Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Booinsider Dick Abriel with you on
Speaker 1: a Friday, as we wrap up the week, of course
Speaker 1: talking football, baseball, basketball, as generally we usually do this
Speaker 1: time here, there's a lot of overlap. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: the football off season, basketball wrapping up with the NBA
Speaker 1: baseball you know is happening. The College World Series will
Speaker 1: wrap up this weekend. But there is Kentucky News UK
Speaker 1: news on both the basketball and the football fronts. Good
Speaker 1: news this, this is such a great coincidence. We had
Speaker 1: DJ Moberley on the show last night. I did such
Speaker 1: a great job talking about Jasper Johnson, who will it
Speaker 1: now is a wildcat, of course, but before he starts
Speaker 1: playing as a wildcat, he's got a little more work
Speaker 1: to do. Perhaps he's trying to make the USA Under
Speaker 1: nineteen World Cup team. He has made the penultimate cut.
Speaker 1: He made it all the way to the list of
Speaker 1: fifteen finalists. They only keep twelve, so his dream is
Speaker 1: still alive of playing for the USA Under nineteen World
Speaker 1: Cup team. That's the team that will play in the
Speaker 1: FOEBA Tournament in Lusanne, Switzerland, at the end of June
Speaker 1: through July sixth. Malachi Moreno trying out and apparently did
Speaker 1: very well, but suffered a minor injury, so he kind
Speaker 1: of shut things down. Mark Pope's out there as well,
Speaker 1: working with the national team, at least he was for
Speaker 1: a while. He's back now, but Malachi Moreno a minor injury.
Speaker 1: They're not saying what it was, but he's done so
Speaker 1: he'll have a chance to heal and rest up and
Speaker 1: get ready for the upcoming season. But apparently Moreno was
Speaker 1: showing up extremely well in these tryouts, So that's something
Speaker 1: for Kentucky fans to be excited about, as if they
Speaker 1: don't already have a lot to be excited about, including
Speaker 1: comes news that UK will host a multi team event
Speaker 1: at rupp Aerna. Chris Fisher writing about it on two
Speaker 1: four to seven sports dot com, the Cats Pulse site.
Speaker 1: He is quoting college basketball analyst Roco Miller, who said
Speaker 1: the multi team Event or MTE, of course you've got
Speaker 1: to have an acronym, will feature feature Valparaizo and Eastern Illinois.
Speaker 1: The dates are to be determined, but that should, according
Speaker 1: to Chris, wrap up UK's non conference schedule. Of course,
Speaker 1: you've got the exhibitions against Purdue and Georgetown. You got Louisville,
Speaker 1: Michigan State and a Champions Classic, North Carolina in the
Speaker 1: acc SEC Challenge, Gonzaga and Nashville, Indiana back on the schedule,
Speaker 1: and Saint John's in the CBS Classic. Mark Pope wanted
Speaker 1: a tough schedule. Mark Pope gets what he wanted. This
Speaker 1: will severely test his team, but wild can't stay healthy.
Speaker 1: They should win most of those games, right, which would
Speaker 1: put them in a great position or a good seed
Speaker 1: in the nca Tournament. Well, that's the good news for
Speaker 1: Wildcat fans. Of course, Kentucky football fans have to be
Speaker 1: concerned right now with the de commitment of Jarvis Strickland.
Speaker 1: This happened after we had posted the show yesterday, but
Speaker 1: he was the only signee, the only commit rather from
Speaker 1: the state of Kentucky. So far, not a huge class
Speaker 1: right now for UK recruiters, but he was the first.
Speaker 1: He's from Paduca Tillman, He's an Alignman, He's a four star.
Speaker 1: This is not good obviously, and he has been recruited
Speaker 1: in the past, yes by Louisville as well as Tennessee, Michigan,
Speaker 1: Michigan State, North Carolina, South Carolina, oh Miss Vandy, but
Speaker 1: he was chiefly recruited by Vince Merriw, so don't be
Speaker 1: surprised if he ends up wearing red right now. As
Speaker 1: we said, it is a modest recruiting class for twenty
Speaker 1: oh six without a single player now from Kentucky or Ohio,
Speaker 1: so we'll see how that plays. Out of the top
Speaker 1: ten players per two four seven in the Commonwealth, five
Speaker 1: are committed to Louisville, one to Indiana, and one to
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky. Still a little early, and of course teams
Speaker 1: are moving much more deliberately these days because of the
Speaker 1: portal in Kentucky of late, as you know, has gone
Speaker 1: heavily into the portal. But they can't lose too many
Speaker 1: more of those battles, especially when it comes to recruiting
Speaker 1: kids in their own backyard. NBA Playoffs last night, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a game seven. Nothing better than a game seven.
Speaker 1: Indiana destroyed Oklahoma City. A lot of people thought the
Speaker 1: thunder would put him away last night, that Aliburton just
Speaker 1: couldn't go, couldn't be himself. Well he wasn't totally himself.
Speaker 1: He had fourteen points in twenty three minutes. But the Pacers,
Speaker 1: led by thirty at the end of the third quarter
Speaker 1: thirty points. They outscored OKC thirty six to eighteen. In
Speaker 1: the second quarter, they clamped down shake Gilgess Alexander. He
Speaker 1: played thirty one minutes at twenty one points, only two assists,
Speaker 1: eight turnovers. That's a career high for him in the postseason.
Speaker 1: So they cut off the head last night and they
Speaker 1: reaped the benefits. And now this goes Game seven in OKC.
Speaker 1: Caseon Wallace, former Wildcat, played fourteen minutes, had two points,
Speaker 1: and again he's more about defense, but couldn't get it
Speaker 1: done last night. Jalen Williams had forty the other night,
Speaker 1: sixteen last night in twenty seven minutes. It was a
Speaker 1: disaster for Oklahoma City. Couldn't have worked that better for Indiana.
Speaker 1: So now winner take oh. Could another former ABA team
Speaker 1: win an NBA championship? San Antonio did it? Can Indiana
Speaker 1: do it? And added trophy to those three tree ABA
Speaker 1: championship trophies, one of which I know came at the
Speaker 1: expense of our Kentucky colonels. That's why I'm rooting for
Speaker 1: ok SEE, not as much well SJSG. I want Shay
Speaker 1: Gilders Alexander to get himself a trophy, to get himself
Speaker 1: a championship. He's the league MVP. But of course if
Speaker 1: Halliburton leads the Pacers to a championship, then people are
Speaker 1: gonna say, oh, this should have been Halliburton, not along.
Speaker 1: And if you follow the NBA, you know that at
Speaker 1: one point there was a survey. I saw this and
Speaker 1: just briefly paid attention to it that Halliburton was rated
Speaker 1: the most overrated player in the NBA. Well, I heard
Speaker 1: an interview I think it was with Brian Windhorst on
Speaker 1: twenty Corneizer's show where only a fraction of the players
Speaker 1: surveyed in the league. There, I think only like two
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty something players in the NBA in less
Speaker 1: than half responded and only twenty something listed Halliburton and
Speaker 1: the rest was divided among many other players. So you're
Speaker 1: talking about less than ten percent of the players in
Speaker 1: the league at least per that survey. Really believe that
Speaker 1: anybody who watches him will tell you it's bogus. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying he deserve the honor the MVP on her
Speaker 1: over Shay Gilders Alexander. I do believe SGA bias Aside
Speaker 1: should have won it, and he did. But if he
Speaker 1: is able to rally the Pacers to a win over
Speaker 1: Okac in Game seven on the road, then the debate
Speaker 1: will go on forever. But he's good enough to play
Speaker 1: right now. We can tell you that. One other note
Speaker 1: in the NBA, you saw this that the Lakers were
Speaker 1: sold for ten billion dollars. You know, these owners say, oh,
Speaker 1: we can't pay dec I salaries. Well they can in
Speaker 1: LA and nobody disputed that. But some of the reaction
Speaker 1: and response around the league has been interesting in that
Speaker 1: they're saying, well, now with another gazillionaire buying the team,
Speaker 1: it can be run more. The Lakers as a team
Speaker 1: can be run more like a business. What does that mean, Well,
Speaker 1: apparently the Lakers in terms of the bus family, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's their sole source of income. What they make on
Speaker 1: the Lakers goes back into the team. It's not part
Speaker 1: of a portfolio as it is for virtually every other team,
Speaker 1: primarily in pro sports. And that means that if they
Speaker 1: make money, they can plow it back into facilities and
Speaker 1: contracts and things like that, Whereas if the team is
Speaker 1: part of a huge profile, then revenue from other elements
Speaker 1: of the portfolio can help support the team. I had
Speaker 1: no idea this was going on. The advantage, how does
Speaker 1: it work? Well, they make zillions of dollars off their
Speaker 1: TV revenue their contract with Spectrum. That package pays the
Speaker 1: Lakers three billion with a b over twenty years, a
Speaker 1: deal that began in twenty twelve. That's my far the
Speaker 1: biggest deal in the NBA. But now with a group
Speaker 1: that has deeper pockets behind the Lakers, you may see
Speaker 1: a real change in the way that outfit's run. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of Laker fans around here. Up next,
Speaker 1: we'll talk football UK and Eku on the other side
Speaker 1: of the break here on six thirty WLP. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Moon Sider. Coming up in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes, Nick MinJe on, the head UK baseball coach,
Speaker 1: we'll join us a little bit later on. Well, here
Speaker 1: from a young man who is putting together a documentary
Speaker 1: on my broadcast brother, Doug Flynn. So that's coming up. Also, Heroes,
Speaker 1: Fools and Flakes. I wanted to direct your attention to YouTube.
Speaker 1: There is a documentary. It's basically a thirty minute piece
Speaker 1: produced by the Buffalo Bills on Ray Davis, former Wildcat,
Speaker 1: played just the one year two years back, but since
Speaker 1: then and during that point, and I think it really
Speaker 1: here started with Daryl Bird's great piece in the cast
Speaker 1: Balls that kind of got the nation looking at Ray Davis.
Speaker 1: If you ask me, I give Daryl all kinds of
Speaker 1: credit on that, the fact that Ray was essentially he wasn't,
Speaker 1: you know, technically homeless, but was just in trouble and
Speaker 1: was taken in by a couple. And the next thing
Speaker 1: you know, he's playing prep school football, he's playing college football.
Speaker 1: He's a Kentucky he's now in the pros, had a
Speaker 1: great first year with the Buffalo Bills, and he was
Speaker 1: honored recently in San Francisco by the Boys and Girls
Speaker 1: Club of San Francisco, which has been a big part
Speaker 1: of his life. And there's a thirty minute special on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Just type in Ray Davis and it'll pop up. But
Speaker 1: it's called Buffalo Bills Beyond Blue and Red, and it's
Speaker 1: really well done. As this person who's thrown together some
Speaker 1: documentaries and I mean that liter eight times working on
Speaker 1: local TV, when you know, with one hand you're putting
Speaker 1: the newscast together with another you're working on a documentary.
Speaker 1: I really envy these outfits that can you hire multiple people,
Speaker 1: and I've had a chance to do that a couple
Speaker 1: of times. It spoils you and take a lot of
Speaker 1: time and put a really nice piece together, and they
Speaker 1: did this. It's really really well done, and it makes
Speaker 1: it even more special the fact that he played here
Speaker 1: for a year and we got to know him, didn't
Speaker 1: we He talked a lot to the media, and he
Speaker 1: wants to do that when he's done. I do believe
Speaker 1: he wants a career in media when he's done. He
Speaker 1: majored in communications and he'll be good at it. And
Speaker 1: I know that he kind of wanted to slow things
Speaker 1: down on talking about himself, but you know, he was,
Speaker 1: like I said, honored out there in his home base
Speaker 1: of San Francisco. And the piece was really well done.
Speaker 1: So just type in go to YouTube, type in Ray
Speaker 1: Davis and it will pop up. While we're on the NFL,
Speaker 1: I was reading Big Blue review, not the UK Big Blue,
Speaker 1: but the New York Football Giants, and the writer was
Speaker 1: looking at following Mini came going into camp, that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, who's gonna make it, who's not? And as
Speaker 1: you would expect. He's got would Dale Robinson safely on
Speaker 1: the team as a slot back and Drew Phillips, the
Speaker 1: former Wildcat, as a defensive back. So I try to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the ex Wildcats. One other NFL note,
Speaker 1: Shador Sanders, we told you yesterday cited for driving one
Speaker 1: on one in a sixty That's a pretty hipty speeding ticket.
Speaker 1: That was actually the second ticket of the month. That
Speaker 1: was on a Monday. The next day he got stopped
Speaker 1: again doing ninety one and a sixty five, and he
Speaker 1: was respectful and polite to the police. But please, please, guys,
Speaker 1: how many more accidents do we have to have where,
Speaker 1: like Terrence Clark, you might lose your life and like
Speaker 1: in other instances, somebody else loses their life. Nothing I
Speaker 1: say is going to make these eighteen nineteen twenty year
Speaker 1: old multimillionaires in big vehicles shout or Sanders driving a
Speaker 1: pickup truck. He's doing a one on one in a
Speaker 1: pickup truck. With anything I say, he's not going to
Speaker 1: get him to slow down. I don't know what will.
Speaker 1: No amount of money will, no amunt of fines, maybe
Speaker 1: jail time, I don't know, but it has to happen.
Speaker 1: Please slow it down, guys, please well while we're tucking football.
Speaker 1: Will must Champ was over in Richmond the other night.
Speaker 1: He was helping his buddy Walt Wells. They are both
Speaker 1: guys who have in their past assistant coaching jobs under
Speaker 1: Roy Kidd at Ekau. Walt Wells once again this year.
Speaker 1: He did it last year and Mark Stoops was his
Speaker 1: guest speaker. This year it was Will must Champ, former
Speaker 1: SEC head coach now on staff at Georgia, and a
Speaker 1: guy who came to town to help raise nil funds for
Speaker 1: e KU And he talked about the fact and when
Speaker 1: is buddy Walt Wells calls, he listens.
Speaker 2: Don't forget about the people that helped you on the
Speaker 2: way up. And I have so many people here and
Speaker 2: Walt and but all through the college landscape that have
Speaker 2: helped you. But Eastern Kentucky. I spent a year, my
Speaker 2: wife and I was first year of marriage.
Speaker 1: Was here, you know.
Speaker 2: We spent it here and we had a blast. And
Speaker 2: to be able to give back to number one to Walt,
Speaker 2: but number two to Richmond in Eastern Kentucky, I don't
Speaker 2: do anything I can.
Speaker 1: Do to help, and so much of that, as I said,
Speaker 1: is because much Champ has fond memories of the time
Speaker 1: he and his wife spending Richmond working with Roy Kidd.
Speaker 2: Well number one being hired by Roy Kidd. I came
Speaker 2: on the interview Jim Tanaro was transitioning from defensive line
Speaker 2: coach to coordinator. Don Lanholm was our linebackers coach, and
Speaker 2: to be able to come up and interview in that setting,
Speaker 2: Jim and I were just talking about that his first
Speaker 2: year as coordinator and having to mix the front and
Speaker 2: the back end together, but to interview for coach Kid
Speaker 2: was special, I mean, and to be able to work
Speaker 2: him for a year a legend in our game.
Speaker 1: God rest his soul is a wonderful man. I will
Speaker 1: echo that I do not try to hide my bias
Speaker 1: towards Roy Kidd and his and his great wife Sue
Speaker 1: and his family. You know, I worked with his son Mark,
Speaker 1: I did radio with with one of his other sons, Keith,
Speaker 1: and yeah, great great people. Well, Will is obviously appreciative
Speaker 1: of the fact that Mark Stoops, he worked for Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops for a year and now Kirby Smart coming back
Speaker 1: to help Well.
Speaker 3: I think they understand. You know, you talk about Mark
Speaker 3: he understands, you know, the constraints we have with raising
Speaker 3: money sometimes. Will obviously knows that, you know, left here
Speaker 3: to go to Valdosta. So you know, he cut his
Speaker 3: teeth in small schools, our smaller schools, and and so
Speaker 3: he knows what we have to do to get people
Speaker 3: to come out. And I mean, I'm telling you that
Speaker 3: when I called and asked him, he said, let me
Speaker 3: look at my calendar. I thought he'd call me back
Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks. He looked at his calendar
Speaker 3: and told me, right then, I'm in. And you know,
Speaker 3: it speaks volume the same thing Mark did to you know,
Speaker 3: last year, and that just helps us so much. It
Speaker 3: helps our players. We're not the school that's going to
Speaker 3: pay them one hundred grand or two hundred grand or
Speaker 3: three hundred and.
Speaker 1: Four hundred five whatever.
Speaker 3: You know, they know that, and so that they really
Speaker 3: enjoy helping us because they know these kids is helping
Speaker 3: them pay their rent, helping them, you know, maybe get
Speaker 3: food for the summer or whatever they need to do.
Speaker 1: And it really is.
Speaker 3: It just speaks volumes for how much they care about
Speaker 3: football and what kind of people they are.
Speaker 1: My thanks to my old employer, WKYT for helping me
Speaker 1: with that audio, Brian Mile and Steve Moss helping to
Speaker 1: send it over here to the garage so I could
Speaker 1: share it with you. Coming up next, UK baseball coach
Speaker 1: Nick Menngione never a dull moment. He's still got kids
Speaker 1: coming through the portal, he's got camps coming up, he's
Speaker 1: working ahead to next year, obviously never ending on the
Speaker 1: upcoming season. Plus we'll learn more about a documentary upcoming
Speaker 1: about our broadcast brother Doug Flynn, part of the Big
Speaker 1: Red Machine. He was the glue. Well always called him
Speaker 1: the glue because when he left, you know, it kind
Speaker 1: of fell apart. That's next on six thirty WLAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Starter. Joining us down our
Speaker 1: celebrity Odeline is UK baseball coach Nick Menngione coach. This
Speaker 1: time last year, everybody was celebrating a trip to the
Speaker 1: College World Series for the Wildcats, and it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: So many people Nick have talked to me about that
Speaker 1: really for the last year or so about how much
Speaker 1: they enjoyed that run, and now with the College World
Speaker 1: Series happening now there's more awareness for it. I know
Speaker 1: you wanted to be there this year. Obviously you want
Speaker 1: to be there every year. But you got the big
Speaker 1: Blue nation thinking about Omaha more and more. That's got
Speaker 1: to put a smile on your face.
Speaker 4: Big one, A big one.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 4: You know that it hasn't stopped.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean literally this week heard from the More
Speaker 5: folks about the opportunity that that team provided them and
Speaker 5: their family. And you've heard me say that a lot.
Speaker 5: But you know, that's one cool thing about college athletics
Speaker 5: is not only do you have the opportunity to give
Speaker 5: your student athletes experiences that they'll never forget, you get
Speaker 5: to do it. They're awesome fan base. So yeah, that's good.
Speaker 5: And you know what, I think some of them were
Speaker 5: probably thankful that we didn't go two years in a
Speaker 5: row because their banking accounts where I made some of
Speaker 5: those hotels and all that.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: So they need to be planning for next year.
Speaker 5: I want them to be thinking and hoping that the
Speaker 5: Cats are there, you know, every year. But obviously the
Speaker 5: summer is up and rolling and feels like it never stops.
Speaker 5: But people talking about Omahon Lessington good thing.
Speaker 4: Definitely good thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And that's the thing is, you know, for
Speaker 1: so many years it seemed like just an impossibility like that,
Speaker 1: that's for the other the elite schools in college baseball,
Speaker 1: and now people know that it can happen for Kentucky, right.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, And you know it's you know, I told our
Speaker 5: team this, you know, when the original started, and we
Speaker 5: were fortunate enough to make our third straight, as you know,
Speaker 5: and you know, at that point, I told him, your
Speaker 5: five wins from the college will series for five wins away,
Speaker 5: and that's how close it is. And for us, you know,
Speaker 5: to make another regional final and be right there. And
Speaker 5: but once you get to that postseason, your five wins,
Speaker 5: and it's closer than you think. And for some people,
Speaker 5: to your point, they just feel like that's a lot
Speaker 5: further than it really is.
Speaker 1: No, because now we witnessed it, and I got to
Speaker 1: tell you, I asked you, I kind of led you
Speaker 1: into this, this this answer during one of your pre
Speaker 1: tournament press conferences. But I had seen you on actually
Speaker 1: during the SEC tournament with Paul Fenbaum, and he told
Speaker 1: him how you would crunch the numbers and talked about
Speaker 1: all the decisions, all the pitches, all the moments in
Speaker 1: these games. And it's funny I had a similar conversation
Speaker 1: many years ago with Gary Henderson just about you know,
Speaker 1: games come down to a pitch or a swing or
Speaker 1: one play and it all kind of adds up. And
Speaker 1: I was fascinated by that. And then you you really
Speaker 1: did a deep dive on the numbers and you know,
Speaker 1: margins for error and things like that. You're people need
Speaker 1: to understand you're a lot closer than you'd think you are.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right, and you know, to go over those
Speaker 5: exact numbers probably one more time. For the thing listening is,
Speaker 5: you know, the average college team in the SEC he
Speaker 5: throws one hundred and fifty four pitches. So if each
Speaker 5: team averages one hundred fifty four pitches on each side,
Speaker 5: that's about three hundred and eight moments in one baseball game, right,
Speaker 5: And it takes us sometimes three hours to get through
Speaker 5: those three hundred and eight moments, right. But so for us,
Speaker 5: we threw a little bit more than that. But there
Speaker 5: was five thousand, six hundred and sixty eight moments in
Speaker 5: our college baseball season. That was how many like in
Speaker 5: our SEC I'm sorry, thirty SEC schedule, Yeah, thirty game
Speaker 5: STC schedule, So it's five thousand, six hundred and sixty
Speaker 5: eight moments. So kind of like in football, there's snaps.
Speaker 5: Those are plays, right, those are there are plays we
Speaker 5: had an opportunity for in our league. Well, when you
Speaker 5: boil it down, we are nine plays away from being
Speaker 5: back to back SEC champions nine.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, it's amazing, and I.
Speaker 5: Can tell you all of them, but I'm sure don't
Speaker 5: let me relive those, Okay, Dick, all right, but uh
Speaker 5: yeah I could. But I say all that because if
Speaker 5: we do that, we're back to back STEC champions for.
Speaker 4: The first time in school history.
Speaker 5: But we're also five plays away for winning four more
Speaker 5: fifty series and only Texas won eight SEC series.
Speaker 4: What does that mean?
Speaker 5: That means we would have been hosting another regional YEP
Speaker 5: for the third straight year, and we would have been
Speaker 5: a national seed for the second straight year. And as
Speaker 5: you know, that's the past. The Omaha the easiest pass YEP.
Speaker 5: But it's nine plays from back to back SEC champions,
Speaker 5: and it's five plays away from being having four more
Speaker 5: SEC wins. Theories win, theories win, not just win series win,
Speaker 5: and we're a national seat. So it's that close. And
Speaker 5: you know, to try to teach your student athletes that
Speaker 5: every year and to get them to understand like, no,
Speaker 5: literally it could be this pitch like this one right here,
Speaker 5: you know, to where it's like you're not putting pressure
Speaker 5: on them. But when you're competing at the high and
Speaker 5: you're trying to do special things, you can literally puil
Speaker 5: it down to that many plays. If you have a
Speaker 5: really good team, which I felt like we had last year, Yes,
Speaker 5: but the margin of victory is super small.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, no question. And now a team like
Speaker 1: Murray State and which which we saw come to election
Speaker 1: in and win, jumps up and makes the College World Series.
Speaker 1: I got to think that that's that's had a positive
Speaker 1: effect I think probably on kids all over the country. Hey,
Speaker 1: if Murray staken it, who where are they? You know
Speaker 1: they're not LSU. You know, can they get there? And
Speaker 1: answers yes, they can. But you just got to get
Speaker 1: get out there and execute.
Speaker 5: Right you're do and you got to be old. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think they had three five fifty year seniors in
Speaker 5: their line up. In their starting lineup. They had three
Speaker 5: guys with fifteen years of college baseball experience. So you
Speaker 5: definitely got to have some things go your way and
Speaker 5: you gotta obviously he's a great coach, is super happy
Speaker 5: for him. And but yeah, I mean this year alone.
Speaker 5: So two years ago, two years ago when we went,
Speaker 5: there were four SEC teams and four ACC teams, right,
Speaker 5: that was the that was the eighth in Omaha. Well,
Speaker 5: this year the SEC, once again we had two teams,
Speaker 5: which is twice as many as everybody else because every
Speaker 5: other conference, every other team that was there were just
Speaker 5: from individual conferences.
Speaker 4: There was no true you know, like last year it
Speaker 4: was the a.
Speaker 5: SEC VERSUT SEC Challenge in Omaha. Right, So but now
Speaker 5: that's so these two teams that made it from our conference, Dick,
Speaker 5: that's just there's been six teams in the SEC to
Speaker 5: make it to the Collegewal Series the last two year,
Speaker 5: six different teams. Yeah, different teams, no repeat trip. But
Speaker 5: that's yeah, that's the power of our league.
Speaker 1: You know that. It was fun watching Murray State and
Speaker 1: Omaha kind of adopted the Racers and it reminded me
Speaker 1: of you guys last year. And you made the pitch
Speaker 1: when you first got there to the fans if you
Speaker 1: want to root for somebody, because people love the way
Speaker 1: your team played that scrapped and fought, Uh so that
Speaker 1: I kind of got a kick out of that, didn't you.
Speaker 5: We got some great people in the state of Kentucky
Speaker 5: and people that love, love to root for, you know,
Speaker 5: first timers, and so this was obviously two programs that
Speaker 5: had made it for the first time, which was exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's a busy time. Well every day is
Speaker 1: busy for you. But the story right now is the
Speaker 1: upcoming team. A lot of people have asked me again,
Speaker 1: you know, the interest in your program, and they've they've
Speaker 1: kept an eye on the portal. You've added a lot
Speaker 1: of pitching, mostly right handed. You signed left handers. First
Speaker 1: of all, are you done with the portal?
Speaker 4: Or?
Speaker 1: I guess does the door ever close?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 5: Good question, Yeah it does close, you know, Dick, You
Speaker 5: know that what makes our jobs so hard is the
Speaker 5: Major League Draft. And the Major League Draft is until July.
Speaker 5: So it's like if you told me I knew who
Speaker 5: was coming back and who was getting drafted and who
Speaker 5: wasn't getting drafted, then it'd be a lot easier for
Speaker 5: me to be like, yes, you know, coach vinjil will
Speaker 5: be able to sleep with both eyes closed instead of
Speaker 5: one eye opened. Like, but just because we don't know
Speaker 5: what's gonna happen with the draft. I mean I just
Speaker 5: off the phone with an agent here just a couple
Speaker 5: of minutes ago, just talking to him about his client,
Speaker 5: one of our players, and just figuring out, like what's
Speaker 5: going to happen there. So it just it's never ending,
Speaker 5: it doesn't stop. I would tell you that once the
Speaker 5: draft finishes and the dust settles and we figure out
Speaker 5: who's coming and who's not, we'll have a lot idea,
Speaker 5: which is kind of scary, but we won't know that
Speaker 5: until August.
Speaker 1: Yeah, UK head baseball coach Nick Minjeon is my guest.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk more baseball with the coach
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break here on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Boon Sider Dick
Speaker 1: Gabriel with you on a Friday talking to UK head
Speaker 1: baseball coach Nick Minione, whose team have played in a
Speaker 1: regional and was just a few moments away from getting
Speaker 1: back to a Super regional, but has to kind of
Speaker 1: rebuild a team, just like virtually every coach in America
Speaker 1: right now. And Nick, I think back to when we
Speaker 1: you and I joke around about this every now and
Speaker 1: then about how when you were a young assistant coach
Speaker 1: here it was an exciting time in your life. But man,
Speaker 1: college baseball in terms of the duties and responsibilities of
Speaker 1: a head coach have changed so much since then. The
Speaker 1: rules have changed, the landscape has changed. I know you
Speaker 1: do your job with great passion, but did you ever foresee,
Speaker 1: for instance, when you were a head coach having to
Speaker 1: speak to agents, uh, you know, for players and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, uh, that's something that the guys
Speaker 1: who coached you never had to deal with, or deal
Speaker 1: with on a minimal level.
Speaker 5: You know, the agents they were around then, So I
Speaker 5: figured that, But I didn't know we would be talking
Speaker 5: to agents about nil deals and rev share dollars. And
Speaker 5: I mean I had no idea. I would have never,
Speaker 5: in my wildest dreams ever thought of that. Right, Typically,
Speaker 5: you were talking to the agents back then, or you know, advisors.
Speaker 5: They were called advisors, right, and I guess that's still
Speaker 5: what they.
Speaker 4: Might be called.
Speaker 5: But you're talking to advisors about you know, the draft
Speaker 5: and what they're considering, you know, things like that. But
Speaker 5: never in my wildest dreams about having to talk to
Speaker 5: what we talked to them about.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, you also have to worry about obviously, kids
Speaker 1: that you might lose to other teams. I don't know
Speaker 1: poaching is the right word, but you know, transferring, I know,
Speaker 1: but I was talking to a friend of mine who
Speaker 1: was worried that somebody's gonna sweep in and and and
Speaker 1: pluck Tyler Bell off your team. How much do you
Speaker 1: worry about your current roster, maybe not going pro but
Speaker 1: getting a better offer from somewhere else.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Unfortunately that that that's happening is against the rules
Speaker 6: and that shouldn't be done. But unfortunately in some areas
Speaker 6: of college baseball, you know that that does take place. Yeah,
Speaker 6: we just we just try to do the best we
Speaker 6: can at developing relationships with our players and treating them
Speaker 6: like man and doing what's in the best interest of
Speaker 6: the baseball program and of course them.
Speaker 5: And so you know, after you do that, you can
Speaker 5: do relationship all you can do. Man, it's built on
Speaker 5: trust and so I uh, yeah, Unfortunately that's a part
Speaker 5: of college athletic Yep. We know that also.
Speaker 1: Will looking back at your your roster, at your season
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've thought about this, but a lot
Speaker 1: of Kentucky fans as well. When you take the field
Speaker 1: this coming season behind the plate, you're going to be
Speaker 1: missing a guy who's spent a lot of time back
Speaker 1: there in Devin burks Uh. And I know you guys
Speaker 1: will be friends forever, but what are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: on fielding a team for the first time in forever
Speaker 1: without number seven back there?
Speaker 5: Man, I'll tell you what I told our team this.
Speaker 5: I was scared to death thinking about that.
Speaker 4: I mean, that guy.
Speaker 5: I mean, what a winner. Yeah, what a winner?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: And I told a team at the end of the
Speaker 5: year because you know, you know, Ryan Schwartz had come
Speaker 5: in here as a catcher and you know, did so
Speaker 5: good in the outfield. So we're counting on him to
Speaker 5: be in the outfield for us, and he can obviously
Speaker 5: catch as well if we need it. But at the time,
Speaker 5: like we didn't have We weren't returning a primary catcher
Speaker 5: on our roskeet right right. Since then, we've got come
Speaker 5: in from a gentleman out of the transfer portal. But
Speaker 5: you know, at that time I told it to him.
Speaker 5: I was like, man, I'm scared it down. I don't
Speaker 5: know who's gonna catch, because you know, obviously he was
Speaker 5: gone and obviously with rath kelty A. You know, he
Speaker 5: was gone, but for Devon, I mean, we just had
Speaker 5: three of the greatest years in school history, and Devin
Speaker 5: was the guy that squatted back behind that plan.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he gave us everything he had.
Speaker 1: His fingerprints are all over these these seasons and oh,
Speaker 1: you know, he has come through at times with big
Speaker 1: bass hits, but you never failed to mention the way
Speaker 1: he handles pitchers, and pitchers have told us that as well.
Speaker 1: Do you. I've got to think you look for that
Speaker 1: when you're when you're recruiting, But it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: an intangible, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really difficult, really really difficult to find somebody
Speaker 5: with that leader. Yeah, and you know, John Maxwell's best
Speaker 5: defined leadership as influenced. Leadership is influenced, and that's what
Speaker 5: Devin Burks had a tremendous amount of influence on so
Speaker 5: many people and so many things. So obviously we're not
Speaker 5: going to try to replace him and try to find
Speaker 5: the next Devin Berks. I think one of the things
Speaker 5: we do really well at Kentucky is we find the
Speaker 5: right guys that are the right people, and we allow
Speaker 5: them to be the best versions of themselves. So our
Speaker 5: next patcher doesn't need to be like Devin Burks. He
Speaker 5: needs to be the best version of himself. There are
Speaker 5: characteristics and attributes that Devin possesses that, boy, it would
Speaker 5: be nice if this person does whoever that is, we
Speaker 5: feel like, you know, we're going to have to try
Speaker 5: to magnify those gifts that they've given. But at the
Speaker 5: same time, it's like we were not replacing Devin Burks.
Speaker 5: We're going to have the next guy be the best
Speaker 5: version of himself. If he could have, you know, those
Speaker 5: leadership qualities, who boy, we'd be we'd be in a
Speaker 5: really good place. And we feel good about the guys
Speaker 5: that we do have that can potentially do that so well.
Speaker 1: Everybody who follows baseball knows that you've got to be
Speaker 1: strong up the middle. And right now it looks as
Speaker 1: though you've got Luke Lawrence coming back at second base
Speaker 1: right along with Tyler, and if that works out that
Speaker 1: that's just another year Nick where you've had one of
Speaker 1: the best infield middle infield combos in the conference, if
Speaker 1: not the country. So that's got to make you sleep
Speaker 1: a little bit better at night, am I right?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right? I mean being strung up the middle
Speaker 5: is super important, and we have two guys coming back
Speaker 5: with a lot of starts, I mean underneath the belt,
Speaker 5: a lot of starts. And I think anytime you can,
Speaker 5: anytime you can return a team that has that many starts,
Speaker 5: whether it's positionally or on the mound, you as a coach,
Speaker 5: you feel better about your chances of maybe being able
Speaker 5: to perform at a really high level. And you have
Speaker 5: to be good up the middle. And Kark Frank Lapff
Speaker 5: never won a championship without a championship catcher. But also
Speaker 5: I think you could also say that about the shortstop position. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it is just absolutely crucial. And obviously we got a
Speaker 5: great one coming back that we're super excited about.
Speaker 1: He was so much fun to watch man. He was
Speaker 1: worth the price of admission on many occasions. But to
Speaker 1: that end, I also felt like with some big spikes
Speaker 1: to fill that, Luke Lawrence defensively did an incredible job
Speaker 1: stepping in for Petre, who became a real fan favorite
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons. But you know, once Luke's bat came
Speaker 1: around and his defense never did Wayne. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: he made great plays at second base.
Speaker 5: Sure dead and you know Luke would tell you that
Speaker 5: same thing. At the event of your fall meeting, we
Speaker 5: asked them, Luke, what are some things you've gotten better
Speaker 5: at walked us through this year? And that was the
Speaker 5: first thing he mentioned was his defense, Really not how
Speaker 5: much better he got defensively, And you know you know this,
Speaker 5: but playing next you look over to your right and
Speaker 5: you got that guy standing over there and watching him,
Speaker 5: and yeah, you know, you're only forced to, you know,
Speaker 5: step up your game. And he certainly did that, and
Speaker 5: I thought they sharpened each other. I think he would
Speaker 5: tell you that Luke made him better too. So they
Speaker 5: were great for each other and the closest of friends.
Speaker 4: So that was kind of neat and that works.
Speaker 1: And all I know is my broadcast partner, mister Doug Flynn,
Speaker 1: liked a lot what he saw from those guys, and
Speaker 1: he and he chatted with him through the year, as
Speaker 1: you know, and gave him a couple of tips here
Speaker 1: and there. So when he's excited about middle infielders, everybody
Speaker 1: should be excited, right.
Speaker 4: Oh, I see him all the time. You see that.
Speaker 4: Let me know, like, well, Nick, I just feel bad,
Speaker 4: don't uh huh. You're the goal glover.
Speaker 5: Mister Doug you help us, Like, what a special guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's fun. He's fun to work with. A couple
Speaker 1: of minutes slept with Nick Minsi and UK's head baseball coach.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because when we come to the ballpark,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's we look at the wind and
Speaker 1: you know, you're mister weather. Every coach knows about weather
Speaker 1: and things like that. But what's what's been great about
Speaker 1: Kentucky baseball the last several years is you know, you
Speaker 1: know you're going to see a good game. You know
Speaker 1: you're going to see quality baseball, and Central Kentucky is
Speaker 1: really caught on. I think, uh and you you never
Speaker 1: failed to mention the fans, the crowd. And I love
Speaker 1: the fact that, well, god, I watched Arkansas kids after
Speaker 1: that heartbreaking loss Wednesday night signing autographs for the kids
Speaker 1: in Omaha. So I think it's great the way your
Speaker 1: kids never miss an autograph opportunity, you know, after a
Speaker 1: ball game, win or lose. And that's not something you
Speaker 1: guys coach them up on. They just love doing it. Right.
Speaker 5: You know, you win with people, Yeah, you absolutely win
Speaker 5: with people. That's why we're still thorough and the recruiting
Speaker 5: process and really the evaluation process of our guys, because
Speaker 5: it all matters. And I think we just wrapped up
Speaker 5: one of our youth summer camps. We do first through
Speaker 5: seventh grade, and we had over one hundred kids here
Speaker 5: this week, and guy's got a chance that the amount
Speaker 5: of positive feedback that I've gotten for the parents about
Speaker 5: just the way our players conducted themselves, the way they
Speaker 5: stuck around.
Speaker 4: Literally so the very.
Speaker 5: Last kid had left camp, they signed every autograph, they
Speaker 5: signed every shirt. Some guys even had them signing their bats.
Speaker 5: Now you're like autographing their metal bats and you know,
Speaker 5: don't want to sign the barrel because you wanted to
Speaker 5: hit the barrel and the autograph gets washed away. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean just the way our guys conduct themselves.
Speaker 4: I mean that team last year, we have three point
Speaker 4: four to nine team.
Speaker 5: GPA last bring Wow, like these guys. I mean we
Speaker 5: had twelve guys get a four point zero in the spring.
Speaker 5: We had seven with a three eight or higher. So
Speaker 5: they just continue to and you know, we talk about
Speaker 5: the student of person the player all the time, but
Speaker 5: you win with people, and we've done a great job
Speaker 5: bringing in great people and you know, just to hear
Speaker 5: you even recognize that. I mean, you get a chance
Speaker 5: to be around them, you get a.
Speaker 4: Chance to see him.
Speaker 5: You've been on the road with us, like you see
Speaker 5: how these guys interact. And it's not just when the
Speaker 5: cameras on them, it's right really when the camera's off
Speaker 5: of them. And I'm proud of our guys from that standpoint,
Speaker 5: just really proud. And it's why when we have our
Speaker 5: end of year team meeting, there's so many tearshits and
Speaker 5: it's such an emotional time because as a coach, you
Speaker 5: just do sad that you don't get to be around them,
Speaker 5: especially the twelve seniors that we had graduated. It's just that,
Speaker 5: you know, just to be around these guys because they're
Speaker 5: just such quality people. And to be around those guys
Speaker 5: for ten months, yeah, and then not to be around
Speaker 5: them again.
Speaker 4: It's hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is amazing. And you mentioned going on the road,
Speaker 1: and that's that's where the the that's the proofson the
Speaker 1: pudding right there is when they you travel and you
Speaker 1: hang out the downtime, you know, that's where the chemistry happens,
Speaker 1: not on the field as much. And uh, I was
Speaker 1: talking to Luke Mayley one day about that about just
Speaker 1: the downtime, you know, and how that's that helps the
Speaker 1: bonding and all that, and he said, you know what
Speaker 1: else he said, the losing. I said what he said,
Speaker 1: When you play baseball, there's more games, so you're going
Speaker 1: to lose more games, and you'd lose playing basketball or football.
Speaker 1: How do you deal with that? How do you come
Speaker 1: through that? And if you can do that? You know,
Speaker 1: now you've got a team full of brothers and I've
Speaker 1: never forgotten that. So, uh, it is fun to watch coach.
Speaker 1: I can talk baseball with you all night. I do
Speaker 1: appreciate your time and uh can't wait for the season begin.
Speaker 5: Yeah, same here. Thanks for having me, Cat.
Speaker 1: I remember two is up next and we'll hear about
Speaker 1: a new project you're going to see on TV this
Speaker 1: coming well actually next week on my broadcast partner, the
Speaker 1: Great Doug Flynn. That's all ahead the Big Bulling Cider
Speaker 1: six thirty w LPE.
Speaker 7: Anything can anything to do, Anything taken?
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 7: Thinking don't then don't.
Speaker 1: Don't Joining me now on our Celebrity hotline is a guy,
Speaker 1: a former co worker, Golly. Fifteen years ago is when
Speaker 1: he left WKYT he'd worked there for thirteen years as
Speaker 1: a videographer, worked with US in Sports for a while there.
Speaker 1: David Patrick now at Morehead State with athletics video special
Speaker 1: projects producer. A huge UK fan and a huge Cincinnati
Speaker 1: Reds fan, Dave, how's it going.
Speaker 4: Good, Dick? Thanks? Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. I had heard from our mutual
Speaker 1: friend and former colleague Steve Moss, and you had actually
Speaker 1: texted me about this sometime back. You're working on a
Speaker 1: project about my broadcasting brother Doug Flynn, which has got
Speaker 1: to be obviously a passion project for you, being a
Speaker 1: huge Reds fan. But you know, Doug is out in
Speaker 1: front of the public quite a bit charity work, UK
Speaker 1: Baseball and all, but when it comes to and he
Speaker 1: loves talking about his time with the Cincinnati Reds, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't talk a lot about himself. And you have
Speaker 1: got him to open up a little bit. You've got
Speaker 1: a project coming up. Tell everybody about it.
Speaker 4: I do. It's Dick. It's a project that I've that
Speaker 4: we've been working on for some time, and I just
Speaker 4: felt like it was laid up on my heart. I
Speaker 4: felt like that God laid up on my heart to
Speaker 4: reach out to Doug. And I called him one day
Speaker 4: and I said, I've got a very random question and
Speaker 4: he said, sure, what is it? And I said, I
Speaker 4: know you've done countless interviews over the years, you know,
Speaker 4: whether it be about Pete Rose or Johnny banch or
Speaker 4: the Big Red Machine, Tom seaver, you name it. I mean,
Speaker 4: Doug has talked about it. But I said, have you
Speaker 4: ever done an interview where you've just talked about yourself
Speaker 4: your amazing career? I mean, Dick as you. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know you know Doug probably better than anyone. I mean,
Speaker 4: you've you've worked around him countless hours. But his his
Speaker 4: story is amazing, dating back from you know, when he
Speaker 4: was at Brian and stationed making the Reds through a
Speaker 4: tryout camp, being a part of the Big Red Machine,
Speaker 4: arguably the greatest team of all time, and you know
Speaker 4: he played in the Majors eleven years in both of
Speaker 4: his professional story in his personal story is just amazing.
Speaker 4: And the fact that he's a Lexington guy. And I said,
Speaker 4: has anyone ever talked to you about that? And he
Speaker 4: laughed and he said, well, actually no, And I said,
Speaker 4: would you be willing to do that? And so he
Speaker 4: accepted that, and it took us a while to coordinate
Speaker 4: everything because of his schedule and my schedule. But we
Speaker 4: actually met over in Nicholasville and we did a sit
Speaker 4: down interview and Tanner Hesterberg went with me and we
Speaker 4: set up a three camera shoot with lights and Tanner
Speaker 4: was a huge Of course, Tanner formula WKYT and now
Speaker 4: in a steamed attorney in Prestonsburg, So give a shout
Speaker 4: out to Tanner. But it was just it was It's
Speaker 4: an amazing thing to work on. And it took me
Speaker 4: a long time to put it together because my schedule
Speaker 4: here at Moorhead State has just been so crazy because
Speaker 4: not only do I know do I cover basketball, but
Speaker 4: I cover all sports. I never could find the time
Speaker 4: to just sit down and put this project together. And
Speaker 4: over the summer, Dick I just decided, listen, I've got
Speaker 4: to make time. I've got to set aside time. I've
Speaker 4: just got to make myself sit down because this is
Speaker 4: going to be a great project when I get it done.
Speaker 4: And so Doug and I had lunch. I let him
Speaker 4: watch the first draft of the project. He's loved it,
Speaker 4: and so we've got it fifty eight minutes and thirty seconds.
Speaker 4: It's commercial free and it is just Doug telling his story.
Speaker 4: It's all about Doug plan and I'm super proud of it.
Speaker 1: And tell everybody before we go any further when it's
Speaker 1: going to be on, how they can watch it.
Speaker 4: Okay, it will be on wk white T on June
Speaker 4: the twenty eighth at one o'clock, and then the following
Speaker 4: day on the CW Lexington. It will also air at
Speaker 4: one o'clock, So back to back days, the first on
Speaker 4: WKYT and the second on the CW.
Speaker 1: All right, and we will we will publicize the heck
Speaker 1: out of that in the oncoming week. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: an awful lot to unpack, as you kids like to say,
Speaker 1: because Doug a three three sports star at Brian's station,
Speaker 1: and of course, and you know, and he's done the
Speaker 1: occasional interview when he talked about the tryout process and
Speaker 1: things like that, and you know what's crazy, and I
Speaker 1: know you guys get into this, but you know, he
Speaker 1: and I have had, as you said, just countless conversations
Speaker 1: on and off the air. We did the minor league
Speaker 1: baseball games for a couple of summers ten years ago, gosh,
Speaker 1: ten years ago, so we traveled together. Uh, only three
Speaker 1: years in the minors, David, you know, and you're a
Speaker 1: baseball nut, you know that oftentimes it takes seven or
Speaker 1: eight years for somebody to make it from the miners
Speaker 1: to the majors. Doug went single, a double, a triple,
Speaker 1: a right place, right time, and that only makes it,
Speaker 1: but makes it with the greatest team of all time.
Speaker 1: That's that alone is just an incredible chapter, isn't.
Speaker 4: It It is It's it's amazing. And I love his
Speaker 4: story about, you know, going to Reds tryout camp and
Speaker 4: somebody's picked him up and he heads to his first
Speaker 4: tryout camp. He had to borrow a glove. Yes, he
Speaker 4: had arl shoes because he didn't even have them with him.
Speaker 4: He was in a mix Somerset at the time. And
Speaker 4: so the process of making the Reds and then he
Speaker 4: makes the team and and and part of back to
Speaker 4: back World Series championships, and it's it's just it's just
Speaker 4: a remarkable feat of of you know, he told me,
Speaker 4: Dick that he never went to spring training with a
Speaker 4: job right every spring training that he went to, he
Speaker 4: never had a job secured, whether he was with the Reds, Mets,
Speaker 4: you know, with with the Rangers, it didn't matter. He
Speaker 4: never had a job, and he ends up having an
Speaker 4: eleven year major league career.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and it could have been longer if not
Speaker 1: for the collusion by the owners. Uh yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: that's another part of it. And sadly the guy who
Speaker 1: cut him for the last time was Sparky Anderson, you
Speaker 1: know in Detroit. Did he tell you the story, David?
Speaker 1: And I know there's you leave so much in the
Speaker 1: cutting room floor. But when he went from double A
Speaker 1: to triple A? Why he was able to move up
Speaker 1: quickly there? When he went up to play third base?
Speaker 1: Yes he did, all right, let's not spoil that, but
Speaker 1: it was it was some chicanery on Doug's part. Let's
Speaker 1: put it to you that way. So yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: you need to watch it. It's a great, great story,
Speaker 1: but it's a guy who was hungry to move up
Speaker 1: in baseball. Uh. And the other thing too, that I
Speaker 1: didn't realize until I went back and thought about it,
Speaker 1: was it wasn't just the tryat camp in Somerset. He
Speaker 1: needed to perform one or two more times, didn't he
Speaker 1: before the Reds finally gave him a contract.
Speaker 4: He after the try out camp in Somerset, the Red
Speaker 4: scout at the time asked him, he said, are you
Speaker 4: even serious about this? And he said do you even
Speaker 4: own a baseball uniform? And Doug and yes. And so
Speaker 4: Doug gets invited to Frankfurt to a tryout camp. And
Speaker 4: then after about two weeks after the Frankfort camp, the
Speaker 4: Reds call him back and inviting the Cincinnati to Riverfront Stadium,
Speaker 4: and Doug was like, Oh, this is going to be
Speaker 4: cool to go to Riverfront. And then after that he
Speaker 4: was you know, he didn't hear anything, and he's thinking,
Speaker 4: all right, at least I tried, and then all of
Speaker 4: a sudden he gets invited to spring training and it's
Speaker 4: just a remarkable story. And Dick, one of my favorite
Speaker 4: things that he talked about is when he went to
Speaker 4: spring training in seventy five. The way that he found
Speaker 4: out that he had made the team was not by
Speaker 4: anybody with the Reds organization but Steve Hamilton. Yes, the
Speaker 4: form Morehead state athletic legend and athletic director. Steve was
Speaker 4: a coach with the Detroit Tigers at the time, and
Speaker 4: I think they were in Plant City and Steve comes
Speaker 4: up to Doug. Course, the two had known each other
Speaker 4: for years, and Steve was actually the one to tell him, Hey,
Speaker 4: I just talked to Sparky and he says, you're going
Speaker 4: to make the club. And Doug's mouth drops up and
Speaker 4: he says, Sparky didn't tell me that, and Steve said, well,
Speaker 4: you're going to make the club. I think that is
Speaker 4: so cool that Steve Hamilton was the one that broke
Speaker 4: the news to Doug in private that he was going
Speaker 4: to be a Cincinnati Red and make the major league
Speaker 4: club on opening Day. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love talking to Steve Hamilton. I had him on
Speaker 1: the first sports talk show I ever did way back
Speaker 1: in the eighties. Loved interviewing him over there in Morehead.
Speaker 1: I could have sat there and listened to stories all day.
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite anecdotes from the Doug Flynn story.
Speaker 1: I just heard that part of it David earlier this
Speaker 1: year when Doug and I were just sitting around talking.
Speaker 1: Because when opposing teams come to KPP and we go
Speaker 1: in and talk to the visiting broadcasters, and oftentimes the
Speaker 1: color analyst has played some Major League ball or some
Speaker 1: Pro ball, and they recognize Doug and buddy. When they
Speaker 1: start telling stories, I just melt into the wall and listened,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the ones that came up. We're
Speaker 1: talking to David Patrick. He is a sports videographer, works
Speaker 1: for Morehead State Athletics, works on special projects, and did
Speaker 1: a freelance project that airs a week from tomorrow on
Speaker 1: WKYT and then a week from Sunday, once again, both
Speaker 1: times at one o'clock on Doug Flynn. What's the name
Speaker 1: of it? Have you named it?
Speaker 4: Yes, it's entitled Faith, Family and Baseball. A conversation with
Speaker 4: Doug Flynn.
Speaker 1: That's an excellent time. I am so bad. You might
Speaker 1: remember this from our days at KYT. I'm terrible at
Speaker 1: naming projects. I like putting them together on I am
Speaker 1: terrible at naming him. That's a good one. We'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk more with David after the after the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with David Patrick from the Morehead State Athletics Department. He
Speaker 1: is a videographer, producer, UH special projects editor and documentarian. Now, hey,
Speaker 1: little taste of a long form that I got at KYD.
Speaker 1: How'd you like it?
Speaker 4: I know, I tell you Dick, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 4: And yes, sir Moss and I were talking, and of
Speaker 4: course from working with you all those years, I know
Speaker 4: you know, your project with Coach Rupp is an absolute
Speaker 4: masterpiece that you and Steve worked on. You work so
Speaker 4: hard and probably the greatest, uh the greatest documentary that
Speaker 4: I've ever seen. It was just amazing. So you know,
Speaker 4: when I when I embarked on this, not only are
Speaker 4: are you and Doug really really close and you guys
Speaker 4: are great friends, but when when I decided to do this,
Speaker 4: I actually thought about you because I thought, you know,
Speaker 4: Dick has really set the bar on how to how
Speaker 4: to do these things. And this is my first, this
Speaker 4: is my first you know, long form and it's not
Speaker 4: really a documentary. It's just to sit down interview and
Speaker 4: I just let Doug tell a story. But I tell you, Dick,
Speaker 4: I have a real appreciation for what you've done over
Speaker 4: all these years and all that the projects that you've
Speaker 4: worked on, because this was a ton of work now
Speaker 4: with the labor of love, and I'm so glad that
Speaker 4: I did it, but it was a ton of work.
Speaker 1: It is and you know, with me and I can
Speaker 1: procrastinate a bit, and when I worked on documentaries, I
Speaker 1: would procrastinate a little bit because I knew and you
Speaker 1: can relate now. When you walk into that edit bay
Speaker 1: for the first time with all your material or most
Speaker 1: of your material, you know you're jumping in the deep
Speaker 1: end and you're going to swim like hell till you
Speaker 1: till you crawl out with a finished project. But it's
Speaker 1: going to be something you're really proud of and that
Speaker 1: you can't wait to see and you want to hear
Speaker 1: what people have to say about it. So I'm really
Speaker 1: proud of you that you did this, And when I
Speaker 1: heard that you were doing it, I kind of kicked myself, like, man,
Speaker 1: why didn't I think of that? But part of the reason, David,
Speaker 1: which brings me to my next question, is it Doug
Speaker 1: has has again shied away from certain parts of his
Speaker 1: life story, which sadly includes, you know, the terrible chapter
Speaker 1: on his sister's disappearance and what that did to his
Speaker 1: family and his folks, you know, and he had to
Speaker 1: deal with it while he was playing in New York
Speaker 1: of all places. But but he has come through it
Speaker 1: with his head held high, hasn't he?
Speaker 4: He is that Doug is just a remarkable person. And Dick,
Speaker 4: you know, this such a high character guy, a man
Speaker 4: of integrity, and you know, always say, if you don't
Speaker 4: like Doug Flynn, the problems not with him, it's with you.
Speaker 4: And I truly believe that because he's He's absolutely one
Speaker 4: of my favorite people. And you know, when I was
Speaker 4: at w W KYT and would go out to shoot
Speaker 4: video of the children's charity and and and any time
Speaker 4: I would run into Doug, he always treated me just
Speaker 4: just so well, and he was so kind and welcoming
Speaker 4: and Dick, I always had just such a respect for him,
Speaker 4: and I looked up to Doug because he's just a
Speaker 4: first class guy. And when you when you're dealing with
Speaker 4: people like that and you're around people like that, you
Speaker 4: want to do something good for him. You want to
Speaker 4: do something nice for him. And again, I just felt
Speaker 4: like that God laid this on my heart. I don't
Speaker 4: I don't know why that I was the one, and
Speaker 4: you know that he picked to do this, but I
Speaker 4: don't know. I just have such a respect for Doug
Speaker 4: and a love for Doug, and he's just one of
Speaker 4: the best people that I know in the world. And
Speaker 4: it was a true blessing and an honor for me
Speaker 4: to do this with him, because I got to see
Speaker 4: the joy on his face and the and the laughter
Speaker 4: and the smiles, and when he watched the first draft
Speaker 4: of it, he's like, David, I really I really like this.
Speaker 4: Thank you so And it meant the world to me
Speaker 4: just that I had done something for him, someone who
Speaker 4: has given so much to so many people. It was
Speaker 4: nice to give something to him.
Speaker 1: We're talking to David Patrick from Morehead State University Athletics.
Speaker 1: He is a videographer, producer, editor and is working, has worked,
Speaker 1: and has prepared a one hour special on Doug Flynn
Speaker 1: that airs tomorrow a week on June twenty eighth, one
Speaker 1: o'clock on WKYT, the next Sunday, the twenty ninth, on
Speaker 1: the cwulection, and again at one o'clock. And yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a great topic and that subject matter of Doug giving back.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously you and I were both working on
Speaker 1: the Children's Charity Tournament for many, many years. That was
Speaker 1: an absolute passion project for Doug. When we were traveling
Speaker 1: with the minor leagues, we spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: in airports, a lot of time downtime in hotels. He
Speaker 1: was always on his phone always, and I don't mean
Speaker 1: scrolling through Twitter, which he didn't even do. It was
Speaker 1: either work for Central Bank, where he has a real
Speaker 1: job and it is a real job, or working on
Speaker 1: the Children's charity tournament, contacting people organizing things hotels, reservations
Speaker 1: and I and you and I probably did some interviews together,
Speaker 1: talking to some of the celebrities, you know, the former
Speaker 1: athletes and the musicians from Nashville and people like that.
Speaker 1: And I would always ask, you know, well, what brings
Speaker 1: you to our tournament here in Lexingham, because there are
Speaker 1: tournaments everywhere, and David eighty five percent of them would
Speaker 1: say first singing in the mouth. Doug Flynn asked me,
Speaker 1: I mean without fail, which tells you so much. And
Speaker 1: he was very proud of that tournament. So that tells
Speaker 1: you a lot about him, doesn't it.
Speaker 4: Yes, it does. And one of the you know, one
Speaker 4: of the really cool memories I have from that was
Speaker 4: on you know, was was headed into work and I
Speaker 4: was working by myself that Saturday at WKYT and I
Speaker 4: ran down the road to get some video and do
Speaker 4: a quick interview with Doug at Children's Charity, and he
Speaker 4: looked at me. He said, David, how much time he got?
Speaker 4: I said that, well, really not much, because when I
Speaker 4: was working by myself on a Saturday, I would get
Speaker 4: so stressed out because yeah, I felt like I was
Speaker 4: on it. And it happened to all of it, you know,
Speaker 4: we all had to do it by yourself from time
Speaker 4: to time. And I was anchoring that night and.
Speaker 1: I was a sports. Yeah that's back when you anchored sports, uh.
Speaker 4: And I was it was during the summer. And he
Speaker 4: said how much time you got? And I said, really
Speaker 4: not much? And he said, well you have time to
Speaker 4: ride over to the other side of the course. And
Speaker 4: I said, Doug, I really don't. I said, I've you know,
Speaker 4: I've got a lot to do today. And he said,
Speaker 4: I promise it'll be worth your time. And I said, well,
Speaker 4: who's on the other side And he said, would you
Speaker 4: like to go meet Ozzie Smith? And I said, oh
Speaker 4: my god, just said deak. And so we hoped in
Speaker 4: the golf cart and he takes me over and introduces
Speaker 4: me to the Wizard of Oz, you know, and and
Speaker 4: that was just such a pleasure. And we get back
Speaker 4: in the cart and Doug looked at it and he said,
Speaker 4: I told you it would be worth your time, and
Speaker 4: did an interview with Ozzy and shook his hand and
Speaker 4: and I don't know, it's just that, but the folks
Speaker 4: vic your right, the folks that came to town just
Speaker 4: because of their love and respect for Doug. I mean,
Speaker 4: it was a who's whose list? As you said, that
Speaker 4: tells you all you need to know about the man
Speaker 4: Doug Flam because everybody loved him. Everybody appreciates who he
Speaker 4: is and what he stands for, and he's just he's
Speaker 4: a blessing to so many people.
Speaker 1: You know. It's great about him too. And we jokingly
Speaker 1: called him the Glue because well he came up with that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've got a T shirt, but
Speaker 1: I've got a Doug Flynn the Glue T shirt. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well yeah, because and that's the way he introduces himself.
Speaker 1: He sees all the Reds functions up there, you know,
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame stuff and everything. But it's joking,
Speaker 1: but it's, you know, tongue in cheek because when he
Speaker 1: was traded away, you know, in nineteen seventy seven, that's
Speaker 1: when the Reds were making foolish moves that broke up
Speaker 1: the Big Red Machine. It wasn't just because Doug was traded,
Speaker 1: because they got Tom sever out of it. But Doug
Speaker 1: always talks about ol the reds all knew what was
Speaker 1: what they knew the eight starters or that were the
Speaker 1: great players. Sparky would put these same eight guys, I know,
Speaker 1: you can name the lineup for the Big Red Machine,
Speaker 1: and then everybody else I won't use the word but
Speaker 1: everybody else was the rest of the guys. But they
Speaker 1: knew their part and they were proud to be that.
Speaker 1: And I think that that kind of underscored the humility
Speaker 1: that Doug ay. And then even he's a goal glove winner,
Speaker 1: and of course the Mets being knuckleheads back then, the
Speaker 1: first thing they did with their goal glove second baseman
Speaker 1: the next year was moving to shortstop so they could
Speaker 1: bring up a young kid from the miners for second base,
Speaker 1: and that guy was a washout and they were never
Speaker 1: quite the same. So, but he's always remained humble and
Speaker 1: yet extremely proud of his team, his teammates, the work
Speaker 1: they did. He takes the game so seriously, still takes
Speaker 1: his broadcasting seriously, but doesn't take himself too seriously. Tom
Speaker 1: Leech is like that too. I think the great ones
Speaker 1: are what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, I think that's a great comparison because Tom
Speaker 4: is the same way. I mean, such a such a
Speaker 4: nice guy, a humble guy that doesn't let his ego
Speaker 4: get out of hand at all. I mean, he's just
Speaker 4: he is so kind and it just like Doug. And
Speaker 4: you know, Doug, you were talking about the Big Red
Speaker 4: Machine team in nineteen seventy six. Doug played a ninety
Speaker 4: three games, yes, which is just crazy. Yes, And you
Speaker 4: know he told me during the interview about you know,
Speaker 4: Joe Morgan was hurt for a month and so he
Speaker 4: got to play second base for a month and turn
Speaker 4: double plays with Davy Concepcion and then Lad in games,
Speaker 4: Sparky would often put him in at third as a
Speaker 4: defensive replacement for Pete and just I mean, it's just
Speaker 4: it's just phenomenal that a what a five foot eight,
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty pounds Brian station baseball player can
Speaker 4: be a not only a part, but a very important part,
Speaker 4: a critical part of arguably the greatest team ever assemble.
Speaker 4: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, Marrow with David Patrick, who has produced
Speaker 1: a documentary on Doug Flynn is coming up a week
Speaker 1: from tomorrow on WKYT. Back in just a minute, A
Speaker 1: Big Blooon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue and Sider. We're talking with David Patrick from
Speaker 1: Morehead State University Athletics. He is a video projects producer,
Speaker 1: but he has stepped outside to do a passion project,
Speaker 1: a freelance project. It's a one hour documentary on my
Speaker 1: broadcast brother, Doug Flynn. It airs on WKYT a week
Speaker 1: from tomorrow at one o'clock on June twenty eighth, and
Speaker 1: then the next day Sunday on the c W Lexington
Speaker 1: at one o'clock again. And David, of course a huge
Speaker 1: UK fan, but a huge Reds fan. And you know
Speaker 1: what's amazing to me, the most amazing part of this was,
Speaker 1: and he always jokes about this on our broadcast whenever
Speaker 1: we talk about hitting. You know, I'd ask him something.
Speaker 1: I don't know why asking me because this, you know,
Speaker 1: his career average was the greatest. But as I like
Speaker 1: to remind him, and he does too, any I think
Speaker 1: he had like what twelve home runs? I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you did it in the major leagues, but he
Speaker 1: made and you know this, he made the Reds going
Speaker 1: into that seventy five year because of his hitting. I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody knew that this kid from Lexingy could pick it.
Speaker 1: But he had an incredibly h He was the second
Speaker 1: best hitter in camp to Pete Rose that year. That's
Speaker 1: why he made the team amazingly. And if you go
Speaker 1: back and look at his wiki page, which you may
Speaker 1: have already done, there are parts of his career when
Speaker 1: he was playing regularly, when his numbers were really really good.
Speaker 1: But as he's pointed out on more than one occasion,
Speaker 1: you know, there had the hitting coaches basically ignored guys
Speaker 1: like Doug Flynn. He got zero help with his hitting
Speaker 1: in Major League baseball.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he talked about in spring training, you know
Speaker 4: when he made the club that he got I think
Speaker 4: it was ninety at bat in spring training, and they
Speaker 4: kept on sending him to the plate, I guess, waiting
Speaker 4: on him to fail. And he tore the cover off
Speaker 4: the ball in spring training and it really gave him
Speaker 4: no choice but to, you know, but to take him,
Speaker 4: take him to the Cincinnati. So it's I think he
Speaker 4: he never gets enough credit for his hitting and one
Speaker 4: of the highlights of my interview with him was his
Speaker 4: story about his first and only inside the park home run.
Speaker 4: And I'm sure you've heard the story. He hit it
Speaker 4: against the Reds on National TV and he's rounding third,
Speaker 4: he's being waved home. The ball goes in the gap
Speaker 4: at left center and George Foster and says our jeron, look,
Speaker 4: you know, goes in between him, goes all the way
Speaker 4: to the wall and he's rounding third and he looks
Speaker 4: up and his good friend Johnny Bench is waiting on
Speaker 4: him at the plate and he's like, okay, do I
Speaker 4: do I try to run over him. No, I don't,
Speaker 4: and he ends up sliding in. There was not even
Speaker 4: a play at plate, and Johnny looks at him, looks
Speaker 4: down at him on the ground. The crowd's going crazy,
Speaker 4: and Johnny says, what justly for Dougie, and doug looks
Speaker 4: at him and says, let's get on national TV. John
Speaker 4: so uh that it's I mean the fact that he said,
Speaker 4: I think I think my former teammates in the Reds
Speaker 4: dug Aut were as excited to sit and see me
Speaker 4: hit that inside the park home run, and of course
Speaker 4: hit three triples in a game it is. I mean,
Speaker 4: the heck does that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think one other person's done it in a
Speaker 1: major league game. Yeah. I remind him of that every
Speaker 1: once in a while. So he said he was so
Speaker 1: exhausted by that third one he could even think straight.
Speaker 1: So well, David, I'm proud of you for doing this.
Speaker 1: I'm happy you got a chance to spend somebody with uh.
Speaker 1: Your your beloved Cincinnati red You're such a Reds fan.
Speaker 1: But I can't wait to see the finished project. Congratulations
Speaker 1: on getting.
Speaker 4: It done well, Dick. And I want to say this,
Speaker 4: I had the absolute honor of working for you. You
Speaker 4: you were the sports director at w k YT when
Speaker 4: when I went after the sports department, and I was
Speaker 4: I was so green, and I was such a such
Speaker 4: a rookie and made so many mistakes. And I've told
Speaker 4: this story numerous times that you were always you were
Speaker 4: tough on me, and when I look back at the time,
Speaker 4: it wasn't fun because I remember you and I would
Speaker 4: set in a chair there in the middle office and
Speaker 4: I would be going over scripts or talking to you
Speaker 4: about stories, and you would constantly correct me. And I
Speaker 4: looked at you one day and I said, Dick, why
Speaker 4: are you always doing that to me? And you said,
Speaker 4: because I want to make you better, Because if you're
Speaker 4: going to work up here upstairs with us, I want
Speaker 4: you to be the best that you can be. And
Speaker 4: you were always tough on me, But Dick, it made
Speaker 4: me so much better. And to this day here at
Speaker 4: Moorhead State, I work around some amazing people and the
Speaker 4: lessons that I learned from you, and I'm I'm this
Speaker 4: is one hundred percent heartfelt, and I mean this with
Speaker 4: all my heart. But the lessons that I learned from
Speaker 4: you and Rob and Steve and the guys that I
Speaker 4: work with, you guys were seasoned veterans. They were priceless
Speaker 4: because at the time I felt, you know, I was,
Speaker 4: I was intimidated to work with you guys because you
Speaker 4: guys have been doing this for so long. But because
Speaker 4: you were tough and because you you you, you were
Speaker 4: willing to correct me and make me better. As you know,
Speaker 4: my career is almost thirty years now, and you know
Speaker 4: in in TV or you know in media, and that
Speaker 4: the reason that I'm where I am today is because
Speaker 4: of you and Rob and Steve and guys that I
Speaker 4: worked with. Because you you push me, and you refuse
Speaker 4: to let me, uh, to to settle for mediocrity. You
Speaker 4: made sure that I was to be the best that
Speaker 4: I could possibly be. And I really appreciate that. And
Speaker 4: I have so much admiration and respect for you, Dick.
Speaker 4: You're just man. You're you're you're you're a pro, and
Speaker 4: you're one of a kind. And thank you for mentoring
Speaker 4: me all those years.
Speaker 1: Oh thanks, David's humbling and I appreciate that. And uh,
Speaker 1: we did have a lot of fun though, didn't.
Speaker 4: We We did. We had a we had a blat.
Speaker 4: It was. It was such a it was such a
Speaker 4: blessing to come to work every day because it was
Speaker 4: just you knew you were going to get to do
Speaker 4: something special and be around special people. So it was great.
Speaker 4: But thank you, thank you again, great David.
Speaker 1: Those are kind words. I appreciate it, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing the finished product. Man, have a good one.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thanks Dick, appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy David got to do this project. And
Speaker 1: as I said earlier, after I heard he was doing this,
Speaker 1: I thought, Man, why didn't I ever think of that?
Speaker 1: But David is the perfect guy, and I did grow
Speaker 1: up a Reds fan. Yes, I'm a Cardinals fan, but
Speaker 1: I loved Pete Rose and when I wasn't rooting for
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, I rooted for the Reds and was so
Speaker 1: great first of all getting to know Doug Flynn, and
Speaker 1: then he and I worked on baseball games together. We
Speaker 1: think at least thirty years. I can't even remember the
Speaker 1: first time I worked together with him. It was back
Speaker 1: when w KYT was producing the local base broadcast and
Speaker 1: now of course for SEC plus. But we've gotten to
Speaker 1: be such good friends, travel together all that stuff, and
Speaker 1: people talk to us about in our chemistry on the
Speaker 1: air and how much fun we have, and we just
Speaker 1: try to make it fun for the people. But I
Speaker 1: never really thought about and I have done interviews with Doug,
Speaker 1: but a documentary on Doug Flinn, And as some of
Speaker 1: you may know, I've done a lot of documentaries in
Speaker 1: my day. So I can't wait to see the show
Speaker 1: that David has put together, and again a week from tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and then again a week from Sunday on the CW,
Speaker 1: And of course it's on KYT on Saturday and the
Speaker 1: CW on Sunday. It's going to be essentially one hour
Speaker 1: commercial free, which I surely appreciate Kyt giving up a
Speaker 1: block of time like that. And it does take me
Speaker 1: back to the Rugh documentary that I did in twenty five,
Speaker 1: when what you do is you put everything in it
Speaker 1: and then you start trimming it. You start cutting things way.
Speaker 1: And I went to the sales manager and I said,
Speaker 1: how many minutes can I have? How many minutes do
Speaker 1: you need for commercials? I was at a little more
Speaker 1: than one hundred and twenty minutes two hours, and I
Speaker 1: remember he said, don't cut anything, hang on a minute,
Speaker 1: hang on, you just wait. I'm like all right. And
Speaker 1: then they sold it to a title sponsor, which meant
Speaker 1: commercial basically at the beginning, a commercial at the end.
Speaker 1: And it was basically sponsored by friends and family of
Speaker 1: the Rough family. Friends of the Rough family and family members.
Speaker 1: They kind of passed the hat. You know, there weren't
Speaker 1: any big corporations that would even sign on because it
Speaker 1: was too delicate. You know, there was going to be
Speaker 1: the topic of racism and things like that, and race
Speaker 1: relations had made people nervous. So the Rough family basically
Speaker 1: passed the hat. And again I will say this University
Speaker 1: Kentucky had nothing to do with this documentary. It was
Speaker 1: published in a story in the local paper. The UK
Speaker 1: paid us to do that, and then I solicited funds.
Speaker 1: That was a lie. No, the Rough family passed the hat,
Speaker 1: and that's why the Rough documentary was commercial free, two
Speaker 1: hours long. And I was happy that David got that
Speaker 1: kind of time, and I was proud the KYT allowed
Speaker 1: him to do that kind of project. So I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see it, and I'm happy for him, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy that Doug likes it, and I was pleased
Speaker 1: at the Rough family like my show as well. But again,
Speaker 1: I've heard so many stories from Doug. Now I get
Speaker 1: to hear some new ones and I get to see
Speaker 1: them all kind of melded together in one piece thanks
Speaker 1: to David Patrick. So congrats to David. Why we're talking baseball,
Speaker 1: and I'll get into this a little bit more on heroes,
Speaker 1: fools and flakes. But you know, if you saw the
Speaker 1: end of that Arkansas l issue game, your heart just
Speaker 1: goes out to the young man who made the air
Speaker 1: and left field that allowed two runs to score. But
Speaker 1: you know, and this doesn't help Arkansas fans at all,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it'll help the young man at all.
Speaker 1: But it bears mentioning that the game should have ended
Speaker 1: on a ground ball to the shortstop who was the
Speaker 1: sec player of the year, and he throws ahead of
Speaker 1: the runner man on first and second and he gets
Speaker 1: the leader runner a third. Okay, that's fine, but it
Speaker 1: was a routine ground ball, and every replay indicated they
Speaker 1: should have gone for two and likely would have made it.
Speaker 1: And there was somebody on the innerweb who went back,
Speaker 1: he said, and looked at every ground ball that year
Speaker 1: to that guy, and it was a play he could
Speaker 1: have and should have made. So what that means is
Speaker 1: that never should have come down, and that's often the case.
Speaker 1: To that twisting line drive in left field that allowed
Speaker 1: two runs to score, and of course the tough break
Speaker 1: with the ball hit up the middle that had had
Speaker 1: gone cleanly into center field, the runner might not have scored,
Speaker 1: or he might have been thrown out at the plate,
Speaker 1: but the defender nearly caught the ball, ticked it with
Speaker 1: his glove that slowed things down and allowed the run
Speaker 1: to score. But unfortunately, the highest profile play was the
Speaker 1: error in left field, and your heartbreaks for Arkansas, for
Speaker 1: that kid, for Dave van Horn, who had a national
Speaker 1: championship the head coach in his grasp two or three
Speaker 1: years ago when one of his players dropped the pop
Speaker 1: fly and blew the championship game. After the game, Dave
Speaker 1: van Horn talked about the interaction he had with his
Speaker 1: heartbroken left.
Speaker 8: Fielder and he's he's pretty distraught, but.
Speaker 9: I just told him straight.
Speaker 8: I mean, I started telling him that how much I
Speaker 8: appreciated him and we would never have made it here
Speaker 8: without him. And he said that he was sorry, and
Speaker 8: I said, don't tell me you're sorry. That you don't
Speaker 8: have to tell me you're sorry, and.
Speaker 9: He said it again, and I mean, it's tough, and
Speaker 9: that kid didn't have to be sorry for anything.
Speaker 1: He was our glue man. He held it together. That
Speaker 1: was posted as part of a long tweet from a
Speaker 1: former Arkansas player. He was a pitcher named Ryan Vanessio.
Speaker 1: I think that's how you pronounce his name. I guess
Speaker 1: he was a two way player because he talked about
Speaker 1: a game against Baylor in twenty oh two when Van
Speaker 1: Horn flashed him a hit and run sign and he
Speaker 1: missed it. And of course, when you missed the hit
Speaker 1: and run and the runner breaks, he's hung out to
Speaker 1: dry and the guy was thrown out by a mile
Speaker 1: and Van Horn, he said, glared at him in the
Speaker 1: dugout and said, I suggest you find someone to review
Speaker 1: the signs for you, or you won't be on the
Speaker 1: field much longer. And he said, I'm sorry, And Van
Speaker 1: Horden said, he went straight to me and said, basically,
Speaker 1: don't ever apologize. I think you did it on purpose.
Speaker 1: You play the game with everything you got, and when
Speaker 1: you mess up, you learn, you grow and you come
Speaker 1: back better. And you know, you can talk about coaches
Speaker 1: who scream and yell and throw their arms in the
Speaker 1: air and run up and down the sidelines and bark
Speaker 1: at umpires. You know, that's great coach, you know, not always,
Speaker 1: not necessarily, sometimes it is, but no, that's coaching when
Speaker 1: you say things like that to your players. And I
Speaker 1: don't know Dave Van Horne. I've met him, I've talked
Speaker 1: to him. I liked him. He was kind to me,
Speaker 1: he was polite. I don't know him, quote unquote, but
Speaker 1: I know what I've heard, I know what i've read,
Speaker 1: and I know what I've seen in him, and that's classy.
Speaker 1: And this guy went on to say, you want a
Speaker 1: coach who's consistent. You may not like what he has
Speaker 1: to say, but it's consistent. That is the mark, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, of a great coach. That's one of the
Speaker 1: things I really liked about Rich Brooks. Heroes, Fools and
Speaker 1: Flakes are next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider time now for Heroes, fools and
Speaker 1: Flakes and our hero Tonight we have to go back
Speaker 1: to that difficulty la Hugh Arkansas game on Wednesday night
Speaker 1: when the Razorbacks blew a three run lead in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the ninth and it wasn't the last play
Speaker 1: of the game, but it was crucial when an LSU
Speaker 1: player line went into left field and Charles Davilon, the
Speaker 1: Arkansas left fielder, got caught in the middle. It was
Speaker 1: right at him, a hooking line drive. He kind of
Speaker 1: lost his balance or stumbled or something and couldn't make
Speaker 1: the play. Two runs scored that tied the game. Next
Speaker 1: man up knocks in the game when he won, and
Speaker 1: after the game, cameras caught Davlon, of course, sobbing on
Speaker 1: the bench in the dugout, being consoled by his teammates,
Speaker 1: and according to one report, he recorded one hundred and
Speaker 1: one putouts this year. That was his only eer of
Speaker 1: the year. But what brings me to the heroic part
Speaker 1: is that, yeah, you know, they had to stay in
Speaker 1: the dugout for a while and it was so tough
Speaker 1: on this kid. But his teammates one by one came up,
Speaker 1: tried to console him. But a teammate named Rocco Peppi
Speaker 1: would not leave his side through it all. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of video of Peppy just sitting next to him,
Speaker 1: were just sitting there with his arm around his neck.
Speaker 1: Would not leave his teammate in his time of trouble,
Speaker 1: in his time of need. That's a real teammate and
Speaker 1: in fact, as a man who posted on Twitter, Josh
Speaker 1: Burrion wrote, that's not a teammate, that's a brother. Our
Speaker 1: full tonight is any of those NBA analysts, commentators whoever
Speaker 1: who believe the tyres Halliburton should have sat out Game
Speaker 1: five with the injured leg. He tried to play through it.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Thunder thump the Pacers, only to come
Speaker 1: back and see the Pacers last night beat the Thunder
Speaker 1: and forced a Game seven. And now Aliburton wasn't one
Speaker 1: hundred percent last night but he was a vital part
Speaker 1: of that blowout win last night. And I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I think if Halliburton sits out game five, I don't
Speaker 1: know if that happens last night, you can't criticize the
Speaker 1: team's best player. Were trying to play and trying to
Speaker 1: be a great teammate as best he can. And it
Speaker 1: reminded me of the Marquette Kentucky game back in twenty
Speaker 1: oh three in the regional championship. Cats were one step
Speaker 1: away from a return trip to the Final four. With
Speaker 1: Tebe Smith, that was his best team, but Keith Bogans
Speaker 1: two nights prior had suffered a high ankle sprain and
Speaker 1: tried to go against Dwayne Wade and Marquette and it
Speaker 1: didn't work. He played on one leg, he couldn't play
Speaker 1: defense very well, and Marquette got to win the triple
Speaker 1: double for Dwayne Wade, and in the Final four, Marquette
Speaker 1: was blown out, but at a great night that night.
Speaker 1: Warriors want to play. And that's what I asked Tubbe
Speaker 1: Smith about sometime later. How often do you think about
Speaker 1: that decision you had to make? Do you play Bogans
Speaker 1: or not? He said, every night, every day. I think
Speaker 1: about it, he said, But how do you not play him?
Speaker 1: He's our warrior and that's what Halliburton is, and that's
Speaker 1: what he was last night and he will be again
Speaker 1: in Game seven. Our flake. Tonight. We're going to Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1: Talk about not the Cowboys, but the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
Speaker 1: I am not a Cowboys fan. I did live in Dallas.
Speaker 1: I went to Cowboy games. Yes they're gorgeous women, Yes
Speaker 1: they perform well, they're not cheerleaders, they're dancers. When I
Speaker 1: was down there, they were paid less than one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a game, and they trained in terms of time,
Speaker 1: spent more than the team did. Now they were to
Speaker 1: make money on the side on calendars and appearances and
Speaker 1: things like that, but the team paid them peanuts. They
Speaker 1: had since been paid more and more, and in fact,
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen they settled a lawsuit with a former
Speaker 1: cheerleader that led to the squad doubling the per game
Speaker 1: pay from two hundred bucks to four hundred bucks. And
Speaker 1: evidently the latest rais is four times that. But it's
Speaker 1: just weird that it has taken this long and multiple
Speaker 1: trips to court to make a four hundred percent increase happen.
Speaker 1: It should have been happening in small increments through the years,
Speaker 1: not boom all at once, four hundred percent. Not all
Speaker 1: as well in Jerry world, and not just because they
Speaker 1: haven't been to the super Bowl since well I don't
Speaker 1: know who was president last time they were. That's going
Speaker 1: to do it for now. Thanks so much to my
Speaker 1: guest David Patrick nickmnjeon that said good night in the
Speaker 1: garage and Lexington, Aron, where are you? Where is a
Speaker 1: Ron right now?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 1: Aaron?
Speaker 8: Huh?
Speaker 5: Well you better be sick, dead or mute? Aron here?
Speaker 1: Oh man?
Speaker 5: Why didn't you ask me the first time?
Speaker 1: I said Aaron?
Speaker 9: Huh?
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm just asking you.
Speaker 5: I said it like four times. So why didn't you
Speaker 5: say it the first time? I said Aron?
Speaker 1: Because it's pronounced Aaron.
Speaker 7: You don't messed up. I wont take anything.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 9: The tact.
Speaker 7: To last innings