Speaker 1: Welcome back. This is Steve Roverta your Dave Silver. I
Speaker 1: missed the kids. We can handle.
Speaker 2: All the interns are off. Yes, another good time spring break.
Speaker 2: Henry will be back Friday. So that's good. They're in
Speaker 2: Cabo or San Francisco or hey. But they have exciting
Speaker 2: lives as being college to don't you remember those days?
Speaker 3: No, I.
Speaker 1: Need to die. I think it went to feede.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe went to Disneyland or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for as a twenty one year old, I don't know. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think we did. Actually, I just remember enjoying not
Speaker 2: going to school.
Speaker 1: Uh. Cool. Okay, so if you guys want to call,
Speaker 1: we have about fifteen minutes before we go to the
Speaker 1: next guest. Who is going to be an author? Right,
Speaker 1: give it the name again?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Keith O'Brien, who wrote a book about Pete Rose
Speaker 3: called Charlie Hustle. Yeah, so yeah, exciting.
Speaker 2: You know, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose in
Speaker 2: the Last Glory Days of Baseball A great title.
Speaker 1: Does Did you have you read it? Maybe the four
Speaker 1: I've read.
Speaker 3: I've read a lot of it, but not all.
Speaker 2: Did did he know him beforehand or did he just
Speaker 2: I think he just kind of picked as a subject.
Speaker 2: We need to find out more on how the book originated.
Speaker 2: But again, tons of people coming to town for the
Speaker 2: for the book festival. And he's one of the sports authors.
Speaker 2: We've got a number of good ones, famous ones. Jack
Speaker 2: McCallum wrote for Sports Illustrated for years and years.
Speaker 3: He's coming in.
Speaker 2: And Joe Posnanski, who's a great baseball football writer, he's
Speaker 2: coming in. Just in the sports scene. And look at
Speaker 2: Tucson Festival books dot org. You can see the whole lineup,
Speaker 2: the whole grid, and see where your favorite author might be.
Speaker 1: Did we have an author with you Monday? Were you
Speaker 1: here Monday?
Speaker 3: We had Marin Fader?
Speaker 2: Okay, she's she's with the Ringer, Yeah, And she spoke
Speaker 2: about the l A book fair, right is that Los
Speaker 2: Angeles book Fair?
Speaker 1: And then this one do you think that? And she said,
Speaker 1: this one's big because it's big, right, So it's a
Speaker 1: big one. Do you think because of the weather up here?
Speaker 1: They bring? Why is it so big?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: They do a great job of hospitality to begin with.
Speaker 2: There's a number of events kind of around just the weekend,
Speaker 2: dinners and party and they entertain people and you know,
Speaker 2: just just when they come in.
Speaker 3: I think they're treated well. They stay at nice hotels.
Speaker 2: The u of A is you know, a beautiful location,
Speaker 2: the weather, you know, fingers crossed will be good again,
Speaker 2: and the numbers of people I mean, I think I
Speaker 2: think a combination of snowbirds being in town and the
Speaker 2: U of A kind of being off, it just brings
Speaker 2: people to campus.
Speaker 3: It's a nice weekend.
Speaker 2: Generally it used to always be up against the Pac
Speaker 2: twelve tournament or some tournament, and this year I guess
Speaker 2: it could be again. But we're talking still over one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people will be on. Oh. I mean, there's food,
Speaker 2: there's music, things for all ages. Kids, there's a science
Speaker 2: city they call it, you know, stuff for kids and
Speaker 2: stuff for grown ups. And you know marquee authors that
Speaker 2: people have read from the news, business, from you, mysteries, science,
Speaker 2: any subject you can think of.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'll be out there one of those two
Speaker 1: days trying to see. IM trying to find a publisher.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what I get if I get luck. No,
Speaker 1: I don't need an agent a plenty to publisher. You
Speaker 1: got a book in mind? Yeah, I have two, actually
Speaker 1: been trying to for a while.
Speaker 3: What's that like?
Speaker 2: As somebody that I'm sure a lot of people who
Speaker 2: are going to be there have similar stories to you,
Speaker 2: and and they like and you have books out too, obviously, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what is that like?
Speaker 3: Does it take?
Speaker 1: It takes a while.
Speaker 2: You just got to convince somebody that you're worthy of
Speaker 2: a book, right and and your subject matter is going
Speaker 2: to be worthwhile to be read. And uh, you don't
Speaker 2: have a have a manuscript kind of in your head
Speaker 2: or to tell them what you're going to do.
Speaker 1: I've been lucky. I've been lucky. And you know, it
Speaker 1: takes and then then the work starts. Then the work starts,
Speaker 1: you have to put it together. It takes about six
Speaker 1: seven eight months. That's why when you talk to you O'Brien, book,
Speaker 1: Uh we had this story. When did he passed? Like
Speaker 1: September October Pete Pete, Yeah, so had to be he
Speaker 1: he had started it then right away.
Speaker 3: That's a heck of a quick I think it's been
Speaker 3: out before.
Speaker 2: That was before before that, so it was that does
Speaker 2: not include his death, I don't know for sure. So
Speaker 2: that's let's see where how he's handled that. Because obviously
Speaker 2: you can add to the end of the story.
Speaker 1: Right right, because he can have neither another book, which,
Speaker 1: of course, now he's going to be in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame.
Speaker 3: I would like to say, maybe it's not the end
Speaker 3: of the story.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know, there's a for afterward that comes maybe
Speaker 2: in the paperback edition or something.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, it's like me when I read the hundred
Speaker 1: things every Arizona fans need to know and do before
Speaker 1: the death and everything was happening after that, he says, well, Steve,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to add another fifteen exactly.
Speaker 3: You know, that's your next book on Dred And now
Speaker 3: we got one hundred.
Speaker 1: And fifty things. Right. Let me tell you, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that's come out since then. You know,
Speaker 1: the scandal was shown and that book was before set. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. Uh, I want to see the best book
Speaker 1: that I thought was the Box Book. Right. That's when
Speaker 1: Sean Barely came on the scene in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine ten, right, and then the other one's twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: right as they were getting to be the only reason
Speaker 1: I got that idea, not that idea, I got the
Speaker 1: proposal was they were undefeated in mid February late February
Speaker 1: and then actually got hurt so the book was already
Speaker 1: starting to be if they win the title, I was
Speaker 1: already ready to write that book. So when they lost
Speaker 1: and they started to lose a little bit more, we
Speaker 1: changed gears and then it turned into the hundred and
Speaker 1: one things. Yeah, so it's always kind of transitional, you
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it's you've you're writing about the
Speaker 2: most popular sports in this area and again with alumni everywhere.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can market that all over the country,
Speaker 2: I suppose.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I have a little It's funny because I
Speaker 1: had Toldard on two weeks ago, I guess what it was?
Speaker 1: Were you with me? You know?
Speaker 5: You went?
Speaker 1: So he was on and every time I call him
Speaker 1: to talk to Steve, you write another book, quite, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's but it sells, I mean, and it's totally
Speaker 1: two different more than two obviously a lot of different
Speaker 1: things go into the book. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2: Well, we can talk about it, maybe off offline, but
Speaker 2: I mean I think you could you could make a
Speaker 2: mark some where on the West coast if you can
Speaker 2: get one of the players to do a sit down
Speaker 2: with you at some bookstore and say I've got you know,
Speaker 2: Tom Tolbert with me. Oh yea, yeah, you go there
Speaker 2: and you know, next thing, you know, Steve Kurr comes
Speaker 2: over too, because you're in.
Speaker 1: And like I told you before, which when Show and
Speaker 1: Loot was around, we'd have these signings and he would
Speaker 1: come with me and they didn't want to talk to me.
Speaker 1: They wanted to talk to him and get a hor
Speaker 1: signature on the book. So you know it was I
Speaker 1: had had it made when he was around. Let's let's
Speaker 1: kind of if we're in taking it calls five to
Speaker 1: two oh four, one, six, seventy four, forty, we can
Speaker 1: just take a few calls before tonight's came. So what
Speaker 1: do you think Arizona is the favorite by three and
Speaker 1: a half?
Speaker 3: Yeah, their favorite.
Speaker 2: I was kind of surprised, but you know, eighty three
Speaker 2: seventy six, just a couple of days ago, they lost
Speaker 2: and they couldn't contain the big guy. So if Dickinson
Speaker 2: goes off, who knows how this game may go? And
Speaker 2: you know the whole you know, Caleb Love, what can
Speaker 2: we expect? You know, they got to had a big
Speaker 2: game from Trey Townsend kind of out of the blue
Speaker 2: the other day.
Speaker 1: So wasn't that a wash? If you get something from him,
Speaker 1: you don't get something from somewhere else. That's kind of
Speaker 1: a true.
Speaker 3: Well, like the THEYSAR did nothing right then in that game.
Speaker 1: So if he just if he just defends Dickinson, well
Speaker 1: that might be enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, wasn't some of the postgame talk that Arizona
Speaker 2: never double teamed him and maybe that would be the strategy.
Speaker 2: Maybe they weren't going to show that that day because
Speaker 2: that was going to be their strategy. Perhaps the next
Speaker 2: time they played, which turns out to be tonight. So
Speaker 2: I don't know, let's let's watch and they all knew
Speaker 2: that this is a good possibility of it happening. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the second second game in a week or what is
Speaker 2: the week? The five days, five days, five days, so
Speaker 2: we'll see. I do like their chances, even though it's
Speaker 2: going to be close to Kansas City. It's I don't
Speaker 2: think it's a home court advantage, even though it's only fifty.
Speaker 1: Miles away or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: You don't think so.
Speaker 1: No, I'll give you plenty of examples that Arizona had
Speaker 1: a home court advantage in terms of fans, not the court. Historically, Anaheia,
Speaker 1: they've gone to places and they've had overwhelming Yeah, crowds
Speaker 1: there and it meant nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it's gonna be totally it's gonna
Speaker 2: be like ninety to tencent, no question.
Speaker 3: For Kansas.
Speaker 2: I mean it's really it's like forty miles away. Kansas City,
Speaker 2: I'm sure has a zillion alums, you know, and how
Speaker 2: often did they get to see them. They probably have
Speaker 2: a hard time getting into fag Allen. No, you're right
Speaker 2: now they have a chance to go see them, you know,
Speaker 2: on a Thursday in the middle of the winter.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sure that a lot of people
Speaker 1: from Tucson didn't go, But there's still alums in the
Speaker 1: Midwest in that area that want to see Arizona. They
Speaker 1: don't get to see them live, right all the time.
Speaker 3: That's yeah.
Speaker 2: Like as I was saying before, when they would play
Speaker 2: at games, and you know, especially on the East Coast
Speaker 2: and even in the loot years when they'd go play
Speaker 2: Georgetown or villanover Saint John's or something like that, and
Speaker 2: you know, Arizona had a pretty good turnout because they've
Speaker 2: got a pretty good contingent on the East coast, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think one of the bigger places I went
Speaker 1: to Syracuse and played in the Dome. It was ninety
Speaker 1: six Ben Davis. And they've always had people who had
Speaker 1: big in the West Coast. They always had, you know,
Speaker 1: people in San Francisco were LA and then they were
Speaker 1: just really good. So you wanted to see these guys
Speaker 1: and you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, and it's kind of the same with football too.
Speaker 2: I mean it's different with a Big twelve because I
Speaker 2: don't know how many alums we have like in Midwest,
Speaker 2: you know, Kansas State.
Speaker 3: But but that's how it was when they played in
Speaker 3: the Pac twelve.
Speaker 2: There was always a big alumni contingent in Seattle and Portland.
Speaker 3: And right the Bay Area, right LA.
Speaker 1: Right back in the day, like we're talking to, you know,
Speaker 1: the Stott of Old had their people.
Speaker 3: This game was on today Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1: I didn't see him. I didn't see them. I didn't see
Speaker 1: him at all. Coach this year and I think the
Speaker 1: world of Damon. But you know, year two, I think
Speaker 1: it went okay. I think they were like an eight
Speaker 1: seed something like that. Yeah, in the in the in
Speaker 1: the AEC. The problem with that is the ACC wasn't
Speaker 1: very good. It's like it's like when North Carolina isn't
Speaker 1: any good Uh, it's like when UCLA wasn't good in
Speaker 1: the Pac twelve you kind of dismissed the whole league
Speaker 1: because you're a cornerstone. Yeah, team outside of Duke isn't
Speaker 1: that good?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well again it was it was them against Duke today,
Speaker 2: So it was seventy eight to seventy. They finished up.
Speaker 2: I don't know if this is their final record, but
Speaker 2: seventeen and sixteen. So yeah, maybe we'll see them in
Speaker 2: the n I T or something.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, go hope David does well there because
Speaker 1: if he does do well, they'll obviously kind of chase
Speaker 1: him down for another job.
Speaker 2: It was crazy again with all the realignment that we've
Speaker 2: seen in the last couple of years. But you know,
Speaker 2: Stanford and Cal playing each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that.
Speaker 3: And then like in the women's game, it was.
Speaker 1: The Big Ten championship and they have two better teams
Speaker 1: than that, the two best teams, and.
Speaker 2: Come, you know, one year removed from a conference that
Speaker 2: we all followed forever?
Speaker 1: Have you followed because Arizona's team is not that great
Speaker 1: and didn't generate headlines? Did you follow the women's sports
Speaker 1: very much? Given the cat CalArts no longer playing for
Speaker 1: basketball probably not probably not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I mean we'll see maybe once the tournament
Speaker 2: begins and there's a little more exposure for it and
Speaker 2: it starts to will be trimmed down by who's playing.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a few pretty good players, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: not to the level of Caitlin in terms of notoriety,
Speaker 1: but the good the women from Connecticut Beckers. Then you
Speaker 1: have Juju at USC and then you have I forget
Speaker 1: her name at UCLA, the six with seven. She's very
Speaker 1: charm her name very good, very good. And then the
Speaker 1: the uh, the player at Notre Dame maybe player of
Speaker 1: the year, and I forget her name too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again those names will kind of come to
Speaker 3: the forefront.
Speaker 2: They're on TV all the time, and we're what, you know,
Speaker 2: the game starts soon and they always they usually play
Speaker 2: games like Monday and Tuesday after the men's games that weekend,
Speaker 2: so they're kind of, you know, kind of away from
Speaker 2: the major action.
Speaker 1: We have a few minutes, maybe two or three minutes
Speaker 1: before we go to our break real quick. But you
Speaker 1: talked about this off air with me coming in about Ada. Uh.
Speaker 1: We've talked about her every now at the cursery level,
Speaker 1: just at the you know, surface level. But we heard
Speaker 1: news yesterday. I think it was us right that Auburn.
Speaker 1: Auburn is looking at her to possibly take her away
Speaker 1: from Arizona and go coach there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was some of the some of the rumors
Speaker 2: and some of the stories, and you know, who knows
Speaker 2: where where those are coming from necessarily, but you know,
Speaker 2: I think her contract is up after next year, and
Speaker 2: who again, there was some reporting about where that may stand,
Speaker 2: which could be reason for her to think about going
Speaker 2: somewhere else, which would be sad for the U of A.
Speaker 2: She's you know, she's the best player in school history,
Speaker 2: and she was able to get them, you know, very
Speaker 2: close to a championship. But the last couple of years
Speaker 2: have been tough. It's been hard to watch sometimes and
Speaker 2: again well and a lot of it's just been hard
Speaker 2: to watch off the court with them losing players to
Speaker 2: injury or transfers. Yeah, and the portal has not been
Speaker 2: very kind to them, if.
Speaker 1: You, if you feel free, go to see the Azy
Speaker 1: Desert Swarm story on her. Kim Dust did a pretty
Speaker 1: good job. I thought she did a fantastic job, in fact,
Speaker 1: maybe highlighting that that in the story not from her,
Speaker 1: but from somewhere else and maybe out of other places
Speaker 1: that she wants to go where she's appreciated. That would
Speaker 1: mean something here, right, Yeah, that you're not here? Uh
Speaker 1: that was there? Nil money. She's talked openly here on
Speaker 1: this show that she needs more. We know that the
Speaker 1: players are going to be getting more money with the
Speaker 1: shared expenses, but the women's teams is not going to
Speaker 1: get a whole big percentage three percent. To me, that
Speaker 1: knocked me over, to tell you the truth, that's all
Speaker 1: you're getting. That's all they're getting. I'm thinking, what because
Speaker 1: football and basketball getting the majority, right, and you think,
Speaker 1: holy moly, I thought that'd have some title line implication. Honestly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's the world we live in. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we need to kind of just
Speaker 2: see how it plays out, especially with these with the
Speaker 2: new money coming. You know how that's going to you know,
Speaker 2: affect these programs and the players they get. It's it's
Speaker 2: a whole new ball game, it really is. I don't
Speaker 2: know how these coaches, you know, sleep at night wondering, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what's my roster going to look like? You know in
Speaker 2: two months or two weeks if players start leaving after
Speaker 2: the end of basketball season and jumping and Dave.
Speaker 1: We talked about this at the beginning. We're going to
Speaker 1: go in a second. How basketball to me is turned
Speaker 1: in like the horse racing, where the best horses get
Speaker 1: to the big games or big races because the people
Speaker 1: paid a ton of money for them, not necessarily. In basketball,
Speaker 1: Indiana paid a ton they lost today they may make
Speaker 1: the tournament, and other Arkansas ton There's a lot of
Speaker 1: teams that spend a lot of money and got very
Speaker 1: little for the return.
Speaker 2: And Umar Bollo gets that big money goes to Indiana
Speaker 2: and they could be finished.
Speaker 1: They could be finished. Right. You got to go take
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Speaker 6: Steve Rovera, He's got his eye on the ball on
Speaker 6: Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports Sports een fifty.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to Ie on the Ball here on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave silver.
Speaker 1: How on the phone, we have Keith O'Brien, the award
Speaker 1: winning journalist author.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to say.
Speaker 2: The Tucson Festival of Books does return to the UFA
Speaker 2: campus on Saturday morning, over three hundred authors are going
Speaker 2: to be in town. We've been talking about this for
Speaker 2: the last few weeks, and our next guest is a
Speaker 2: steve mentioned Keith O'Brien, author of four books, including Charlie Hussele,
Speaker 2: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose in the Last
Speaker 2: Glory Days of Baseball. Keith's work has appeared in The
Speaker 2: New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and National
Speaker 2: Public Radio, amongst many places, and he was also a
Speaker 2: staff writer with the Boston Globe. And Keith, welcome to
Speaker 2: I on the Ball and we're looking forward to seeing
Speaker 2: you here next. I guess tomorrow.
Speaker 14: Basically, I can't wait to get to the desert. Guys,
Speaker 14: thanks for having sure.
Speaker 1: So when did you come up with the idea to
Speaker 1: write the book, because it's been out a while, right, The.
Speaker 14: Book came out a year ago and just came out
Speaker 14: in paperback this week.
Speaker 1: Nice. You know.
Speaker 14: I I'm from Cincinnati, originally born and raised.
Speaker 15: I'm too young to remember the Big Red Machine years.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 15: I'm alive, but I don't remember them.
Speaker 14: And but I grew up with Pete Rose and that
Speaker 14: story in the eighties and I'm so it's really the
Speaker 14: wallpaper of my life, and and and so this idea
Speaker 14: had really always been on my on my list of
Speaker 14: things I wanted to write about, and I began to
Speaker 14: dig into it into in the summer of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you. Can I ask you your age?
Speaker 15: As sure I was born. I was born in seventy.
Speaker 1: Three, oh seventy three, because I went sixty four. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Charlie Hustle.
Speaker 1: Mister Pete Rose was my one of my idol idols,
Speaker 1: if not the idol with the big red machine in
Speaker 1: the mids seventies. My years of you know, inspiration got
Speaker 1: to be inspired by right, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench,
Speaker 1: you know, Geronimo, all those guys, and so to me,
Speaker 1: you were kind of living my fantasy here obviously, and
Speaker 1: then as you get older and then I think it
Speaker 1: was eighty nine, things kind of fall apart from my
Speaker 1: vision of this guy. So how was it for you?
Speaker 14: Well, I mean, before I wrote the book, I sort
Speaker 14: of felt that I had, over the years, had felt
Speaker 14: every single emotion you could have about p Rose.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 14: I felt pride, I felt sadness, I felt confusion and
Speaker 14: I think I felt all those things over the years,
Speaker 14: and you know, with the book, you know, I really
Speaker 14: wanted to set my personal feelings aside.
Speaker 15: I think if you go back and you look.
Speaker 14: At what had been written about p Rose, everything was
Speaker 14: always shaded by the writer's own opinion. You could tell
Speaker 14: just by the words they were using that they were
Speaker 14: there to make it case for Pete Rose, or they
Speaker 14: were there to tear him down. And and what I
Speaker 14: wanted to do was look at his story through the
Speaker 14: prism of history, tell that story with granular reporting, unprecedented
Speaker 14: reporting and interviews, including twenty seven hours of interviews with
Speaker 14: Pete Rose himself, and and you know, write that story
Speaker 14: and let people come to their own conclusions. And you know,
Speaker 14: when the book came out, of course I had no
Speaker 14: idea that.
Speaker 13: You know, it was.
Speaker 14: That Pete would be gone within months. And so in
Speaker 14: some ways it takes on greater significance.
Speaker 15: Significance.
Speaker 2: Now, what did you learn when you met him that
Speaker 2: maybe you you know, again you're growing up and you're
Speaker 2: you know, you're aware of him, but you got a
Speaker 2: chance to talk to him for all that time. Maybe
Speaker 2: what are the some of the things that surprised you about.
Speaker 3: Him, you know, Pete.
Speaker 14: People often ask me, they say, you know, did Pete
Speaker 14: try to charm you, you know, while I was with him?
Speaker 14: And my answer to that question is is he didn't
Speaker 14: try to charm me.
Speaker 15: He was just charming.
Speaker 14: And I think, you know, getting access to him and
Speaker 14: being able to see that, you know, spending one on
Speaker 14: one time with him for hours, you know, it helped
Speaker 14: me understand why the press in the nineteen sixties, seventies
Speaker 14: and eighties would defend him and in fact, at times
Speaker 14: not even report the things that they need to be
Speaker 14: true about his gambling. It also helped me understand why
Speaker 14: many young people would, young men in particular, would be
Speaker 14: sort of drawn into his inner circle, and these young
Speaker 14: men would do Pete's bidding, you know, ultimately placing his
Speaker 14: bets with bookies, placing his bets on baseball. I don't
Speaker 14: think I would have understood, you know, those things if I,
Speaker 14: if I hadn't felt a small fraction of what they
Speaker 14: had felt, you know, by by spending time with him.
Speaker 14: I think that was crucial to me and into understanding
Speaker 14: this story. I think the other thing that spending time
Speaker 14: with him helped me understand was really the core of
Speaker 14: the man, and I really began to realize that. You know,
Speaker 14: Pete Rose succeeds as a player and becomes an iconic
Speaker 14: player and fails as a man for the very same reasons.
Speaker 14: You know, he he succeeds as this player that we
Speaker 14: love because he will not bend. He he will.
Speaker 15: Not be weak.
Speaker 14: He believes in every scenario that he is going to prevail,
Speaker 14: that he is going to come out on top. And
Speaker 14: and you know, as he told me once, you know,
Speaker 14: I'm an eternal optimist, and and and what better quality
Speaker 14: to have as a hitter. But those same qualities, his
Speaker 14: refusal to ben his refusal to be seen as weak,
Speaker 14: and his during belief that he would prevail, well, those
Speaker 14: are the same things that would set him up for
Speaker 14: his ultimate failure and his inability to reckon honestly, with
Speaker 14: the wreckage he caused to himself, to others, to Major
Speaker 14: League Baseball, and and that is ultimately why he lost everything.
Speaker 1: Well put, yeah, well put, because it's all true. Right,
Speaker 1: When was the last time you were able to see
Speaker 1: him before he passed? Before he passed him? Did he
Speaker 1: help you with some of the sales? Early? Great question?
Speaker 14: So you know I had this incredible access to Pete,
Speaker 14: and then.
Speaker 15: One day in.
Speaker 14: The late winter of twenty twenty one, early twenty twenty two,
Speaker 14: Pete just stopped calling me back and the line went dead. Wow,
Speaker 14: And so no, no, he didn't help me sell any.
Speaker 1: Did you figure out why was that? Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know why.
Speaker 14: To be totally honest with you, he and I never
Speaker 14: had a crossword at all.
Speaker 15: I was pushing him.
Speaker 14: I was asking at times difficult questions, you know. I
Speaker 14: wanted to tell the full story here, and so yeah,
Speaker 14: we spent hours talking about amazing baseball moments, those glory
Speaker 14: days of baseball, the seventy five World Series, the nineteen
Speaker 14: seventy All Star Game, the hit streak in forty four,
Speaker 14: the forty four game HISTORYK and seventy eight, et cetera.
Speaker 14: We talked about all that, but we talked about the
Speaker 14: gambling too, and his lies about it and his other
Speaker 14: mistakes off the field. And so I think that was
Speaker 14: hard for him. But ultimately, I think the real reason
Speaker 14: why I lost access to him, uh is a more
Speaker 14: basic one, and that is simply I was not paying him,
Speaker 14: you know. And and I think I think he was
Speaker 14: advised to stop talking to me as a result.
Speaker 2: I had a chance to see him, you know, in
Speaker 2: his later years in Las Vegas, and we mentioned not
Speaker 2: paying him. I mean, one of the books about him
Speaker 2: came out. I can't remember which one, but if you
Speaker 2: wanted to get an autograph, you had to buy the book,
Speaker 2: or if you wanted to.
Speaker 3: Get anything, you had to you had to buy something
Speaker 3: with Pete.
Speaker 2: And this was you know, some casino in Vegas, and
Speaker 2: he was just you know, he was there and he
Speaker 2: was attracting attention. Let me tell you one other thing,
Speaker 2: speaking of a big red machine, there's a couple of
Speaker 2: guys here in Tucson. I didn't You may know this,
Speaker 2: but Paul Moscow the picture and Pat Darcy, who gave
Speaker 2: up the Carlton Fist home run, are two Sonans.
Speaker 3: So they're here. In fact, they went to the same
Speaker 3: high school out here.
Speaker 2: So we've always kind of had that in our back
Speaker 2: pocket when we were talking about that.
Speaker 3: That team and Pete rose in that era of baseball.
Speaker 3: So there, he.
Speaker 15: Didn't know that. I did not know that.
Speaker 14: I know, I think Terry Francona keeps a home there,
Speaker 14: but I did not know about, uh, about those other guys.
Speaker 1: So is this you're just quoting Pete on this book,
Speaker 1: or are you talking to other people around him who
Speaker 1: were close to him.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 14: I did two hundred hours of interviews with others, spoke
Speaker 14: to everyone who crossed paths with him in a meaningful way. Uh,
Speaker 14: interviews with three different men who placed his bets on baseball,
Speaker 14: his ex wives, ex lovers, family members, people who were
Speaker 14: in his dugout, people who were in the opposing dugout,
Speaker 14: people who had never spoken before about about this story.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 14: And not only that, you know, I utilized federal court records,
Speaker 14: thousands and thousands of pages of federal court records that
Speaker 14: had never been explored before. That should owed how Pete
Speaker 14: Rose's world unraveled from the inside, not in nineteen eighty
Speaker 14: nine when it all you know, when it all goes public,
Speaker 14: but really starting in nineteen eighty six, it's a three
Speaker 14: year unraveling. And that was primarily told through these court
Speaker 14: records that no one had ever bothered to look at before.
Speaker 1: So if I could real quick, So you're you're thinking
Speaker 1: about doing this book, did you? You're what was the premise?
Speaker 1: Like you said, Okay, I'm going to talk to him
Speaker 1: first to see if I can or if he'll talk
Speaker 1: to me at all, or you said I don't need
Speaker 1: his help. What were you thinking, because you do need
Speaker 1: his help kind of not kind of you do.
Speaker 14: So you know, I was going to do it whether
Speaker 14: I got him or not. And frankly, I didn't think
Speaker 14: I was going to get to him. Pete had never
Speaker 14: spoken to an author for a book unless he was
Speaker 14: getting paid, in fact, unless he was unless he had
Speaker 14: editorial control, and he was not going to have either here,
Speaker 14: and so I didn't think I would get access to him.
Speaker 14: And I thought, well, I'll just have to, you know,
Speaker 14: report this from every other angle in order to get
Speaker 14: to the nut of it. And and that's what I
Speaker 14: was doing when I did ultimately get that access.
Speaker 15: And I and.
Speaker 14: I do think that, you know, my Cincinnati roots did help,
Speaker 14: you know, uh, you know, thinking back to some of
Speaker 14: our earliest interviews, Pete would be talking to me about
Speaker 14: growing up on the west side of Cincinnati, and he
Speaker 14: would say things like, well, you know where that church
Speaker 14: is or you know where that field is, you know,
Speaker 14: because I was from there too, And I do think
Speaker 14: that created a familiarity for the both of us that
Speaker 14: that he liked.
Speaker 2: God, it's amazing, No I guess as we wrap things up,
Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame question has been lingering here for
Speaker 2: all these years. And then Trump makes a comment the
Speaker 2: other day about how he should be pardoned. I'm not
Speaker 2: quite sure if that was the right word he used,
Speaker 2: or what do you think I mean?
Speaker 3: Is something going to happen with that story.
Speaker 14: Well, the pardon in the Hall of Fame or separate exactly.
Speaker 14: He ultimately does plead guilty to federal charges for file
Speaker 14: filing false tax returns. He admits to that in the
Speaker 14: late nineteen eighties early nineteen nineties. He serves time for that.
Speaker 14: You know, President Tump Trump could parton him for those
Speaker 14: crimes posthumously. That would have no effect on his Hall
Speaker 14: of Fame status. You know, he would have to be
Speaker 14: reinstated by Major League Baseball in order to appear on
Speaker 14: the ballot. That has not happened for thirty six years.
Speaker 14: I don't know if it will happen or not. My
Speaker 14: personal feeling, though, is that we've just frankly lost perspective
Speaker 14: about the Hall of Fame. I think we like to
Speaker 14: put players on pedestals, we like to ascribe moral value
Speaker 14: to them, and the truth is we don't really know
Speaker 14: the people that we cheer for we don't, right, And
Speaker 14: so my personal feeling on this is that we should
Speaker 14: vote players in or not based on what they did
Speaker 14: on the field between the lines. It is truly the
Speaker 14: only thing we know for sure. We simply don't know
Speaker 14: what we don't know about these players, and if what
Speaker 14: they did off the field is so wrong, then I
Speaker 14: say let's put it on the plaque at Cooperstown right
Speaker 14: there in bronze for perpetuity, right next to their accomplishments.
Speaker 1: Right right. That's why I often say, you don't want
Speaker 1: to know your heroes, don't want to meet your heroes. Right.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you finally, just the last question for me,
Speaker 1: just out of curiosity. When you did this twenty seven
Speaker 1: hours of meeting with him, did you ever go to
Speaker 1: dinner or lunch with him? I did, Okay, So my
Speaker 1: question would be who picked up the bill? I think
Speaker 1: it's a legit question because if you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 14: So, uh, you know, we would often actually meet at
Speaker 14: at his favorite diner in Las Vegas, the place where
Speaker 14: he always went to, the place where he was well known.
Speaker 14: He would sit down they would bring his orange juice.
Speaker 14: They knew exactly what he wanted.
Speaker 1: And you know, at the end.
Speaker 14: Of those meals, I would always reach for the check
Speaker 14: and Pete Rose would say, no, no, no, He's like, no,
Speaker 14: one's gonna accuse me of being a short.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I asked, because at least he could
Speaker 1: have done that. And you know, you you your share,
Speaker 1: but yeah, no, fantastic, Thanks so much. Look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing you and and and listen to you guys when
Speaker 1: you guys come in.
Speaker 15: Thanks for having me, guys conversation.
Speaker 1: New York Times bestselling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the book again is Charlie Hustle, The Rise and
Speaker 2: Fall of Pete Rose, The Last Glory Days of Baseball,
Speaker 2: And that was Keith O'Brien. He's written some great stuff.
Speaker 2: This is his fourth book, all different subjects too. Not
Speaker 2: too many sports books in his arsenal there. But he'll
Speaker 2: be appearing on Saturday at eleven thirty at the U
Speaker 2: of a Mall tent, so he'll be outside, but it'll
Speaker 2: be covered on a tent at eleven thirty with Jack
Speaker 2: McCallum and Joe Posnansky, and then continue on Saturday with
Speaker 2: another side of sports with Russ Bradbird, who you had
Speaker 2: on yesterday, Lewis Moore, and again Keith. That'll be at
Speaker 2: the Integrated Learning Center, which is the down below underneath
Speaker 2: again two thirty on Saturday, so he'll had a couple
Speaker 2: different chances to talk. You get this book signed, and
Speaker 2: it's great to have him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, good stuff. Thanks for getting them, Dave. Let's
Speaker 1: take a break here for our final segments. If you're
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Speaker 6: This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on
Speaker 6: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to My the Ball. Here a Fox Sports
Speaker 1: fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave Silver. We have
Speaker 1: about twelve minutes left or end of the day. Big
Speaker 1: game here in about four hours, hour and forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool. If you guys want to call let us
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. Is five to two oh four
Speaker 1: one six seventy four forty great interview.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a nice interview. Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 2: Keith O'Brien has written that book about Pete Rose. He'll
Speaker 2: be here as part of the Tuson Festival of Books.
Speaker 2: You can go to the website to get all the
Speaker 2: schedule of everything. There's literally from ten o'clock until four
Speaker 2: each day Saturday and Sundays. Everybody knows this is like
Speaker 2: the fifteenth anniversary, so big event and good to have
Speaker 2: people like Keith coming in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you could tell he's a pro. Right, he
Speaker 1: knows his toff.
Speaker 2: He's written from good books and he writes for you know,
Speaker 2: he doesn't mess around in New York Times, Rolling Stone,
Speaker 2: those types of publications.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, cool basketball? Now know updated on your New
Speaker 1: Years scores that have disappointed you.
Speaker 2: Well, of course, my alma mater, SDSU having trouble getting
Speaker 2: out of the first second round whatever it is in
Speaker 2: the in the Mountain West, losing the Boise State eight.
Speaker 2: But in our Big twelve, Texas Tech is ahead of
Speaker 2: Baylor forty five thirty two. So the winner of that
Speaker 2: will play the winner of the Arizona Kansas game.
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, the evening session.
Speaker 1: Is it one for? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a gauntlet. Baby day was.
Speaker 2: Of tough Baylor's I thought Baylor was pretty good, but
Speaker 2: they're you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they were kind of the paper tiger of
Speaker 1: the league, kind of looked good, look, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and then just didn't kind of play up to par
Speaker 1: at least perception rise. Right because byu b YU is
Speaker 1: playing some of the best basketball in the conference.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well and plus you know, Colorado kind of surprising with
Speaker 2: a couple of wins just to get to this point
Speaker 2: to play today, to get you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it'd be Houston. It's gonna be Houston.
Speaker 1: Houston's a one, right, so Houston would be four and
Speaker 1: Arizona was a three I think, right, Yeah, so it'd
Speaker 1: be one, four two three three, So Houston would be
Speaker 1: playing BYU. Yeah, we talked about that.
Speaker 2: The style of difference, right right, Houston and would be
Speaker 2: playing uh, Baylor Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Baylor Texas Tech. Every game is going to be crazy.
Speaker 1: Did you ever believe like Richard called and says, you know,
Speaker 1: losing their first game whatever back in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: I think it was. It was the time that Gardner
Speaker 1: was on the team and Luke and probably the best
Speaker 1: one of the best teams that lud ever had, right
Speaker 1: when they were going through some issues with hurting. Luke
Speaker 1: I think had hurt his ankle. There were some injuries
Speaker 1: and there was some thought of it maybe just you know,
Speaker 1: and he hitted the Big Pack twelve tournament anyway, just
Speaker 1: kind of show up it out, blah blah, blah. And
Speaker 1: they lost in the first round of that of that tournaments,
Speaker 1: and people were saying, all they threw it, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: They didn't throw it. He just got beat. That was
Speaker 1: a game that Jason Gardner forgot his jersey at home
Speaker 1: and they played in l A. I think it was LA,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, he had a horrible game because
Speaker 1: you know, when you start thinking about stupid stuff, you
Speaker 1: just it just comp compiles and you played poorly.
Speaker 2: And well that's what happened to him. I think they
Speaker 2: played UCLA for years. It took Lute so many years
Speaker 2: to agree to even do that. Get behind the back
Speaker 2: to ten or tournaments. He was, you know, then they
Speaker 2: started winning it all the time. And then remember those
Speaker 2: early years, I don't know if you were even here yet,
Speaker 2: where they played them here, they played them on home arenas.
Speaker 2: So there was one I think at ASU and one
Speaker 2: here and one of poly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well then they played him at the champion of
Speaker 1: the regular season titles title.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe that's why they were at the home and
Speaker 2: that's I mean, that's just a sign of the times.
Speaker 3: That wouldn't happen anymore.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: Samson talked about that because he played I think it
Speaker 1: was in ninety one ish, ninety one ish ninety twoish.
Speaker 1: He brought his team Washington and they played UCLA and
Speaker 1: Tucson love because they hated Ucla. And he became like
Speaker 1: the darling of the tournament because he had upset them,
Speaker 1: and he talked about that a little. I remember that
Speaker 1: very well because he's he I think he's got some
Speaker 1: Native American in him. Yes, And there was that, and
Speaker 1: and he became a very popular guy down here and
Speaker 1: he's a good dude. Yeah, and his dude and people
Speaker 1: and he even mentioned that that he remembers that people
Speaker 1: turning on Ucla and and liking him because he had
Speaker 1: knocked them up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do remember that.
Speaker 2: And there was a there was some good pieces written
Speaker 2: about him as Arizona was about to play Houston this year,
Speaker 2: just how much he appreciated Loot and Bobby. I mean,
Speaker 2: he really went back thirty years just to say he
Speaker 2: was a young coach and he was kind of taken
Speaker 2: in by them and it treated him well. And you're right,
Speaker 2: the fans here I do remember that time where I
Speaker 2: think Washington State had Ucla on the ropes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fans were going crazy for that.
Speaker 1: Right, it's always good.
Speaker 2: Good, And then remember Arizona owned them for a long
Speaker 2: long time. They couldn't get beat by them. I was saying,
Speaker 2: thirty nine.
Speaker 1: I went to a mathematician to say, what's the probability
Speaker 1: of this happening? Happening? Because you can't be the team
Speaker 1: thirty nine straight?
Speaker 2: Now, didn't they beat Arizona like two or three times
Speaker 2: on the road? I don't tell you what the coach was,
Speaker 2: Sean Miller, Tony Bennett. Oh, I mean yeah for that.
Speaker 1: Bennett was the coach, and he's style and he had
Speaker 1: some good guards. Thompson I think was one of them. Thompson,
Speaker 1: Uh why state, Yeah, he had Bennet could coach. The
Speaker 1: styles was horrible, you know, drip drip, drip drip did
Speaker 1: no fun to watch. But that's what beat Arizona. And
Speaker 1: I think Arizona if they play a team like that, well,
Speaker 1: Houston does that, But if they play a team like
Speaker 1: that in the tournament and then maybe hit a three
Speaker 1: year for something like that every now and again, it's
Speaker 1: gonna give him trumple be trouble.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird because you know, Bennett retired in
Speaker 2: the middle of the season and then they just fired
Speaker 2: the coach who replaced him. Today, I want to say,
Speaker 2: so Gia, Virginia went from winning a national title a
Speaker 2: few years ago to doing this.
Speaker 1: Guess who the favorite to coach that team is.
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: IWA State guy, oh something, yeah right, huh yeah. So
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens all these coaching that would be.
Speaker 2: That would be a step up from where he is
Speaker 2: it Iowa stay State into the ACC team that just won.
Speaker 1: The not just but a few years ago won the
Speaker 1: national title. Yeah, maybe change the direction of how they play.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember this, but in Virginia
Speaker 1: at least uh Luke was still married to Christine and
Speaker 1: they opened the new gym at Virginia. This had to
Speaker 1: be oh yeah, Chase Buddinger's first year. I think it
Speaker 1: was when we went out there and I was part
Speaker 1: of the you know, I was traveling party to cover
Speaker 1: the team, and uh, it was huge. It was huge.
Speaker 1: It was you know, and Christine has a lot of money.
Speaker 1: She's a big booster in Virginia. Fantastic time. But Bennett
Speaker 1: was not the coach at that time. No, but I
Speaker 1: do remember that game. It was a big deal.
Speaker 2: I mean, It's kind of interesting how arizonas opened arenas
Speaker 2: and open stadiums for teams for the years.
Speaker 1: It's a draw first time, you know.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it was a TV game.
Speaker 2: It was like on a Saturday night, you know, early
Speaker 2: in the season November. Let's let's get Arizona on ESPN
Speaker 2: at you know, right from Charlottesville.
Speaker 3: Why why is this happening? Oh, it's the first game
Speaker 3: in this arena.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember you had to find the Richmond and
Speaker 1: then drive to where we're going to. Great location, obviously historic,
Speaker 1: you know all these houses that were you know, back
Speaker 1: in the day.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anything else we got, we got about eight minutes.
Speaker 1: If you guys want to call seven minutes five, two, four, one, six,
Speaker 1: seventy four forty w win tonight? What do you think.
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 7: I want you.
Speaker 2: I'm not a media member anymore. I'm a fan these days.
Speaker 2: It'd be nice if they would win it. Just it
Speaker 2: just extends the interest for us.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you soment. Okay, so, so you've been
Speaker 1: in the business. So you were in the business wrong time.
Speaker 1: I was in the long time. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you three TV stations to a two to a station
Speaker 1: six people. You don't know names of those six. How
Speaker 1: many were rooting for Arizona while they covered them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say that the reason I rooted, say
Speaker 2: you know, underneath the table, Yeah, clapping out out front
Speaker 2: was just the experience of having fun things to go
Speaker 2: do and exciting things to cover.
Speaker 3: Professionally, I mean, I look back when I.
Speaker 1: Selfish men, Dave you selfish men? Honestly, I mean I
Speaker 1: don't know. I reflect.
Speaker 2: I reflect on on the big moments, like people are,
Speaker 2: what was your favorite thing to do? Well, it was
Speaker 2: probably covering the championship in ninety seven?
Speaker 3: Well why was it?
Speaker 2: Because they played six games in a row, right, And
Speaker 2: it was and it just kept on going and so
Speaker 2: professionally I would root for that just to have great experiences.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and part of it was that year was
Speaker 1: no one expected it, right, no one expected it? Were
Speaker 1: you and there in ninety eight, I was, no one
Speaker 1: expected that. How disappointing was that?
Speaker 5: That was?
Speaker 2: That was tough because everybody had high hopes. I mean
Speaker 2: even the non sports fans of Tucson who just knew, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm on, you know, they're basketball and they just won
Speaker 2: the championship.
Speaker 3: They're gonna do it again, right, and it didn't in
Speaker 3: such a thud for to finish that way?
Speaker 1: Was sure, sure, yeah, no question, Yeah, okay, so six
Speaker 1: out of six I would say, you mean, who was
Speaker 1: rooting h to win?
Speaker 3: And just yeah, just kind of you know here.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this is probably true too, is that
Speaker 2: as reporters, we were rooting to have you know, a
Speaker 2: successful run and stories to cover. Management probably wasn't too
Speaker 2: thrilled because of my because of the money. You go,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, now we got to pick up and
Speaker 2: go and send these guys you know somewhere else.
Speaker 1: So that it was rough and where does that come from?
Speaker 1: Because the same thing for us, right, the newspaper. But
Speaker 1: they had a budget because they anticipated this happening. So
Speaker 1: in TV.
Speaker 2: Same we thought, you know, we would think, didn't you
Speaker 2: guys realize they've been doing this twenty five years in
Speaker 2: a row. They're going to go somewhere. It's going to
Speaker 2: cost us X amount of dollars. It blew me away.
Speaker 2: I mean honestly, I was, oh, sorry, yeah, like what
Speaker 2: we just didn't budget for you guys to go you
Speaker 2: know away again. And you know how it was getting credentials,
Speaker 2: It was hard if you didn't go to one round.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is kind of behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker 2: But if you didn't go, you couldn't go the next
Speaker 2: round either because you weren't there.
Speaker 3: And you know, sweet sixteen. So we used to get
Speaker 3: that problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you went, so you had to go.
Speaker 3: We used to go.
Speaker 1: They had to find and it just wasn't you. It
Speaker 1: was a photographer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was usually two and sometimes even three. And
Speaker 2: when I got to the point where, you know, we're
Speaker 2: talking final fours.
Speaker 3: There was new Sercervice. I think I know that.
Speaker 2: I remember in ninety eight we definitely had four people,
Speaker 2: you know, so we were, you know, going out to
Speaker 2: Anaheim with four Well I'm sure we drove, yeah someone,
Speaker 2: no big deal, but anyway.
Speaker 1: Right, No, that's how it was for us too, and
Speaker 1: we were at the underdog ob shiate the citizen against
Speaker 1: big old daily Star people. You know, me Quirky and
Speaker 1: two other people would go and do our thing and
Speaker 1: then you know, don't forget the hotels, don't forget the meals.
Speaker 2: Of course, it was expensive, you know, and that's why
Speaker 2: I was always kind of surprising when when they would
Speaker 2: come to us and go.
Speaker 3: How much how much is this gonna cost Yeah, like
Speaker 3: just like last year, and.
Speaker 1: You would think though, just by the by, the common
Speaker 1: man would think that's a no brainer. Yeah, you're going right,
Speaker 1: and Tev's got money. We thought. Now it's like not
Speaker 1: so much. I mean, you've seen what's happening on all
Speaker 1: the stations and only one newspaper now and they're struggling
Speaker 1: where you have like Bruce the only guy in Kansas
Speaker 1: and now out covering the team. Yeah, because it's just
Speaker 1: the way the world is.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I guess, thank goodness, we still have a
Speaker 2: local newspaper that they can do that can that can
Speaker 2: afford that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because yeah, the TVs, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I guess we'll see next week how things go with
Speaker 2: the tournament where they send.
Speaker 3: People, if they do. If they do send people.
Speaker 2: It's probably a little bit easier now than it was
Speaker 2: twenty years ago, just to do things technically right, where
Speaker 2: maybe one person could handle things. But you know, back
Speaker 2: in the day, you know, I can only do so
Speaker 2: much and I had to have some help, right, That's
Speaker 2: how it worked out.
Speaker 1: Well now, well, and I'm sure back then too. You
Speaker 1: can get the feed off the off the podium and
Speaker 1: and everything you need is there. I shouldn't say that
Speaker 1: public to the producers, you know, but that's just how
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know all the quotes you need that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've kind of lamented that you even on
Speaker 2: this show just about the lack of access, but you
Speaker 2: also had that chance to go into the locker rooms
Speaker 2: in the NCAA tournaments too, which was which was really
Speaker 2: good for everybody.
Speaker 1: And in this tournament too because that's Vegas. That was Vegas.
Speaker 1: We that's when we really found out which we have
Speaker 1: it too mon that uh that uh eighten the entry
Speaker 1: Eaton had a personality that he was a joke story
Speaker 1: he was only eighteen eighteen almost nineteen, where he was
Speaker 1: a joker. He'd mess around for around blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Because we had no idea, We never had access to
Speaker 1: him until the post heason.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for sure.
Speaker 2: And also you know, basically when you don't have access,
Speaker 2: everybody's kind of doing the same story, right, and you know,
Speaker 2: the TV's pulling the same little SoundBite that you guys
Speaker 2: are pulling for your quotes and stuff. But when they
Speaker 2: had access to the locker room, we'd turn around the
Speaker 2: next day and go, WHOA, where'd they get that story,
Speaker 2: it's because you had, you know, five minutes with you know,
Speaker 2: DeAndre Ayton that we didn't get.
Speaker 3: Maybe because we were too busy.
Speaker 2: Doing something else, right, right, all those that's the way
Speaker 2: it is scooped right, right. And then you say, well
Speaker 2: you didn't send us Yeah that's what Dave. How come
Speaker 2: you didn't have that story? Well, because you know, I
Speaker 2: was doing something else. I had to run out to
Speaker 2: the truck. What about this story I did do?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, guys, everybody's time. Thank you Dave again, as always,
Speaker 1: thanks for takeitho O'Brien. Yeah, it was terrific. And see
Speaker 1: at the book festival co Hen Gonzales, good luck to them, Pima. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we'll see You'll see you next week, Dave. Just
Speaker 1: gotta know your schedule. Thank you,