Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday edition of our program and coming up tonight.
Speaker 1: As usual on Wednesdays, we have our West End Bureau chief,
Speaker 1: Gary Moore Hill join us in our number two, as
Speaker 1: will the unforgettable guard Sean Woods. But we'll talk with
Speaker 1: Sean about Pete Rose, about UK football, and we'll work
Speaker 1: in some basketball as well, what with UK's Pro Day
Speaker 1: coming up next week as well as Madness also coming
Speaker 1: up at the bottom of the hour, JJ Weaver, who
Speaker 1: of course is a really talented outside linebacker for the Wildcats,
Speaker 1: and he and his teammates pulled off that upset of
Speaker 1: ole mission. If not for the Georgia Alabama game, it
Speaker 1: would have been the lead story in college football day long.
Speaker 1: But they don't care. They got the win down in Oxford,
Speaker 1: and JJ has been selected to the NCAA Football Bowl
Speaker 1: Subdivision All State AFCA Good Works Team, which puts him
Speaker 1: in the running for the Danny Wirfol Trophy, named of
Speaker 1: course after the really gifted former Florida Gator quarterback and
Speaker 1: led Florida to the ninety six nca Championship under Steve Spurrier.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk with JJ at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: And I remember I covered the SEC. I think I
Speaker 1: mentioned this before. I know I have the SEC Football
Speaker 1: Championship game for about fifteen years for the SEC Radio network.
Speaker 1: And of course Florida wins the SEC Championship that season
Speaker 1: and Danny Warfol came into the hotel bar, not that
Speaker 1: he's a bar hopper or whatever or whatever, but as
Speaker 1: he came back from the stadium and the team was
Speaker 1: staying in the Hyatt and Man, when he walked in
Speaker 1: bought the cheers went up. But a friend of mine
Speaker 1: worked for the Florida equivalent back then of the cat's
Speaker 1: paws was called Gator Bait, and he told me, I
Speaker 1: remember that weekend about Danny Wirfole and how Werfel was
Speaker 1: able to handle Steve Spurrier. If you're a Kentucky football fan,
Speaker 1: you've been around for a while or maybe you know
Speaker 1: about the game in nineteen ninety three, that's when Kentucky
Speaker 1: had Florida down beaten and then lost it at the
Speaker 1: last second on Chris Doring's first touchdown catch. And I
Speaker 1: think Worfol threw it, but it might have been Terry Dean.
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly, but I know this that Steve
Speaker 1: Spurrier shuffled his quarterbacks all night long, back and forth,
Speaker 1: back and forth, because both of them kept throwing picks
Speaker 1: one through four the other through three. But Kentucky didn't
Speaker 1: take advantage, didn't score. And then Doring, who's been on
Speaker 1: my show many times, and as I've mentioned before, I
Speaker 1: have chosen to forgive him for catching that pass. But
Speaker 1: Worfle went on to become a real solid leader for
Speaker 1: that team, played briefly in the NFL as a backup
Speaker 1: practice squad guy. But my friend Mark Bradley, who writes
Speaker 1: for the Atlanta Journal Constitution so well for many many years,
Speaker 1: he once told me, because he covered that game for
Speaker 1: the Harold Leader, he said, I think Spra and Spurrier
Speaker 1: flip flop quarterbacks all the time, not just in that
Speaker 1: game or just for that season. He said, I think
Speaker 1: Spurrier changes quarterbacks so much because he can't put himself in.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was a perfect explanation of why
Speaker 1: he did that. But what my buddy told me about
Speaker 1: Danny warfol was Worfel was a very strong Christian, divided
Speaker 1: in his faith and therefore answered as they say to
Speaker 1: a higher power, and to too many kids, the head
Speaker 1: coach is that higher power. But Worfel, my friend said,
Speaker 1: never worried about Spurrier like that because of his faith
Speaker 1: and that helped him get through the tough times playing
Speaker 1: quarterback for Steve Spurrier. But a good man, good player,
Speaker 1: and has a trophy named after him. And by the way,
Speaker 1: there is one of those trophies because when you win that,
Speaker 1: of course the kid gets a trophy. I don't know
Speaker 1: if the school gets a separate trophy, but I know this.
Speaker 1: In the UK trophy case at the Fieldhouse there is
Speaker 1: a Werfel Trophy thanks to Courtney Love who won it
Speaker 1: not so long ago. And now it's JJ Weaver who
Speaker 1: gets the opportunity Courtney Love wanted back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: How about that. So we'll talk to JJ a little
Speaker 1: bit later on. Speaking of Alabama Georgia, such a great
Speaker 1: game and hyped all week as well it should have been,
Speaker 1: and according to ABC and ESPN their streaming platforms, of
Speaker 1: course it was on ABC. ESPN streamed it. The Nielsen
Speaker 1: ratings were incredible. It averaged twelve million viewers, most watched
Speaker 1: regular season primetime game since twenty seventeen, that was the
Speaker 1: Alabama Florida State game on Opening weekend got twelve point
Speaker 1: three million. Alabama Georgia was ESPN's most streamed regular season
Speaker 1: game ever. Audience peaked at fourteen point one million from
Speaker 1: eleven to fifteen to eleven thirty PM. That's when Alabama
Speaker 1: was fighting off that rally from Georgia and Ryan Williams
Speaker 1: caught that seventy five yard touchdown pass from Jalen Milroe
Speaker 1: with a couple minutes left, and of course, Carson Beck
Speaker 1: throws a pick in the end zone to end the
Speaker 1: game and any chance that Georgia had. But the numbers
Speaker 1: were phenomenal. And here's what's even more amazing. According to
Speaker 1: Chris Fowler, who called the game for ABC, those fans,
Speaker 1: the million who tuned in almost didn't see it because
Speaker 1: Fowler said, they had a power generator die and so
Speaker 1: that could have meant no broadcast. He said at one
Speaker 1: point he couldn't hear himself or his partners, and the
Speaker 1: crew of course scrambled to get things back on the air,
Speaker 1: to get things powered back up, and as he pointed out,
Speaker 1: when your computer goes down or when you have to
Speaker 1: restart it, it's got to reboot, right, Well, imagine all
Speaker 1: those trucks plural, multiple trucks having to reboot, and how
Speaker 1: much time it would take. So the generator dies and
Speaker 1: they had to get a backup really quickly. They died
Speaker 1: before they went on the air, and they brought in
Speaker 1: the college game day generator. Of course it's on the
Speaker 1: other side of campus. Needed a police escort, so they
Speaker 1: get into the stadium, they hook it all up and
Speaker 1: whoever was in charge of that and make sure that
Speaker 1: equipment didn't get fried. I get nervous just thinking about it,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't even part of the production team. Amazing,
Speaker 1: just amazing that they were able to survive that. So
Speaker 1: if you saw the game, good for you. He enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Good for you, but you almost didn't get to see it.
Speaker 1: About that follow up on Pete Rose, the coroner has
Speaker 1: issued a report stating that the hit King died of
Speaker 1: natural causes, meaning it was his failing health basically high
Speaker 1: blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, heart disease caused. Of course,
Speaker 1: I'm certain by then. I'm no doctor, but I have
Speaker 1: diabetes and I'm always warned about these things. I take medication,
Speaker 1: try to follow the diet, and I'm sure he did
Speaker 1: too to a point. But at eighty three his body
Speaker 1: finally succumbed. And that's the insidiousness of diabetes. This disease
Speaker 1: can really ravage your body at an accelerated rate. Now,
Speaker 1: Pete was eighty three but always kept himself in pretty
Speaker 1: good shape. But he finally caught up with him. And
Speaker 1: that's the report from the corner in Nevottom. People have
Speaker 1: weighed in on Pete Rose, and Tony Korneiser had a
Speaker 1: great point on PTI with Mike Wilbon. Why he and
Speaker 1: so many reporters loved talking to Pete.
Speaker 2: Pete Rose was a sports writer's dream, and I covered
Speaker 2: him here and there. He would talk to anybody and everybody,
Speaker 2: and he would talk for hours. He knew all of
Speaker 2: his numbers, all of his numbers, and he knew all
Speaker 2: of your numbers. He knew how many career doubles you had,
Speaker 2: he knew how many sacrifice flies you had. He knew
Speaker 2: everyone's abilities. I mean it was like he was a
Speaker 2: human computer, a baseball computer. Remember that firstbee computer, UNIVAC.
Speaker 2: Pete Rose was the UNIVAC. He knew everything about baseball,
Speaker 2: could he be a caveman. Yes, yes, he could be
Speaker 2: a caveman, Yes he could.
Speaker 1: But he'd fill your notebook, he would fill your recorder,
Speaker 1: he'd fill your camera with everything you needed because he
Speaker 1: loved talking to reporters, just love talking baseball. We'll talk
Speaker 1: more with Gary Moore, Western Bureau Chief about Pete Rose
Speaker 1: coming up an hour number two. Baseball playoffs under way,
Speaker 1: and of course we're pre recorded, so I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go with scores or anything. But book Shamby made
Speaker 1: a great comment on one of the national broadcasts. This
Speaker 1: goes back to how different people hate different announcers, And
Speaker 1: having been in this business for a long time, I've
Speaker 1: heard it. I've had stuff directed to me. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody has about our biases, and you hate this guy,
Speaker 1: you hate that guy, you hate these fans you don't know,
Speaker 1: and you always hear it's more about the national guys,
Speaker 1: especially Joe Buck, who I think does a great job
Speaker 1: and I don't think he shows any bias toward anybody,
Speaker 1: but so many people rip him from being biased one
Speaker 1: way or the other. And Shawby made a great point,
Speaker 1: kind of a sarcastic line. He wasn't mean about it,
Speaker 1: but he shared these thoughts with the national audience yesterday,
Speaker 1: and he was referring to the fact that all the
Speaker 1: local broadcasts, the announcers you've heard all year calling games
Speaker 1: for your team, well they're done for the season and
Speaker 1: all the games now belong to the national network. So
Speaker 1: they bring in the national announcers and they're not biased
Speaker 1: as there shouldn't be, and they really aren't in any way.
Speaker 1: But here's what Shabi said, as.
Speaker 3: I was saying earlier, this is the time of the
Speaker 3: year the national guys come in. Were force scouting against
Speaker 3: your favorite team, both teams. That's usually the way people
Speaker 3: take in giving a shout out to Gary Keathan Ron.
Speaker 3: Sideline reporters are people to Steve Gelbs love you so
Speaker 3: via minerd on the Milwaukee side bold do I mean
Speaker 3: it's too great broadcasting. So I didn't need to you know,
Speaker 3: I needed to amend that because leaving Gelzzi out, I.
Speaker 1: Helpe that hit home with people who are already gearing
Speaker 1: up complaints for how biased toward the other team. This
Speaker 1: announcer is One other note before we hit the brake,
Speaker 1: this is the worst kept secret in the NBA. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a secret anymore. But the Knicks and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves are swapping Wildcats, among others, Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: for Julius Randall. I gotta get my New York Bureau
Speaker 1: Chief Mike Sephosnik on this story. But now it's a
Speaker 1: three way deal Nicks, Timberwolves, Hornets, and the Hornets end
Speaker 1: of it does not include any former Wildcat. But anytime
Speaker 1: there's a trade in the NBA, now I look closely
Speaker 1: because the odds are thanks to Caliperi putting all these
Speaker 1: teams in the league, it just might involve a former Wildcat.
Speaker 1: And this one is a blockbuster, multiplayer, multi team deal
Speaker 1: with Karl Anthony Towns going to New York and he's
Speaker 1: from New Jersey for Julius Randall. So I guess the
Speaker 1: Knicks giving up on him. And it's financially driven. I've
Speaker 1: read up on this. It's what could the Timberwolves afford
Speaker 1: to keep because it's not just Towns they're dealing with,
Speaker 1: but other players, So part of it, a big part
Speaker 1: of it is financially driven, and both the Knicks and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves have flirted with success and maybe a new
Speaker 1: change of venue for both Randall and Towns. Will help
Speaker 1: them take the next step. So we'll find out more
Speaker 1: when we can. Up next, a little Kentucky football history
Speaker 1: for you want to come here on the Big Boon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Boon
Speaker 1: Sider coming up in just a few minutes away from JJ. Weaver,
Speaker 1: Kentucky senior outside linebacker, selected as one of only eleven
Speaker 1: members from the NCA Football Bowl Subdivision to the All
Speaker 1: State AFCA Good Works Team, which puts him into running
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty four All State war Full Trophy
Speaker 1: name for former Gators quarterback Danny Whirfel. That was something
Speaker 1: that Courtney Love, a former Kentucky linebacker, won a few
Speaker 1: years ago. So we'll hear from JJ about that, about
Speaker 1: his season, but of course about all the good work
Speaker 1: he has done that put him on the Good Works Team.
Speaker 1: A little bit later on, as always, on Wednesday, Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: our unforgettable guard and our West End Bureau chief Gary
Speaker 1: Moore joins us and programming note tomorrow night, at least,
Speaker 1: that's how we've got it scheduled. The chain Gang, the
Speaker 1: garage guys will be here. They will be in the
Speaker 1: garage and we'll be talking about all kinds of things,
Speaker 1: from UK football and basketball to the late great Pete Rose,
Speaker 1: and of course my man Doug Flynn played with Pete
Speaker 1: Rose and Keith Madison, UK's baseball coach, knew Pete Rose
Speaker 1: a little bit from when Keith was in the Reds Chain.
Speaker 1: And Darren Hedrick, the radio voice of UK Baseball, knows
Speaker 1: as much baseball as anybody I know, so that should
Speaker 1: be interesting. But like I said, we'll run the goale
Speaker 1: as we always do football, baseball and basketball. I wanted
Speaker 1: to share with you though a little history and I
Speaker 1: touched on this this morning when I was sitting in
Speaker 1: for Tom Leach on the Leech Report. But Mark Stoops
Speaker 1: has been honored a couple of times this week. He
Speaker 1: is the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Week, but also
Speaker 1: the Bear Bryant Coach of the Week, given by different agencies.
Speaker 1: And what's ironic about that was Bobby Dodd and Bear
Speaker 1: Bryant were enemies for the longest time. And I knew
Speaker 1: about this only because when Bill Curry was hired at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You know, you do a little deep dive on the background,
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons that Bill was not popular
Speaker 1: at Alabama. The reason number one couldn't beat Auburn. But
Speaker 1: even if he had beaten Auburn, and he won a
Speaker 1: ton of games at Alabama, and people say, oh, it's Alabama, anybody, No,
Speaker 1: go back and look at what happened at Alabama before
Speaker 1: he got there, and really in and around Curry, he
Speaker 1: won a bunch of games. But of course Saban set
Speaker 1: the new standard for everybody. But there were times that
Speaker 1: Alabama had flirted with being irrelevant, so it wasn't easy
Speaker 1: being a head coach there. And then Curry worked against him.
Speaker 1: He played for Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech. And so
Speaker 1: now Alabama has hired a Georgia Tech guy. Well why
Speaker 1: did they do that? Well, Job Thomas was the president,
Speaker 1: Steve Sloan, who had a great relationship with job Thomas,
Speaker 1: was the athletics director, and Steve Sloan had a great
Speaker 1: relationship with Bill Curry. So now the three of them
Speaker 1: came in and like I said, they won. But Curry
Speaker 1: was never popular, never at Georgia Tech. And ironically enough,
Speaker 1: according to Wikipedia, it was in nineteen seventy five that
Speaker 1: Bill Curry kind of and I don't know why, it
Speaker 1: doesn't give any If I ever get a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to Curry again, I'll have to ask him about this.
Speaker 1: Bill Curry kind of got the two coaches together, and
Speaker 1: this had to have been big. Bill was still playing
Speaker 1: in the NFL, I think back then, but was also
Speaker 1: a sportscaster in Atlanta in the offseason. But he got
Speaker 1: the two guys together and they buried the hatchet somewhat.
Speaker 1: I don't know how intensely they got along after that,
Speaker 1: but I just thought it was a fascinating bit of
Speaker 1: history and quite the coincidence that Mark Stoops is or
Speaker 1: has been honored by two different groups, one representing Bobby
Speaker 1: dot In, one representing Bear Bryant. And it goes back
Speaker 1: initially to Georgia Tech versus Alabama at Legion Field. After
Speaker 1: a Tech punt, Alabama fair caught the ball and a
Speaker 1: guy named Chick Graining was playing coverage relaxed after the
Speaker 1: signal for the fair catch, and an Alabama player smashed
Speaker 1: his elbow into Graining's face and caused a severe injury
Speaker 1: knocked him out concussion. He was never able to play
Speaker 1: football again. Dodd sent Brian a letter asking him to
Speaker 1: suspend Holt after the game, said he had done it
Speaker 1: on purpose. Brian never did. That infuriated Dodd, and it
Speaker 1: really kind of lit the fire under Dodd to pull
Speaker 1: out of the SEC. Georgia Tech lost that game, by
Speaker 1: the way, ten nothing. Bama goes on to win the
Speaker 1: AP National Championship. It's first. Now supposedly the reason that
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech left the ACC. Many of you know Georgia
Speaker 1: Tech used to be a member of the SEC, But
Speaker 1: supposedly Dodd was upset with over recruitment. Back then, you
Speaker 1: could sign only one hundred and forty football and basketball
Speaker 1: players total, but those teams were still allowed to sign
Speaker 1: up to forty five players a year, So if you
Speaker 1: recruit your full allotment of players each year, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be well over the one forty max even with normal attrition.
Speaker 1: Dodd worked to meet the guidelines. Other schools kept right
Speaker 1: on piling up people and allotting all of a nominal
Speaker 1: amount to football, and Dodd was upset about that, couldn't
Speaker 1: do anything about it, and eventually Georgia Tech left the league.
Speaker 1: He wanted to have the rule changed and said we're
Speaker 1: gonna leave unless you change that rule. Bear allegedly had
Speaker 1: promised Dodd he would get his president to vote for
Speaker 1: Dodd's position, which would have changed the rule. But in
Speaker 1: January of sixty four, Alabama's president voted against Dodd's position.
Speaker 1: The president split six to six, but Georgia Tech's president
Speaker 1: immediately in that meeting walked to the podium and announced,
Speaker 1: we're out. We're pulling out of the sec How about
Speaker 1: that now. One of the sidebars here was a story
Speaker 1: in the Saturday Evening Post Kids, that's an old magazine.
Speaker 1: Furman Bisher, who's a legendary sports writer, wrote a story
Speaker 1: that charged Bear Bryant with encouraging his players to engage
Speaker 1: in brutality once again. This was in nineteen sixty one
Speaker 1: against Georgia Tech. And that story also six months later
Speaker 1: there was a story called the Story of a College
Speaker 1: Football Fix and charged Bryan and Wally Butts, who was
Speaker 1: the ad at Georgia, was conspiring in sixty to fix
Speaker 1: their game, the Georgia Alabama game in Alabama's favor. Both
Speaker 1: sued Bear Bryant sued Wally Butt sued Bear settles out
Speaker 1: of court for the publishing house for three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars but got three point one million landmark case and
Speaker 1: libel because it established conditions under which a news organization
Speaker 1: can be held liable for defamation of a quote public figure.
Speaker 1: So there's so much history involved with Alabama and Georgia Tech,
Speaker 1: Bobby Dodd, Bear Bryant, And as I said, it wasn't
Speaker 1: until I had looked into this and googled Bobby Dodd
Speaker 1: that Bill Curry's name came up, and he negotiated the
Speaker 1: peace settlement in nineteen seventy five. And by the way,
Speaker 1: those teams obviously had stopped playing and they started playing again.
Speaker 1: So when you look back at the history of SEC football,
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of little nuggets like that, just like
Speaker 1: the nugget that And again Tom had it in his
Speaker 1: notes from today's show. It was on this day in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine that Kentucky upset Arkansas, which was number
Speaker 1: sixteen at the time in USA today number twenty in
Speaker 1: the AP and Kentucky was supposed to be it was
Speaker 1: at the time, I think two and two, and Owen
Speaker 1: won in the league and Arkansas was supposed to come
Speaker 1: in and Clapper the Wildcats, but did not mentioned that
Speaker 1: in the first segment. So I like history. I like
Speaker 1: when you can look back on days like today, and
Speaker 1: I remember that Kentucky team. I don't specifically remember that game.
Speaker 1: I remember Kentucky won it. But that was a season
Speaker 1: that was full of surprises, nineteen ninety nine when the
Speaker 1: defense ruled the day. And as I said earlier, that
Speaker 1: could the case for this Kentucky team. Up next, JJ
Speaker 1: Weaver part of that UK defense. Later on, Sean Woods
Speaker 1: and Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore, You're on the Big
Speaker 1: bon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Moon Sider joining us. Now we've talked before JJ Weaver
Speaker 1: and I at practices and after games on the UK
Speaker 1: Radio network, but we are here to talk to JJ
Speaker 1: about being part of the All State Good Works Team,
Speaker 1: one of eleven players in FBS football. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I'm honored to be on the All State
Speaker 4: Go Works Team.
Speaker 1: What's so cool about that is you get to see
Speaker 1: that trophy every day, don't you? In the field as
Speaker 1: because of Courtney Loves doing back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know Cody Love and want to see once
Speaker 5: I got nominated, once I got honored, You're a first
Speaker 5: one to shoot me a test like that's what we
Speaker 5: do at UK congrat good work teams, Let's go. So
Speaker 5: it was honor just just getting an award, just being
Speaker 5: just just showing the word that I'm blessed in honor
Speaker 5: to have of good works.
Speaker 1: It seems like now every game that you play in
Speaker 1: the national announcers bring up the fact that you were
Speaker 1: doing so much work to help kids who were in
Speaker 1: your shoes. Everybody knows your story. All the UK fans
Speaker 1: know about how you lost your dad, you lost your coach,
Speaker 1: you had a terrible injury. And I don't mean to
Speaker 1: sound like I'm belittling that by just listing them, but
Speaker 1: it's because you've handled it so brilliantly. And now you've
Speaker 1: got a group that you've put together to try to
Speaker 1: help kids your age, college age kids deal with stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Tell me about how that all came around.
Speaker 5: It came along because I was hurting myself, you know,
Speaker 5: once I lost my dad, once I lost my coach
Speaker 5: and told me I said, I was destroyed inside. I
Speaker 5: didn't know what else to do. You know, I needed help.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day, I needed help. I
Speaker 5: didn't know how to deal with.
Speaker 4: With losing.
Speaker 5: Both peoples I loved and losing the game I play.
Speaker 5: So it was hard to cope a lot. So actually
Speaker 5: I needed help. I figure that I needed help, and
Speaker 5: once I got help, it was okay. Once I got help,
Speaker 5: it's time to help others because I knew I was struggling.
Speaker 5: I knew when somebody lose somebody they loved it hurt
Speaker 5: and once and once when I was hurting in school,
Speaker 5: I stopped going to class. You know, I stop, stop
Speaker 5: stop taking football serious, you know, cause I was hurt.
Speaker 5: So I don't want nobody else to go through I
Speaker 5: went through. I want to help them before they get
Speaker 5: to that.
Speaker 1: You really get blindsided.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: You know your dad was murdered, your coach died suddenly,
Speaker 1: then ACL injury can happen, as you know, to any
Speaker 1: athlete on any play. It's so sudden, isn't it, And
Speaker 1: suddenly you're forced to deal with that. That's just tough,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, most definitely it was. It was hard.
Speaker 5: But definitely it was hard for me and my family
Speaker 5: and the peoples around me because I affect a lot
Speaker 5: of people are with the energy I I give off
Speaker 5: man the good the goods I give off to other people.
Speaker 1: So and now you've got a group together. Uh, and
Speaker 1: you're you're I know you're you're working on trying to
Speaker 1: have a policy put in place at the university because
Speaker 1: students such as yourself you talked about not going to class,
Speaker 1: not taking practice. Seriously, You've got all kinds of support
Speaker 1: with the football program. It's still difficult. But for your
Speaker 1: run of the mill, everyday student who's dealing with bereavement,
Speaker 1: if they're down so far, they could go into class,
Speaker 1: they could flunk out, you know, which isn't fair, is it?
Speaker 1: And so now you're trying to help there, aren't you?
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, I actually started the last two weeks the
Speaker 5: palette program. I couldn't been able to because the practice,
Speaker 5: but I heard it was like nine students end up
Speaker 5: coming in last yesterday. They have every Monday at for
Speaker 5: thirty and NA people's game.
Speaker 4: So it's it's growing. I'm excited.
Speaker 5: I can't wait to come to to actually go to
Speaker 5: the pallette this year. I haven't been this year because
Speaker 5: the season and everything. But I'm excited. I'm honored at
Speaker 5: U can actually started something like this. It's it's I
Speaker 5: knew a lot of people's on my team just lost
Speaker 5: a parent and just lost a granny, so it's honored
Speaker 5: to have a grieving program at you are Chikentidy.
Speaker 1: Word of mouth. It's catching on right, Yeah's definitely. You
Speaker 1: have always though, been summon to give back. Looking at
Speaker 1: your bio, I mean backpacks for kids and different programs
Speaker 1: like that, it just seems like that comes to you
Speaker 1: second nature. Is that? Is that the case?
Speaker 5: I'm in love with a person. You know, I'm a heart,
Speaker 5: I'm once, I love, I love hard, and that's me.
Speaker 5: I'm a caring person. So I'm gonna open up to you.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna care for you and make sure you're okay
Speaker 5: because I didn't have that one and so I'm just
Speaker 5: making sure you okay.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, if I told somebody
Speaker 1: about you and what you're doing, I said, oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, he's a linebacker in the Southeastern Conference. That's
Speaker 1: quite the balancing act, isn't it. How do you balance
Speaker 1: that with football and being one of the best linebackers
Speaker 1: in the conference.
Speaker 5: Not that had you just got to be humble with it.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm a humble guy. So once you humble,
Speaker 5: everything just it's gonna come to you. So I'm just
Speaker 5: a very humble guy, you know, keep God first and
Speaker 5: everything else gonna come to me.
Speaker 1: We're talking to JJ Weaver about being a member of
Speaker 1: the All State Good Works Team, now eligible for the
Speaker 1: Danny Warfel Trophy. Billy Miller's with us from All State.
Speaker 1: But what would you like to add here?
Speaker 6: No, I just I'm so proud of you know, and
Speaker 6: I would add that everyone on behalf of All State
Speaker 6: is so proud of these twenty two students and head
Speaker 6: coach for making it being elected to the twenty twenty
Speaker 6: four All State a FCA Good Works Team. Hand these
Speaker 6: this this selection committee handpicked these students, at student athletes
Speaker 6: and head coach from a record one hundred and seventy
Speaker 6: eight nominees representing every corner of the country. So we're
Speaker 6: so proud of all of them, including JJ Hare.
Speaker 1: Jj. You guys are coming off that big win over
Speaker 1: Old Miss, and I know people look at you as
Speaker 1: a football player, but I think if they looked at
Speaker 1: your biography as I did, and I knew this going in,
Speaker 1: you're a lot more, aren't you. You're a guy who
Speaker 1: plays football, You're not just a football player. And I
Speaker 1: think these these programs you're part of that that proves that,
Speaker 1: doesn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, most definitely we go yeah, UK, we go thing
Speaker 5: about four for forty you got four years, forty years off, so.
Speaker 4: We take that serious at UK, so we more than
Speaker 4: a football player.
Speaker 1: Most definitely tell me about it as well. The fifteen
Speaker 1: for Freddie Foundation. You started gosh back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, fifteen for Freddy my grandfather. He under the cancer.
Speaker 5: He beat a cancer for four years, then two o
Speaker 5: fourteen he ended up having a stroke and he passed
Speaker 5: away from a stroke.
Speaker 4: That was one of my first loss I ever felt.
Speaker 5: And that was my first foundation I did for him,
Speaker 5: for people who losing who have cancer, who are suffering
Speaker 5: a cancer man, my mom, we did like I was
Speaker 5: a sophomore in high school, junior year in high school,
Speaker 5: so that's when we started. But it's not called fifteen
Speaker 5: for thirty. The more called it perfect fit and I'm
Speaker 5: getting the Nike deal. With Nike they end up giving
Speaker 5: you know, I have six fingers on my right hand,
Speaker 5: so as a child, you know, I was getting bully
Speaker 5: about it and everything, and nikeing up. I usually picked
Speaker 5: five or five five fingers. They made me assist phenis glove.
Speaker 5: I usually picked two pingis in one. So now they
Speaker 5: gave me Osi fin gloved me and my mom came
Speaker 5: with the new logo the new foundation called the Perfect Fit.
Speaker 1: And you talk to the other kids who have the
Speaker 1: same situation, don't you.
Speaker 5: It's definitely like last year. I went to elementary school
Speaker 5: Taste Week. Elementary talked to the kids two end up
Speaker 5: two kids having six fingers and it was amazing.
Speaker 1: Wow, what are the odds of that? I wonder?
Speaker 4: Definitely gonna Stephanie was it was crazy.
Speaker 1: I know you're terribly proud to be a part of
Speaker 1: the All State Good Works Team, but that's not why
Speaker 1: you do this. As I said, you've been doing this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff for a long time. You feel like
Speaker 1: being a part of the All State Good Works Team
Speaker 1: can can help encourage other athletes to give back a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, most definitely. A lot of my teammates honored and
Speaker 5: they want to help me. So it's an honor just
Speaker 5: to be on an All State good Ers team. But
Speaker 5: the work I've been doing for over the years, you're
Speaker 5: just the love I have for others. You know, I'm
Speaker 5: just a caring person, so I'm always working on others,
Speaker 5: working on making sure everybody else straight around me.
Speaker 1: You were like this back at old More High School,
Speaker 1: weren't you in Louisville.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what it started from. It started from going
Speaker 5: to More High School.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I was the first ever big time athlete to come
Speaker 5: out of More High School. You know, so there's an
Speaker 5: anemost definitely just to put on from the kids back
Speaker 5: at More High School.
Speaker 1: Well, growing up in Louisville, as I did, we knew
Speaker 1: More if it had a good basketball team. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you didn't think much about football, did you. A lot
Speaker 1: of pride was that. Well, while I've got you, I
Speaker 1: got to ask you about what it's been like since
Speaker 1: you guys, And of course I fly with the team,
Speaker 1: but I'm in the back of the plane. You know.
Speaker 1: You guys are are back on campus before I get
Speaker 1: to my car at the airport. But I'm wondering what
Speaker 1: has it been like for you coming You've got a
Speaker 1: little time off. We talked about that little rest, relaxation,
Speaker 1: But tell me about what life has been like since
Speaker 1: pulling off that upset man, Man, wonderful.
Speaker 5: You know, we needed that big one. You know, we
Speaker 5: lost to South Carolina. That hurt us. You know, we
Speaker 5: was in in dolphire Georgia, you know, and then DOLPHI
Speaker 5: we old man.
Speaker 4: So we got it.
Speaker 5: You know, we almost as I keep batting bounding every
Speaker 5: other week. You know, our next our next opponent's vending
Speaker 5: Beild and we're not gonna take vending Beild like it's
Speaker 5: another SEC opponent.
Speaker 4: You know, SEC have the.
Speaker 5: One of the best conference in the nation, So we
Speaker 5: gotta look forward to keep fighting chopping chopping wood every year.
Speaker 1: You're part of a defense that now really you guys
Speaker 1: play fairly well against SoC Carolina, great against Georgia, great
Speaker 1: against Dole Miss. It's becoming I think perhaps the identity
Speaker 1: of this Kentucky team and people across the country now
Speaker 1: are seeing just how good your defense is. What is
Speaker 1: it like to be a part of that?
Speaker 5: Man, you know, I mean for six years and I
Speaker 5: tell the guy, this is one of the best defense
Speaker 5: I've been in a UK.
Speaker 4: You know, the brothers is tight. You know, we battle
Speaker 4: every day.
Speaker 5: You know, we we argue like brothers, you know, so
Speaker 5: it's once you argue each other.
Speaker 4: You know, he got my back off the field. So man,
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 5: Ain't gonna lie love it, you know, I know they
Speaker 5: got my back, so I can go to war with
Speaker 5: these with these guys, you know, I know they're gonna
Speaker 5: stand on all ten for I mean, I'm gonna stay
Speaker 5: all ten for them.
Speaker 4: So it's a I love this team, this defense. I know.
Speaker 4: I know we got the.
Speaker 5: Chance to to upset a lot of teams this year.
Speaker 1: I know that when you were going through your toughest
Speaker 1: times with your family members and your coach and your injury,
Speaker 1: being a part of the team was your extended family.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I got to think that with this work you're
Speaker 1: doing now with a bereatman group on campus, you're trying
Speaker 1: to extend that kind of feeling like that that friendship
Speaker 1: that you know people can bond over over things like
Speaker 1: this and and and handle their mourning their grief.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Most definitely.
Speaker 5: Like I said, I didn't know a lot of my
Speaker 5: teammates lost a mom or dad, So that made us
Speaker 5: even more closer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a. That's a that's a that's the goal.
Speaker 5: I have making more worldwide at university in Kentucky period.
Speaker 5: You know, I want to have a I want to
Speaker 5: build me a house fut grieving for all for Yeah,
Speaker 5: most thefit for the whole state of Kentucky. Anybody ages
Speaker 5: ages from forty through you through thirteen, you know that's
Speaker 5: the goal I want to have or even younger.
Speaker 4: So that's me.
Speaker 1: Well, I lost my dad when I was little, when
Speaker 1: I was eight, and it just rocks your world. I
Speaker 1: know that. But I know how important family can be.
Speaker 1: And and again, as I said, you didn't set out
Speaker 1: to win any awards, but it's all those fitting that
Speaker 1: you're part of the Good Works team and then the
Speaker 1: running for the word For Trophy, And I would think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a great help if you end up
Speaker 1: winning the worf For Trophy. Just getting that message out
Speaker 1: even more is going to mean a lot to you,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 5: Most definitely it's gonna You're gonna even put the ice
Speaker 5: on the cake for me right there. I mean I
Speaker 5: can do a lot with that, just show the stale
Speaker 5: can take you.
Speaker 4: That's more than that. So most definitely.
Speaker 1: Showed a nation Billy. Is there anything else we need
Speaker 1: to know?
Speaker 6: No, I just tell fans, as you said, JJ's in
Speaker 6: the running for the All State Warflo Trophy.
Speaker 4: So go vote.
Speaker 6: You can go vote at ESPN dot com slash all.
Speaker 1: State sounds good, JJ and enjoy the time. I know
Speaker 1: your guys are back at practicing, but you guys got
Speaker 1: to be walking a little taller I think these days.
Speaker 4: Right Yeah, just up and high right now. Most definitely.
Speaker 1: That's Kentucky linebacker JJ Weaver, part of the All State
Speaker 1: Good Works team and now in the running for the
Speaker 1: Warfle Trophy. And we're back in just a minute here
Speaker 1: on the Big Mollon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to JJ Weaver for joining us. Coming up
Speaker 1: and hour number two. Sean Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, joins
Speaker 1: us each and every Wednesday, as well as Weston Bureau
Speaker 1: Chief Gary Moore. A couple of other notes for you
Speaker 1: before we hit the Braak. Diamonds Sports Group, which carries
Speaker 1: the local broadcasts of the Cincinnati Reds, says we're out
Speaker 1: on all but one of the twelve Major League teams
Speaker 1: that now televises. Those other cities will either need to
Speaker 1: renegotiate new contracts with Diamond or find another option elsewhere.
Speaker 1: So diamond says we're good with the Braves, but now
Speaker 1: the Reds, the Tigers, the Royals, the Los Angeles Angels,
Speaker 1: the Marlins, Myke Cardinals, and the Tampa Bay Rays are
Speaker 1: without a broadcast partner. They may end up back with Diamond,
Speaker 1: but as of right now they're out and the Reds
Speaker 1: and those other teams likely if they stay with them,
Speaker 1: we'll have to take less money, and nobody wants that
Speaker 1: somebody will have them, But now it is up in
Speaker 1: the air. Kentucky fans who keep track of former Wildcats,
Speaker 1: you might know that Kevin Knox spent the last season
Speaker 1: for the most part in the G League with the
Speaker 1: Rip City Remix and now he has signed with the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Got to make the squad, but he averaged last year
Speaker 1: twenty two and a half points, almost nine rebounds, and
Speaker 1: almost three assists per game. He's only twenty five years old,
Speaker 1: still got a lot of good basketball ahead of him,
Speaker 1: but he has not had the career, of course, that
Speaker 1: he hoped and that others had predicted for him. And again,
Speaker 1: maybe he should have stayed another year. But Kevin Knox,
Speaker 1: now with a shot at making the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: saw an interesting note on the interweb about Shannon Sharp,
Speaker 1: who's now Talking Head, used to be a great receiver
Speaker 1: in the NFL, and he said when he had just
Speaker 1: signed with the Ravens. He had some money to play
Speaker 1: around with, and he told his financial guy, I would
Speaker 1: like to buy three hundred thousand dollars worth of Google stock.
Speaker 1: And his financial guy said, Nope, it's overpriced, don't do it.
Speaker 1: It's worth more than three trillion now. And Sharp was
Speaker 1: talking to Mark Cuban about it. He said, I would
Speaker 1: have been a billionaire with you about that. It wasn't
Speaker 1: quite the same, but it reminds me of when Adolph
Speaker 1: Rupp got some advice from Ty Cobb about stock and
Speaker 1: Rubb was like, no, I don't think so. Turned out
Speaker 1: to be Coca Cola before we hit the brake. I
Speaker 1: gotta share this with you. It's the call from the
Speaker 1: Alabama Georgia game via the Japan Network. They were calling
Speaker 1: the game. Don't know if they were there, did it
Speaker 1: off TV, but here it is. That guy must have
Speaker 1: had a bet on the game. I remember two is
Speaker 1: next with Sean Woods and Gary Moore A on six
Speaker 1: thirty w A p. Welcome back to the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and Cider join us down our celebrity hotline as he
Speaker 1: does each and every Wednesday. Is the Unforgettable Guard. Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: a Jersey hangs in the rafters of rup coach. Before
Speaker 1: I get to talking about Kentucky basketball and basketball in general,
Speaker 1: your thoughts, first of all, in the passing of Pete Rose,
Speaker 1: because you and I have talked baseball before, and you
Speaker 1: liked playing baseball, and you grew up in Central Indiana,
Speaker 1: which I don't know if it's still REDG country, but
Speaker 1: for the longest time, Indianapolis was a Red Triple A affiliate.
Speaker 7: Yeah in the UH Indian the Indians too, Yeah, not
Speaker 7: Indians Montreal, Uh yeah, the Indianapolis Indians was the was
Speaker 7: the minor league for the UH. I couldn't remember, but
Speaker 7: I know, uh yes, changed a lot. And then also
Speaker 7: I grew up in Gary. I was we were my
Speaker 7: little league team, Brunswick Little League was two games away
Speaker 7: from making a Little league wor.
Speaker 1: Up there though, Yeah, no kidding, Wow.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So I've had a you know, major experience in
Speaker 8: baseball and then you know, watching you know, pros and
Speaker 8: Major League all my life, and you know, how can
Speaker 8: you not watch Pete Rose, who was the epitome of
Speaker 8: what hard work and over achievement was all about. And
Speaker 8: as a kid, you know, especially you know, there was
Speaker 8: no social media back then about people's personal lives and
Speaker 8: things like that. You know, growing up knowing what we knew,
Speaker 8: he was as pure as ivory Snow, you know what
Speaker 8: I'm saying. You know, as far as his work ethic,
Speaker 8: you know, gave one hundred and ten percent, Charlie Hustle,
Speaker 8: the whole nine yards. But you know, like everyone else,
Speaker 8: you know, everybody has a life, and you know, I
Speaker 8: didn't got to a point in my life where you know,
Speaker 8: it's not about judging people anymore, you know, and I
Speaker 8: think that you know, whatever happened, you know with his
Speaker 8: gambling and betting on baseball, did he make a major mistake? Yeah,
Speaker 8: but what he did on the baseball field as a
Speaker 8: player cannot be denied. And there's no you can't talk
Speaker 8: about baseball and have a Hall of Fame. I don't
Speaker 8: care without Pete Rose being in there. You know, you
Speaker 8: got I wasn't around when Ty Cobb was around, But man,
Speaker 8: I'm sure Ty Cobb was more of a tyrant thing
Speaker 8: than Pete Rose was. Looking at a documentaries and things
Speaker 8: like that, and you know, some people who made more
Speaker 8: mistakes you look at, you know, these other players with
Speaker 8: drug problems and domestic violence situations, and they still got in.
Speaker 8: You know, he made him at a mistake, but no
Speaker 8: one proved that he was betting on the Reds when
Speaker 8: he was the manager. But I don't think that that
Speaker 8: keeps him from being in the Hall of Fame because
Speaker 8: the Hall of Fame is not about your personal life.
Speaker 8: The Hall of Fame is but you can get in
Speaker 8: that particular sport while you were playing, and that's what
Speaker 8: you got to be.
Speaker 4: You know, uh.
Speaker 8: Looked upon as you know, yeah, and he did that.
Speaker 8: You know, no one hit you know, he's the best
Speaker 8: hitter in the history of baseball.
Speaker 1: The qualities have made him a great player, I mean
Speaker 1: by sheer force of his will, because when he first
Speaker 1: came up, he was kind of a pudgy, unathletic guy.
Speaker 1: Although I don't know how you could describe him as
Speaker 1: unathletic looking at the achievements that he that he had,
Speaker 1: but like the hard work, the work ethic, you know.
Speaker 1: And when they first called him Charlie Hustle, some of
Speaker 1: the players are kind of making fun of them. They
Speaker 1: had to swallow their words because Hustle is what made
Speaker 1: him one of the greatest ever. And I know, a
Speaker 1: guy like you, even though you coach a different sport.
Speaker 1: You got to love that when you see that in
Speaker 1: an athlete, no matter what the sport.
Speaker 8: Oh, he's a winner. You know, who doesn't want to
Speaker 8: coach that? That's right, you know, he's a winner. You
Speaker 8: know what you're going to get day in and day out,
Speaker 8: and you want to be able to count on players,
Speaker 8: you know, as a coach and every day I know
Speaker 8: their manager whoever he was at the particular time, could
Speaker 8: knew when he was going to get out of Pete Rose. Yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, he was the most consistent baseball player maybe
Speaker 8: in the history of baseball.
Speaker 1: It's been really interesting for me partnering with Doug Flynn
Speaker 1: on UK baseball games and hearing the Pete stories on
Speaker 1: and off the field. You know, Pete introduced Doug. Do
Speaker 1: was to Doug's wife. They've been married for more than
Speaker 1: forty years. Pete was the one who broke the news
Speaker 1: to Doug about Doug being traded to the Mets, you know,
Speaker 1: and Doug was one of the guys I'm not going
Speaker 1: to repeat the word that Sparky Anderson used, guys who
Speaker 1: were not in the starting lineup, but you know the
Speaker 1: guys who were, they were penciled in every day, and
Speaker 1: yet the guys on the bench were held at the
Speaker 1: same standards that Pete Rose held himself to and his
Speaker 1: other teammates. So, like I said, and like you said,
Speaker 1: what coach wouldn't want to coach a guy like that?
Speaker 1: Let me shift gears over there.
Speaker 8: You're talking about Doug Flynn. Now, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: It doesn't get it any better than him, you know,
Speaker 8: as far as morals and morality and doing the right thing.
Speaker 8: And for him to look up to a guy like
Speaker 8: Pete Rose and not have too many negative things to say,
Speaker 8: come on, that speaks volumes. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I think the.
Speaker 8: World at Dug Flinn. I have so much respect for
Speaker 8: Doug Flynn and he if he okays your character, then
Speaker 8: you're pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And you know, and Pete Rose, all kudos from Doug Flynn.
Speaker 8: And from that standpoint behind the world. Can he be
Speaker 8: out of out of baseball?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Well, Dougs conflicted about that, turno.
Speaker 1: Doug has conflicted. Dougs conflicted about that too. But I
Speaker 1: think ultimately what you say is right.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, betting on baseball, I get that. Yeah,
Speaker 8: but you know, time heals all things. Let time he'll
Speaker 8: you know what I mean, pete rose and I just
Speaker 8: don't get that they didn't Let time he'll pee rose situation.
Speaker 1: Let me shift you over to Kentucky football and I
Speaker 1: know that again we've talked about how much of a
Speaker 1: football fan you are. What was it like for you
Speaker 1: Saturday watching and I hope you listen to the radio
Speaker 1: as well, watching your beloved Wildcats pull off that upset?
Speaker 8: What did I tell you the week before? And he
Speaker 8: was like, you know, should they pack it in? This?
Speaker 4: And that?
Speaker 8: So on and so forth. You know, people give in
Speaker 8: Stuits a hard time. You know, it's move on to
Speaker 8: the next one, you know. So you had an opportunity
Speaker 8: to beat the number one team in the conference. You
Speaker 8: were right there. What is so amazing about Stoops and
Speaker 8: his staff is these guys believe in them. They no
Speaker 8: matter what their record is, They're coming to work every
Speaker 8: single day. They giving it everything they got. And when
Speaker 8: you can compete like that every single day, it gives
Speaker 8: you a chance. And in sports, that's all you want
Speaker 8: is a chance. And you know I judge coaches on
Speaker 8: that more so than wins and losses, because you know,
Speaker 8: you only going to be as good as your players.
Speaker 8: You can be the best motivator known and man, you
Speaker 8: can have all the ex'es and oo's, but if your
Speaker 8: Jim and Joe's don't line up, you have no shot.
Speaker 8: And He's continued to keep these guys motivated, hungry, they
Speaker 8: still have a vision. And you lose to Georgia, you
Speaker 8: know what I'm saying. Had them beat that was the
Speaker 8: biggest morale builders that they could have had. And the
Speaker 8: next opponent that they were playing was in trouble and
Speaker 8: it showed, you know, you got the number one defense.
Speaker 8: I think they're the best defense in America myself, you know,
Speaker 8: because you don't hold these high powered offenses under twenty
Speaker 8: points or twenty one points under. You know, that's given
Speaker 8: you a chance. And you know they always say that,
Speaker 8: you know, offense brings you know, people, puts people in
Speaker 8: the stands. The defense wins championships. Well, hey, this defense
Speaker 8: may carry them all the way to where they're trying
Speaker 8: to go to a to a bowl. Deal because no
Speaker 8: one gave after they lost to South Carolina, no one
Speaker 8: gave them a shot except to beat Vanderbilt. And look
Speaker 8: at them right now, every team in the SEC is
Speaker 8: scared to play them because you know, you got to
Speaker 8: bring your pail head, you know what I'm saying every possession.
Speaker 1: I wonder I don't know if you've ever had any
Speaker 1: interaction with Vince Marrow, but as a professional coach, I'm
Speaker 1: wondering your thoughts on what Vince said about the fact
Speaker 1: that after the South Carolina lost Stoops not only had
Speaker 1: to kind of coach up the players, but he had
Speaker 1: to coach up the coaches and kind of got the
Speaker 1: coaches reinvested in and re excited about what was going on.
Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting and it and it worked.
Speaker 8: Well. You know what, that's your job as a coach.
Speaker 8: You got to coach everybody, you know, and and if
Speaker 8: football is a little bit different than basketball, because head coach,
Speaker 8: don't you know you can't be hands on or both
Speaker 8: both ends of the I mean both sides of the ball. Yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, but you can motivate these guys to do
Speaker 8: their job and to stay enthusiastic. Stay enthusiastic, because if
Speaker 8: your coaches are coming out of that meeting room or there,
Speaker 8: or the players are going into the meeting room and
Speaker 8: their coaches attitude is, you know, whatever it is, everybody
Speaker 8: feeds on that, and when you lose, everybody's looking for misery.
Speaker 8: Everyone they're looking at each other to see how each
Speaker 8: other is going to respond. And that's how to overcome
Speaker 8: and for stoops to overcome that, your whole building, not
Speaker 8: just your players, but your coaches are down. You know,
Speaker 8: do you know how quick you can lose your team
Speaker 8: just because of that? Yeah, he could have lost his
Speaker 8: team two weeks ago. And the fact that he's got
Speaker 8: everybody on board. He's probably done the best coaching job
Speaker 8: in America right now and they're not underseated just because
Speaker 8: of the circumstances.
Speaker 1: Shawn Woods is my guest, the Unforgettable Guard. We'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk more with Sean on the other side
Speaker 1: of the break here on six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Unforgettable Guard Shawn Woods. And before I
Speaker 1: ask about the UK's Pro Day and madness coming up,
Speaker 1: you said something before the break that I've never heard before,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious. She said, when things are going bad,
Speaker 1: everybody looks for people look for misery. What do you
Speaker 1: mean by that?
Speaker 8: Because you're looking for someone that you're looking for here
Speaker 8: we go. You know what I mean, isn't worth anymore? Yeah,
Speaker 8: you know in an athlete. Today's athlete are so impressed
Speaker 8: with social media. They read all that stuff. You can't
Speaker 8: you can't hide it anymore. So kids see and hear
Speaker 8: the negativity that goes on with a coach, and sometimes
Speaker 8: a kid can lose respect. Your parents get involved. You know,
Speaker 8: the coach may not have played you as much, so
Speaker 8: you got that I told you so attitude or waiting
Speaker 8: for the next guy to fail, you know, and that
Speaker 8: that that just infest into your camp and it becomes
Speaker 8: a negative sea that you can't you know, and it's
Speaker 8: like a fire that you can't stop. And for him
Speaker 8: to stop that within six days.
Speaker 1: It is miraculous interesting.
Speaker 8: You know, I was shocked that people were talking down
Speaker 8: on him early. This is Kentucky. We you know what
Speaker 8: I'm saying. Whoever decided the ads and the president decided
Speaker 8: to bring in all these big twelve schools and things
Speaker 8: like that to the SEC and make it more competitive,
Speaker 8: you just made it more harder for yourself, so you
Speaker 8: didn't give your own program a chance, you know what
Speaker 8: I'm saying. So now this man has showed you that
Speaker 8: even though we are Kentucky, we still we can still
Speaker 8: compete with the best, which they are speaks volumes. You know,
Speaker 8: sometimes you can't fire a coaches. You can't get down
Speaker 8: on the coach because of his record. You got to
Speaker 8: understand the circumstances, and his circumstances are way tougher than
Speaker 8: Georgia Alabama. You know, Texas, you understand what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 8: from that dead point, you're playing at a high level,
Speaker 8: just as high as any team in the league right now,
Speaker 8: even though you lost by too. You know, if Alabama
Speaker 8: and Georgia play tomorrow, somebody's gonna lose, right, But if
Speaker 8: Georgia beats Alabama twenty one to twenty three, does that
Speaker 8: make Alabama a subpar SEC school?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 8: And for Kentucky to be in that mix them be
Speaker 8: able to compete and give give themselves a chance to
Speaker 8: win every Saturday in the SEC. Oh my gosh, it's
Speaker 8: not traditionally to a top SEC school.
Speaker 1: Come on, well, let me shift over to basketball in
Speaker 1: the time we have remaining UK Pro Day coming up Monday.
Speaker 1: Madness is on the way. We all know about the
Speaker 1: value of madness when it comes to recruiting and being
Speaker 1: a window into Kentucky basketball. But how do you feel
Speaker 1: about Pro Day. That's something cali Perry created. For one thing,
Speaker 1: it kind of gave him more control over the pro scouts,
Speaker 1: but it was also a way to further celebrate UK basketball.
Speaker 1: It was something innovative. Whatever you felt about Cali Perry,
Speaker 1: he's an innovator and this was just another way to
Speaker 1: bring the spotlight back to election and didn't have it
Speaker 1: when you were playing, of course, But what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that today?
Speaker 8: I thought, like you said, and Cal was was an innovator.
Speaker 8: You know a lot of teams, a lot of schools
Speaker 8: start to do what he was doing, and like, like
Speaker 8: now it's magnetized even more. Every kid thinks they're pro.
Speaker 8: Every kid wants to be a pro, so they're gonna
Speaker 8: go to the spot to where there their chances of
Speaker 8: becoming a pro are much greater. Just think about it
Speaker 8: for a minute. Cal's got so many guys in the
Speaker 8: NBA right now and are playing at a high level.
Speaker 8: Just think of how many guys didn't even didn't even
Speaker 8: average double figures while they're here at Kentucky. You know,
Speaker 8: that's huge and the only way they could do that
Speaker 8: is get these pro scouts in here to see the
Speaker 8: real them because in the game there's only so many shots.
Speaker 8: You know, that doesn't mean if that kid can't be
Speaker 8: a pro because he's not. He's on the shoot two
Speaker 8: three times a game. So Cal brought, you know, invited
Speaker 8: the pros into his camp to see the real person,
Speaker 8: that the real player that he had, because you know,
Speaker 8: come game time, that's the same kid that everybody's high on.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 8: You know, that may be a late first round pick
Speaker 8: or he's a second round pick, may only played seven
Speaker 8: minutes a game or ten minutes a game. So from
Speaker 8: that standpoint, he was a hit and two. From a
Speaker 8: recruiting standpoint, doesn't want to practice the front of pro.
Speaker 1: Goodness?
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying. Who doesn't want to practice?
Speaker 8: And I thought last year there was only one guy
Speaker 8: that had hurt because it just messed him up mentally.
Speaker 1: Was justin Newicks, Yeah, no question, justin.
Speaker 8: Thatwi was was the deal up until pro up until
Speaker 8: pro day. Pro Day. I was there. He didn't play well,
Speaker 8: couldn't make a shot, and and he carried he thought
Speaker 8: that that was his one chance to play against pro
Speaker 8: I've been playing in front of the pros, and he
Speaker 8: thought he messed up, and you know, for him to
Speaker 8: go through what he went through, and and still, you know,
Speaker 8: because he was so touted coming out of high school
Speaker 8: that he was a can't miss that even though he
Speaker 8: had a subpart year, it still gave him an opportunity
Speaker 8: to get drafted because of what he played for cal
Speaker 8: and he played at Kentucky and the tradition of guys
Speaker 8: that don't do as well from a percentage standpoint, the
Speaker 8: odds of them doing well in the NBA are pretty
Speaker 8: good compared to some other guys.
Speaker 1: The Kentucky effect.
Speaker 8: The Kentucky effect. If he's anywhere else, I don't think
Speaker 8: he gets drafted like he did.
Speaker 1: He's in a position that it No, you're absolutely right,
Speaker 1: and for better or worse, it's a Kentucky effect, and
Speaker 1: oftentimes it is for the better. And like you said,
Speaker 1: who wouldn't want to play in front of scouts? I
Speaker 1: mean scouts go everywhere, you know that, but yeah, but
Speaker 1: to have an army of scouts and to have it nationally.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's like you had basketball camp in high school
Speaker 8: and you're playing in front of thousands of you know,
Speaker 8: hundreds of of college scouts and coaches. It's the same situation.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, Yeah, those summer events like an AU.
Speaker 8: Tournament that's like an AAU basketball camp or whatever, five
Speaker 8: star BC Nike camp. That's what it feels like. Yeah,
Speaker 8: when you playing in front of these scouts like that,
Speaker 8: because it's an evaluation that you're getting that's magnetized. People
Speaker 8: just dream of that. So why am I not going
Speaker 8: to a touch Please recruit in Kentucky because I want
Speaker 8: to play in front of this type of situation. They
Speaker 8: have the opportunity to uh to to to you know better,
Speaker 8: my family and for still a dream of playing at
Speaker 8: the NBA.
Speaker 1: Just give me a chance and put me in front
Speaker 1: of those scouts and I'll show you exactly.
Speaker 8: They're not coming to more Head, they ain't coming to
Speaker 8: this city state. Maybe a few of them, few, you know,
Speaker 8: the NBA team was represented at cows Hill.
Speaker 1: Every NBA team sometimes more than once. Yes, yes, because
Speaker 1: there are scouts and then there are checkers. The same
Speaker 1: thing in baseball. I'm scouting a kid, Why don't you
Speaker 1: go look at him and tell me if what I
Speaker 1: saw was right. So, yeah, you're going to get a scout,
Speaker 1: maybe an assistant coach at GM maybe a head coach.
Speaker 1: So that just swells the ranks, doesn't it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And then you know people knew that I was
Speaker 8: going to practice. Every day, I would get calls from
Speaker 8: scout saying, tell me what he's looking like right there?
Speaker 8: Really tell me this? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 8: Well, so you know they do their homework and they'll
Speaker 8: continue to call and check in. You know that they
Speaker 8: can't make it in, They're gonna call somebody who they respect,
Speaker 8: you know, and you know it's it's bigger than what
Speaker 8: you think.
Speaker 1: Well, it happens on Monday the seventh, and I'll actually
Speaker 1: be on the TV side with Jack Gibbons and hope
Speaker 1: to see their coach. Thanks as always, all right, Dick,
Speaker 1: I'll be there.
Speaker 8: I'll see you on Monday.
Speaker 1: Up next, West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore right here
Speaker 1: on six thirty Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider.
Speaker 1: It is Wednesday. That means we look to the west,
Speaker 1: look to our West n Bureau Chief Gary Moore at
Speaker 1: the other end of I sixty four. The word sports
Speaker 1: for a long time for us on the West coast
Speaker 1: for KAILA West Radio, but now he's back in La
Speaker 1: Louisville area and often comes to us with so much
Speaker 1: on his mind.
Speaker 9: Two guys and a six pack, you and me and
Speaker 9: six swigs as we say, And Dick, I just want
Speaker 9: to preface this by saying that I had a very
Speaker 9: unforgettable moment with Pete Rose at Dodger Stadium before he
Speaker 9: was ever banned, although it was that same summer now,
Speaker 9: And I'll go into that on our last swig here.
Speaker 1: Okay, because I think you'll you'll enjoy this.
Speaker 9: But our first swig here kick things off. Let me
Speaker 9: just say, because I haven't had a chance to talk
Speaker 9: to you about it yet, Mark Stoops has guts. Say
Speaker 9: it again, Mark Stoops has guts. And because Mark Stoopens
Speaker 9: has guts, UK football and Big Blue Nation is still
Speaker 9: reveling in glory. Fourth and seven, we know the whole state.
Speaker 9: This is like the greatest This is the greatest game
Speaker 9: of Stoops's career. I think fourth and seven, four minutes,
Speaker 9: four seconds to play from their own twenty, and they
Speaker 9: go for it. Dick, normally, as Dennis Miller once said,
Speaker 9: you only see balls that big chasing Indiana Jones. Okay,
Speaker 9: clearly a game plan from Brad and Bush, DC and
Speaker 9: OC that worked. A surgical perfection and it couldn't happen
Speaker 9: against a better coach because in La Dick we had
Speaker 9: to put up with some of Kiffin's crap.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, on a.
Speaker 9: Daily basis just a real pain in the rear end.
Speaker 9: So good for them. Now the Cats get one of well,
Speaker 9: the first of two bye weeks this season. They return
Speaker 9: home to Vandy a week from Saturday. So I ask you,
Speaker 9: between now and then, besides everybody getting arrest from some
Speaker 9: already intense SEC games, who needs to heal up and
Speaker 9: what has to happen?
Speaker 1: Well, I think they would love to get Chip train
Speaker 1: them back eventually, you know, the guy with the running back.
Speaker 1: They brought in to key their offense, at least their
Speaker 1: ground attack, and yet they've done pretty well without them.
Speaker 1: All all hail let me sum will karn Bay. But man,
Speaker 1: a couple of freshmen, especially Willcox, just as Jeff Pacrosse's
Speaker 1: runs angry. You know he didn't create that, but he
Speaker 1: applies it to him, And boy, what a job they did.
Speaker 1: That's to me Gary, And there were so many things
Speaker 1: to be impressed about. Is what impressed me the most
Speaker 1: about Kentucky is the way ground out the offense and
Speaker 1: forced ole miss to play defense for longer stretches than
Speaker 1: it has all season, control the pace of the game.
Speaker 1: And I think when they can get linemen healthy again,
Speaker 1: they'll be even better at it. And did Maxwell Harriston
Speaker 1: back right?
Speaker 9: And when you can control the game for forty minutes
Speaker 9: oh man out of sixty?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you got.
Speaker 9: A good chance of winning. So our second swig in
Speaker 9: the six pack Cats have Saturday offense? Do my Hilltoppers
Speaker 9: who dropped a winnable game at Boston College, Like some
Speaker 9: of the receivers dropped wide open passes, especially in that
Speaker 9: fourth quarter when they could have well, it probably cost
Speaker 9: him the game, to be honest with you. And by
Speaker 9: the way, I think that's a very underemphasized stat in
Speaker 9: both college and in the pros dropped passes. You know
Speaker 9: it being a Packers fan, I think, And well it's
Speaker 9: not under emphasized for Saquon Barkley this season. But anyway,
Speaker 9: we go on number twenty two, Louisville back home after
Speaker 9: basically beating themselves up at South ben and the Notre
Speaker 9: Dame loss, they'll face four to one SMU Mustangs. The
Speaker 9: Mustang's latest to abuse and degrade Florida State forty two
Speaker 9: to sixteen cards had better play their a game. This
Speaker 9: could be some sort of a trap game. Their seven
Speaker 9: point favorite out at the stadium on Saturday. Any other
Speaker 9: games looked like fun? Well, we got number nine Missoo
Speaker 9: at number twenty five Texas A and m Aggie's a
Speaker 9: two point favorite. Number twelve Old Mess at South Carolina
Speaker 9: Rebels a nine and a half point favorite.
Speaker 4: That one.
Speaker 9: Number one Bama at Vandy probably not a trap game.
Speaker 9: Number twenty three Indiana at Northwestern possibly a trap game,
Speaker 9: but I think the Hoosiers will win. And dick two
Speaker 9: ridiculous examples of expanding conferences for the money whores that
Speaker 9: are running them. For example, UCLA flying four thousand, five
Speaker 9: hundred miles round trip to get their brewin butts blistered
Speaker 9: at number seven Penn State a twenty eight point favorite.
Speaker 9: But wait, Miami says, hold on to our Gatorade. Number
Speaker 9: eight Hurricanes flying five thousand, one hundred and seventy six
Speaker 9: miles from Miami to Berkeley to play cal where you
Speaker 9: can see the Pacific Ocean from the Berkeley campus while
Speaker 9: you're playing an Atlantic Coast Conference game? Am I not
Speaker 9: the only one shaking his head in this.
Speaker 1: You know what's gonna happen here, don't you? What's that?
Speaker 1: This is all going to wear down on these athletes
Speaker 1: and coaches will begin to complain yep, and administrators will
Speaker 1: begin to see the fact that, hey, this isn't working
Speaker 1: very well when dopes like you and I saw it
Speaker 1: two years ago, what are you thinking? And again, it's
Speaker 1: not just the football teams only. It's exacerbated by the
Speaker 1: size of the travel party. And as you know, I
Speaker 1: travel with UK and by the way, the team that
Speaker 1: flies into Penn State, no matter who it is, I'll
Speaker 1: guarantee you there's a bus ride waiting for him, because
Speaker 1: what airport near that university is big enough for one
Speaker 1: of those jumbo jetliners. Yeah, not that it matters. After
Speaker 1: you've already flown across the country. What's another hour bus ride,
Speaker 1: you know, with your knees in your chest. So, oh,
Speaker 1: this is stupid.
Speaker 9: Something's going to have to happen. We'll address that, I
Speaker 9: think a little bit later on. Oh yeah, here our
Speaker 9: third swig and the six packs. Let's go on to
Speaker 9: the NFL, both here and in the mother country this
Speaker 9: weekend Dick Tomorrow Night, Thursday Night Football three and one
Speaker 9: Tampa Bay at number two at the two and two
Speaker 9: Atlanta Falcons. That's going to be on Amazon at eight
Speaker 9: to fifteen Falcons a point and a half favorite. Early
Speaker 9: Sunday morning, I know you'll be up at nine thirty
Speaker 9: with a pine of London Pride from London Town Tottenham's
Speaker 9: Hot Spurs Stadium. Two and two Jets, who look beyond
Speaker 9: awful against Denver, face the four and oh Vikings, who
Speaker 9: looked somewhat decent against your Packers. They're at the Lambo
Speaker 9: over the weekend. Vikings are only two and a half
Speaker 9: point favorite, though in that game. Must see games on Sunday, well,
Speaker 9: I think the big one up I seventy five Ravens
Speaker 9: two and a half point favorites at the Bengals.
Speaker 1: That's at one o'clock.
Speaker 9: You also get at one o'clock in Houston the Bills
Speaker 9: and the Texans. Your Packers out West my old stomping
Speaker 9: grounds against the Rams. Packers a three and a half
Speaker 9: point favorite, and then you got Dallas and Pittsburgh, reminding
Speaker 9: me of Super Bowls. I always hated Sunday night.
Speaker 1: Monday Night.
Speaker 9: Only one game that's the Saints and the Chiefs. So
Speaker 9: I ask you what happens if the Bengals lose to
Speaker 9: the Ravens on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Well, I think they can pack it in because it's
Speaker 1: hard enough to come back from oh and two then three,
Speaker 1: they finally get a win, but it's so hard to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs this year playoffs. But I think it
Speaker 1: also underscores, you know's what's wrong with the Bengals. You know,
Speaker 1: they ease their way into a season and make it
Speaker 1: difficult on themselves and in the pass. Their defense really,
Speaker 1: despite having Chase and Burrow, has been the calling card
Speaker 1: and it's not been up up to par lately. So
Speaker 1: if the Rams can score on them, they're in trouble
Speaker 1: the rest of the year.
Speaker 9: Fourth Swig and the six Pack last night, two more
Speaker 9: games in the w NBA Semifinals and two more non
Speaker 9: sellouts in New York and Minneapolis. Why Well, mainly because
Speaker 9: the Taylor Swift of basketball Caitland Clark ain't playing. That's
Speaker 9: one reason. But to be fair, the TV ratings for
Speaker 9: the first two semis on Sunday afternoon up against the
Speaker 9: NFL were pretty decent. In fact, they were a massive
Speaker 9: improvement over the same window from last year by about
Speaker 9: five times Sunday's New York Vegas Game one had nine
Speaker 9: hundred and twenty nine thousand viewers. That's more than all
Speaker 9: four of last year's Finals games. Maybe that's a combination
Speaker 9: of the Caitlin effect and the Olympics, but there's plenty
Speaker 9: of seats still available at both of those arenas. Brooklyn
Speaker 9: at Barclay Center seats about nineteen thousand. They've had just
Speaker 9: over fourteen thousand for the two games, even worse at
Speaker 9: Target Center in Minneapolis, less than eighty eight hundred at
Speaker 9: both games for nineteen thousand plus arena. Now, I haven't
Speaker 9: seen the overnight ratings from Tuesdays games, but after Minnesota
Speaker 9: and Connecticut opened their Game two missing their combined fourteen
Speaker 9: first shots, no, Caitlin Clark, I asked, why would you
Speaker 9: want to see any more of the WNBA, especially those two?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kaitlin Clark. Clearly, it's like Debbie Antonelli calls it clarkonomics.
Speaker 1: It's so simple to see for people to still dig in,
Speaker 1: you know, against the notion that this skinny kid from
Speaker 1: Iowa could have that kind of an effect. But again,
Speaker 1: between Kaylen Clark Asia Wilson, it's easy to draw that
Speaker 1: parallel between them and bird Magic, who saved the NBA.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying these people are saving the WNBA,
Speaker 1: but they're giving it a much needed infusion of interest
Speaker 1: and excitement and Paul play, which it has to be
Speaker 1: that way. I mean, you're not gonna do all that
Speaker 1: with bells and whistles. You've got to be able to play.
Speaker 1: And both of those kids can play incredibly well, and
Speaker 1: there's so much fun to watch.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I agree, Fit Swig. Let's talk Major League. I
Speaker 9: love October baseball. I know you do too, even these
Speaker 9: wild card games like the four we got today in
Speaker 9: the night. That's the best two out of three. Of course,
Speaker 9: division series begin on Saturday, best three out of five
Speaker 9: for that. But the big baseball news for me, along
Speaker 9: with the games, big middle finger to Nike, not once,
Speaker 9: but twice. First, MLB announced that Nike will be going
Speaker 9: back to the original uniform material before this disastrous sweat
Speaker 9: inducing vapor premier junk that they're wearing still wearing, and
Speaker 9: introduce this season and larger letterings so you can actually
Speaker 9: see the names in the back, plus custom tapered pants
Speaker 9: that they stop.
Speaker 4: Doing this season.
Speaker 9: Hey look good, play good, right, and then finally, what
Speaker 9: you and I have been harping about for years now,
Speaker 9: those nausea All Star Game costume pajamas that players have
Speaker 9: had to wear. MLB said, hey, even we can't stomach
Speaker 9: these things, these rags anymore. So MLB came to their senses,
Speaker 9: and all the All Stars from here on out, like
Speaker 9: they used to do proudly from the thirties into twenty nineteen,
Speaker 9: will wear their primary home uniforms in the Midsummer Classic.
Speaker 9: Can I get a Hallelujah?
Speaker 1: I read some place where it said major League Baseball
Speaker 1: listen to his fans, and I really wonder was their
Speaker 1: formal holding. Was there a survey? But my response to
Speaker 1: that is you didn't even need one. I mean, come on.
Speaker 1: But what I'm afraid Gary, is that the merch numbers reflected.
Speaker 1: And I say that because they're making these moves based
Speaker 1: on merch numbers, there are more stupid moves coming up
Speaker 1: in the future, you know. And I will tell you this.
Speaker 1: In my travels this summer, and I flew three or
Speaker 1: four places. I saw one kid, one wearing a jersey
Speaker 1: I think it was at the College World Series wearing
Speaker 1: one of those stupid All Star Game replica jerseys. Saw
Speaker 1: a couple of hats, you know, and I got to
Speaker 1: think those are people. And you're a bit of a
Speaker 1: collector who thought, oh, I'm going to get one and
Speaker 1: add that to my collection. But no one's gonna wear
Speaker 1: that stuff. And I talked about this on the show
Speaker 1: the other night, how much I love Baseball's All Star Game.
Speaker 1: It's the only true competitive all Star game, and I
Speaker 1: just one of my favorite parts is the player introductions
Speaker 1: with all the different uniforms represented and things like that.
Speaker 1: And I might sound like I'm a hundred years old
Speaker 1: and I almost am, but who cares. It's fun. The
Speaker 1: other thing, too about baseball playoffs is baseball from ten
Speaker 1: thousand feet probably has too many teams involved. But like
Speaker 1: you said, when you're right in the middle of it
Speaker 1: and all these games mean so much, imagine what the
Speaker 1: games today are meaning. And some are already in the books.
Speaker 1: You know, teams that just clinched a spot the playoffs
Speaker 1: are celebrating with champagne. That's a good thing. Why would you.
Speaker 9: Want to dilute all of these teams that have the
Speaker 9: legends and the tradition by taking their legendary like the
Speaker 9: Yankees pin stripes or some of these other uniforms away
Speaker 9: right exactly. Yeah, Yeah, finally Dick our sixth and final swig.
Speaker 9: I was leading to. Earlier summer of eighty nine, I
Speaker 9: had one of those memorable moments with Pete Rose. The
Speaker 9: Reds were in town playing the Dodgers, and I was
Speaker 9: down there and I noticed there was a gathering over
Speaker 9: in the visitors dugout where Pete was. Pete was holding court.
Speaker 9: Brent Musburger was there, and a few of us were
Speaker 9: standing around, and somebody's talking about batting stances, about how
Speaker 9: you know Pete would crouch and had that batting stance
Speaker 9: for several years. And he said, you have to be
Speaker 9: comfortable at the plate. He said, for example, Bobby told.
Speaker 9: Then he stood up and he goes Bobby told and
Speaker 9: held the bat way up.
Speaker 1: Here over his head. Yeah, and he did. Fine.
Speaker 9: You got your guy Kurt Gibson right now. Now he's
Speaker 9: got the bat way down here and he holds it
Speaker 9: like this. He said, that's the main thing. You have
Speaker 9: to be comfortable at the plate. You find a stance
Speaker 9: and you work with it and you stick with it.
Speaker 9: And that's like rule one before you even step into
Speaker 9: the box. And as you know, and I know, Pete
Speaker 9: was always great with the media. A lot of people
Speaker 9: may not have seen these kind of things that happened,
Speaker 9: but Pete was always ready to talk to you, good
Speaker 9: mood or bad mood whatever.
Speaker 1: I was at four day four day hiatus.
Speaker 9: Back in seventy five in that World Series between Games
Speaker 9: five and six, Pete went over to the media hotel
Speaker 9: every day to talk to the reporters because they needed stuff.
Speaker 9: You know, there was like four days in between because
Speaker 9: of the head He went to them. Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 9: went over there to talk to them. And yet there
Speaker 9: is the whole betting thing. There's the other side that
Speaker 9: that's unfortunate. In two thousand and two, as Jason Stark
Speaker 9: wrote in The Athletic Yesterday, you know, he had that
Speaker 9: handshake agreement with Bud Selig to fall him the sword
Speaker 9: to press conference, never go into a casino again and
Speaker 9: all that stuff. And what does he do after the
Speaker 9: handshake agreement walks into a casino to a sports book
Speaker 9: and the whole deal was off. And maybe, you know,
Speaker 9: with baseball in bed with betting sites now it's not
Speaker 9: as big a deal. Maybe he felt that, hey, I'd
Speaker 9: rather bet than be in the Hall of Fame. It's
Speaker 9: an addiction. I can't kick whatever. But as we know
Speaker 9: as a player, clearly a Hall of Famer without a doubt.
Speaker 9: But you know, if they had a Hall of Fame
Speaker 9: for being your own worst enemy, I think Pete would
Speaker 9: Pete would be a charter member.
Speaker 1: He would he would have he would have cut the
Speaker 1: ribbon to let people in. Gary Maher is our Western
Speaker 1: Bureau chief. We'll come back with some hot reads for
Speaker 1: Gary in just a minute. Here on the Big Moon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty WLA, Welcome back. We are chatting with
Speaker 1: our Western Bureau chief, Gary Moore. He is presented with
Speaker 1: us two guys in the six back. So a couple
Speaker 1: of hot reads for Gary to go back to the
Speaker 1: West side of the country where you used to work.
Speaker 1: You used to cover the PAC twelve. It is furiously
Speaker 1: dog paddling, trying to keep his head above water and
Speaker 1: adding teams. Honestly, it's kind of a joke. On the
Speaker 1: one hand, I'm in favor of it because it never
Speaker 1: should have had to dissolve in the first place. But
Speaker 1: I think this is a big step. Gary Gonzaga non
Speaker 1: football player, but Gonzaga joining the PAC twelve and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. I think that's good for both because Gonzaga
Speaker 1: has always been dismissed as a bully and a bad conference.
Speaker 1: That might begin to change.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: It's going to take a while, but it might begin
Speaker 1: to change.
Speaker 9: I agree, And alluding to what we talked about earlier.
Speaker 9: If if you can get Cow and you can get
Speaker 9: Stanford to come to their senses, come back and somehow
Speaker 9: leave the ACC get back into the pack with football,
Speaker 9: and have both these pack egos and the Mountain West
Speaker 9: egos to merge, which they should have done in the
Speaker 9: first place. Get the Mountain West and these pack teams
Speaker 9: together make one big Power five conference. Even though they
Speaker 9: wanted to try and get rid of the dead weight,
Speaker 9: they overleveraged and they thought they had more leverage than
Speaker 9: they did. It didn't work out for either side. Right,
Speaker 9: That's what needs to happen. That's the common sense thing.
Speaker 9: But we know what happens when you're trying to deal
Speaker 9: with common sense and conference realignments. It doesn't seem to
Speaker 9: go very far.
Speaker 1: In all your time covering the PAC twelve out there,
Speaker 1: which began as a Pack eight. Of course, I guess
Speaker 1: it was a PAC ten when you first arrived in California.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what was the arrogance there that had those
Speaker 1: schools blindly following Larry Scott, the horrible commissioner who's the
Speaker 1: conference died on his watch. He wasn't a commissioner when
Speaker 1: it formally broke up, but he did the horrible job
Speaker 1: turned down the ESPN package, and these schools just went, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: whatever you say, boss. Was that happening when you were there?
Speaker 9: Yeah, And initially he was lauded for some of these
Speaker 9: great TV deals when he first got in there, and
Speaker 9: then they started to see what the Big ten was getting.
Speaker 9: Then the SEC started getting a little bit stronger, and
Speaker 9: then all of a sudden it wasn't so great, and
Speaker 9: then the money was being waved in front of the
Speaker 9: USC president UCLA and then you see where we are
Speaker 9: now with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Larry was the guy. And as I've said
Speaker 1: many times, those schools, UCLA and USC they could not
Speaker 1: afford to turn it down, you know, they were they
Speaker 1: were just hemorrhaging money, especially the USC. Yeah, they needed
Speaker 1: to go. So we'll see. It's going to take a while,
Speaker 1: but we'll see our second hot read will Levis with
Speaker 1: yet another bad interception and the Titans actually a win
Speaker 1: over Miami. But some say the Titans won that game
Speaker 1: because Levis was injured and it was Mason Rudolph who
Speaker 1: led them to the victory. But the Titans say, when
Speaker 1: he's healthy, when he comes back from the injury, and
Speaker 1: it may be more serious than they're letting on. Will
Speaker 1: Levis is still the starter? How much longer do you
Speaker 1: think the Titans can afford to stick with him? And
Speaker 1: do you see him coming around?
Speaker 9: Well, I hope he does. Yeah, he's certainly got the
Speaker 9: talent to it. He just looks like he needs to
Speaker 9: him down.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 9: Again, this is his first full year of being a
Speaker 9: starter so far, and he's had nine turnovers in four games.
Speaker 9: If that keeps up, he'll definitely be sitting down. And well,
Speaker 9: look at some of the other quarterbacks that are coming around.
Speaker 9: Finally Sam Darnell comes around. Who would have thought that
Speaker 9: a few years ago. Maybe it takes some seasoning on
Speaker 9: some of these young guys, you know. You know, so
Speaker 9: many young guys were like Donald, They were with bad teams.
Speaker 9: Levis is not with a bad team, But there they
Speaker 9: go in the wrong direction when he throws to the
Speaker 9: other guys. Right, Yeah, he's got three was it three
Speaker 9: fumbles and six interceptions, so that's not good. And Rudolph
Speaker 9: is just calm. You look calmer in the pocket. He
Speaker 9: just kind of stood there and just kind of waited
Speaker 9: a couple of minutes, took a couple of hits. So
Speaker 9: I just think it's seasoning at this point. But again,
Speaker 9: the turnovers I think will make a difference if he doesn't.
Speaker 9: If he keeps the the fumbles interceptions down, he'll probably
Speaker 9: keep the job. He's got some good receivers.
Speaker 1: Yeah he does, and he's got a he's got a
Speaker 1: big league arm, and he can make be has made
Speaker 1: big league plays, but he's made boonehead play and it
Speaker 1: just might cost him a starting job. And once that happens,
Speaker 1: and you're a draft pick as highly taken as he was,
Speaker 1: then they move you, they trade you, they release you,
Speaker 1: and you become a nomad. You become a career backup,
Speaker 1: and you wear a lot of baseball caps and hold
Speaker 1: a lot of clipboards. So you hope that's not the
Speaker 1: case for really anybody. But as you said, some guy's
Speaker 1: new life that brings new promise. Larry Mars at Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a great point. Yeah yeah, probably Mishandled in Chicago.
Speaker 1: That might be the best example of all. Gary Moore
Speaker 1: is our West End bureau chief. Find him on X
Speaker 1: or Twitter or wherever you want to look at.
Speaker 9: And I just hit it at nine to five to five.
Speaker 9: Gary Off should be around here somewhere, and you're the
Speaker 9: same place too, I know.
Speaker 1: The big bloom cider one. Thank you, sir. I have
Speaker 1: a great weekend, you too. And that's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest, Gary Moore, to Sean Woods and
Speaker 1: of course the JJ Weaver and congratulations on being named
Speaker 1: to the All State Good Works Team and being eligible
Speaker 1: now for the werfol Trophy. And a programming note coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow night. It's the Chain Gang, the garage guys.
Speaker 1: They'll be right here, Doug Flynn, Keith Madison, Darren Heddrick
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about anything and everything, including probably some
Speaker 1: sports mixed in. But it's always fun when the guys
Speaker 1: from the Chain Gang show up here in the garage.
Speaker 1: Tune in tomorrow night for all the festivity. That's it.
Speaker 1: Good night from the Garage in Lexington. What makes you
Speaker 1: think she's a witch?
Speaker 8: Well, She turned into a NEWT.
Speaker 4: A
Speaker 8: Go better