
but they're kind of wrecking the rest of the program. Yeah, and a
lot of long term they're not helping the long term right because it might be
you know, how come in my little Judy or playing Yeah, we're gonna
do it. I mean, Steve, I listened to this. I got
stuff like that in girls middle school softball. Yeah, there was a there
was a parent, a specific parent that got you know, when I gave
all the kids my email address, I got phone calls and emails from her
about her daughter not playing it and what was your girls? Don't call me
answer? I said, Look, I said, I this is you know.
My answer was, this is middle school softball. Everybody's gonna play.
Yeah, and if your kids not getting enough playing time, I'm sorry,
that's just too bad. Let's take this. Hi, You're on the arm
and I on the ball. Hey, guys, what's Vic? What's going
on? Vic? I just wanted to kind of expand upon what you guys
are talking about. Coach Andy Uh. He mentioned John Scalinas, who was
the phenomenal coach a cal Pally Pomona wherever, Jay, you ever heard the
story of seventeen inches? I don't know if I want to ask that.
So it's Goalinas was giving a clinic and he had a home plate in his
hand, and he tells all the high school coaches there, how big is
this plate? They all say, seventeen inches? Okay? He says,
how about college? How many college coaches I got out here? How big
is this plate? Seventeen inches? And then he tells the same to the
pro guys that are in there, and he says, they don't expand it.
If your kid can't throw seventeen inches, they don't widen it to eighteen.
He says, they don't widen it to twenty if your kid can't throw
a strike, he goes So you need to just put those rules in your
team. When a kid gets caught or coming late, you don't. You
A lot of guys widen the rules for him, right, right, that's
a plate. They don't widen the home plate because your kid can't throw stripes.
Yeah, he goes on and tells a longer story, but basically that's
a of it is. You got a whole and kids aren't held accountable today.
A lot of them aren't. And that's that, and that's the big
issue, you know, and you see that, you know different players getting
handled different ways, and it's like, you know, you have to you
always have to have the overall good of the team in mind when you're doing
things to make a decison. Hey, Vic, I'm sure you like to
interview, but let me ask you. Did you coach at one point?
I did. I did youth ball and Almani and we were fantastic. We
OLMNI was a hotbed of baseball in the San Gabriel Valley and coach some of
the best. A couple of my kids made it to the majors. Don
Kennedy and Freddie Diaz had a whole bunch of college guys, and uh,
we're coming out of that area. It's pretty you know, it's the Latino
area gang infested, and uh, we we held our kids accountable. Well
let me say I still keep in touch with a lot of them. Well
let me say this real quickly, just a minute in your response. Uh,
back then, were the kids coachable or did they want to be coached?
Because that's the question now do the kids today want to be coached?
No? It was definitely a different type of kid back then. Yeah,
a different type of kid, and you you could be a little harder on
him. They wouldn't go home and cry to mama and all all that kind
of stuff. So definitely a little bit different kind of kid. You you
say a cuss word today and you're gonna lose your job, right Yeah,
no, yeah, yeah, absolutely, all right, a little bit.
But that Andy Lopez guy, Yeah, the more you have on him,
I can't get enough on Yeah, one of the good ones, one of
the good ones. All right, Vic, Thanks abouch, I appreciate it.
You guys, take care. He's right, He's right, no,
you know, and and and uh, you know, different teams have different
issues, and you know, The funny thing is, to me, it
seems to me that the whole word that we hear about entitled, and then
the teams that seem to be less entitled are the teams that are just kind
of in areas where you know, they're not a bunch of you know,
they haven't been been spending thousands of dollars on travel ball and you know,
getting all the things that come with that, where they seem to have to
work for it a little harder, I guess is what it is. What
I'm saying, Well, well, the play doesn't move to eighteen inches right
at seventeen inches, no matter what. That was a good story. Yeah,
that's good story. Yeah, all right, Well this show went fast.
It was good, So good stories shows fast. All right, Hey,
Brent Brennan, Tomorrow we're gonna have the head coach Airson Football coming on
talk about what his summer's been like and what's going on. Yeah, they've
had a lot of guys coming in and so and then they're in the Big
twelve now right, No, we're talking about the Pac twelve. They're in
a Big twelve. Yeah, I'm sure there were a lot of tributes to
say goodbye over the week. Is it's done. Yeah, it's also it's
over. It's all done and tracking, everything's all done. And so we're
we're on to uh onto the Big twelve. So Brent Brannon will be on
later on in the week. We're gonna have John Wilner, he'll join us
talk about sort of the business of what's going on around around the country.
A lot of stuff going on there. So so we'll see our our Pac
twelve attire on sale on eBay. Now. I wear packed Off shirt all
day yesterday t shirt. I cleaned the yard in it, because what's gonna
that's what it's gonna be for. I went on and did some yard work
in my Packed Off. Don't come back in that jersey next week. You
can't wear that jersey or my Cardinals one that I don't care. That's fine,
that's that's just an ugly jersey. Sorry about that. Last week is
next week. The guy at the gas station said it was cool. All
right, Hey, thanks for being here everybody. We'll see you tomorrow.