Steve and Jacome Sommings. They have their I Am the Ball on two Suns
Sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty. They welcome back to Roy the Ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty or I'm Stevie, Jane and I didn't expect us
back soon, but we get we get to this place here, and it's
always new. We get new stuff. We learned something new every day.
Today. We just learned that did their dead air for about two and a
half minutes at the top of the hour or at the end of the hour.
We can fill it up with ourselves, yeah, which of course is
a good thing or a bad thing. Yeah, but now we gotta call
Hurt. It's gin and so we'll we'll be surprised that he'll that he's gonna
be on the air, so we get him on the air. No,
that's good. Not, that's kind of maybe maybe we can fill it with
commercials. Are not maybe we just dead are Okay? People were asking why
are you out for two two three minutes? So I don't only tell us
just to get off. There's a national national feed or whatever. That's cool,
so you get two more minutes of us. Yeah, lucky you.
So all right, Well, let's go ahead and gi him a call,
because yeah, about we're about that. Okay, let me let me okay,
okay, stand by. Um what else was there? I think there
were somewhere. Uh, breaking news Denver returns tomorrow. Uh. I can't
remember much of the local stuff anymore. Oh that's great, great, exciting,
exciting. Keep talking. So we talked about Chris Paul being traded or
being cut and all that stuff. It wasn't exactly that. I mean,
they can do a lot of things with his position, whether trade him,
cut him, move him, whatever. It's just a lot of things with
him. I'm sure he'll he'll thirty eight years old, he's got about it
another year or sold. Yeah, you might have to come call us,
you give us contact info. Okay, Sorry, everybody, Sorry, it's
a two minute thing. It is, it is. How are you gonna
go? We gotta dial toe the live radio dudes. Hey, herness,
you're on the air. Okay, just like you know. This is Jay
and Steve from Mind of All. How are you doing? I'm pretty well
to day. How are you? We're good? We're good. You must
be feeling better after you know, a win usually right, Uh, definitely
definitely. This is Steve. Let me ask you a quick question because Jay
told me the circumstances of the weekend. Um, how old are you?
I'm forty years old? Forty years old because I'm gonna ask the question for
a reason. So all these games are these high scoring games, and they
don't come down to the last second for every one of them. You're forty
going on sixty, I think younger my coaching career. I just ship is
sipt that that's what come with the game. And you you know, you
have to stay even killed throughout the season. It's not a you know,
a sprint, it's a marathon. These are things you got to actually remind
yourself in the course of a season to stop you from asian So fast happened?
I mean, how many times does happen? Well, every it seems
like every game, right at least for you guys, uh, you know,
this year it's a bit. It's like every game has just come down
to the wire, you know, down to the last second. Last week,
you guys were down, you know, pretty substantially made a come back.
Rashi gets the pick, the pick and the end zone when they were
going to put it away. You must have felt a little bit like,
you know, the quon was your quarterback last year and he kind of did
some of those things last year, guessing you were hoping you would do it
again. Of course, not have had anything, yes, and uh,
just a joke about it. I actually told them, you know, give
us a gift before that happened. But but you know, in the course
of the game. The good thing about that whole situation, if you know,
people that was down by our sideline, you can hear our players just
saying defense, were gonna get that one stop. You know, as a
whole we played well, that's a very very talented team in this league.
Actually they wanted the more talented teams in this league. So you heard the
people on our sideline kept saying, hey, let's just get that one stop.
You know, we might have not got the stops that we wanted,
but we got the one that we needed well. And again, you know,
your defense as much as you know, we we've talked about, you
know how how important offensive obviously is, that's where your expertise is. But
your defense has really kept you in games. You guys have you guys aren't
scoring a ton of points like you were last year, but you're winning more
games that it's kind of crazy. Oh yes, yes, you know,
a lot of it just come down to the logistics of the game as a
whole, some coaching aspects and point is in there and guys just staying of
course. You know, when you look at a team like us, you
know, if you even look on the west side of the division, you
think about it, it's three it was it was three games that was worn
by one point this weekend last weekend. So that's just how tough it is
on the outside of the division. So even when you talk about, you
know, us scoring in the forty point range last game, except for the
time that we fumbled, we might have scored every other drive. It's just
slowed down the pace of the game, which didn't equal a lot of points
in the end. So that kind that's kind of interesting to me. Let's
points. Is it better defense or just towards the deal there? Uh,
it's both. You know. Some games played possession games, so sometimes some
games you get ten eleven possessions, some games you get seven or eight.
So it's just they flow of the game. You know. Even being out
there, I kept telling the referee, hey, stop slowing the game down,
because it seems like it happened to us more than once when we was
on the road, that they know we just need one stop. We're down
the touchdown and the game is just trying to slow down. The play clock
would not start, the game clock was starting. Just things like that that
you know, sometimes people can't tell or see if they're not there, and
it slows the game down, which minimizes possession. So we're talking to her,
his chin head coach of the Tiesson Sugar Sculls. You guys are in
third place now for you know, four playoffs spots uh for each division.
But you guys, as as you have been most of the year, you're
all bunched up. All the Bay Area is pulled away a little bit.
They're seven and three and the Rattlers appear to be back, so they're at
six and four. So tell us a little bit about how you're looking going
forward. You've got you've got the six games left, You've got three home
games of the next four. Um, you know what's your approach right now
over the next few weeks, One time to win game at a time.
We're still in a great position right now. That's the thing that we let
our players know we don't shy away from the position we end is very bunched
up in our side, but we know, you know, every game is
gonna come down, you know, to the end. The business is on
our end. You know, we gotta get the plan better in front of
the home crowd. And basically that's consistently just closing our games that we have
and not turning the ball over. We know on our side is a bunched
up situation, but we also know, you know, glass high Food,
that if we keep pressing forward, we're still on the top half of things.
Moving forward. We just gotta hand a lot of business. So the
last time we talked to you, I think I told you a little story
of Atkins going home or doing a strong on him. When he went home,
he struggled a game, right, he had a lot of pixe or
he didn't have a great game. Now that he's returned against the same team,
what do you expect from him? I think he's grown since then.
So again, you take that game and you look at that game. We
spotted him a couple of points. We started up nineteens up. So when
you that game with our first two possessions, we do two interceptions. After
those two interceptions, we started clicking. We probably we scored maybe maybe one
other drive, but we scored every other possession after that, And that's just
something to build. No, we just got to stop spotting people points in
the beginning and we'll be just fun. So you got those guys coming in
again. And I think I've asked you this before, and I'm sure I
asked Dixie this question last year. Does one team or the other, you
know, the team who won last time have an advantage or the team who
lost having an advantage. How do you you know, obviously the team who
lost is going to make some adjustments. Are you trying to guess you know,
if you won, are you trying to guess what those adjustments are?
How do you approach playing the team for a second time like that, You
just look at where you went wrong. The advantage goes to the team that's
playing well at that time of the season. So you know, when it
comes to like I say, I look back at the game we played last
week, we actually played well. You know, sometimes people don't understand that
is a very talented Vegas team that we played that we played well and we
have stuff to build, we have stuff to move from. Again, you
go back to the first time we played them, We just started the game
off with two turnovers right away, and that's hard. And they started the
game with making a couple of gooses also, they made a like I want
to say, two dooses, you know, at the very beginning of the
game though, spotting people those amount of points, you look back and make
a correction here, correction there, and take care of the ball and you
find yourself in better positions, you know, in the course of the season.
So I just feel like, right now we're playing good football. We
just need to keep minimizing the mistakes moving forward. Let me ask you a
question about yourself. So last year you were the assistant coach to the head
coach. Obviously, how is it moving over one seat over to be the
head guy for you? How has it been what you expected? And it's
actually grutiful, you know, it's it's like basically just seeing plants and getting
to see him. Honestly, that's the That's what keeps me smiling, that's
what keeps me energetic, that's what keeps me motivated, you know, even
when everybody outside of that locker room can't see you know, the growth and
the player as men and on and off the field. The fact that we
can see it internally is a beautiful thing. So, you know, I
had to only deal with one side last year, and being a head coach
this year, I get to you know, be more involved as a whole,
as an overseer on the defensive side of the ball. Also, I
get to sit with you know, coach X, coach Hendricks, and we
get to talk about game plans moving forward, what they like against other people
offenses, and you know, feel great about it. So it's having to
see that whole. Overseeing the seeds grow is a beautiful thing and I'm enjoying
it. So speaking of that, then talking about you know, some guys
on the defense, obviously a kid like Rashi Hodge, you know, play
the Arizona fans, you have some familiarity with them. Had a big play
for you guys against Vegas, had that interception that kept the Vegas from getting
the clinching or that's a little bit about what he's done for you How how
you think he's grown into this sport, you know, coming out of college
in Arizona. Yeah, you know, last year. It was his first
year he came in, but he came in at a not unfortunate time for
us because we were trying to feel spots that we had a lot of injuries
that so not by his choice, but we just had them out of position,
you know, not by our choice either, but by injury. So
coming you know, fast forward to this year, getting him in positions that
he's comfortable in. And you know, you got coach Hendres and coach Jackson
over there putting them in certain positions what suits him. That's what it's about.
You put him in positions that suits him and he's able to be comfortable
there, which allows him to play freely and play well. And he's been
just a great spark in our defense coming up with big players game out of
the game. Well what's been What has he done well for you guys?
He's just been a like an unsung hero when it when it comes time to
make a play, you can depend on him. So on offense sometimes you
just need someone to make a play, whether it be a catch up break
tackle. You need sometimes on offense for somebody to make a play. He's
been that person on defense when it's time to make a huge tackle to put
them behind the change behind the sticks. He's that he showed up. When
it comes time for a big interception in the game, he showed up and
some some of that stuff. You know, part of it is our coordinators
putting him in a position, and part of it is hard just wanting to
make it play, having that mindset to hey, I know the coach is
going to put me where I need to be and let me make a play.
So he's been a great deal and a big part of us when it
just comes to making plays. I also think that Jay the attendance has been
better this year and more excited. Yeah, you're like, yeah, it
has been. It has been. You know, you talk about the game
that you know, like the Area game, it's it's it's on us at
home. Just to Sini, you know, we've been we've not been doing
a great job of finishing at home, and we got to keep those turnovers
down. When you talk about the number one ranked team in the league this
year right now as we speak, when we just played them a week ago,
Bay Area, you know, we was going up two possessions on them.
We turned the ball over, then they kicked the ball off to us.
It hit off us and they got it back. We're spotting people points
at home, which doesn't allow us to play well. Our other loss was
Man's at home. We had five turnovers in the game. It still had
a chance at the end to go down and tie up with a field goal
to take the league. So we just got to minimize that at home and
we'll be just fine that. Speaking of that, this is a personal question.
Hurt us because I'm the one that talked the owners, Kevin and Cathy
and dud getting a red uniform. We've seen them for the last time because
you guys are owing two in those uniforms, or well, we see the
Reds game. I'm not a superstitious person myself, but I listened to the
people around me. So if the people around me look comfortable black, so
be it. Because I saw I saw the little video you guys did of
what uniforms you're gonna wear at the last home game, and and the Xavier
Jackson just kind of took the red jersey and threw it to the side and
said, we're not wearing that anymore. We're owing too. So I don't
know influe the people around me with uncomfortable and I'm gonna listen to the people
around me. I asked only ship where I asked the players and my coaches
like, what are you all coomfortable with? Let's do it? All right?
Well, uh, it heard us. We appreciate you know this.
We know this was the last minute ask to come on the show, so
we do appreciate you doing that. But you guys got uh you got Duke
City on Saturday, six o'clock at the Bone Yard. You'll be fired up
for that definitely. We know we know this a big game. It's a
key game just to keep our pace in the race on the west side of
the division. We're very aware of the moment. So we had a great
week of practice and I told you guys out to do day's practice. If
this week just translates to the game, we'll be in a great position.
All right, sounds great. Hurt Us, We'll see you on Saturday and
good luck. Thank you. Appreciate cool all right, And hurtis Jen's he's
such a good guy. Always always a smile on win or lose, he's
smiling. Let me say see this, Uh, because are you been involved
heavily in it? I've had the coaches on here for a show or two.
All of them good dudes, all of them, yea, none of
the good dude. None the coaches have been jerks, right, none of
them. No, they are cold right and uh and Dixie and the assistance
that they bring in. Um you Malcolm Nelson who coached you know, he
stepped in and coach at Tucson High for a season. You know, he's
one of the assistant coaches. You know, we go out there pregame and
we talk to these guys and you know, it's kind of shoot the bull
and there's just a bunch of good guys out there loving coaching football, right
and that that that's a lot of fun. All right, We should we
take our break, Yes, So we're gonna come back. We're gonna have
um Mark Biogic head coach of the FC Tucson. They've got their season going
and things seem to be going pretty well. So we'll talk to Mark Boggi
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Steve Rivera and Jakin Salez. They have their Eye on the Ball on
two Sons Sports Stage Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart Radio
WAP. They welcome back to Eye on the Ball. You know Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacin's aus. Now on the phone,
we have Mark Biagi coach of FC two Sons, Mark, how you
doing. I'm doing great, guys. Thanks for having me on. Yes,
great to have you on. A lot of things going on FC Tucson.
How's it going for you? Yeah, so far, it's been great.
It's been uh it's been a fun six seven weeks and having the guys
and good results. We're back home for a nice stretch, so we're we're
excited to get back into a game. Anytime we have a game, it's
uh. So was the most uh the most fun we played tomorrow nine.
So you you come into the you know you're new as a as a head
coach of the club. Just what's been your approach? I mean when you
when you got the job and then you're getting ready for the season, you
know, what are the things that you felt were most important to you to
get in place, to get ready and get things going. Yeah. I
think for me, just consistency, consistency with my message and I should say
our message from from ownership all the way down to me, and consistency of
the type of players we want here in Tucson and at FC Tucson, and
a consistent message from me and my coaching staff to players assistant messaging to their
college coaches, to agents about who we are and what we want to be
here. And it's a different game because of the you know, the new
system that you have here, the new team you have here. How they
responded to you as a coach so far, I think very positively. The
guys have you learn the new systems that we're trying to put in place,
and you know on some of the standards that I'm trying to hold them too,
which are obviously going to be a little bit different. And they're players
from all over the country and all over the world really that are here,
and so far, I think the response has been really positive, and I've
got a good relationship with most of the guys. Pretty open conversations have been
had positive and sometimes some hard conversations, but that's part of it. And
I think the guys have been very responsive to me, and my coaches do
a great job helping, you know, keep the guys in line with some
positive conversations and some nice reinforcement moments as well. How would you characterize yourself
as a coach? You know, what kind of coach are you too?
You know, we at here about a players coach or a guy who coaches
defense or offense, or any one of a number of things. How would
you character guards yourself as a coach. Yeah, it's funny you asked that
because yesterday I was talking with a player, actually the captain of our team,
and I mentioned to him that I would consider myself a players coach,
someone that can put their arm around the players and hear them out, but
also hold them to standards. It's um, I take a lot of responsibility
among myself and my staff, and I also hold the players to a certain
standard in those same responsibilities. So there's thirty six players that all have thirty
six different things going on on any given day, right with family and soccer
and school and a lot of other things. And so I'm here to help
mentor and teach these guys while also trying to maintain the highest standard possible for
for the soccer and so, um, some some tough conversations, but a
lot of it is trying to to mentor these young men and and obviously being
future professional soccer players, but also future future people as well that are you
know, a nice part of society and they can always lean back on their
FT two sun experience as a positive one. So the conversation with a captain
did he did he say, well, coach, maybe you're not. How
did he take that? Well, how did that conversation happen? You know
why didn't happen? No? It was, it was it was funny,
it was great. Yeah, maybe I don't think what I am right.
Um, it was actually a pretty positive conversation. He came to me with
with a concern that a player had and this player had actually previously spoken to
me, but as a captain, a lot of the times I'm not in
the locker room all the time, right, he feels a differ and pulse
of the team, right, And so he brought to me a a valid
concern that a teammate was having about a family issue, actually nothing concerning FC
Tuson, but just what this individual player was dealing with personally and his personal
life. And we had a great conversation about it. Then again I put
my arm around the player and the player is going to go home and see
his family and do what's that's for him personally. So the captain had that
moment of a chat with me and I I told him I appreciated the conversation
that he's doing what he needs to do to keep and I keep tabs on
what's going on in the locker room, and you know, ultimately I said,
of course, I'm gonna support the player going home to see his family
if that's what's right for the player. Right. That's how it came up
that I'm a player's coach, and and you know, because I care about
the player and he wasn't in the right mindset to perform at his highest level,
and he was really having some some family things, and so he's going
to go and see his family in South America and take care of take care
of himself first, and I fully support that. So is that a part
of the job that you like or don't like or just the reality of it?
I mean, how do you feel about doing that part of it?
Yeah? I think it's just the reality of it, right, I mean,
you know, obviously we're there for the soccer, but there's there's you
know, there's those moments where a player was here a couple of days ago
and then he got a phone call from his family and his father was put
in the hospital, and so all of a sudden, his reality changed,
right, And I think that, Um, I'm very supportive of my players
in that I certainly I want the players here selfishly, but obviously I have
to care about what's right for them. And there's luckily my experience have taught
me that that's just part of it, right. And you know, if
I I force a player to stay for lack of a better, you know
better word, it's not going to be right for them, and it's not
going to be right for the team, you know. So that is just
kind of part of it, right. There's there's things outside of football that
that are going to affect that the thirty six players I have and my coaching
staff has similar types of things, and I have similar types of things,
but just kind of comes with it. I just human nature a little bit.
So I'm trying to be as supportive as I can, but then also
have hard conversations when I have to have those hard ones about and maybe just
is a bigger deal, maybe this isn't as big of a deal. How
can I help you through those moments? Right, That's part of the mentorship
of it. Yeah, so coach, you obviously work for somebody who's freaking
guests of ours, A friend of mine, Perlman high IQ and soccer.
How's that relationship with you two. Yeah, that's great. I've known John.
He used to he might get mad at me if I aid him here
a little bit, but he used to coach me, so, um,
you know, I've known him for quite a long time. And uh,
he's someone I still ask questions of and just hey, what are your fonts?
How do you think this went? And I can always I can always
ask him his thoughts because we've been in the you know, we've been on
the sideline together when he was the head coach, and we share a lot
of the same soccer ideas in front of some of our soccer philosophies about how
we want to play and who we want to have here to represent this city
are very much in line. So it's been it's been a good relationship.
Obviously, he's stepped the more away from the technical side and let me,
you know, any piece trusted me to do to do that, which I
which I appreciate the support from him. But he's always nice to be able
to ask another Uh. Yeah, it's another pair of eyes that has seen
the level and knows the level and has the experience. It's always nice to
have someone in my you know, right down the hall to ask some of
those questions about just to get another opinion. So on the field, Um,
you know, what, what do you feel, you know, what's
the makeup of your team? What characterizes your team right now in terms of
you know, who the guys are and how they play. Yeah, good
question. I would start by saying that we have a lot of players that
are very good with the ball, have a very high understanding of the game.
And that's how I would category categorize our team kind of in a nutshell.
We have a lot of players from various cultures, different parts of the
world, but the one thing that unite them all is uh, we taught
their character, their drive to be a professional soccer player, their technical ability
on the ball, their decision making in in in difficult moments. Those are
the those are the things that attracted us to these players. And then obviously
we always like to make sure that the players we bring here are embody what
we want to embody as far as being coachable, you know, having a
willingness to learn, being ethical. They're going to support the badge, you
know, and they're not going to be you know, troublemakers so to speak.
But those are kind of the foundations for the soccer in the club.
But obviously the soccer we're looking for players that are very good on the ball,
can make decisions like the play attacking minded football. We want to have
the ball a lot, create a lot of chances. So those are the
type of players that we like to have here at Tucson. So I can't
find a roster, but historically, you guys, you typically have a player
or two from from Tucson or the area. Is that the case this year
it is we have a number of guys that are from Tucson. The I
would say the primary player that we have from two Son that will be featured
quite often and already has been featured, is a player named Tommy Silva.
He is currently the left back for UCLA. He's played a number of games
with us so far, but he's actually still in school for another week and
so he won't be able to join us full time until the middle of next
week. I believe. So Tommy Silva is through and through Tucson. I
coached him as a kid for a period of time and have known him and
his family for over over ten years, and Tommy is he's going to be
a big part of his team when he gets here. He already has played
a number of games with US as we've traveled out to California. Um,
but Tommy is certainly one player that is going to be influential in this in
the success of this team this summer. Wow, Tommy, his older brother
too, played with mich Well how old are you? Yeah? So,
yeah, so I know I know you your stun team the ninety five.
Well I'm thirty eight, okay, yeah, so you know exactly, very
good group, yeah, very good group. So jaylen Wade used to live
right down the streets for me, and I knew his dad very well.
And then obviously Trevor went to the same high school I did. Obviously much
ten years later, right, but um, but yeah, there's some there's
some history there for sure. But yeah, so so Tommy is two thousand
and two born, but he did obviously have an older brother that uh played
some soccer but obviously focused more on the cross country right at Stamford. Very
very good family, unbelievable family. Yeah right, okay, cool, cool,
All right, Uh, well, let's talk about tomorrow's game. A
big weekend too, right, A lot of things going on Yeah, it's
massive any any anytime we have a home game, a chance to get three
points, put a string of games together, a string of results, it
is big for us. We m so we've had three away games to start
to start the league play, so obviously coming home last week getting a result
against Cappo is big for us. And then obviously we'd to follow it up
tomorrow night with another game against Socas Sea Horses. So we're excited to get
back on the field at seven o'clock tomorrow night. It's it's bride night,
so uh, you know, a little something something specially going on there.
Tickets are are available on your on your website and that type of thing.
You know. The crowds, Well, who's the crowd that comes out to
see you guys? Who are they? Yeah, good question. I think
it's it's it's a crowd from all different kind of walks of life of Tucson.
I mean there's certainly the you know, the family that it has,
the sixth and nine year old that play soccer in various parts of the Tucson
community that come out. There's there's connections to Tommy Silva type people. The
Tucson people that come out and support, um, you know, some of
the local people. There's a soccer enthusiasts that come out and enjoy, uh,
you know, a game, and then I think that there's some people
that just enjoy coming out and being entertained, right, And so I would
say that that the games are pretty entertaining. The crowd always has a lot
of a lot of energy and uh you know, good energy for us.
It's a good support for us, and then sometimes the right energy towards the
other team and the rest sometimes which is part of it as well. Right,
So we've we've gotten pretty good crowds this year so far, so we're
looking forward to another good one in the more nine. Well, one of
the great things that's happened so far in too soon as the weather has been
fantastic, especially a night for you guys. Yeah it had, And if
I'm being fully honest, I'm actually a little bit upset at the weather.
Right. Usually I would complain, but when when it's when it's seventy degrees
in southern California, I want it to be one hundred and six here,
obviously, that's a pretty good uh you know, being twenty five excuse me,
twenty seven hundred feet in the elevation. Plus you know, starting a
game when it's ninety six degrees is it's difficult for some opponents. Right.
Of course, it's been beautiful the past week two, so we'll have to
get it, you know, we'll just have to make sure that we take
care of it and without the without the weather's help tomorrow night, March.
For selfish reasons, I'd like it the way it is. Listen, we
win under these good conditions, that's all. That's it. Yeah, we're
gonna do that for you. Thanks coach. All right, coach at seven
o'clock tomorrow, Keno North Stadium. Uh, the Southern California Seahorses, all
right, take care of all right, coach, thanks a lot. Yeah,
he's got some pretty good stuts player. No wonder what did there?
Four and one. Well, they've got a couple of exit out of league
wins, but they're one, one and two on some other they won,
Yeah they won't. They won a couple of others. Um, but they
won last week at home, so uh, or on you on the road.
So they're they're now at home and they've got a couple of home games
in a row. You know, it was last week they won at home,
and they got another home game tonight, and next week they go back
out on the road. But you know, just uh, look, you're
always trying to win, whether it's whatever level you're in, whatever division you're
you're always trying to win. Yeah, and so we're trying to get three
points for for home game torn right, So yeah, okay, well that's
cool. I guess well, you two Sons always kind of been a sucker
place. The your your football team, the Sugar School is getting some people.
It's good. The busy weekend this weekend, right, you got you
got se two Sons at home tomorrow night, and then you got the sugarst
Cloths at home on Saturday. So hopefully some Arizona sports fan or two Suns
sports fans will get out there exactly. And the weather's beautiful, beautiful,
weather beautiful, and even if the home field advantage is gone, all right,
we'll be right back. We'll close out the show. We'll take your
calls. Five pis zero four one six seventy four party, you'll be back.
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WAPP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on
Fox Sports Sport Team fIF game. They welcome back to our the ball here
old Fox Sports Sports teen cookie. I'm Steve Rivera, s Jacazos. We
have fifteen minutes. If you'd like to give us a quick call. Please
do we have some great calls earlier. Continue at please zero four one tick,
seventy four forty Give us a buzz and we'll take it, or we'll
we'll try to take your call. We'll keep an eye on the light this
time. We also uftually two sons. The women started their season two,
so we got to get it. Get um NC double A basketball just sent
out some rules changes for next girl. Yeah. The first one being that
these had all been forwarded to the to the oversight committee. Now these are
every official rules. One and the one that's obviously gonna draw the most attention
is what constitutes the charge? Right, the blocker of the charge. It's
always been that, Um, you had to plan established before the guy went
up in the air, okay, but once they're up in the air,
you can't. Now they're saying you have to be in position before the player's
foot goes down to go up in the or you know, or you know,
or you hit them. So so if so, if their foot is
already down and you get in front of um, that's a that's a block
right, So supposedly it's gonna be easier to call. There's not gonna be
as many charges called. You still got to be outside the art to draw
a chard. But it's it's you know, it's a fraction of a second,
but it's still a fraction of a second that it is gonna make a
big difference. And it's kind of like, you know, when they made
the bases bigger in baseball, it's like they're an inch bigger. I'm like,
how much difference does that make? We'll think how many times the guy's
been within an inch of being saved and now and now he you know,
he is so. Um, so that's the big one. Um. A
big one for me is as a stat guys, that they're going to allow
players to wear numbers from zero to ninety nine. Before, the rule in
college was you couldn't have a number higher than five on your jersey to allow
a referee to signal, you know, to the score. Now you know
the the NBA has had that for a long time, so they're gonna allow
that. So now, you know, the thing is we have to see
what you know, when they put up you know, a five and a
four. Is that number nine or is that number forty five? You know,
that's gonna be an interesting thing to figure out. Um, they're gonna
make it okay because I think they had taken this away, but it's it's
back. I don't know where whatever it is. If you're let's say you're
trying to save a ball or you're going for a ball that's out of bounds,
you could be in the air, catch the ball and call time out.
Before they used to be able to do that they used to be able
to look it away and now they're they're they're saying you can do that again.
So that's one of the things. Um, I don't know why you
would do this. It says bench personnel who are not students will be allowed
to serve as peacekeepers when an altercation occurs. Basically, they're saying coaches and
whatever can go out on the floor if there's if there's a fight or something
like that, because I think you know people, but I guess it says
for are not students. I guess means players still can't go out on the
court if there's some kind of a fight or something like that. Um Oh,
anytime the ball hits the rim and the offense retains possession in the front
court, the shot cluckle reset to twenty seconds, which I thought they already
did, so I don't know what the deal is there. Um So anyway,
so there's just a few things that are that are happening. Then they're
they're they're going with an experimental thing. They're gonna allow the time in the
second half. The media timeout times will change because yeah, because in the
second half they always allow one extra TV timeout. Um. At the first
uh, four minutes for you know. But but like like say, there's
all there's there's an extra TV timeout in the second half, and it's it's
uh so we have sixteen twelve and eight right right? Those are right,
yeah, sixteen twelve, twelve, eight and four right right, And then
there was always one more that would be um at a at a you know,
at a dead ball after a certain amount of time. Now they're saying
it's gonna be the first ball under seventeen fourteen eleven, eight and four.
Now, that's that's an experimental So conference can do that if they want to.
They're going to use it in the in the NI in the preseason or
in the n I D. But you know, that's just something that that
they're checking out. So instead of one TV time out being kind of a
floating thing because you know, sometimes there's like a TV time out, they
come back at one possession, then there's another one they're trying to avoid.
Those are a few things. So I yes, somebody yesterday or yeah,
last time maybe with the with the guys that was with uh, do you
like baseball? You like baseball? Now like baseball? Probably? Yeah?
I think I think the clock thing has gotten has made it better. It's
not such a grind to watch a game. There's not so much dead space,
you know, Guys are you know, taking a swing getting back in
the batter's box the next picture, because it's it's it moves along more.
I told you I went to the get you know, I went to that
game at Fenway Park. And whereas normally when I go to a game,
I want it to last as long as possible for the experience. Yeah,
I'm sitting for sixty three years old. I didn't want to be there three
hours and it was freezing cold. The game went a little over two and
a half hours and it was great. So yes, I like. I
like what they've done with that. I like. I like that they've taken
the shift away, you know all you know, you're while you're looking from
that that camera behind the picture, and a ball gets hit, get gets
hit up the middle. It's a base hit again, you know, because
of the shift and stuff. A ball here, you know, I never
got used to a ball going up the middle being an out, and now
it's a hit again, you know, because because you know, because you're
you don't have a guy standing there all the time. So I like.
I like that. I like what they've done. I like the taking away
the shift, and I like the clock. I really really do. Um
I watch, you know, I do. I do. I'm watching a
lot more baseball. I watch the Dodgers every day. And if I'm sitting
around I'm working, uh you know, at my desk and the middle of
the day, if there's a baseball game on, I'll put it on.
I don't care who he's playing. I'll just put it on as background,
just to have a baseball game on because I enjoy it a whole lot more.
Um it, it's just more fun to watch. I think, what
did your guys say, Oh, they said what you said, it's crooker
game, easier game. They're glad the shift's not there. Other than that,
that was about it. The same thing, the shift. I never
really liked to shift, but it's it's you know, but it made all
the sense if you could do it, sure, why not? Right?
Sure? And if guys weren't going to be dropping bunts going down the other
way and they were gonna try and swing and hit the ball through the shift
and make him try. But I do like that they took it away because
I think it's attitude the game, plus with the speed of the game now
changed because of of the time pox, So what if there's some moregens and
some more runs, the games are still I think they're running about half an
hour shorter on average, which is a lot. I mean, there's been
some games that have been in under two hours, which is great. Have
you seen this kid from Cincinnati showed you the highlight of his home run?
Yeah? Day the ball? He is really good. Well yeah, do
you see the thing about the ball? Yeah? Yeah, the dude who
got who caught his home run? His first home run? You know.
I mean, if this guy turns out to be a Hall of Fame or
whatever, that ball might have been value. But he gave it back.
Yeah, they were talking about ten thousand dollars or that is that what they're
talking about? No, no, no, they got there was a bunch
of kids. Yeah, a bunch of kids went in there, like the
Brady bunch. Kids were out there and they just went down and took pictures
and got a bat. Yeah I got some gear maybe. Yeah. Yeah,
everybody gave the ball back. What would you do? You're giving me
ten thousand dollars? Sure? Okay, but Okay, let's say you're that
guy. Okay, you catch the ball. You're at the game. You've
got the ball, right, you know? Are you? No? I
think I think you're You're not gonna have a chance. You got to find
out the value of the boasts for ten thousand dollars and they're gonna give me
something maybe two, I guess, and maybe a broken bat and a player
to be named season tickets and a gear yeah, just signed jersey. Yeah
like that right exactly? Yeah, yeah, And I'm I'm a guy yea
to the like five degrees now five percent, And I'm thinking, who is
this kid? The guys built like a built like a stick, and he
can crank the ball. He had a triple yesterday. I saw that,
did you see? Yeah? He takes like three steps between bases fastest first
or third of the year second literally, yeah, three or four steps will
be a Dodger about five years yankee to three years? Why was this guy
still in the minors? With question? True? Somebody talking about what do
they call it? Um uh time serve manipulation you know what that is?
No, but but no, but I kind of know. I read a
book called Sway. Have you ever book called Sway White People do what they
do. Then it's like Michael Jordan. Let's assume for a second Michael Jordan
didn't turn out to be Michael Jordan. But you spend tons of money Mike
Jordan. So you have to invest in Michael Jordan, whether you know you
screwed up to pick or not. And that's probably what you're talking about,
where they have to put him in in his spot for a while. Yeah,
that it stick him in the minors, right, so that so that
he wouldn't be so young and with this much time in the major bag so
then he could get his big contact or whatever. Yeah, really that's what
Yeah, Yeah, that's kind of crazy. If you're good enough, you're
good. So you stash him in the miners and they'll probably send him back
to the miners at some point so that he doesn't get his full year.
That's there's a certain amount of time he's got to be up. That's to
get a full year um status as a as a major league baseball at the
real success, I mean, at the cost of success. Look, what
are these guys about. They're all so much about the money we've been talking
about that. Yeah, and this is administration. Right, yeah, yeah,
but he's really good. He looks really good. No, he doesn't,
and he doesn't. He's just a thin dude who motor mechanics. Ye,
he's got it all. Yeah, very very U I know, flame
boyance the right word. You hit that home run and you know his back
lip and the whole thing. The first time I saw that, Yes,
I'll please. Somebody said yeah yeah, and the guy like exactly the same
body language, same everything. Yeah, yeah, he looks really good.
But you just wonder what took him. He'll be a ranking again. We're
talking to our guy. They called about the George. That's what I talk
about, George Aaron Judge running through the fence and Dodgers saying, okay,
we'll fix it now that he's gone. Yeah, these guys, you know,
George and some of these guys, Yankee fans, Boston guys, Saint
Louis guys. You know, come on, let's just play, Come on,
guys. That's that's why we watched Sports fun. Dodgers beat the Red.
Finally today Dodgers lost two on two walk off by the Red. We
at the back and then they beat it. If I can recall, we
played do we make a bet, you and I did. We say we
have the same bet whoever goes furthest in the playoffs? Yeah, I think
we did. If I can recall correctly, I could still be two years
ago, I think. So, I don't even know what. Dodgers are
pretty good, right, so San Diego should be. Uh. I think
San Diego's right there. I looked, I was looking at the standard.
Did pay attention to where San Diego was? But well, yeah, let's
just do the Saxon. I think the Diamondbacks are yeah, yeah, yeah,
then we're talking about the Diaonbacks. Last shut you go away. You're
gonna go You're gonna go away. We'll have to talk to somebody. Maybe
we can get Gonzalez again or maybe um uh no one former player. UM,
let's see. Yeah, the Diamondbacks are a game and a half in
front of the Dodgers. Uh. San Diego is Oh they're way back,
are they? There are eight games out of first place, the six and
a half games behind the Dodgers, So uh, they're there are four games
under five hundred. They're like a forget, I don't know the four games
they had a Colorado And have you seen how bad. The A's are in
there. That's just a disaster. Fourteen and fifty, that's just a disaster.
Fourteen to fifty. I'm here hearing that the stadium deal, yeah,
is blowing up in Vegas. Right. They didn't vote on it, yeah,
because they don't want to. There's a lot of opposition to giving giving
them like three hundred and eighty million dollars in tax money for for the stadium
on the heels of them voting down or not having budget for a bunch of
social service stuff. And people are kind of pas, yeah, no,
you know, do you see where they're gonna put it right right? Trump
right on the how that place is going to be a jungle? It already
is, I know exactly, it's gonna be more of a juggle because there's
how do you put this massive thing there? And there seems like there's no
space. But no, yes, I mean you actually would be looking out
to in the right field at the MGM Grant is the way it is,
the way they've got it set up, a cordy do the renderings that that
they put out there? Could you go to the game there if I'm there
already, or just go up there? No, I was just making just
go to Diamondbacks. No, because you're cutting into my fun time. You
wouldn't go either. That's the Dodgers are there. I go see the Dodgers
there. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah you can see the Dodgers.
Like I want to go to a Raiders game. I really can't much money,
but I can't. That's it. You know, we because last year
when we were in you know, our our our weekend that we go for
college football November November, and they were at home. Yeah, and the
cheapest ticket was three hundred. There was three hundred some dollars before you got
all the fees and stuff. You're gonna be up over four hundred bucks.
I'm not four hundred dollars. I'm not gonna spend four hundred. I might
spend one hundred and twenty five maybe on the outer ridge off to see the
Raiders. Totally, you're not spending three four hundred dollars. But people do,
and they and they go that that's the price because people are paying the
price. But I'm I'm pretty sure, but I would love to. I
mean we you know, we went to the game at that Arizona played there.
That's a cool stadium. It's a great bank. It's right there on
the Well you went to the game, you were a fan, Yeah,
well we were in the we were in the media area and it was a
no one's yeah he up there, but it was it was very fun.
We had a great time at that. Okay. I love stadiums. I'm
I'm a guy that loves stadiums. You know, if I if I go
to a you know, I mean, I made the drive to Santa Clara
from San Francisco to see the forty nine ers new stadium because it was almost
done. It was a year before they opened it. I just wanted to
see what it looked like. And I actually drove the forty five minutes or
or so from where I was to just go see their stadium. Yeah,
and it's very cool. So I'm that guy. I don't know why,
but I am all right, man. Fun day. Yeah. Thank you
to hurt Us Chin, the Tucson Sugar Sculls, Mark bac two soon for
joining us today. You go out and support those guys. Check out their
games. Uh FC two Sun playing Friday night seven o'clock at Keino and then
the Sugar Sculls six o'clock Saturday at the Tucsons Arena aka the Bone Yard,
So be sure to check that stuff out and we'll see you tomorrow. Come on,