Streaming live. I mean iHeartRadio. This is I on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I was writing for you
to say something right like, I guess I haven't gotten used to the fact
that I'm not the one that brings in the show. Welcome back on the
balling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jay Gonzalez. Uh, trying not
to mess this up, but I'm doing top of it. Of messing it
up. I'm here with Ryan or our intern running the show. Steve is
still out, hopefully he'll be back on Monday, and we are. I
guess we're at that point. Ryan, some breaking news news. We're not.
Oh, no news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. You know what,
Okay, you know, never never fail here. Hey, at least it
came on right. What have we got? Start with? Start with University
of Arizona. A little bit of news from the Arizona Athletics announcing Arizona Sports
Enterprises as the new multimedia rights affiliate. The previous affiliate was Learfield as the
right rights holders. This is quoted saying the creation of Arizona Sports Enterprises will
allow Arizona athletics to strengthen its connection to corporate sponsors and elevate Arizona Athletics as
a brand and allow the athletics department to focus on delivering more value to its
partners. Clearly something that the new ad Desiree read Francois is kind of like,
you know, in terms of she's setting up the organizational structure of athletics.
It looks like they're separating as its own entity. The whole media rights
piece of this probably going to hire some people who are experts in the US.
UH. You know liar Field has been Liffield handles or does metiaites for
multiple UH athletic programs in the country. You know, you hear their name.
You know, you know liar Field sports presentation at the say at the
end of a radio broadcast or whatever. I don't know the structure of that.
I know that within the the Arizona Athletics organization there's something called Arizona Wildcats
Sports Properties. I don't know if this is what's being lifted out of there,
but that's the organization where Brian Jeffries works as a as a as an
athletic department. I don't know if I guess he's an Athletic Department employee.
His title is listed director of Broadcasting and Voice of the Wildcats. Dana Cooper,
a guy that we've known for a long time, is senior manager of
business Development. These are the guys that go out there and get the corporate
sponsorships and stuff like that. So I just wonder, is this group being
lifted out of the Athletic Department and being you know, part of a it's
a separate organization, a separate business, maybe with a whole as a whole,
separate entity. I don't know what if that's what we're talking about,
but something different as it relates to meteorites, whether it's TV, radio,
whatever is happening. Somebody's gonna have to come in and explain this to us.
And I'm well, you know, look for there's on Daily Star and
see you know, they're gonna have to do a story about this. But
you know, there's all these there's I think I'm counting there's eight people in
that Arizona Wildcat Sports properties organizations listed in the staff directory of the Athletic Department.
Are all those people a part of this or they create a whole new
entity and they'll have to hire Brian Jefferies to continue to be the voice of
the Wildcats. Well, I don't know, I have no idea what it
all means. So this is I guess it's like, are they trying to
create another channel for the Arizona Wildcats athletics like them? It could be,
you know, it could be. And now I think you know media rights
and deals when when you when you got we know too much about this,
right, the U of A. Uh, they do what's called a grant
of rights that they've given to the Big twelve to negotiate the TV piece.
Right, but there's still radio, there's still corporate sponsorships. Uh, you
know all kinds of things where nil fits in there now in terms of raising
money because you know the program is going to be directly paying athletes. I
don't know where all of that's going to fit, but you know, hopefully
somebody will flushed this out for us at some point. But it looks like
you know who the they're creative separate entity to handle the corporate sponsorships piece and
the when they say multimedia rights, I'm guessing you know radio rights streaming of
radio broadcasts, because for instance, if you want to if if you wanted
to listen, uh, you know, if you're out of out of Tucson,
out of you know, twelve nineties range, right, and you wanted
to listen to an Arizona football game or an Arizona bag baseball game or whatever,
baseball, basketball, football, you had to do it through an app
called Varsity on your phone. And Varsity has multiple, uh, multiple athletic
programs where you want, there's a whole directory of them in Arizona. Was
just was just one of them, so that if you want it, you
know, if you're I was in Rocky Point, right and I wanted to
listen to a baseball game, I went to Varsity, you know that kind
of So that piece of it, I'm guessing is a part of when they're
talking about multimedia rights and those kinds of things. So I'm sure, you
know, somebody's gonna have to do a story on this, and we'll wait
to see when that comes out, because it's just this just came out a
little bit ago. We just found out about this, so it's brand new,
and I think there's a lot of you know, we're gonna have a
lot of questions about it, and they didn't go deep and it was a
three paragraph news really, so they didn't go deep into exactly what this means
other than you know, they they wanted to do. It. Looks like
you want to separate it to become its own entity, and and so those
uh, those people in that in it can be focused on it and not
have to worry about all the other stuff that goes on in the athletic department.
So well, see, it sounds like a big deal. Probably is
a big deal. But we'll, I guess we'll find out how much how
big of a deal it it ultimately becomes, and what what it means to
us the fans in terms of how we take in u of a sports.
Yeah, I'm sure next like next month, we'll probably we'll hear more about
that kind of stuff. I'm open to hear more tomorrow. And there's some
day to start. Guys, you got somebody's working on this, you know.
I'm sure, I'm sure somebody this afternoon was getting you looking at their
watch. Okay, I'm i out here in a couple hours, all of
a sudden, you got to do a story on this calling and help us
exactly exactly, all right, Sticking with u A. There was a news
article from this afternoon. Four Arizona football players were named excuse me, Athlon
Sports Preseason All Americans. Okay, wide receiver team Mac was named Sports first
team All American squad, while cornerback Cario Davis got a third team spot,
and both linebacker Manu and I'm not gonna try to say that Jonah Jonah uh
Manu and Sauvon Ao made the fourth team. Well, okay, all right,
four guys you know getting some preseason pub you know, Ta Max can
get a lot of that. There's way more of that to come, h
for sure. And and I think Jacob mon is another guy that man,
you you hope that this is a year that you just see him. I
mean, he broke out last year, but I mean he can be you
know, a national type uh linebacker, you know, top linebacker this year.
So you see what what happened there with Jacob Monin all right, I
think there was Like now, it makes twelve total players on the preseason team
that have made that have gotten some preseason stuff All Americans. Good talk for
graduations. Switching over to boxing, a little bit of news out of there.
Ryan Garcia has been suspended from boxing given a massive mind for PD violation.
Yep, he he got. He tested positive uh before and after the
day before, in the day of a pay per refight he had against Devin
Haney for something called osteen, which is a performance enhancing drug. This happened
back in early May. He beat Haney and it was Haney's first loss of
his career. Now with with this was back in April. Now with this
happening, the game the game. The fight is declared a no contest,
so Haney is still undefeated. Again, He's thirty one to oh. No,
only does Garcia lose a million dollars he got for the fight, he's
also finding another ten thousand dollars so he can't pull the ten thousand dollars from
the million to pay the fine. So again, I don't know. I
don't know. Guys, you're gonna get caught. Yep, you're gonna get
caught. What are you doing? Back in May, he denied the reports
of the failed drug test. I said it didn't happen. He because everybody
knows I don't cheat. I've never taken a steroid. Well apparently he did,
and now he's in he's in big trouble. So there you go,
don't they do they do? You know, it was fine because there was
a discussion I think it was yesterday on Dan Patrick's show talking about Lance Armstrong,
you know, and how he was not only was he denying that he
was using, he was trying to destroy anybody who accused him of using,
and it was just, you know, a really bad, really bad thing.
And then ultimately, you know, he admitted that he did. And
you know, well that that's probably the one that sticks out as the most
egregious one of all some there you go. Going back to University of Arizona,
we had a little bit of news from the US Olympic Trials. We
had some Arizona track and field that are going to be participating. Right in
large the picture here, Trayvon White Austin is one. He's in one hundred
meters and two hundred meters. Tyson Tippett also in one hundred and two hundred
meters, Imma Gates for the high jump. There's Minkinski, mckinski also a
high jumper. Pierce the coast. The cost, the cost in the long
jump jump, Sir Jonathan Simms is going to be long, long and triple
jump Jannika Bosco also long jump, Sydney Bennick long jump, and then post
grad participants. You have in Jordan Guist to get and then Bonds, Tally
Bonds, Tally Bonds both past show participants. We've had both Jordan Geiston and
Tally Bond's on the show. She's in a one hundred meter hurdles and uh
and Guyston the shot put in the hammer. So good luck to all of
them. I happened to I didn't get a chance to say to I saw
fred Fred Harvey at Bob Dobbs yesterday having lunch, so I'm guessing he's going
to be at the at these tryouts which are start tomorrow and run through June
thirtieth up at the University of University of Oregon. You can watch some of
this stuff on Peacock and NBC, but it takes a good nine days to
put together the Olympic team. So and it's like either you're in, or
you were good enough to get in, or you weren't good enough to get
in. We did report to Landy Schanell, the diver from Arizona, UH
past diver from Arizona. She's in in the synchronized diving. Two persons synchronized
diving for the second time. Got to sell her metal last time, so
she's in. So you know, there's getting some getting some people in there.
So we'll see how that goes. Good luck to all of them,
you know, you you hope that you know, they pull out a spectacular
performance and get in. That would be very cool, all right. Takes
a lot of hard work to be in the Olympics. It does, yes,
it does. I mean they worked so hard. They were so hard
and you know, you don't get in. It's like it's kind of for
not right, but it good and good that they all got got a chance
to get into the trials. I think the last name we just we'll just
finish up with here is going back to what we started getting the show with
the n CUAA presenting. They're now presenting tournament plans to expand up to seventy
six teams. You're gonna get me going again. Man, I hate it,
I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate
it, I hate it and I hate it and uh, you know again,
sometimes you just got to leave good stuff alone. And they're not going
to uh, they're gonna do this and you know, those of us who
think it's stupid. It's like we have no say, right, you know,
they they they want more money. And I get it, you need
more money because of what's going on. But money can't decide everything. And
excuse me, and the fact that they're doing this just tells me they don't
really think these things out. They don't, you know. It's like,
Okay, we can make more money, so let's make it instead of thinking
what's the right thing to do, well, you know, what's a good
thing to do. And it just it just bothers me that that they do
that. All right, we're gonna take our next break. We're gonna come
back. Greg Hanson will be joining us on the on the phone. We'll
talk about some you know this, uh with with Willie May's passion away,
just go into some some history, uh he and I, uh, you
know, we remember the good old days and when these guys were coming up,
Willie May's, Mickey Mann or Sandy Colefax, those kinds of guys.
And Willie Mays is being missed. This event that they're doing tonight in Alabama
was partly for him. And I saw a picture of the field they put
a big twenty four Willie Mays's number on the field, and it's too bad
he's going to miss this, but I'm sure we'll hear more than once.
He's looking down on it and probably smiling so as he always did. So
stick around. We're going to have Greg Hanson from Nears On Data start and
let's talk some baseball history. We'll be all right back. The Window Depot
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Today. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez,
soun Fox Sports fourteen fifteen on Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio while
Just Surgeon I on the Ball. Welcome back to On the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jagan Zalas. I've got Ryan
working the board here and participating in the conversation. And on the phone,
we've got Greg Hansen from there. It's on a daily Star. I would
say, I hope you don't take this as an insult, Greg, but
your resident Dorian, which basically means you're old, and I hope you understand
I say it with love and admiration that you know you're the old guy in
the room who knows the most about what we talk about when we get going
to the history of baseball. Okay, Willie Mays has passed away one of
the great guys. I you know, as I shouldn't say. It doesn't
pay me to say this that I think he was the best baseball player ever.
I'm gonna put you on the spot because those who know you know you're
a huge Mickey Mantle fan. Okay, you know you wore number seven when
we played baseball. You're a huge Yankee fan. Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle.
In terms of the best you ever saw, I'd say Willie and his
career was longer and had better numbers and he could do a sing or two
more than Mickey could. You know, I think back, it's what do
you think? It's Baby Rue and Willie one and one a all time in
baseball. Yeah, you have to think that, right, And I know
that. You know, we didn't get to see, you know, Babe
Ruth, we don't know what he looked like out in the field. We
see old you know, old movie clips of him, but we never saw
him play. We did see Willie Mays play, now, it was a
long time ago, and uh, you know I was I was saying that,
you know, the Giants used to come here during spring training to play
the Indians. I know I saw him play. I just don't remember it,
right, I don't remember. I don't have a vision of Willie Mays
out in center field at High Corbett Field. But you know I saw him
play enough on TV, and I paid attention to the Giants because you know,
as a Dodger fan, he was the greatest effort at that in my
mind. Oh yeah, mine too. You know, I looked it up
today in the archives. He played his first game on High Corbett Field in
March of fifty two, and they and they broke their all time attendance record
that day and Willie went three for three. He was twenty, he was
twenty, Yeah, because that's what he does, right, and that and
that's what he that's what he did. You know, he was just that.
He was just that guy. And you know, I guess you know
when I when I hear that he played it well obviously fifty one, right,
because that's when he made you know, that iconic catch that that we
see all the time. But he played you know, I remember him into
the mid sixties and he was still really damn good. Oh shouldn't he was
well? And in sixty five he hit fifty two homers, one hundred and
twelve. Rby Eisen was the MVP. So he was. He was in
his mid to late thirties then. Yeah, so he just wasn't you know.
Just his career was productive from fifteen to seventeen years. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, what I never understood is how a guy who was as
bow legged as he was could run as fast as as fast he he like
walked on the sides of his feet, and yet he would take off running
and he was so fast his hat would always fly off whenever he was you
know, he was running or stealing a base or you know, trying to
catch a ball. It was just amazing to see. And look, there
have been a lot of great players since then. And I don't want to
be the get off my long guy that says there hasn't. But you know,
and and we we we try and anoint some of these players. Were
anointing Shoeyo Tani as you know, one of the best players in the history
of Major League base while he's still pretty young and we still don't know,
he still got a lot to do. But you know, when I when
I really really sit and think about it, I just don't can't come up
with somebody since then who I thought was a better player. Not King Griffy
Jr. Not Pete Rose, not Joe Morgan, not you know, anybody.
I just don't. I don't have anybody who could do all the things
that he did. Well. Don't you think the term five tool player came
about because of Willie May? It had to, right, I mean,
didn't it have to? I mean, Shoey O'tani is a two tool player.
Yeah, yeah, maybe a three tool player, but WILLI was He's
got to be the first five tool because Ted Williams, lou gerrig and those
guys weren't five tool players. Yeah, I mean he established a whole new
breed of baseball. Well, he said, he kind of set a standard
for how how good you have to be to be the best, right,
to be able to do all of those things and not just a couple of
them. Right, you make you make a good point about show. Hey,
he's a great hitter. Yeah, you know he's you know when he
when he can pitch, he's a great pitcher. But put him in the
outfield, and is he a great outfielder? No, you know he's not.
In fact, I wouldn't. I don't want to see him in the
outfield if he's as long as he's a Dodger, I don't want him running
around out there. But you know, look, Ken Griffy Jr. Is
the closest that I think I can come to that. And if he hadn't
had all the injuries and stuff, maybe he's mentioned more in that, you
know, in that vein, But you know, again, Griffy had all
you know, had all the injuries, He missed a lot of time,
he didn't quite get there. Yeah, you know, the thing that made
Willie bigger than life to me, and I think to my generation was in
the fifties and sixties, there was one Major League Baseball game on TV a
week. It was on Saturday afternoon, and ninety four percent of the time
it was the Yankees. It was never the National League. Right, So
the only time you got to see him was the All Star Game, right,
And I remember all Star games were, like I'm thinking of the time,
the three biggest scording events on American TV where the World Series, the
Rose Bowl, in the All Star Game. And it was because people finally
got to see Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemette. I never got
to see him. Yeah, No, you're you're You're one hundred percent correct
that, you know. I mean, I remember I was saying yesterday when
we were talking about this, you know, the TV guide would come in
the mail and I'd grab that thing and the first thing I do is open
it up to see who was in the Saturday afternoon game. Uh, you
know, and you know, you're right, it was always those damn Yankees.
We never got the Dodgers, that was. But but when you saw
him, you going, you went wow, you know, you know,
you just went, holy hell, how do you know who? Who is
he? And how did? How was he able to do all those things?
And he did it for so long. I've got a good story about
him, and I think everybody in my generation does. I think I was
tener eleven and the Giants were playing the Indians in the last spring training game
of the year in of all places, Salt Lake City at the Triple A
Facility, and my dad was My dad was a huge ynkie pan like I
am, but he got tickets from my uncle to go down the game in
their front row behind the Giants dugout, and so me and my dad drove
down alone about eighty miles and halfway there, I got car sick, threw
up all over the car and ruined my clothes, and I've felt I've never
felt worse in my life. I knew we had to go home because we
didn't have enough money to stop and get me new clothes. My dad went
to a J. C. Penny in Ougden, Utah, bought me new
clothes just so we could get to the game and see Willie Mays. No,
I mean it was I remember the game. It was well, it
was sixty years ago. A man see. That's the thing. That's what
bothers me that, Like I said, I know, I went to a
Giants spring training game, but I can't you know during that time. I
did find out yesterday. I told this on the show yesterday. I found
out yesterday that because you know, back then, you know, they when
they came from spring training, they didn't stay in the fancy hotels and stuff
they got. They stayed in people's houses. My my, my uncle was
was good friends with somebody in the in the in the Cleveland front office,
Vic Davalo and a couple of other players. When they came from spring training,
they would live with them the whole time that they were here, to
sleep on the couch, see wherever. While I found I found out that
uh on a time that the Giants were coming down here, that they spent
the night at my my another aunt and uncle's house who were out of town.
It got arranged by my my uncle, who you know, was friends
with the Indians Willie McCovey, Willie Mays and Orlando said, paid I spent
the night at my at my aunt uncle's house. Like you know, if
I hadn't, if I had the pillowcase from Willy Mays. I could make
a lot of money off of that. Man. I've talked to people in
two son over the years who told me just what you were talking about and
and who participated in and they're just I could sit and listen to them all
day. Yeah, yeah, no, and and that you know, that's
it was. So it was so kind of homie, right, you know
you could go up and talk to I mean, I do remember going to
barbecues at at my my aunt uncle's house and talking to Vic Davolio. I
do remember that because he you know, he was a short shortstop for the
Indians and he was their friend and he would be sitting there They're drinking beers,
having a great time. You know, he's he was kind of one
of the uncles, right, And uh, I do have a a And
now I was like six years old, five years old, but I do
remember. I have this vision of being in the backyard and there's there's the
baseball players, and I know that they had parties who were more in you
know, not just those the three guys that were staying with them, but
other and you know, the whole team would be over there having a barbecue
with my aunt and uncle crazy stuff. There might be somebody listening right now
who actually hosted Willie Mays at some point, right right, Yeah, for
sure, because you know those guys would come to town. I never went
to one up in Casta Grant, but I knew that they were. That's
where they were training. You know, you go down, you go down
the freeway. The hotel is still there, and the ballpark was there.
But and the funny thing about that is Greg is this. You know,
I'm as a huge Soger fan, Willie Mays was probably the only San Francisco
Giant who I could stomach. I hated the rest of them, you know,
particularly particularly One Marshall for clubbing John Roseboro with a baseball bat in that
one game. You know, Willie McCovey always seemed to do something bad to
the Dodgers. Uh, you know, you know, Bobby Bonds was so
damn good, you know, the first thirty thirty guy, all those guys,
I know all those things about him. But Willie Mays was the only
one who I could not bring myself to dislike, even when he did stuff
against the Dodgers. Okay, here's a question, how many times did you
try how or how often or did you do it regularly? Did you try
the basket catch? Basket catch? I was thinking of that. I've got
to try it as much as you did, and I just never never came
naturally. So he couldn't do it. He couldn't. Right, you get
hitting the foot, you get hit in the chest, you know, trying
not to get hit in the face. I'm like, how do you do
this? And and you know, it's like you. And then I remember
being, you know, having a being in a little league baseball practice and
one of the players tried to do it, and the coach was like,
what the hell are you doing? Catch the ball? But he doesn't.
Now do you ever see anybody do it? No? No, not on
purpose, that's for sure. No, not on purpose. Not on purpose.
I mean, his hand eye coordination had to be in the highest percentile
of all human beings, no doubt, no doubt, because you know,
I mean, and nobody else did that, right, Nobody else did that.
Nobody, now, one single player you know, could do that.
Yeah, he just did it all the time. And I don't know why
he did it right. Maybe just because he could, I don't know,
because it certainly not a good probably, I mean and maybe it certainly not
a good play. And of course he wouldn't do it if you know,
if he knew he had to, you know, make a throw when he
caught the ball. But I was like, what are you doing? Why?
And why is that? But it was it was his trademark, it
was his trade. We went twenty two gold gloves or was it sixteen twenty
one gold gloves? Twenty four All Star Games and twenty one gold gloves.
And yeah, in nineteen seventy nine, when he's elected to the Hall of
Fame, he only got four hundred and nine, four hundred and thirty two
votes. Do you believe that? What are you doing? I mean the
guys who three people didn't vote? Yeah, those twenty three guys should have
had their votes taken away from them right there, right on the spot,
like you can't, you're not allowed to vote anymore. Get out of here,
give it back. I know it. And that was seventy nine,
when people, you know, when the racism had subsided, right right,
Yeah, that's that's atrocious. Yeah, who who is is Mickey Mandle?
That guy? For you though? When it comes to your team, to
the Yankees, or do you think of other guys as well. No,
I'll always makes you, always makes you. Yeah, when you grow up
in that I grew up at the same time, you know when he so
it was like you with the Dodgers. Yeah, I mean you've got Sandy
ko right right, he's the greatest living ball player right now. Yeah,
last one left? Yeah, yeah, no, and that you know,
it's funny because when when when when Willie Mays passed, that's he was.
Sandy Kopax was the first one I thought. I thought, you know,
if you're a Giant fan and Willie Mays passes, now you know, I'm
thinking, Okay, when I'm a Dodger fan, as a Dodger fan,
when Sandy Kofax goes, I'm gonna be that's gonna be the one that I'm
gonna go. Okay, it's like that generation is over. But I bet
he can still throw one past me for sure. Man. You know that
Baseball Reference dot com site where you can find every stat of all time.
Yeah, I would like. When I hang up, I'm gonna look up
and see what Mays did against Colfax in his career. Oh, I can
only imagine. We were talking, we were talking about did you do you
remember that series that they did on HBO. It was like twenty years ago.
We were looking up I things called when it was a game and they
divided the they divided baseball into two eras you know, the era up to
nineteen sixty or sixty one, I think sixty one, and then from from
there to I guess you would call it the AstroTurf age when the Reds and
the and those guys. There was a story Willie Mays told a story about
digging in the box against Don Drysdale, and he wasn't you know. He
walked up to the batter's box, he dug in, put his foot in
there, you know, stepped in the box, looked up and it was
Drysdale. And he immediately called time out because he knew he had pissed off
Drysdale. And so he stepped out of the box. He he cleaned up
where he dug in the box to kind of like tell I didn't mean to
do that. And then he gets back in the box and Drivesdale drills him.
Anyways, but similar Bob Gibson, Yeah, it had to be,
you know, and you think about the end. They both understood it,
right, you know, William, he didn't charge the mound, right,
he knew he was getting thrown at, but he didn't charge them mount.
But the funny thing was that a guy like Willie Mays got into the box
and felt he had to uh uh, he had to respect the picture at
least this much. And and he he looked up. I saw Drivesdale looking
at me, and I'm like, I got the hell out of the box
and I cleaned it up and got back in and he's still he's still hit
me in the back. So I got I gotta try try and find that
clip. It was funny as hell. So anyway, younger generation wouldn't understand
me exactly. Well, it was. It was a romantic time for us.
I know, you know, as you say, you know, you're
growing up a Yankee fan, me growing up a Dodger fan and seeing these
guys and man, they're they're leaving us. They're all leaving us one by
one. Yeah, like last year was Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson. Yeah,
yep, so many of them died. Yeah. So anyways, all
right, Greg, well this was fun. I appreciate it. Thanks for
jumping on with us, and uh you know, we'll we'll be in touch
and keep that cough game going and uh and uh we'll get you back here
when football season get started. Thanks Jane, say hi to Steve. I
will do that. I'll pass that along. Thanks. About to see you
later. Chelena is Greg Hansen from there is on Daily Star just uh,
you know, a couple of guys commiserating about I don't know, romantics the
right word, but just a time for baseball for those of us who are
this age. When it was, it was so different from what it is
now, and maybe because we didn't get as much of it, it wasn't
as readily available to us. It becomes a little more you know, I
don't know something. I don't know what the right word as far so okay,
stick around, we're going to come back. We'll wrap up the show.
Give us a call five to two zero four one, six, seventy
four forty Your memories of Willie Mays or any of this time. I know
there's a lot of people still here who can remember spring training with the Cleveland
Indians in Tucson, going to some of those games. It was a great
time. It was a different time, and we all have memories of it,
So stick around for that and give us a called five two zero,
four, one, six, seventy four, forty We'll be right back.
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a Team security dot net. Steve Rivera and Jacon Salas they have their Eye
on the Ball on Tucson Sports Stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen to fifty.
Welcome back time with all here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm jacan Zalez,
your host with Steve Rivera is still out and will be tomorrow as well.
Hopefully he'll be joining us back on Monday. We'll see how things go
with that. But I've got Ryan here and we're kicking some stuff around,
and wow, we've got some more breaking news because there was a there was
the the Youuve Athletic Department. I did a presentation to the Arizona Border Regions
today and it was just to talk about how they're going to you know,
how good athletics is going to be, you know, managing itself so that
it doesn't, you know, continue to run into the deficits that it's having.
I guess the Border Regions asked for a plan. So they just put
out an email literally twenty minutes ago, thirty minutes ago, talking about an
Arizona Athletics five point plan. I'm looking at this for the first time.
I'm gonna run and buy you because that's what we do. This is hot
off the press, but they presented a five point plan to the athletic Department.
I'm to the border regents in the in the release said that not only
went to fans, but to the media. It says the report looks back
five years and provides a thorough analysis of athletics revenues, expenses and operations,
all benchmarks against all bench marked against peer institutions in the Big twelve conference.
It also details the uncertainty associated with the nawnceer state of YadA, YadA,
YadA. Anyways, it goes on to say, strengthening, just excellent,
Strengthening organization has been one of our top priorities since returning to the university in
March. To operationalize the report, we created this five point plan as a
framework to guide the process. So here's the plan. Five items. Streamlined
organizational structure, which you know they've they've they've been doing that. They're kind
of, you know, rebuilding it. You know, we were just talking
about this. There's some multimedia rights organization that they're going to develop. They
said, we will reduce administrative leadership personnel costs by five hundred thousand dollars,
So they're they're clipping some administrative personnel implementation of new processes and culture. It
says, we must approach our fiduciary responsibilities with the utmost seriousness and managed department
finances as if they we're our own. We're committed to instilling the culture of
accountability and responsibility, streamlining our processes, and driving operational excellence at every level
of our organization. So, you know, trying to just do things differently
right again. You know, it makes sense. It's like a no brainer.
Priority budgeting implementation fall of twenty twenty four. It says the OSTHECT Department
will undergo a substantial transformation with the implementation of permissive revenue sharing with student athletes
in twenty five and the ability of schools to increase their scholarship offerings through priority
budgeting. We will align our investments with our strategic priorities, including preparing to
share revenue with our student athletes in twenty twenty five. Item four is part
of the five point plan. Revenue generation, fundraising, and development strategies are
undergoing a modernization effort to best align with our long term objectives. This is
where they talk about the multimedia rights and naming rights. It says, recognize
the potential of our multimedia and naming rights assets, and then an effort to
streamline and align these efforts. We have established Arizona Sports Enterprises by consolidating and
optimizing these opportunities who will enhance our brand visibility and drive revenue growth. Philanthropy
is a part of this, they say, Cultivate deeper relationships with donors,
partners, YadA, YadA. And then talking about the fan experience and growing
attendance and increasing ticket revenue with the transition into the Big twelve, Providing fans
with an exemplary game day experience and continuing to aggressively grow and monetize ticket revenue
is essential. And then the fifth point of five is adaptation, preparation and
continued learning. Basically saying, with the way things are changing so often and
as much as they're changing, they got to be able to roll with the
punches is essentially what they're saying. It says the potential new ability to share
revenue with our student athletes as an opportunity at the university would take part and
as such, preparation do so will be a critical driver of our planning process
in the months ahead. Encouraging the culture of continuous learning, intentionality and innovation
will enable aerasone athletes to stay out of the curve. YadA, YadA.
So basically they're just saying, we're going to be doing stuff differently, and
we know that, you have what what they were doing obviously didn't work.
I know, COVID was a big it was, you know, really killed
them, killed everybody. You know. You know, they had a forty
five million dollar deficit that year, just that year, so most of the
deficit that they have now came from that. So we know they got to
do things different, and more so because it's you got to do things different
now. If you keep trying to do things the way you're doing them,
there's no way because it's changed so much. You're gonna be you're paying athletes
starting in twenty twenty five, you're paying athletes, you know. And then
there's still the whole are their employees? Are they not employees? All those
things, and with so much still unsettled in terms of how things are going
to run in in in major college athletics, you have to be able.
You have to be able to adjust sometimes on the fly. You can't be
a you can't be a you know, a giant ship that takes forever to
make a left turn or a right turn. You got to be able to
make that turn right away and quickly and and do it, you know,
with an understanding of what every move you make, how it affects everything.
I mean, it's it's it's it's crazy. Yeah, I mean you said,
you know, we go with that. I just kind of I was
reading something so well, it's it's complicated, right. I mean, I
would never want to be an athletic director right now because the finances that are
at stake. You know, the size of these programs, right I think
everyone's got five hundred and five hundred plus, you know, athletes in their
program. You know, you're talking about a lot of money, a lot
of scholarships, a lot of people. You know, a lot of people
who come to the university to play in these sports and it's a big part
of their lives. You know, they've been working on and some of them
have been working all their life to get a college scholarship to play whether it's
tennis or golf or football or basketball, you know, you know, track
or whatever. They've been doing it. It's important to them and you can't
mess it up for them. Yeah, And going to the big toll.
They're going to be on more of a national stage, right, they do
need to make those changes to be able to put a good product right out
there. Yeah, so it's that's where I was going with. Yeah,
well and you do. But you know again, and look, this this
five point plan is not rocket science, right, you know. I mean
it's really not in terms of each five things. What's more like rocket science
is the implementation of all all of that. What do all these things mean?
I think the border regions wanted to see that Arizona is thinking about all
these things, that they're addressing everything, and I, as a fan,
hope they are too, because what I want more than anything is for the
sports to survive, for Arizona to be competitive and whatever sport they're in,
because you know, if we're going to support them and give them our our
ticket money and donations and just our time, you want it. You want
it to be well run. You want it to be efficient, right,
you want you want you want to know that if you're paying I think,
uh, you know, season take a season football ticket where I sit was
four hundred and thirty five dollars. If I'm giving them that money, I
want to know that you're going to put a good product on the field,
right, But I also want to know that basketball is going to be good.
You know, golf is going to be good. It's going to be
a good experience for every Are you going to bring coaches into the community or
you know, an asset to the community. There's a lot of responsibility there
for these athletic programs, particularly one like Arizona where there's nothing else, right,
we don't have a major league sport here, and we don't have the
Suns or the Diamondbacks or the Caya Well Phoenixes now the codes anymore either or
the Cardinals, right Arizona is it? So what you want is if this
is what, if this is what's going to represent our city, then they
got to do a good job with it because there's more at stake than just
wins and losses. That's my soapbox. Yeah, I mean there's so many
there's so many sports going on nowadays, right, you need to be able
to, like you said, you got to put a good product out there
to to know that you're not going to waste your time, right, right,
I mean, if I'm going to take the time to go tailgate,
you know, and I'm gonna be out there for four hours in the heat.
I've paid, you know, we paid four hundred and twenty five bucks
for a tailgate pass, you know, to use for six or seven games,
depending on what the season is. And we're gonna pay that kind of
money to go do that and put out that kind of effort. You want
to know when you go to the football game that you're gonna have a good
time. Yeah, And that's that was one of the things that bothered me
more than anything during the Sumberland years, during the mac Ofvic years, when
those two guys were here and didn't give one crap about Arizona football. I
thought, I felt like I cared more about it than they did. And
yet they were the guys making the millions of dollars I was paying to,
you know, to be a part of this. They were getting my money
and they didn't give one crap about it. And that's bothered me more than
walking to a football game, you know, particularly with the Macavic years,
just knowing we're going in there and Alice Hugh's coming to town, Purdue came
to town to just beat the hell out of us. You thought, what
am I doing? You know, and why am I doing this? And
why am I willing to do this? So I don't know. I really
hope that I get it. They had to put something out like this that
says all these things. Now it's like, okay, you say you're going
to do these things, Now go do them. Now, go do them
and let's see what. Uh, let's let's see what you guys got.
So I don't know. You know, it's uh, this is going to
be a long thing too, because you know, sports and college sports are
going to keep changing a lot all the time. Uh. This the already
this settlement on the House lawsuit that the one that says, okay, you
got to pay, you got to share revenue with the players. A school
has come on and said, oh, we don't like this, a lower
level Division one school and said we don't like this, and they're objecting to
it, saying that they didn't get represented in the in the settlement talks.
So already got somebody who should benefit from this, but they feel like they're
not, and they're fighting. They're gonna and so the the the what it's
going to take to get all this stuff in place so that college athletics,
as we know it doesn't die. It's gonna be hard to do, and
each school has to do its part, you know, is every school going
through something like this and putting together this kind of a plan to deal with
all the issues that are coming down the road on them. I don't know.
If you're not, you should be right. I mean, if you're
not, if you're not trying to figure out how you're going to do things
going forward, you're gonna be in big trouble because this this thing is this
thing is changing every day, sometimes by the minute, and it'll be interesting
to see how we how we do with that. So I'm sure there's gonna
be a whole lot more coming out about this. I know Bruce Pascal was
up covering the Arizona Border Regions meeting, or maybe he was watching from here
because I think they they stream them. Uh we've tried to get them on
the show today and he couldn't because of that, but we'll try and get
him next week. I think the media is going to have to, you
know, absorb this, analyze it, try to figure out what it means.
And uh, we'll let them do that and then we'll let them come
on and talk about it with us because I this is our way out of
my pay grade for sure. But on the other hand, as a fan,
I want to know, right, I want to know what all this
means and what this is going to mean to my ticket dollar, to my
donation dollar, and to my time that I put that I devote to,
you know, whatever program i'm you know, I'm involved with, whether it's
football or basketball, or go into a baseball game or a softball game or
whatever, you know, whatever we go to watch or you know, having
those coaches come in and be on the show. We just want to know
what is this all that's going to mean. So there you go, long,
Rent, but that just came across and I thought it was important to
UH to talk about it. There's you know, it's big stuff. I
think it's it's all big stuff. And I think this is what they were
looking for when they hired as a desiree read Francois. You know, it
looks like they're putting together a very specific plan on how to deal with all
the issues they've got to deal with in athletics, and guys were a long,
a long way from any of this being settled. But at least I
to me, this gives me a feeling that they're working on something. Yeah,
it's gonna it's gonna be an interesting whatever it is. It is,
it really is, it really is. All right, Well, we're at
the end. We've got to get out of here. We're gonna come.
We'll be back tomorrow. We'd love to give have you give us a call,
follow the podcast and join us back here tomorrow, and uh, have
a great night everybody.