Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure
Speaker 1: your most Prized possessions.
Speaker 2: Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports
Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 4: You're Blake Eager from Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and film authority.
Speaker 3: Yes, you're busy, You're busy, and we got one for
Speaker 3: his last show with Ie on the Ball. Tears, napkins, cupcakes,
Speaker 3: everything are out there. Everything, well, thing's out there, finally
Speaker 3: one your Top Secret Agent ninety nine. Job is what
Speaker 3: I will be a producer of residence in Louisville, Kentucky
Speaker 3: for a company called Techna that oversees a bunch of
Speaker 3: news stations across the country, basically learning how to be
Speaker 3: a news producer. Anything they asked me to do, I'll do.
Speaker 3: And there's gonna be a good experience. I'm gonna be
Speaker 3: out of my element. Coffee please, donuts?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's what you have to do, right,
Speaker 4: just you're you're essentially a runner for hire for you,
Speaker 4: but fos work, work works fourteen hours.
Speaker 3: If you have to meet as many people in that
Speaker 3: industry as you can. I'll be there in May. First
Speaker 3: week of May. Stay up the couch. Are you going
Speaker 3: out the derby?
Speaker 2: Baby? Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Forgot free room? Are you going to ride a horse
Speaker 4: while you're there? Bet a horse? I don't know what
Speaker 4: it is. Right now, two year olds are talking up.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's true either Bob, Bob have a horse? So yeah,
Speaker 4: my ticket to Louisville is my boy right here. So
Speaker 4: you're talking about next May obviously, because this may pass
Speaker 4: good good one. I know, I see when I put things.
Speaker 4: I'm also not firing and all sin. Yeah, a long
Speaker 4: time ago, and I would say more athlete than student.
Speaker 4: Uh so you think you think one in a year
Speaker 4: is gonna want you sleeping on his couch?
Speaker 2: Uncle Steve Hell, Yes.
Speaker 4: I I said I would bet against that. Well, you
Speaker 4: get bet on the horse. I'm gonna bet against that.
Speaker 4: One is going to answer those calls?
Speaker 2: How old are you?
Speaker 3: Twenty two two? You'll be twenty two still or you'll
Speaker 3: be twenty three by next when's your birthday? Twenty twenty three? Okay,
Speaker 3: with twenty three. So let me see. I was twenty three.
Speaker 3: I had little money. People came to.
Speaker 2: Visit guests who bought dinner those people. So yeah, he'll
Speaker 2: take me in.
Speaker 4: Listen, I think one you've got to have. You've got
Speaker 4: to have some requirements, right, First, Steve should take you
Speaker 4: grocery shopping because you're gonna need it no matter what.
Speaker 2: Of course, twenty three year olds need that.
Speaker 4: Food for sure, dinner, right, maybe some adult beverages that's
Speaker 4: in the cards, right, Yeah, and then in return you
Speaker 4: can show him around.
Speaker 3: It's a fair share enough. I'm fine with that. I've
Speaker 3: never really spent a lot of time in Louisile. I
Speaker 3: have a little bit, not a lot of time, but
Speaker 3: this is the bucketest thing I need to get to
Speaker 3: because you know, I've been to the breeders, I've been
Speaker 3: to other things. This is one of the last things
Speaker 3: I haven't done.
Speaker 2: Have you been to the track?
Speaker 3: Yeah, just drove, you know, kind of didn't go in
Speaker 3: because it was closed.
Speaker 2: We went a couple of years ago and we showed up.
Speaker 4: Obviously wasn't Derby, but they were running and we got
Speaker 4: to bet on horses and have been. It was awesome
Speaker 4: to the breeders I think the following day and they
Speaker 4: had a horse auction, so it was really cool.
Speaker 2: To see that kind of environment. Yeah, so we'll go
Speaker 2: there and see. Good.
Speaker 3: Good for you, Senor. One of the very few people
Speaker 3: I'm sure they got a job in the business.
Speaker 2: Very few. But it's really impressive.
Speaker 5: One.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I don't think to our listeners out there is I mean, Steve,
Speaker 4: you and I have had this conversation. The industry is
Speaker 4: very difficult in the first place to break in, but
Speaker 4: because the downsizing that's going on and things that are
Speaker 4: leaving and simplifying and cost cutting, it is it's very
Speaker 4: impressive right now.
Speaker 3: You just got to kill it, knocking out of the
Speaker 3: park and you don't keep Steve, I don't have time,
Speaker 3: you know. It's like cats in the cradle. Yeah, silver Spood,
Speaker 3: I don't have time for you.
Speaker 6: Dad.
Speaker 2: I gotta good. I gotta go do a story. That's why.
Speaker 2: Just give me the keys of the car. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't want to. I want to read a car.
Speaker 3: This is a sweet deal for you. Yeah, that's why
Speaker 3: I do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. D's in San.
Speaker 3: Diego in LA. My boy want a little.
Speaker 2: That's how it works out for him. Do you think
Speaker 2: I do this for free?
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, though, Man, there's a place I think
Speaker 4: it's in Lexington called the Blue Door, which is a
Speaker 4: barbecue place.
Speaker 3: Absolutely legit. You get a chance to go. Okay, so
Speaker 3: you head out pretty soon. You're starting it later this month, right, yep? Okay.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, we have a pretty good show today.
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in there.
Speaker 4: So, yeah, I wasn't supposed to be here, but you
Speaker 4: convinced you. Yeah, that's let's call it convincing.
Speaker 3: Andy Lopez here by the professor the philosopher, I should say, yeah,
Speaker 3: three seventeen. I love having Andy on, like one of
Speaker 3: my best guests all the time. He's on, gives wax's
Speaker 3: poetic on life and in baseball.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and also maybe arguably the best public speaker I've
Speaker 4: ever heard.
Speaker 2: Yes, I wouldn't argue that in a second.
Speaker 4: I spoke to his son this morning, did you, Yeah,
Speaker 4: because I'm trying to get him in Dallas.
Speaker 2: How who's on? Is that the one that was on
Speaker 2: with us?
Speaker 4: That's Dallas. I spoke to Dallas too. I spoke to David,
Speaker 4: who's Andy's blood son. And the Maccabi games are coming,
Speaker 4: have you the mccopy games? We had them on last week? Yeah,
Speaker 4: so they're coming, and so they're looking for some extra
Speaker 4: coaching help, and I think it's a it's a great
Speaker 4: time from our community in international play.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 3: So we'll have Andy on the three seventeen talk about
Speaker 3: you of a baseball and his time obviously going for
Speaker 3: the title or two.
Speaker 2: And then at three Sports seventeen.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have mister Michael lev Is kind of almost
Speaker 3: a regular now, given that he's been covering the baseball
Speaker 3: team for a while, just to see what his thoughts
Speaker 3: are on the chances of getting to the World Series.
Speaker 2: You should just create a Lev's Corner and have him
Speaker 2: on a weekly basis.
Speaker 3: He'd expect me to pay for him, and I'm not
Speaker 3: staying at his cot this couch, so.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would.
Speaker 4: I don't even know if I want to know what
Speaker 4: the trade offs are for this, So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, advertising for a month, it's called it's called what
Speaker 3: he got trade. By the way, sports, the sports people,
Speaker 3: you got to give you the thirty second spot on
Speaker 3: my show, although you're here a lot.
Speaker 2: I have to get a thirty second I'm you.
Speaker 4: How do people know that true exist? I mean, I
Speaker 4: hope people know I exist. I mean, but the but
Speaker 4: the authority. I don't know Major League Baseball, World Baseball
Speaker 4: Classic Garment. Oh, you like to do the Winter League team.
Speaker 4: I mean we're in quite a bit of stuff, you like.
Speaker 3: At the nightclub in l A. And he says, who
Speaker 3: are you? You're not on the list World Baseball League.
Speaker 3: We got this, we got that, You're still not on
Speaker 3: the list.
Speaker 2: I throw out, don't you know who I am? Exact?
Speaker 2: Do you know who I am? All the time? And
Speaker 2: that worked? It doesn't it's awful. In fact, in fact,
Speaker 2: I did that.
Speaker 3: I did that for Did you go to the Baseball
Speaker 3: You went to the Baseball World Baseball?
Speaker 2: No, so I did. I didn't you know?
Speaker 3: He got his tickets and it was kind of a
Speaker 3: long line, and I said, where are my tickets? What
Speaker 3: do you mean is there at the front? Where are
Speaker 3: my tickets? I'll go down and me go down. I'm
Speaker 3: running a huge event. You're like, where are my tickets?
Speaker 3: I was like, I guess I'll go down to the
Speaker 3: ticket office. I able to pick up a hand them
Speaker 3: to you like a child.
Speaker 2: Don't you know who I am?
Speaker 4: That's how it works, he pressured me coming in today,
Speaker 4: after I told you last week that I couldn't make it.
Speaker 2: And then I and he's here, I'll be right there.
Speaker 2: I'm here for any let's say, hey, I know you're
Speaker 2: not here for me.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk about a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: baseball stuff. I love having them on a lot of
Speaker 3: things going on, baseball travels. They play Friday, right Friday,
Speaker 3: North Carolina Softball.
Speaker 2: We waxed poet that.
Speaker 3: Was a little heated like them today about white all
Speaker 3: these women, all these women leaving the team and we
Speaker 3: and we don't know the real story, why the money,
Speaker 3: blah blah blah. But everybody on the on the internet
Speaker 3: has their theories, and of course they're just throwing stuff up.
Speaker 3: I don't think they realize you're not on right, you're
Speaker 3: not on No. I don't think they realized it's a
Speaker 3: public forum kind of like this, so they can say
Speaker 3: anybody can read which which public foreigner and they say
Speaker 3: some stupid crap and they throw out these theories. And
Speaker 3: if you don't know what you're talking about or just
Speaker 3: throwing stuff out.
Speaker 2: There, don't do it. It creates more problems.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you're going to see players read that, You're
Speaker 4: going to see coaches, assistant coaches.
Speaker 2: Then it's just not a good look. And then he
Speaker 2: as a community.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and then you have to I don't know if
Speaker 3: you have to, but I know if my name was
Speaker 3: you have to refute it.
Speaker 2: Not really, but you know, where did you come up
Speaker 2: with this? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's the same thing
Speaker 2: like if you're questioning.
Speaker 4: X's and no's, or the calls or their plays or
Speaker 4: maybe you know, lack of effort at times. Okay, understood, right,
Speaker 4: it is a public form, but you start doing that stuff,
Speaker 4: it gets into the private sector a little bit too much,
Speaker 4: and that's a really difficult and that's that's a really
Speaker 4: bad look.
Speaker 2: That's my problem with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So and
Speaker 2: because they don't know, why don't we this, why don't
Speaker 2: they hire this guy? This girl? Well, how many who
Speaker 2: just left yesterday? Who just put in kaya omar? Yeah
Speaker 2: so you just put in for the portal? How many
Speaker 2: is that total? Now? Yeah? So I said dilemma. But
Speaker 2: every school is going through it.
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to alibi anybody, but every school's going
Speaker 3: on through it. If you if you want to be
Speaker 3: better as a fan, you might have to help out
Speaker 3: with some cash. You don't put it in a pot.
Speaker 3: We talked about all this yesterday, you know, because everyone
Speaker 3: has an answer, a solution will.
Speaker 2: Be part of it. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4: And you know we talk about revenue driving sports, right,
Speaker 4: you've got basketball in football, But you know, I think
Speaker 4: they averaged like twenty eight hundred at hell Brand this year,
Speaker 4: right it pans. Yeah, I mean it was great, and
Speaker 4: I think baseball was thirty one, thirty one, get the numbers.
Speaker 4: We just looked it up on Monday, actually because there
Speaker 4: was a larger discussion about something else that we're working
Speaker 4: out with Major League Baseball that I was trying to
Speaker 4: put together kind of a presentation for him. So, I mean,
Speaker 4: you're talking about three game series right at home. That's
Speaker 4: a pretty good driver for revenue from a non revenue
Speaker 4: driving sport.
Speaker 2: No question.
Speaker 3: Still a loser in money making, absolutely, but it's a
Speaker 3: it does really well.
Speaker 2: I think in the stadium folds three three to two,
Speaker 2: so you're averaging twenty eight hundred.
Speaker 4: That's almost to sell out every single game, which is
Speaker 4: pretty impressive. So I think you're looking at the world
Speaker 4: of college sports and now the trickle down effects happening
Speaker 4: in softball where you're seeing the pitcher at Texas Tech
Speaker 4: at a million dollars leave Stanford to go to Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: Right. I think it's awake. It's it's it's an awakening.
Speaker 4: Moment for players, and it's probably an awaking moment for
Speaker 4: a lot of colleges saying, like we this, We got
Speaker 4: to come to the tables for money to get these players.
Speaker 3: Sure, but here's I'll give you the flip side of this,
Speaker 3: because I don't know who it was earlier, yesterday morning
Speaker 3: or last night. You baseball some of your wheelhouse, the
Speaker 3: Vanderbilt out, Texas out. Ye, all these studs. Look at
Speaker 3: these stud players that must be getting some money, a
Speaker 3: pretty good money get beat by the Yeah, And isn't
Speaker 3: that isn't that a joy to see? You don't have
Speaker 3: to pay me a ton of money to kick their ass.
Speaker 4: I think it's a great thing to see, right, because
Speaker 4: we didn't have it this year in March madness. So
Speaker 4: the supplement you're getting right now of it happening in
Speaker 4: baseball is awesome. Like mid major you know, mid major
Speaker 4: schools coming in are kicking butts of the SEC schools,
Speaker 4: which I don't know how you feel about it. There's
Speaker 4: something going on that they're able to get that many
Speaker 4: teams in at that high of a ranking, especially in softball,
Speaker 4: where Texas Tech was a yeah, I mean it's what
Speaker 4: they are, twelve seed Texas Tech right in the in
Speaker 4: the tournament, they're number twelve, Okay, yeah, which is but
Speaker 4: sure you win the Big twelve. You literally have the
Speaker 4: best picture in the country, arguably the best picture in
Speaker 4: the country, and this phenomenal team and they're proving it
Speaker 4: right now. I mean, you just beat Oklahoma that one,
Speaker 4: back to back to back to back World Series.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 3: I questioned the people who picked the teams as well,
Speaker 3: because it's there's a they have a bias.
Speaker 2: Of course there's a bias. Yeah. It was the same
Speaker 2: thing for me in basketball this year.
Speaker 4: You get in that many s and I know that
Speaker 4: was by far ahead and Hills the best conference, but
Speaker 4: you can't tell me the bottom four outside of maybe
Speaker 4: Arkansas on the run that they went, were worthy of
Speaker 4: getting into the tournament, right It's just anyway.
Speaker 3: It's just the people's perceptions of a good team versus
Speaker 3: a mediocre.
Speaker 2: G is a perception of team or perception of league.
Speaker 3: League yeah league, Yeah, well, the team would be would
Speaker 3: be Teller Powry's Arkansas. I mean, they had a pretty
Speaker 3: good showing and eventually get into it the Sweet six
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, but they weren't that good overall overall. No,
Speaker 3: they had some guys and they went on a round.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, every dog this day. How are we doing
Speaker 3: with time?
Speaker 2: We're doing? We've got three minutes before we talk to him.
Speaker 4: I mean we're coming into I mean, this is an
Speaker 4: exciting time to be a sports fan, right, You've got
Speaker 4: the College World Series for softball, You've got the Super
Speaker 4: Regionals for baseball. You've got the NHL NBA Championships. You've
Speaker 4: got women's baseball tonight, yes, okay, you've got you've got
Speaker 4: Major League Baseball going on the Bellmont Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean it's a it's a solid time to be
Speaker 4: a sports But guess what it's gonna be.
Speaker 3: I know you're going to come in every now and again,
Speaker 3: but for me here on the show for the summer,
Speaker 3: oh god, coming up with people and topics.
Speaker 2: I told you.
Speaker 4: I know you have to ask your listeners on this,
Speaker 4: but I think you pull somebody different in on a
Speaker 4: weekly basis and we have like a corner with him
Speaker 4: and talk about stuff. Maybe that's connected to sports, but
Speaker 4: overall maybe more community.
Speaker 5: True.
Speaker 3: No, In fact, I mentioned you with that Monday Friday
Speaker 3: about yeah, just talking about films, whatever, music, whatever, just
Speaker 3: to get the change.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, curveball. I can hit a curveball. Yeah.
Speaker 7: We usually have least one one segment where we just
Speaker 7: go off script talk about best Mexican food and best
Speaker 7: films and yeah, well.
Speaker 3: You were yeah, and films too. Yeah, so we'll do
Speaker 3: that eventually. But you know, Blake's Corner.
Speaker 4: Don't call it Blake's because everybody will turn the radio
Speaker 4: station that you.
Speaker 2: Know, you'll have five listens. Maybe maybe my dad will listen,
Speaker 2: maybe my mom, And that's what you'll say, what's your
Speaker 2: favorite music on this one? Really?
Speaker 3: Answer? Didn't mean this listen it's gonna there is a
Speaker 3: wrong answer. Sorry, there's a wrong answer. Great went to
Speaker 3: a great country last night. Another Charlie Crockett. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: guys know who Charlie Crockett is.
Speaker 2: His brother Dave.
Speaker 4: No, that was his uncle, really really good country artist.
Speaker 4: It was a like true country. So you've gone from
Speaker 4: Kendrick Lamar to Crocket. Yeah, and then before that we
Speaker 4: were at Joy Division and Beach House and so yeah,
Speaker 4: I'll cover everything, man, I'll go to reggae.
Speaker 2: I love reggae. H Okay, didn't know Wan loves reggae.
Speaker 3: I do, didn't know Regaeton, Gasolina, give the gasoline. Okay,
Speaker 3: let's go now, we can find them, We can find
Speaker 3: get out open.
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio while this is I
Speaker 1: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to my in the ball here on
Speaker 3: Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 3: In with me today is Blake Eager and now when
Speaker 3: the phone we have former UA baseball coach and the
Speaker 3: Lopez Andy.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 5: I'm good, Steve, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Great to have the philosopher on you. You've been turned
Speaker 3: into it.
Speaker 5: I don't know about that, brother.
Speaker 3: You've turned into a two, your three. Your status has
Speaker 3: been You're you're tougher.
Speaker 5: Blake, Blake knows man. Hey, I'm committed to my son
Speaker 5: in law, my son's travel teams.
Speaker 2: Man too.
Speaker 5: Hey man, I'm out there from five to nine on
Speaker 5: Tuesdays and Friday nights. You kid me. I'm working harder
Speaker 5: now on a baseball field than I ever did.
Speaker 2: Did someone tell you this was it? Don't retire because
Speaker 2: you'll be busier than what you were.
Speaker 5: Ever heard that? But it's true, man, it's true. So
Speaker 5: the one thing in my contract is I don't go
Speaker 5: to games.
Speaker 2: Good deal which is no recruit.
Speaker 5: I don't have no recruiting, no nil money, no transport portals,
Speaker 5: and I don't go to games. So I got a
Speaker 5: pretty good deal.
Speaker 2: You are smart, man.
Speaker 3: So can you reflect on what Arizona's going through right
Speaker 3: now given the situation?
Speaker 2: You did it a number of times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know what I think their situation right
Speaker 5: now similar to the year in two thousand and eight
Speaker 5: where we had to go to we went to Michigan,
Speaker 5: we were one seed. Now you know a little different
Speaker 5: now because you have high core. But back in two eight,
Speaker 5: we were still at Sanset and we were one seed.
Speaker 5: We were one seed like three or four times, and
Speaker 5: we had to travel as a one seed. Two thousand
Speaker 5: and five we went to Fuller ten. In two thousand
Speaker 5: and seven we went to Utah Wichita State, And in
Speaker 5: two thousand and eight we went to Michigan as a
Speaker 5: one seed because we couldn't host that Sanset. That was
Speaker 5: one of the beauty of getting high Corbett as you know,
Speaker 5: they could host now. But anyway, we went on the
Speaker 5: road to Michigan and we were one seed and we
Speaker 5: went right through that regional pretty easily, and then we
Speaker 5: got the gifts that we got to go to the
Speaker 5: number one seed in the nation. We went to Miami uh
Speaker 5: and a great series. Man, we won on Friday night,
Speaker 5: got beat on Saturday, and then we lost I think
Speaker 5: two to one or three to one. Yonder Alonso hit
Speaker 5: a little blue bass hit over the third basement's head
Speaker 5: and they ended up beating us. They went to Omaha
Speaker 5: and we came home. So yeah, you just you know,
Speaker 5: you got to be ready mentally and and they look
Speaker 5: like it. I mean they played well up at Oregon,
Speaker 5: and you know, I mean, if you're going, you know,
Speaker 5: the West Coast Baseball has been under sold forever, Steve forever.
Speaker 5: It's it's just it's you know. And I lived in
Speaker 5: the SEC for seven years and I had to listen
Speaker 5: to all the stuff that you are out there. And
Speaker 5: don't get me wrong, the SEC is a fantastic conference.
Speaker 5: Facilities are second to none, media covers second to none. Uh,
Speaker 5: it's you know, it's what it is. But you know what,
Speaker 5: you've got to get on the field and play. And
Speaker 5: when you get on the field and play, West Coast
Speaker 5: Baseball can match up with anybody in the nation. I
Speaker 5: know they're going to an ACC school, but I would
Speaker 5: I would tie a CC and SEC togethers in my opinion.
Speaker 5: You know, they get great, great facilities, great media coverage, great,
Speaker 5: you know everything, everything's eight plus A plus a plus.
Speaker 5: You know what, you got to get on the field,
Speaker 5: pill strikes, play catch and play put the ball. Play
Speaker 5: West Coast temn do a bit. They do a good
Speaker 5: job with that. So I'm he'll be fine. They'll be fine.
Speaker 5: They played with baseball, they'll be fine. He'll be fine.
Speaker 4: Andy, what do you what I mean, have you ever
Speaker 4: considered stepping away from baseball in its full capacity and
Speaker 4: just being a motivational speaker on tour on a yearly basis?
Speaker 5: Goodness, safe? Lake?
Speaker 2: Are you sober?
Speaker 3: I often wonder that when he's covered, what do you meant?
Speaker 5: One day? Wait, it's three o'clock. I you know what, man?
Speaker 5: You know, I'm enjoying my life right now. You know,
Speaker 5: my wife and I we watched our my mother in law, Paula,
Speaker 5: moved here three years ago and during their nineties, so
Speaker 5: we you know, my wife spends a lot of time
Speaker 5: with them, and I helped out around that. But other
Speaker 5: than playing, other than going out with you know, Dallas
Speaker 5: and David, my son and son in law, with these
Speaker 5: travel teams, I really enjoyed just kind of doing nothing.
Speaker 5: I really do. And I know my players laugh at
Speaker 5: me all the time when I tell them what I'm doing.
Speaker 5: I had Kevin Guy had who pitched us. In two
Speaker 5: thousand and four, we went to Omar. If you recall
Speaker 5: me at you know, the program hadn't been been the
Speaker 5: two reasonsly thirteen years and then we came here in
Speaker 5: our third year.
Speaker 2: We went to Omahan.
Speaker 5: It was our Saturday night guy and great curveball. And
Speaker 5: he called me just a couple of weeks go just
Speaker 5: a check in, and he said, so, what are you doing, Lopes?
Speaker 5: And I described a normal day for me he went
Speaker 5: doing and I went, no, man, I'm getting really good
Speaker 5: at it. I'm getting really good at it. I'm getting
Speaker 5: so good at it. It's scary.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you, because you're in the in here
Speaker 3: every now and again. You coach twelve years old?
Speaker 2: Ten years old? How old? What's the age?
Speaker 5: Uh? The Okay, two teams are twelve year old and
Speaker 5: then the other two teams are fourteen year olds.
Speaker 3: Okay, so give me, give me. Maybe they don't have it.
Speaker 3: They don't have any idea who you are? You know,
Speaker 3: to you of your karate coach? And so do they
Speaker 3: say the funniest things to you baseball?
Speaker 2: Are they kind of?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah, hilarious. Man, a classic story, Blake, you can
Speaker 5: relate to this. I have a little tiny eleven year
Speaker 5: old who came to my waist and he's really fast,
Speaker 5: i mean really run, really good. And you know, I'm
Speaker 5: looking at how to win baseball games. I'm thinking, Jesus,
Speaker 5: this guy hits the ball on the ground. He's gonna
Speaker 5: get on base, he's gonna second, he's gonna st third.
Speaker 5: They're gonna score a run every time this guy gets
Speaker 5: on base. He just needs to hit the ball on
Speaker 5: the ground. But he's got this long, jangled approach and
Speaker 5: he's hit the ball near, hit the ball, near hit
Speaker 5: the ball. So after he hits, get him off to
Speaker 5: the side and go, hey, listen, uh, you know you're
Speaker 5: really fast and dona da. This is how you win games.
Speaker 5: And you ought to do this. Hit the ball and
Speaker 5: ground and get on base and steal bases. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 5: throw you out. Don't even very throw the base. The catchers.
Speaker 5: And he looked me right in the eye and he said,
Speaker 5: Coach Andy, they don't pay you big money in the
Speaker 5: big needs. And well that's when I realized, I'm just
Speaker 5: I'm gonna come here, and when those guys asked me
Speaker 5: to say something, I'll say something other than that. I'm
Speaker 5: going to enjoy my life out there.
Speaker 2: Phil Old.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well yeah, I mean it's not as again, it's
Speaker 5: not as bad as as what these four guys are doing.
Speaker 5: And call it that athletics, right, I mean, you know what,
Speaker 5: And I am on a transfer portal and the rest
Speaker 5: of the matter. So you know, every time something like
Speaker 5: that happens, I call my blessing. Oh man, I'm not
Speaker 5: dealing with that, thank god.
Speaker 4: Aye, how would you deal with it? Do you think
Speaker 4: now if you were a college coach? Because the constant.
Speaker 5: Time, honestly, blake, I couldn't. I couldn't, man, And I
Speaker 5: don't listen. I have so much respect for all these guys.
Speaker 5: You know. I stay in close contact with Walls, Mark,
Speaker 5: wall House, good Origan. He's like a son to me.
Speaker 5: And uh, he calls every every week. He's on the
Speaker 5: phone with me during the season. My son, youngest son,
Speaker 5: get married here in a couple of weeks, and he'll
Speaker 5: be there. He wanted to be an omeal, but he'll
Speaker 5: be at the wedding, he said. And uh. And it
Speaker 5: wasn't like a son to me. And and and I
Speaker 5: stayed close contac with David Asgrit Stanford, and you know
Speaker 5: guys that I really stayed, you know. And there's a
Speaker 5: couple of guys in the set I did in close
Speaker 5: contact with. And honestly, I couldn't blake. And I'm not
Speaker 5: embarrassed to say that I couldn't. I just couldn't I
Speaker 5: you know, the heart surgery, Yeah, that sped the process up.
Speaker 5: But honestly, I saw I saw things coming, you know,
Speaker 5: my last couple of years. I went, WHOA, man, this
Speaker 5: is I don't know this is gonna be good for me.
Speaker 5: I mean, I thank god I got out, you know,
Speaker 5: and and you know my health, my family, you know.
Speaker 5: But but I don't think it's a I think it's
Speaker 5: a really challenging job. I mean really, I mean, what
Speaker 5: my son, my son's in it, right, it's just a
Speaker 5: coaching in your next door. He called me yesterday, he says, hey, Dad,
Speaker 5: two thousand guys at the Stratford Portal first date.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's wild. And so now what do you do
Speaker 4: if you're a high school recruit that's being recruited or
Speaker 4: you signed and spen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I mean, get it, man, it's a it's
Speaker 5: it's it's a travesty. It's a travesty. And I'm again
Speaker 5: I have nothing but respect for the guys that are
Speaker 5: doing it. They're getting paid well now, which is nice
Speaker 5: because they deserve to with all that's going on. They
Speaker 5: need to get paid well. But it's a travesty. I
Speaker 5: don't know what you tell Blake, I honestly don't know
Speaker 5: what you tell an all state player in the state
Speaker 5: of Arizona. I mean, unless you're in the top ten
Speaker 5: percent right now in the country, in the country, I
Speaker 5: don't know what you tell an all state player that's
Speaker 5: had two really good years and he's all state about Hey, man,
Speaker 5: you know you're probably gonna get recruited by guys that's
Speaker 5: probably not the case. Those guys are going to the case.
Speaker 5: Those guys are going to the north Woods.
Speaker 1: Me.
Speaker 5: Those guys are going to summer leagues. They're getting transfer
Speaker 5: portal guys. They're getting portal guys. You know, they really are.
Speaker 5: I used to have a saying I had with my clubs,
Speaker 5: and I said, call it fatal success. Fatal A F
Speaker 5: A T A L fatal success. I said, Listen, I
Speaker 5: grew up in the project in l A. I saw
Speaker 5: guys that were successful in terms a nice car, that
Speaker 5: nice gold and money in their pocket. They're selling drugs,
Speaker 5: so they were they were successful in the eyes of
Speaker 5: the world, but it was fatal. It was eventually going
Speaker 5: to die. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's true, though, I mean it's not sustainable that
Speaker 4: it's not sustainable moving moving forward like no man.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry to say it, but you know the things
Speaker 5: that are being taught right now, with all the with
Speaker 5: all this, I mean, there's no oil, teacher's no commitment.
Speaker 5: It's how much money you got, and I'm gonna go
Speaker 5: to the next guy give me more money. I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's that's in my opinion. Hey, I'm a
Speaker 5: seventy one year old idiot, but I'm gonna say right now,
Speaker 5: there's gonna be fatal success. There's gonna be fatal success. Well,
Speaker 5: he's gonna be a guy that when he's four years old,
Speaker 5: he's not gonna know what the work commitment means. He's
Speaker 5: not gonna know what you me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we talked about that, I think last
Speaker 2: week or the week before.
Speaker 4: But Andy, you and I grew up in similar neighborhoods, right,
Speaker 4: So if you would have given let's say you give
Speaker 4: eighteen year old Blake.
Speaker 2: That much money, I would have. It would have been
Speaker 2: a problem.
Speaker 4: If you blew through it, I would have just the
Speaker 4: whole lifestyle would have been a problem and I wouldn't survived.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Crazy, it's crazy, It's it's madness, it's madness. I know
Speaker 5: what I felt he's looking. I'm gonna be real. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna Steve and I have been for a long time, Blake,
Speaker 5: I've known you in the years i've been here. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna be very transparent with you. Guys.
Speaker 2: Ready for this, please.
Speaker 5: I don't even watch it anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't blame you. I don't blame you.
Speaker 3: You know I'm not a sports fan, I think any
Speaker 3: We've talked about that with link to I'm just not.
Speaker 3: There's no loyalty. I don't even know who's on rosters.
Speaker 5: It doesn't it doesn't entertain anything. It used to entertain me.
Speaker 5: Even when I was coaching, I couldn't wait get back.
Speaker 5: I couldn't get well. I'll be honest with you, guys.
Speaker 5: I would be in postseed and I couldn't wait to win.
Speaker 5: Hopefully get back, get a shower, get something to eat,
Speaker 5: and put on a game and watch who we might
Speaker 5: be playing in a week or so. I was entertained.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 5: It was it was challenging, it was a chess match.
Speaker 5: It was unbelievably exciting for me and now man. Other
Speaker 5: than watching the University of Mexico on live stream, I
Speaker 5: don't even watch them. I watched a little here, a
Speaker 5: little there, a little this, a little bit. Don't watch
Speaker 5: a game, I'll put it on. I'll watch a game
Speaker 5: and oh man, it's close to the seventh thing. Okay,
Speaker 5: I'll watch the last three aning. But I can't honestly
Speaker 5: tell you the last time I watched a college baseball game.
Speaker 2: Totally makes sense to me.
Speaker 5: And I'm sorry to say that.
Speaker 2: No, no, I hear you.
Speaker 3: Let me say a couple of days ago, this came
Speaker 3: up to me and I asked the West Comments or
Speaker 3: Steve Strong yesterday, I'm assuming just throughout the tournament, you know,
Speaker 3: the baseball tournament that is probably the oneest, one of
Speaker 3: the toughest, if not the toughest tournament to get to
Speaker 3: Omaha and win the title. You know, basketball, you have
Speaker 3: six games, right, and you have the teams. Blah, well,
Speaker 3: softball maybe equal, But baseball to me is just land
Speaker 3: minds upon Landok.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, It's a grind, man, It's a grind. It's
Speaker 5: a grind, it really is. It's and it's the craziest
Speaker 5: thing because you know what, you gotta you gotta catch
Speaker 5: some breaks, you know, you gotta. Hey, let's let's be
Speaker 5: real honest. I mean and I chips on a marvelous
Speaker 5: job and they got a good club, and I'm happy
Speaker 5: for them and all the rest. But man, they caught
Speaker 5: a break organ stubbs their toe and get on that
Speaker 5: thing in two games. Yeah, that's a that's a good break.
Speaker 5: That's a good break.
Speaker 4: And were you said this earlier West Coast Baseball, And
Speaker 4: that's what we were talking about, I think last week
Speaker 4: because you were asking me, you know, I think one
Speaker 4: and and and Steve, you guys were asking me about that.
Speaker 4: That the matchup, and they said, you're going to face
Speaker 4: a Friday night guy from a West Coast team that
Speaker 4: could probably play and pitch for any team in the country.
Speaker 2: You don't know what you're gonna get.
Speaker 4: You're gonna see that's ninety ninety four with a feel
Speaker 4: for and the change up and probably a pretty good spinner,
Speaker 4: whether it's a slider or a breaker, and you he
Speaker 4: can beat you on any night.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but that's all it takes. That's all it takes.
Speaker 5: And now you're adding to the mix old players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty four year old.
Speaker 5: Baseball right now? Or yes, there's twenty four year old
Speaker 5: guys out there. Men. I mean, you're gonna face a
Speaker 5: Friday night guy, that's twenty three, twenty four years old.
Speaker 5: You kid me, the guy should be in double.
Speaker 2: A yeah, absolutely, or out of base guy.
Speaker 5: Should be in double yeah, he should. He should be
Speaker 5: inching double A baseball and either on the fast tracks
Speaker 5: of the big leads or they're saying, hey, you want
Speaker 5: to be a coach. Yeah, no, he pitch it on
Speaker 5: Friday night. He's pitching on Friday night. So you got
Speaker 5: a you got a lot of little twists. Now, that
Speaker 5: makes it, It makes it pretty. Yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 5: a yeah. It's tough. It's not easy, so you gotta
Speaker 5: play well.
Speaker 3: So I think just happened maybe a month or so
Speaker 3: ago or a few weeks ago. A memory in my
Speaker 3: Facebook page came in that you had retired. I think
Speaker 3: it was a ten year anniversary. Has it been ten
Speaker 3: or a little bit more?
Speaker 5: Twenty fifteen was my last year.
Speaker 2: That's ten years? Does it field ten? Does it field ten?
Speaker 5: Honestly, it feels like one hundred and ten? No, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I'm not lie, guys, I'm not lying. I'm being transparent
Speaker 5: with you guys. I really am. I feel like I'm
Speaker 5: gonna be honest with you guys. I watched the game.
Speaker 5: I hear the stories from my coaching friends, my son.
Speaker 5: I watched the game. There's very little chess mask going on.
Speaker 5: It's home run derby. It's throw as hard as you can.
Speaker 5: I mean, how many times you see a hit and run?
Speaker 5: How many times you see a first and third. I
Speaker 5: mean again, I'm not knocking. I'm saying that's the way
Speaker 5: the game is today. That's fine. But the game I
Speaker 5: grew up and was pushbunt, hit, run, slash and run,
Speaker 5: person third and two strike situation. You know, you get
Speaker 5: a guy, you get a guy from from You get
Speaker 5: a freshman and he's a he's a pitcher, and he's
Speaker 5: not you know, he's okay. So you pitch him on
Speaker 5: Tuesday nights and the midweek is freshman year, and then
Speaker 5: you put him in the rotation on Sunday, and by
Speaker 5: his junior year, he's your Friday night guy and you're
Speaker 5: hoping he gets you to Omaha. You know those things.
Speaker 5: You know, that was the reality of my life. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I watched the game now and I go, oh, this
Speaker 5: guy from Arkansas is pretty good their Friday night guy.
Speaker 5: He's a left hand right on his vand at the moment.
Speaker 5: But I watched him the other the other game. Man,
Speaker 5: this guy's pretty good. And then I, you know, because
Speaker 5: I'm a fool, now I google the Arkansas roster. He
Speaker 5: was at East Carolina in the last two years. Whoa,
Speaker 5: that's shortstop, man, that's shorttop. Can lily play at Arkansas?
Speaker 13: Man?
Speaker 5: Look at the signing? This kid from Hawaii? I google?
Speaker 5: You know that Sacramental States freshman year. Freshman year at
Speaker 5: Sacramental State. You know, it goes on and on and
Speaker 5: on and go, like what development is that?
Speaker 3: So let me ask you, this is a weird question
Speaker 3: now to you, Blake too, both you guys, because you
Speaker 3: were in the business. Blake, Uh, I know the reasons
Speaker 3: why you got out, blah blah blah. But as we
Speaker 3: move forward with generations and the kids come through, was
Speaker 3: there a time or two or ten that the kids
Speaker 3: now said, you know, you know, they talked back to you,
Speaker 3: they said, I ain't doing that coach, you know, or
Speaker 3: became kind of violence is not the right word, but
Speaker 3: just kind of snarky and kind of responded to you
Speaker 3: that way. And Blake, you had teammates, maybe you were
Speaker 3: that guy that it started to happen recently in recent years.
Speaker 2: I mean nobody else. No, you go, Andy, Okay, I have.
Speaker 5: A guy named Mark Mullanson. You remember Mark, you Pitchford.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were in winter ball together. He was with
Speaker 4: the Yankees, and we were actually very very good.
Speaker 5: Pleasus love love Mark, love him, just you know, still
Speaker 5: stay close contagles him. He's living in San Diego now
Speaker 5: with ton Lee down. But anyway, Mark was a strong Christian,
Speaker 5: great Christian family. We share the same faith, so we
Speaker 5: had a lot in common off the field and on
Speaker 5: the field. He was an animal, an absolute animal. And
Speaker 5: we had a freshman I'll leave his name out of
Speaker 5: this story. We had a freshman who was pitching one
Speaker 5: night at sunset and he was begging for pitches on
Speaker 5: the mountain, you know, in his body language. He threw
Speaker 5: a pitch and you know, why didn't you call it
Speaker 5: a strike? And we had we had a theory in
Speaker 5: our program like, hey, if we got to get every
Speaker 5: pitch and we got to get every call from every umpire,
Speaker 5: then we're not very good. If we got to get
Speaker 5: every pitch and every call to win a game, we
Speaker 5: must not be very good. So let's make sure that
Speaker 5: we're good. And that way we don't have to worry
Speaker 5: about getting every pitch and getting every call. Let's just
Speaker 5: make sure we're good, okay. And that was our philosophy
Speaker 5: wherever I went. So this guy's digging for strikes. They
Speaker 5: got for strikes in the thirty and I can't take
Speaker 5: it anymore. And I'm gonna I get out of my
Speaker 5: chair and I get a drink of water because I'm
Speaker 5: about to share with him my honest opinion about pitches. Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm going to give him a little chat. Okay, little chat.
Speaker 5: I can't get to him because before I get to him,
Speaker 5: Milancin grads him. Milancis grads him, cased him in the
Speaker 5: corner of our third base. Doug got a sand set
Speaker 5: and proceed to tell him things that I would never
Speaker 5: have said. But I agreed, and that guy in the
Speaker 5: kitchen for us in Omaha, you know. And by last
Speaker 5: year I got a guy at Phoenix Municipal. We were
Speaker 5: playing Arizona State, and on the corner of my ear,
Speaker 5: I heard two of his teammates say, he's just an
Speaker 5: old man. He's just an old man. Don't worried about it.
Speaker 5: He's just an old man. And they're right. I wasn't
Speaker 5: old man. Could he just had heart surgery. But I
Speaker 5: remember thinking, wow, think you.
Speaker 2: Ta little right? Like No, I mean.
Speaker 4: Andy knows it now because he's with the youth aspect
Speaker 4: of it. I think that's when it's probably my last
Speaker 4: year coaching A couple of years ago, and one of
Speaker 4: the kids talked back to me and I sat him down,
Speaker 4: and then we had to have a comfort We had
Speaker 4: to have a meeting with his parents. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: just like, nothing disrespectful from my side. I was trying
Speaker 4: to give him a life lesson about and then the
Speaker 4: parents wanted to get involved, and then it was a
Speaker 4: it was a bigger issue. And at that point I said,
Speaker 4: this is just not It's not where I want to
Speaker 4: be anymore. And if you don't knows this better than anybody.
Speaker 4: If you don't enjoy drive, the drive to the field,
Speaker 4: if you're not excited about getting to the field, it's
Speaker 4: time to step away.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, I say it all the time to these kids,
Speaker 5: and I'm working with these little guys, and I said
Speaker 5: it to my players wherever I coach. I said it
Speaker 5: felt the most important part in your life as an
Speaker 5: athlete is going to be the drive home. If it's
Speaker 5: your parents driving you and they say, hey, what about
Speaker 5: that coach, and you proceed to say that coach is
Speaker 5: an idiot. He's he's talking about, You're going to have
Speaker 5: problems in life if the coach. If they say what
Speaker 5: about the coach? So, you know what, I got to
Speaker 5: get better, Mom, I got to get better. Dad, You're
Speaker 5: going to be okay this world. You don't care. You're
Speaker 5: gonna be fine. You gonna be fine. Yeah. And and
Speaker 5: I've said, man, to drive home, even in the college level.
Speaker 5: I said to my asset, to drive home. When you
Speaker 5: were twelve years old, Mom and dad were driving. Now
Speaker 5: you're driving your buddies. So you're driving back to Dorman,
Speaker 5: you drive back the apartment. And what about practical me? Wow, Man,
Speaker 5: that guy didn't know what he's talking about. He's an idiot. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's okay, all right, granted, grant it, okay. Or you
Speaker 5: know what, I gotta get better. I gotta get better. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I really gotta get better. Now I wonder about the
Speaker 5: drive home? Ready, Hey, you think him of going to
Speaker 5: the portal? Right here? Sol and so got some money
Speaker 5: if we.
Speaker 2: Go right right? Total to drive home? Different, that's to
Speaker 2: drive home.
Speaker 5: That's a little scary, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta go.
Speaker 4: You all got agents, right, Yeah, everybody's got That's what's
Speaker 4: wild to me. Everybody's agents. Now, can I say two
Speaker 4: more things?
Speaker 2: Please? Please do so real quick.
Speaker 4: I just want to tell a funny story about the
Speaker 4: World Baseball Classic because Andy came out to the first pitch, right.
Speaker 2: So he comes out and he didn't even have to
Speaker 2: text me, Steve. He was able do it on his own.
Speaker 2: He didn't call me to get him tickets.
Speaker 4: Steve had to have me hand deliver his tickets to
Speaker 4: him because he didn't want to wait in the line.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it was the first pitch, right.
Speaker 4: We give each other a hug, and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 4: I want to take you around and meet you to
Speaker 4: the front office.
Speaker 2: He's like, now I got to run back to High Corbett.
Speaker 4: I'm giving the team speech to Pepperdine before the game,
Speaker 4: like that's Andy, right. So if you think about Andy.
Speaker 4: I don't know if everybody knows this about coach Lopez,
Speaker 4: and they should, but and I'm saying this true to heart, Andy,
Speaker 4: you are the coach's dream of a lifetime because you
Speaker 4: are in Mount Rushmore for what you were able to
Speaker 4: do at Pepperdine. What were you able to do at
Speaker 4: Florida and for sure Tucson as at the UV what
Speaker 4: you were able to recreate with a program that was
Speaker 4: stalling a little bit there for a while. So from
Speaker 4: as a two stone in, as a baseball player, as
Speaker 4: somebody that has watched from AFAR a long time, I
Speaker 4: just want to say thank you from the bottom of
Speaker 4: my heart for everything you've done for the community that
Speaker 4: you continue to do.
Speaker 5: Do I send the check to you or to ce
Speaker 5: that you was right?
Speaker 2: I'm his agent, cash. What do you know about its cash?
Speaker 2: I'm his agent. I don't know what.
Speaker 5: And I'm gonna say this to you, Blake. I appreciate
Speaker 5: those kind of words. And you know my mom and
Speaker 5: dad are blessed right now for you saying that about me.
Speaker 5: But man, I thank my Lord the Savior for this.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: I never took myself seriously. I didn't, Man. I was
Speaker 5: forced it to be a part of a college game
Speaker 5: that I loved. I'm sad for what college athletics athletes
Speaker 5: has turned out to be today. But you know, I'm
Speaker 5: just one little Mexican guy hanging around walking and golden
Speaker 5: Retrievers in the morning.
Speaker 3: So well, Coach Andy, I appreciate you know that I
Speaker 3: bother you a lot and thanks for coming on.
Speaker 5: You guys are the best man. Take care of yourself
Speaker 5: down the trouble fellows.
Speaker 3: Thank you and thank you. That's great. Great we went over,
Speaker 3: but doesn't really matter. He could have gone to the
Speaker 3: top of the hour. Let's go and come back pure
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Speaker 1: Steve Rivera, he's got his eye on the ball on
Speaker 1: Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to an on the ball here on
Speaker 3: Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Rivera, you're break eager
Speaker 3: and you're one got about an hour more than an
Speaker 3: hour left for you?
Speaker 2: One how much? One last hour on one last hour,
Speaker 2: one direction. That's what we needed. We have to have
Speaker 2: him call in. We'll do one's last hour, one last hour, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, calling from Florida, first time color long term lester, Uh,
Speaker 3: what was gonna tell you? I'm shaying, we'll got about
Speaker 3: seven minutes, six six minutes. Yeah, that's good though. Over
Speaker 3: time with overtime with Andy Lopis.
Speaker 4: I told you we do him on the break that
Speaker 4: I could. I could literally listen for five hours him
Speaker 4: tell stories and talk like it's unbelievable what he was
Speaker 4: able to, right, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, how does it?
Speaker 3: I'm sure you know when your dad, you have your dad.
Speaker 3: I had my dad and great, I love my dad
Speaker 3: and his stories and this funny stuff. But I'm and
Speaker 3: then you then you're goad just you know whatever.
Speaker 2: You don't say. But the other kids other things, other
Speaker 2: kids say, God, your dad's it's smart. Yeah, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, I'm sure his kids and we have oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm sure, ye, David, Oh another one of them stories,
Speaker 3: one of these stories.
Speaker 4: And I don't think you like, tell me more, Yeah,
Speaker 4: tell me more. Yeah, but they're around him twenty four seven.
Speaker 4: I'm sure that's like okay. But yeah, for me, I'm
Speaker 4: like a kid in the candy stock. I mean, you
Speaker 4: think about what he was able to do from a
Speaker 4: coaching career of me took Pepperdine like won a World
Speaker 4: series with him, right? Did you ever play for him?
Speaker 4: Just in just in any No, we would watch them,
Speaker 4: You watch them, Yeah, of course, So.
Speaker 2: Let me say I don't.
Speaker 3: I watched him a little, didn't follow him all that
Speaker 3: much because of basketball. But to me, he had the
Speaker 3: perfect mix of get on players, motivate them, get on
Speaker 3: them and tell them like and to know when to
Speaker 3: ease off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he would hold them accountable right for their
Speaker 2: actions no matter what it was.
Speaker 3: And to tell you the truth, in my mind, that's
Speaker 3: how good coaches are or who should what they should be,
Speaker 3: because if you get players to respond and respect, they
Speaker 3: play harder.
Speaker 4: Has he ever told you the story about their team manager? No,
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna tell it. You to ask him about that.
Speaker 4: That's a great story. So yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: his his his theory on everything that he wants in
Speaker 4: one or three He doesn't want to two, right, which
Speaker 4: it's perfect and that translates so we talk about sports
Speaker 4: in life, that translates across the board.
Speaker 2: Right, So it's just it's phenomenal what he was able
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, in life and work, you know you want to
Speaker 2: be the star, Well, if you want to be the star,
Speaker 2: be a star. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just it's so funny because he's coaching this twelve
Speaker 4: of you and this fourteen. There's four teams. They've got
Speaker 4: four and the two of them they've got one that's
Speaker 4: like legit nationally ranked team. But I don't think they
Speaker 4: haven't no clue who he is, of who he is?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. He doesn't go to the games. No,
Speaker 2: he did that.
Speaker 4: You don't want to go to the games? No, which
Speaker 4: makes perfect sense. Yeah, because it's travel. You're going to
Speaker 4: Phoenix all the time. Like for him, that's not what
Speaker 4: he wants. And you know you want him at practices.
Speaker 4: It's not at the fruit. It's not about the fruit.
Speaker 4: It's about getting them ready for the fruit.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: If I'm a young coach or wanting even if I'm
Speaker 4: a dad that wants to coach, like I'm finding a
Speaker 4: way to go to those practices just to watch him coach. Right,
Speaker 4: you don't know, you don't know anything about baseball, you don't,
Speaker 4: I mean, just be honest.
Speaker 2: I had no clue like I had.
Speaker 4: Mark Chandler, who was the head coach at Suo High
Speaker 4: School my first year coaching, pulled me aside and be like, hey,
Speaker 4: do you have a practice plan like what I was like,
Speaker 4: I have no idea, Like, I'm just coaching because I
Speaker 4: was a professional baseball player.
Speaker 2: I have no ice.
Speaker 4: Like he took me under his wing and taught me
Speaker 4: like you need that. He I'm being completely honest. You
Speaker 4: should figure out how to go out and watch him coach, right, yeah,
Speaker 4: no question him.
Speaker 2: And I remember going to Candreda and he says.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and like loot and something, guy said, you
Speaker 3: win games Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not not games. You don't win games on the weekend.
Speaker 2: You don't. You don't win games the prep provs. This
Speaker 2: is key to everything.
Speaker 3: And it sounds a little cliche, it's not a lot,
Speaker 3: but it's true. Yeah, you get better by playing the game. Yeah,
Speaker 3: learning the game, learning the game, dedicating, learning how to
Speaker 3: dedicate what you need to do the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: You know, something struck me during the conversation. You talked
Speaker 7: about Mount Rushmore, who would be Arizona's coaching Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 2: Loot here's because there's tough. Yeah, because.
Speaker 4: Andrea bush Well carea no doubt Andrea maybe no yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, I'll give you that,
Speaker 3: right Bush, Yeah, and and possibly well.
Speaker 4: Kindle, you're absolutely candle. And then you've got to if
Speaker 4: you're putting Loot on there, you've got to put you
Speaker 4: got to put coach Lopez on that. Well there's five now,
Speaker 4: you can't put five, you got it? Four rights?
Speaker 2: Four?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's crazy. And we're not even when we're not
Speaker 4: talking about the other teams that are the their sports. Well, yeah,
Speaker 4: they've done really well, right, right, I mean I I
Speaker 4: have a really soft spot for Tony to put him
Speaker 4: on there, because I mean, national relevance is for the
Speaker 4: football program he created, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well that's why you put lut I mean, but
Speaker 3: do you want a national champion Tucson is because what
Speaker 3: it is? Because you know, and but coach Lopez, come on, yeah,
Speaker 3: if you if you justify Loot, you have to justify Andy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think Loot's in the same aspect.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: He gave us natural he gave us true national relevance
Speaker 4: coming from Iowa, and then to do what he did
Speaker 4: in the eighties and the nineties and obviously in two thousand's.
Speaker 2: Well he has people believing that you're a blue blood.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, statistically we talked about it regular season,
Speaker 4: you are for sure no.
Speaker 2: But Andy is the same way.
Speaker 4: He came into a program that had had a huge name,
Speaker 4: I mean national name, national brand, but had lost a
Speaker 4: little bit of its steam right and was able to
Speaker 4: he came after coach or yeah and sitters like he's
Speaker 4: my mentor and godfather in my life.
Speaker 2: If I had one would be Stitter. So uh yeah.
Speaker 2: Perspective too.
Speaker 3: Perspective brings that if you kind of balanced what you
Speaker 3: just said, yeah, you know, kind of have to start over,
Speaker 3: regroup and then win, win a title.
Speaker 4: I mean, think about the I mean, that's a really
Speaker 4: good question one, and it would off the cusp. Those
Speaker 4: are the names that I would come up with. But
Speaker 4: if I had to sit down and go through that,
Speaker 4: there's probably a couple more that you want.
Speaker 2: To throw in there. My rushmorees are my favorite. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's tough to put only four, right, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: If you had to narrow it down to four, that's
Speaker 4: a really good question. Oh my god, if you had
Speaker 4: to narrow it down to four, who would it be?
Speaker 2: Those four? It'd be ca Andre and Loot for sure. Yeah, Bush,
Speaker 2: you have to He did a heck of job with that.
Speaker 2: Swimming team a lot.
Speaker 4: I have to put Bush in there, and it gave
Speaker 4: us Olympians, and it gave us everything else, and then
Speaker 4: you've got four spot.
Speaker 2: It's it's probably I mean, and I'm not gonna answer.
Speaker 3: It, probably probably Kindle, I mean you have to yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean multiple World series, Yeah, couple titles and for
Speaker 3: deck aids multiple decades, right, yeah, yeah, you think you
Speaker 3: could do this for players? Yeah, in each sport or
Speaker 3: overall overall overall? Yeah, yeah, we'll do how much time
Speaker 3: we have got about a minute.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll talk.
Speaker 3: About more about this later. But okay, So Sean Elliott, yeah, Baseball,
Speaker 3: you'll have to help me with that one. With Francona,
Speaker 3: it's crazy because well, I mean I would go I
Speaker 3: would go Trevor Hoffman, but that's he was a short stop. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was a shortstop. Yeah yeah, but here while he
Speaker 3: was here here, he was talking about Arizona stuff, right,
Speaker 3: do pros and all stuff like that. Francona, I mean,
Speaker 3: Chipper has the all time hits record. Well, okay, we
Speaker 3: can debate. Let's debate this on the other side because
Speaker 3: we do this every now and again, because there's so
Speaker 3: many other places we got Jenny Finch, We got a
Speaker 3: lot of people.
Speaker 4: Sir Anakosaurus stam, I mean, do we have We'll go,
Speaker 4: we'll go, come back,