Did any thing. Everybody to welcome to fire up, and three of us
are fired up. My name is Scott Morgan, Ralph Morgan, City Manmouth,
pleased to be joined by George Icorn. Welcome back George, and our
third man on the Total Pull here is Ralph Williams. Ralph, welcome back
to our show. Thanks Scott, Thanks George. Right, didn't have a
fast thirty to thirty five minutes to talk about some Pennsylvania sports. Oh absolutely,
I'm ready. I'm always ready. All Right, George, you're gonna
actually take the lead on this, Okay, and then we'll turn over to
Ralph and I'll get my final shots on this first one, let's talk about
the passing of former Pittford Pirate farmhand Detroit Tiger Jim Price. George leading with
this, and let's talk about the unfortunate passing. Yeah, Jim Price,
who was the backup catcher, as many of you remember in the nineteen sixty
eight World Series that the Tigers stunned the world being the Saint Louis Cardinals and
the great Bob Gibson. Well, Jim Price had what you would call a
minor role on the Tigers as a player obviously, Freehand was the All Star
year after year after year. A great catcher. Jim made a great transition
after his career into the broadcast booth. He first went to Channel two,
which is at that time was our CBS affiliate. Now it's a Fox affiliate.
Anyways, he did sportscasting, you know. Van Patrick brought Jim Price
on board, and Jim Hendrick and Fred Snowden did some work there and had
a literally good sports team go on and Doyle our friend, and Doyle was
there at too as well. Jim Price then made are out of it.
He was a very very close friend of Mike Ilitch, the late owner of
the Tigers, and Price was in the broadcast booth both for cable TV and
regular over the air radio and worked with the great Ernie Harwall for many many
years and has since worked recently with Dan Dickerson who does the play by play.
And Jim passed away unfortunately he had a long illness and could not continue
anymore in the broadcast booth. He has not been nonsense before the All Star
Game, so they've been having fill ins fill in for him. But yeah,
a great guy and loved the community, spent a lot of time devoting
to his son, who is challenged with autism. Formed he and his wife
formed an charity for autism and to raise money to help out families that need
help. So farewell to number twelve. Jim Price. We're gonna miss you.
A great guy. I know, Scott, you had great memories too,
And we saw him. You saw him on the road, I saw
him at home. But I'm telling you he was a great man, a
great announcer, and he loved tigers, love the Tigers. So roll,
what are your thoughts about Jim Price. I know you followed, you filed
the Pittford Pirates a long time. That's obviously your team anyhow, but you
know this guy was a part of your system. Yeah he was. I
heard he was a really good uh, a really good person. And you
know, back in those days, athletes were great people because they blended in
with the community and they you know, they did a lot of charitable work.
They did a lot of different things. Nowadays, the athletes, some
of these athletes don't even care. So I mean, you know that's what
Jim Price was good for. He was good for working with people. It
was good. It was good with the team and that's you know, I
feel bad that he passed away today. Michael doleances to his family, you
know. So yeah, and again I got to know Jim not only when
I was at Tiger home games, mainly during spring trading. And I'll never
forget the time when the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tigers played a three game series
of Milwaukee and Ken Cal and Jim Price were doing the broadcast and I'm looking
at Jim. By the way, you see that place called Friday's. Okay,
my wife and I got married. There's really wow, really no kidding.
But I used to see Jim around the grape Fruit League. I bumped
into him at the match. He's just a super guy. I don't think
there was a mean moan in this guy, not at all, you know.
But yeah, I gotta tell you though, when I was at Miller
Park and I told him that, you know, the biggest smile on Ken
Cal and Jim Price it was, I wish I would have had a reaction
to it. So all right, on our next topic, Carlson thirty three
great number because it happens to be my lucky number. By the way,
He's excited to join the Penguins for an opportunity to contend for a cup.
The three time Norris Trophy winner has accomplished obviously more than the most in the
last fourteen NHL career. He's chasing that elusive Stanley Cup ring. Now bear
in mind, Okay, he's the youngest member of the new Core four.
He got Sidney Crosby whose thirty six, of Jenny Malkin thirty seven, Chris
Letang thirty six, and he's coming off a historic campaign that saw him become
the sixth defenseman to record one hundred points in a single season. He's playing
on the NHL's fourth worst team, the San Jose Shark. So he got
to remind me of Steve Problem when he won twenty seven games for a poor
Phillies team that I believe what on fifty seven fifty nine, George, So
I'm going to give you the lead first on this. I mean, you
talk about the Penguins and bringing this guy on with a new core for to
tell you what, Yeah, it'll be back in. Let's this move.
Yeah, he's a good player, solid addition to the Penguins. You know,
the Wings have always struggled with the Penguins. I know when the Detroit
has played them, obviously, they've split the two times they were in the
Stanley Cup Finals. The Red Wings won the first get go and the Penguins
of course one and unfortunately I had a witness that celebration, Ralph and Scott
on the ice and Joe Lewis arena as a reporter. But all that being
said, yeah, yeah, I mean you get some you got some superstars
on that team. Still, you still got a lot of fight and you
also have a lot of talent still, so I never count I never comppends
out. I mean, they are a good organization. They have been for
decades. Mario Lemieue got involved and that team has really been good. But
yeah, I think this is a great addition to the to the lineup.
And I'm just I'm just disavoided it didn't come and wear the red and white
of the Red Wings. But that's another story for another day. Obviously,
the Red Wings I were trying to rebuild and Steve Eisman is doing a good
job so far so, but yeah, getting at this, that's a great
pickup, I think, don't you think Ralph? Absolutely, guys, I
think this is a great pickup. There are some people in this town.
Some of my other media friends or pundits actually that are going around saying that,
well, this guy started three years old and that the pen was needed
to get younger, not slower. So you know, because he's started three
years old, and I was the only one in media person in this town
that said that Kyle Dubis was going to do well in this town. Everybody
had all these doubts about Kyle Dubis. I said, watch, he's gonna
he's gonna do. He's gonna do phenomenal things and he has. Look what
he did with this Trake, George and Scott. He went ahead and he
got rid of the deadweight in this on this team he got rid of he
shedded salary with getting by getting rid of the deadweight. Okay, the Groundlin
deal was terrible. He cleaned up every mistake that Ron Hextall made and he
did in a short period of time what took Ron Hextel three years to do.
Okay, So what I'm saying is cal Dubis is a genius. It's
going to be between him and Omar Kahn and the Steelers as to who's going
to be the GM of the year in this town, because you know,
it's gonna be the tide between the two ofive because they both have done phenomenal
jobs of trying to get you know, both both teams squared away. The
Steelers with both finds the scrimmage, and the Penguins they need to start winning
the Stanley Cups. Mike Sullivan he needs to start getting with the times with
a little bit of things, and he needs to fix up his offense a
little bit and what has to There's a lot of things have to happen.
There's a few guys they still need to get rid of. I didn't like
the Christian Jarry signing for five years, but they did get rid of that
deadweight, Casey D. Smith. He was an average below average backup.
So a lot of things went on in this trade, and I was in
favor of the Penguins and I love it. I love the trade. I
love every part of it. Well, I mean, the only thing I'll
say to close out the topic is this, Okay, there's a reason why
you call it the off season. Sometimes you're winners in the off season.
Sometimes you're losers. And judging by the new addition the general manager that the
Pagans have brought in, anytime you can get rid of a lot of dead
weight in one off season. You're doing really, really, really well.
You're telling me all these guys that were no good Well, my goodness,
Ralph, I mean really, I mean, and then you're able to get
a guy like this here. You know, how many times have you seeing
guys chase a Stanley Cup and they wind up in the right situation, right,
you know? And yeah, you know this guy. We've seen Ray
Bourke I think win the championship. And I'm sure the list goes on and
on about older guys that were able to go somewhere and then chase that elusive
ring. Go ahead, Ralph, Yeah, I'd like to see Jeff Carter.
I'd like to see Jeff Carter when a Stanley Cup before he retires.
He was with the kids for a long time. We brought him in a
few years back for some experience because we had some injuries. Crosby was hurt,
Alkin was hurt. We needed some experience and we need some leadership from
the locker room. It was great to bring him here. He had a
good season. Last year. We had an average season. But I'd like
to see Jeff Carter. He's been in the League a long time. I'd
like to see him get a Stanley Cup. That would be nice. So
I mean, you know, there's some guys and they're in the right in
the right position. I just hope that Mike Sullivan can coach it. That's
all I'm hoping for. Yep, all right, one more topic of the
night and then we're gonna go ahead and do your parting shot. We have
a very light itinerary to night. But they always said not quantity, but
it's quality, and I got news right. I think the three topics here
that I felt were really something that not only did we not have an offer,
well, we didn't have what we just had, okay for twenty four
hours ago. We did this on the Sports Exchange, right, Georgia,
we have it now, Phillies. Michael Lorenzen thirty one no hits the Nashville
seven and nothing and in his second start with the team, complete game one
hundred and twenty four pitches, yes, okay, seventy six rights Fitch counts
the Heights in a complete game no hitter. Since Mike fires one thirty one
through a no no for Oakland and twenty nineteen, we know about him in
Detroit right, George. But I got to get credit to Rob manager Rob
Thompson for letting him chase history a lot. I mean, to buy no
hitters if we ever seen more than I think we should. I don't know.
There's still legitimate, but they're there, so they're becoming more legitimate because
they're popping up that way. But this is a fourteenth no hitter in Phillis
history by a guy that's only had two starts. George, please help me
and my old you know, or did Dave Dombrowski fleece the daylights out of
the Tigers? Well, this was a situation we got to look a little
bit closer to because the Tigers knew that in this particular situation, if they
could get some value for Lorenz and that this was in the back of their
minds. Scott Harris being the president of Baseball ops in Detroit, and they
worked really really good with Michael. I mean, obviously he was the team's
All Star representative for the All Star Game up in Seattle. Remember in July.
He representative the Tigers. The pitching staff, Chris Fetters and the staff
here and Detroit worked really closely with him, and you know, helped him
out a lot this half season, and so despite the fact that they let
him go, I think the fact is is that the field confident that they've
started something here. This is a trend that Scott Harris has done in San
Francisco and Chicago other places he's been that he likes to get a veteran and
get the value high. You know, you want the most in return.
Quite frankly, I don't think we got it up for him, Okay,
But the fact of the matter is is that he pitched the no hitter.
He's a good kid, he's energetic, he's a he's a good Christian.
But besides that, he just is having so much fun this year and he's
rediscovered himself from being that long relief pitcher shortly. Whatever he's done in his
career, now he knows he can start. And I think that's an important
signal that again Detroit helped him with that. Yes, I'm sorry he's not
a Tiger anymore, but boy, I'm happy that this happened right in your
backyard over there, not far from you at least. Ralph Williams right,
Well, you know something, guys, a change the scenery is, you
know, is a good thing a lot of times. I mean, if
you know, a lot of guys have been on teams for a long time
and then they end up going somewhere else and they reinvent themselves. They might
be they might have been a good reliever, but then had had about five
bad seasons and then become a starter somewhere else and end up pitching no hitters
and becoming an All star. I mean, you know, it's all about
change the scenery. Maybe he wasn't happy in Detroit. Maybe Detroit didn't it
just didn't fit for him for something. And now he's in Philly and he's
reinventing himself, and I'm glad. I'm happy for him. I'm glad that
that's going on. I mean, I always am for someone. We had
a guy that was here in Pittsburgh. His name was Bronson or Royal,
and Bronson Royal was good in the minors, stunk up when the Pirates would
bring him up all time, just like Tyler Glass. Now, okay,
both of them were the same thing. But as soon as they went to
other teams, Bronson Royal and Tyler glassnow became All stars, both of the
team. When Royal went to the Reds and then glassnow went to the Tampa
Baby, the Tampa Bay Rays. Okay, they ended up being all stars,
so I changed the scenery. Cannot hurt for anyone and it works in
all the time. Good evening, Jeremy, and we'll put Kenny Ebling's point
out. Really good one too, Glad, George Reade Sure, Candy,
thank you for sending this along. That was the coolest moment of my baseball
career going out there for the ninth lorenz And said, according to hmab dot
com, just walking out of the dugout and hearing the fans go wild.
It gave me the chills. It gave me the wosteve energy that I needed
for sure. Now, the only thing I'm gonna say about this whole thing
is that's okay. Michael Renzen is in Philadelphia. You know what they want
them they can pay him, and you know what, They've proven that they
will pay people what you want. A good example, Bryce Harper. It
makes a lot of money, right, okay. And the list goes on
or not, so you know, I'm happy for him, you know.
And al Campannis say what you want about the way his tenure ended as a
baseball exact. But when I was at the nineteen eighty one Baseball Winner meetings,
he always told me there's three ways to look at the trade, the
immediate, the short term, and a long term. And you know,
you talk about how John smolts, Okay, you know the Tigers had one
of those deals. So you got Doyle Alexander right away, and the Tigers
were able to win a division because of them. And we all know how
John smolt turned out. I think he turned out pretty good, right,
absolutely many. So the bottom mine is is ways to look at the trade.
Yeah, Michael Lorenz, And I'll tell you why. Right now?
The division to Marylin's. I believe they're the nl'st right, So as far
as I'm concerned, you know, I don't think Marylin's are out of it.
Yeah, but if the Phillies continue to get pitching like this, my
goodness, this is gonna get interesting. Over the last month and a half
or so, three former Tigers there, guys. Nick Castiano said he he
had two home runs in that no hitter, former Tiger third baseman, an
outfielder, and Gregory Soto of course coming out of the bullpend Yeah, so
year so right, And of course my man in the front office, Dave
Dombrowski wise always admired here in Detroit. Right, he didn't get right.
I know a lot of people said that. You know, he sold a
lot of the minor leaguers for better. George Steinbrinter did it too, and
he won championship. So I'm not gonna say they're blamed Dave Dombrowski for doing
what every quality organization that wants to win now doing it. You know,
obviously the Tiger's going to rebuild. A lot of teams are going to rebuild.
Someone takes a little bit longer than others, but ultimately those that get
through that rebuild, okay, end up making out well. The Baltimore Orioles
went through a very difficult rebuilding, ended up getting their announcers suspended for the
dumbest suspension on the planet. But meanwhile, despite all that insanity out at
for their television network, you know, they endured a tough rebuild and now
they're they're sitting atop the American leagues. And who would have thought that the
New York Yankees were near the bottom of it. Who they take on the
Miami Marlins this weekend over at Lone Depot Park. I'll be actually at the
Sunday game before I fly out to Detroit on Tuesday morning, and be pretty
good stuff. Two things guys that make a good baseball team, and that
can build a baseball team. The front office and scouting, okay, yeah,
yeah, And Philly has managed to start scouting better. And if you
scout good, Baltimore, look at them. They were sad forever. Now
they're outing and slowly getting in some good front office people, getting some people
in there that can that can work with these young kids that work. If
you don't have a good minor league system to build on, guys, forget
it. It's over. And the Pirates had that problem, and it's just
it's over. Now. The Pirates are like in the top ten. They're
like number five, top minor league system in baseball now. The Tampa Bay
Raised, yes, have always been good insted too. Yep, So let
me and it's a couple of interesting points starting to interrupt your RALF Okay,
number one, it's okay, go ahead. I worked with the Yankees farm
system back in the early eighties and George Steinbrenner to this day, the Steinbrenner
family has always invested heavily into that, and whether you use them for your
own good or whether you trade them, that's how good your farm system is.
That's item number one, okay, And when you judge your farm system
that way, these are about a bunch of assets trying to earn you something
so that you and ultimately get to where you're gonna go. We all know
that everybody uses it differently. You know a lot of smaller market teams depend
on it because their budgets cater to that situation. But I know the Yankees
have done it really, really well. The Phillies are one of those types
of teams where they've got a lot of money and they use it well,
and they've always had a lot of good executives down the road. So you
know, to me, you make kind of what. It's not how how
much money, it's how you spend it is really what it is. And
I think that a lot of it is attributed rout to what you just alluded
to. Moments go yeah, yeah. Small market teams have to get value
for everything. Let's say you know that they have to get value for what
they're what they're going to spend for for a player they can't afford to just
squat there a poor cocker and thirty million dollars for a guy, and then
he's gonna he's going to soil the bed. What has to happen is is
they you have to get value and and if you can get value for your
money, hey, that's great. Yeah. Well, you know what I
was coming to Miami Marlin series. I've talked to Dan Dickerson. He told
me in short term here, okay, aj aj Hinch and Scott Harris are
going to do fine. That's what he told me. Yes they are.
And you know what, I believe in Dan Dickerson. This guy knows what
he's talking about. He really does. I mean, you know, and
like anything else, you know, the Tigers had Ala Vila and he made
some major mistakes and that's why he's not employed right now. Period. Nothing
against al, but you had a long time to get this thing right in
and now you've got a J. Hinch who I think it's a great manager
and his patients will be rewarded. Chris Vetters is a really good pitching coach.
They've got a lot of pieces in Detroit, they really really do.
But you know what about the Atlanta Braves. They've lived and died by the
pharmacystem as well over the years. And I can go on and on about
one of different teams. I can all day long. But you know what,
that's just how it goes. And you know, I mean the Milwaukee
Brewers were crying out loud. They don't have John D. Rockefeller money,
right, But you know what all they do is they always contend. They
always content because they have they have a good front office and they have a
great council. You think he's any good by the way, for a lot
of people who want to know he did win the world champion ship is a
marlin. If that on wasn't good enough, he won one in the Arizona.
So this guy is almost shrewd managers I've ever seen. And you've got
a lot of good pieces with a lot of these good teams. So you
know what that said. Let me go over some things really quickly for the
company. Just you know, fire Up is broadcasts around the world. That's
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More importantly, she's with us and doesn't unbelievable job. So so all right,
Ralph, this is here time to have your parting shot, because well
I'll make sure you have your George and I have all week to give ours.
Give it to me, Ralph. Parting shot is I want a parting
shot out to my fellow Pittsburgh media people who doubted me when I said Kyle
Tubis was the man for the Penguins job and everyone, and as I mentioned
earlier, everyone around here said that I didn't know what I was talking about.
Oh well, he was in Toronto. He did a little bit of
things here and there. He helped Toronto get to what maybe the first round
of playoffs. But that was it. And I said, let me tell
you someone, Kyle Tubas gets here. And now I'm the one that last.
You know what they say, he that laughs last, laughs best.
Now I'm laughing because I was right again. And you know what, that's
how we close the broadcast because I had an opportunity. Rolf Williams got it
right. And you know what, Ralph Williams and I and Mark Mancini will
get it right on Saturday's let everybody know, yes we are Yeah that Sportsman.
The External Bump Podcast I love. I wasn't sure it's the name External
bum Podcast. Okay, we'll just put that one in the creative category.
But anyways, you can hear this show here from at nine thirty Eastern time.
I believe it last until at ten o'clock or so, nine thirty to
ten every Saturday morning. Beautiful zero five, nine, six three one number
Yeah that too, okay, but anyways, it's good to be on there
with you, Mark, and I guess Joe Google this is that what his
name. I probably get Yeah, I got it. Mark always messes his
name, Mark calls some cutless. It's cool. Well, Mark Mancini is
in a good zone. But he's one of us, So what can we
say? So man Man and man Mouth, you can only imagine what that
show would look like on any platform and be anything but boring. Like my
new MotorCity Mattmouth show will over at Eagle Communications, will probably debut sometimes this
fall. We're trying to get a lot of this out, including my book.
So meanwhile, that concludes this edition of Fire Up for those who participate
in the chat room, all, like I say, is a big fat
thank you, And meanwhile, programming note, Fire Up will not be featured
next Thursday night as I will be in Detroit, but it will return two
weeks from tonight. So Ralph, you know, we can't send you an
invite next Thursday because I might be at one of my favorite restaurants. But
I guarantee I'll be loaded, you know, but I'll be on your show
every Saturday, just well not on this platform. All right. A fast
question for you guys, what's going on with Chris Archers. He's still with
Detroit. I don't know Chris Archer, Yeah, it was. It was.
He was signed by Detroit. He's play for their he was with the
Race. I don't know they've they've they've some of the guys that Scott Harris
has picked up, he's ended up dropping our dumping him. Let's be honest,
Okay. So one of the things that he's been doing is picking up
a lot of guys that were a cup of coffee journeyman, if you will,
in the in the major leagues. He was apologize. I don't know
if Archer's still in the organization. I know he recently though, has severed
ties with a couple of those players that I just mentioned. So okay,
I'll tell you what though. You know, hey, you look at that
waiver wire and he's being much more aggressive than ala Villa ever was as far
as looking and some of these diamonds in the rough. I mean, you
know, look what he did with like we already talked about with Lorenza.
You know, nobody, nobody wanted him around. Well, Detroit took him
and they and they got a good half here out of him. Right.
One thing I forgot to do, by the way, and I won't forget
because they're still alive, Okay, Ralph le everybody know how they get a
hold of you. Ralph Williams seventh through seven at gmail dot com, www,
Thought rw Media, Thought or against my media company. And also you
can find me all. You can find me on x formerly known as Twitter
and Facebook. George. Yeah. And speaking of Twitter and Facebook, I
mean, I've got a book myself, Detroit Sports Broadcasters on the Air.
Scott is featured in the book, and so are so many other great great
announcers we've had over the years, like Ernie Harwell and Van Patrick, George
Blaha, Ray Lane, Frank Beckman. I mean, some great great announcers
in Detroit. The book is available. There's a link to it at the
end of my column which appears under the South Florida Tribune. You drill down
to the Motor City Tribune and I can tribute there. And also you can
contact me personally at gi Corn at yahoo dot com and I can tell you
how to obtain the book. So great to be honesome. I've said my
piece, but Jeremy and Kenny said that christ Urcher is a free agent.
We'll take it at that and leave it on that note. Okay, thank
you. Thanks for that concludes this edition of Fire Up. So I mean
half of George I Corn and Ralph Williams. My name is Scott Morgan,
Rold's Motor City, Madmouth. Thank you for joining on all of a sudden
this edition of Fire Up, and we will catch you two weeks from tonight.
Good Night, everybyday