Speaker 1: Today, my Billy Cunningham, the Great America.
Speaker 2: Welcome this Friday afternoon, after another glorious parade in festivities
Speaker 2: involving Reds Opening Day and doing it since about eighteen
Speaker 2: sixty nine.
Speaker 1: And doing it for quite a while.
Speaker 2: Of course, the game did not turn out as who anticipated,
Speaker 2: six to four.
Speaker 1: It was a loss.
Speaker 2: But nonetheless, Brian Hamrica, when I was at the Holy
Speaker 2: Grail yesterday, for it seemed like five minutes, but it
Speaker 2: was like three hours. Channel five was everywhere, and I'm
Speaker 2: looking at you going nuts on the parade route with
Speaker 2: all the festivities going on. And of course you have
Speaker 2: some perspective having been a professional comedian. I like to
Speaker 2: think of myself as a funny man myself and traveling
Speaker 2: tether and fro. But when I met Michael Waltrip for
Speaker 2: the first time, he said, man, I knew this thing
Speaker 2: was big.
Speaker 1: I had no idea it was like this.
Speaker 2: In fact, if you take the NBA, the NFL, Major
Speaker 2: League baseball, college basketball, college football, take them all together,
Speaker 2: there's not one city in America, maybe the world, that
Speaker 2: is an opening for their team like we do in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: It's unpresident. And I told you this off the air
Speaker 2: and you said, really, and my life is a great American.
Speaker 2: I've never seen the Philly Market parade, never been in it,
Speaker 2: of course because I'm working doing other stuff. But tell
Speaker 2: me your remembrances of yesterday. Let's not talk about the game.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a yeah, no, it's an unbelievable spectacle here
Speaker 3: in the city. I always start the thing. Every year.
Speaker 3: They come to me. I'm up at Flint Finley Market
Speaker 3: and they come to me as we start the parade,
Speaker 3: And every year I say the same thing. I always say.
Speaker 3: If it's New Year's Eve, you want to be in
Speaker 3: New York. If it's Mardi Gras, you want to be
Speaker 3: in New Orleans. But if it's Opening Day, you have
Speaker 3: to be in Cincinnati, because that is the city of
Speaker 3: Opening Day. This city does it like nobody else. We
Speaker 3: talked to a couple who came here from Oregon and
Speaker 3: they came all the way to Cincinnati to see Opening Day.
Speaker 3: They said they were in a city I can't remember
Speaker 3: which one last year and they said they were completely disappointed.
Speaker 3: They said it was like another game, and that's not
Speaker 3: what we do around here. You know, we have this, uh,
Speaker 3: this parade that I call a strand of Cincinnati DNA
Speaker 3: that runs from Finilely Market to Fountain Square. It's just
Speaker 3: unlike what anybody else does, you know it is. It
Speaker 3: is just uh, you know, it's just an incredible celebration
Speaker 3: and it's not you know, just baseball. I mean that's
Speaker 3: the theme of it, but it's really kind of you know,
Speaker 3: having gone to these now for almost thirty years, Uh,
Speaker 3: it's it's like spring is here, baseball is here, and
Speaker 3: it's sort of like we're renewing our commitment in the
Speaker 3: city and and it's like, yeah, we might not like
Speaker 3: something that that the mayor does, or we might not
Speaker 3: like something that the County Commission does, or we we
Speaker 3: might be have or whatever, but we're all together in
Speaker 3: this thing. And it's almost like, you know, Fourth of
Speaker 3: July waving the flag. That's when we waved the Cincinnati
Speaker 3: flag and everybody comes together and they're just glad they're
Speaker 3: part of the city.
Speaker 2: And I Brian Hemrick that there's no color, there's no race,
Speaker 2: there's no gender, there's no class. I see little children,
Speaker 2: I see old guys. I see those that have been
Speaker 2: there thirty to forty years, having not been to one,
Speaker 2: which is unbelievable because I'm working before it. But nonetheless,
Speaker 2: going back in memory banks thirty or thirty five, forty
Speaker 2: years ago, was it that big in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think everybody's always had a sense.
Speaker 3: But we get these years like when we have really
Speaker 3: nice weather and you'll have like even more people come out,
Speaker 3: and I think then that just kind of like amps
Speaker 3: up this whole you know, sort of atmosphere, and then
Speaker 3: people go, we got to go next year, and then
Speaker 3: everybody would so up, you know when it's the night.
Speaker 3: But then we get a really one, really rainy, crappy
Speaker 3: year and everybody go, ahh, I don't know. That wasn't
Speaker 3: like as nice as it was a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3: But this one was a great one. Last year was
Speaker 3: a really good one. The weather was great. It was sunny,
Speaker 3: a little bit cool, but it was it was nice,
Speaker 3: and so you know, everybody was able to be out there.
Speaker 3: We saw we'd see these families that were just like
Speaker 3: intent on carrying on this tradition, you know, so they
Speaker 3: came when they were a kid, and now they're bringing
Speaker 3: their little kid. I talked to a grandmother who had
Speaker 3: her tiny little grandson in her arms, sit right on
Speaker 3: the front brow, you know. So yeah, I mean you
Speaker 3: see that we went one year. They had decided, like
Speaker 3: I was supposed to be covering something else, and at
Speaker 3: the last minute they're like, no, no, we need to
Speaker 3: go down to and to turn you know, turn a story.
Speaker 3: On opening day, I'm like, it's all almost over, you know,
Speaker 3: and they said, no, run down there really quick and
Speaker 3: get something. So I run down with my photographer and
Speaker 3: we get down there and there's like I don't know
Speaker 3: ten floats left, but there's this old fella sitting there
Speaker 3: and he's like a mouns in the whole thing. He's
Speaker 3: sitting there. Now there goes out there. Know that's Marty
Speaker 3: made Man that down Marty Brennaman Hays as great as
Speaker 3: ant and he just he was talking like on his own,
Speaker 3: like like he was, you know, had a radio show
Speaker 3: or something. And we're like, let's mike that guy up
Speaker 3: and we might him up. And it turned out to
Speaker 3: be a really good story, uh with this guy, And
Speaker 3: so yeah, that's what uh, but that's what it's about.
Speaker 3: You know. You get down there and you get all
Speaker 3: this uh, all these people in that atmosphere, and uh yeah,
Speaker 3: I think people just a lot of people just go
Speaker 3: and you know, sit in one spot and it's like
Speaker 3: a conveyor belt of entertainment. It just goes by, you know,
Speaker 3: one after another after another, and you see everybody, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, Anthony Munnos, I saw David Schultzer down there,
Speaker 3: Heper Frinch was there, you know, just all the Cincinnati names.
Speaker 3: Of course, Marty was there, the baseball players, and you
Speaker 3: see former baseball players, current baseball players that are there.
Speaker 3: Tyler Stevenson was there, and Brady Singer was there, and
Speaker 3: I mean, uh, you know, so you just you know
Speaker 3: who was there. Darryl Pace. Now I don't have to
Speaker 3: think back for a name. Daryl pa He is the
Speaker 3: greatest archer to ever walked the face of the earth.
Speaker 3: This guy, and he's from Cincinnati, won like two gold medals,
Speaker 3: won seven World champions was was named the greatest athlete
Speaker 3: of the century, and and he was there. Warren was there.
Speaker 3: I mean, unbelievable. All the people that you see, you know,
Speaker 3: down there.
Speaker 2: Well, it's only getting I say, this is only getting
Speaker 2: bigger and better. It can't get any bigger and it
Speaker 2: can't get any better. Oh I can't imagine. Tony Bender
Speaker 2: told me that his police forces told him there was
Speaker 2: a million people.
Speaker 1: I said, no, wait a minute, a million people. There's
Speaker 1: one point six million to live in the metro.
Speaker 2: I don't think there was a million people there, but
Speaker 2: look at the thirty seven thousand in my ballparked the
Speaker 2: Great American. That was a drop in the bucket to
Speaker 2: the people that were there. Yeah, maybe there were five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You know, we asked the chief day before yesterday, just
Speaker 3: before the day before the parade, and we said, hey,
Speaker 3: how many people? What are your estimates? And and she said,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, but she said it would
Speaker 3: not surprise me if we got a million people. You know,
Speaker 3: so that's a lot. You know. I kept saying hundreds
Speaker 3: of thousands because it would be it seemed like a lot,
Speaker 3: But you know, a million people maybe, well, you know.
Speaker 2: Other Major League came Pittsburgh, Milwaukee. The White Sox just
Speaker 2: picked the team Saint Louis. They have an opening day
Speaker 2: and they have little attendance because the weather is bad
Speaker 2: and so yeah, people.
Speaker 1: Won't show up.
Speaker 2: But this weekend it's gonna be The Yankee says, it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: well it was full and the Yankees of course, but
Speaker 2: mainly it's not like it's not like a million and
Speaker 2: a half million people come to little Cincinnati, Ohio, and
Speaker 2: they have people from Oregon, the home of the Ducks
Speaker 2: and the Beavers, fly to Cincinnati and say I want
Speaker 2: to be part of the Findly Market Parade. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's like it's like the EBN fireworks, you know, Western
Speaker 2: and Southern fireworks. It's one of those events that Cincinnati
Speaker 2: we're so blessed and so unique. Something Marty Brennaman said
Speaker 2: during our broadcast yesterday said, don't put too much on
Speaker 2: Terry Francona.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking at him. Maybe you pump somebody up
Speaker 1: to tear him down.
Speaker 2: So I'm watching listening to Sports Talk on fifteen thirty
Speaker 2: this morning and also the National guys, and they're talking
Speaker 2: about Terry Francona ripped off his mask and it was
Speaker 2: David Bell, and I'm thinking, this guy's got two World
Speaker 2: Series rings, he's one, uh, he's one, he's one, three pennants,
Speaker 2: he's uh, the number one manager.
Speaker 1: And already people are jumping off the bad Way game
Speaker 1: one game and they're saying, we're done.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's like, ah, this season is over. Yeah, well,
Speaker 3: I think we got a lot of baseball. You know.
Speaker 3: I'm expecting, uh, really good things out of this team,
Speaker 3: you know. Uh, and they had a great, you know
Speaker 3: first half. I mean their starting pitcher really did really
Speaker 3: well getting through that. Yeah, and I think, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of lights. So we'll see
Speaker 3: what happens. You know. I'm I'm never one to you know, jumped.
Speaker 3: I'm always kind of pessimistic, you know, to begin with west,
Speaker 3: but I certainly wouldn't judge it on one game. No.
Speaker 2: No, In fact, how about this fact, this fact from
Speaker 2: Lance mcallis, so he's kind of a nerd when it
Speaker 2: comes to this. The last eleven Red's opening days, and
Speaker 2: if you take the games the last eleven seasons on
Speaker 2: May first of each year, the Reds have had one
Speaker 2: winning record in the last eleven years as of May first.
Speaker 1: I said, that's so, it's all.
Speaker 2: I said, it's kind of incumbent to get off to
Speaker 2: a good start, which it's kind of important that to
Speaker 2: get off to good goes. You don't want to be
Speaker 2: behind the thirty games into the season after May first,
Speaker 2: maybe thirty five. You don't want to be like you know,
Speaker 2: ten and twenty. You don't want to be there. But
Speaker 2: that's where the Reds have been. And it was anticipated
Speaker 2: that Terry fan Conne would bring a new attitude. Then
Speaker 2: he brings this great Britain guy, this bread out of
Speaker 2: the ball, Bann Gerow, and he just coughs it up terribly.
Speaker 2: Couldn't have made a worse decision. I would have brought
Speaker 2: in Sam Mall, brought an Ashcraft. How the Reds have
Speaker 2: a reliever who played for the Giants last year. Bring
Speaker 2: that guy in instead of this Dureau character.
Speaker 1: But it's his call.
Speaker 2: But I would encourage you, Brian Hamrick, to keep hope alive.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, Keep hope alive.
Speaker 3: I think I think I'm gonna wait and see, you know,
Speaker 3: somewhere around July or August, we'll have a better idea.
Speaker 3: You know. I mean, there's so many games it's it's unbelievable,
Speaker 3: like they all mean something. And you know, because when
Speaker 3: you get toward the end of the year, you know,
Speaker 3: and you're like two games out of first place, You're like, oh,
Speaker 3: I wish we would have won that, you know, one
Speaker 3: that we dropped. That was you know, we should have won.
Speaker 3: But but there's so many games that anyone you know,
Speaker 3: you it's just like you've just got to have an
Speaker 3: entire file of these things to see how good this
Speaker 3: seems gonna be.
Speaker 2: Now, one thing you've covered on playing and on the
Speaker 2: second page here you cover the incident of the Roman
Speaker 2: Catholic priest Jeffrey Drew, and he certainly he went back
Speaker 2: into court, and uh, there's a special place in hell
Speaker 2: for priests and religious who engage in four sex with boys.
Speaker 2: A special place in hell's got to be for them.
Speaker 2: But explain your coverage of the reverend Jeffrey Drew and
Speaker 2: his alarming behavior and what happened with a Connie Village
Speaker 2: to county prosecutor.
Speaker 3: Well, he got he you know, he got a sentenced
Speaker 3: and you know they found this out after a long
Speaker 3: you know, a long investigation, a lot of complaints over
Speaker 3: the years. Uh, they finally you know, make the arrest,
Speaker 3: they get the conviction. He's serving his time and he'll
Speaker 3: get out. You know, he's going to get out. But
Speaker 3: the latest thing is that he that he did not
Speaker 3: want to register as a sex offender when he did
Speaker 3: get out and so like all sex offenders have to register.
Speaker 3: But I suppose the judge they can expunge ther record
Speaker 3: if they want to. So I get the judge can
Speaker 3: make that decision and say, no, you don't have to
Speaker 3: register as a sex offender. Well that's what he wanted,
Speaker 3: but apparently that was denied, and even the prosecutor was
Speaker 3: against this. I mean, there are organizations that have come
Speaker 3: together over this whole issue, with the priests and and
Speaker 3: some of this kind of behavior. They were all against that,
Speaker 3: you know. I think the only one in favor of it,
Speaker 3: I think was this guy. I mean, because nobody wants
Speaker 3: to have somebody who was thinking of a crime like
Speaker 3: this no living in their neighborhood and not have to
Speaker 3: tell anybody, because I think a lot of people think,
Speaker 3: you know, you might have served your time, but that
Speaker 3: might not change you as a person. And so that's
Speaker 3: the concern, and that's why they have these goals where
Speaker 3: you still have to register. And and so he's going
Speaker 3: to have to register, and he's not going to be
Speaker 3: able to live somewhere and not let the people know,
Speaker 3: you know, who he is.
Speaker 1: No, he got a deal. He got seven years in jail,
Speaker 1: he got out a little bit early.
Speaker 2: Obviously he's got no previous record, but this guy had
Speaker 2: committed seemingly dozens and dozens of serious rapes against Ultra
Speaker 2: boys and others, and special place in hell for him.
Speaker 2: But once again, Brian Hemrick, thanks for coming on the
Speaker 2: Bill Cunningham Show. You're chasing on the story right now
Speaker 2: about snowplows. You go from Father Drew to Red's opening
Speaker 2: day to snowplows. Give me a minute or two on
Speaker 2: the snowplows that the city doesn't have snowplows.
Speaker 3: I you know, I never know what's gonna happen. It's
Speaker 3: like spend the wheel. People ask me what I do.
Speaker 3: You know, what do you do every day? I say, here,
Speaker 3: here's what I do every day. I get up, I
Speaker 3: put on my white jumpsuit with the stars and the
Speaker 3: and the in the banner, and I crawl into the
Speaker 3: cannon and then I wait for him to light the fuse.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of screaming and yelling, and I just
Speaker 3: hope to hit the net at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: You have no idea, no idea, no idea, Yeah, no idea.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, today we're looking we're talking about that. So
Speaker 3: they had the city had, uh, you know, I had
Speaker 3: some leftover money from some leftover funds or some money
Speaker 3: that they generated, and they're trying to figure out what
Speaker 3: to do with it. There's certain things they can do,
Speaker 3: the certain things they can't do with it. One of
Speaker 3: the things they could do was buy snowplows, race snowplow
Speaker 3: and and that's what they decided to do with this
Speaker 3: money because uh, you know, as you recall, wasn't that
Speaker 3: long ago that we had that day when there was
Speaker 3: so much issue. But we've never heard the report back
Speaker 3: of what these guys were gonna do with uh, because
Speaker 3: you remember, they had all these problems. They they had
Speaker 3: the GPS that didn't get put in the trucks properly
Speaker 3: or they couldn't figure out how to work it. They
Speaker 3: had snowplowd drivers who were using big books instead of
Speaker 3: a GPS to know the route. There were a lot
Speaker 3: of issues. They were supposed to get a report back.
Speaker 3: Well we've never heard that, Repett.
Speaker 1: They don't want the report.
Speaker 3: Get this snow wow anyway, so they're going to be
Speaker 3: able to use this. They got one more snow wow,
Speaker 3: so we'll see, all right.
Speaker 2: Brian hemry Good luck. And that's another great day yesterday.
Speaker 2: And I always say brighter days lay ahead. Last year
Speaker 2: they won the first game opening day, then had a
Speaker 2: bad season, finished fourth, and this year they lost them.
Speaker 1: Maybe the opposite will take place, but.
Speaker 3: Maybe the opposite will happen, maybe the opposite.
Speaker 2: Keep hope alive, Keep hope alive. Brian Hamrick, thank you
Speaker 2: for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 3: Thanks again, mister Cunningham.
Speaker 2: God bless you. Brian Hamric, the best there is. Let's
Speaker 2: continue with more. Your comments are next that you're home
Speaker 2: of the Reds and keep hope alive. We have a
Speaker 2: good manager, the team looks to be better. Don't jump
Speaker 2: off the vandwagon yet. As Tony Bender encourages people to
Speaker 2: do all on news radio seven hundred, WU all of
Speaker 2: you