Podcast – Kenny & JT Show Friday Opener

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On News Talk 1480, W-H-B-C.

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Be fun, be casual, be.

These guys have a lot to say,

and they never stop talking.

Well, let's do those two clowns.

I am not a happy pepper.

I've had enough of that, my larkey.

Don't wreck our show, you loser.

Live from News Talk 1480, W-H-B-C.

It's a household name.

All right, Dan.

It's Kenny and JT.

Oh, you made a wise choice, my friend.

Have a great show.

What are you doing this person, dad, mom?

Come on.

Let's go!

Almost heaven, West Virginia.

He sends us one high in the air to deep right.

Really, back, track, whoa, leaps, it is gone.

Chase the water with a solo home run

in his first at bat in 2026.

Ow, how about that?

These country roads take me home

to the place high below West Virginia.

Mountain mama, take me home country road.

Oh, my.

It minds this one deep right center.

Forget about it.

Chase the water.

What a regular season, debut.

Outbound the right center.

And at six to four, clean one.

That one, 422 feet.

Deep into the lower deck and right center.

We are not coming to you live from Martinsburg, West Virginia.

We are at the corner of Sixth and Market,

beautiful downtown, Kit, Ohio.

And it's 42 degrees in this wonderful.

Chase the Lotter, Hall of Fame city.

How about that regular season?

The debut last night by Chase the Lotter.

We talked about them all day on the show yesterday.

We played our interview that we did from spring training

with Chase the Lotter.

And I mentioned JT.

I thought he was the most important player.

Not named Jose Ramirez in that offense.

And what's he doing his first ever regular season?

Major league at bat.

He goes yard.

He hits a ball to right center field in the second,

or what was it, the ninth inning for his second home run

in that game?

Unbelievable performance for a kid that JT with that song

is his walk up song.

Fans are going to love Chase the Lotter

if he can just stay healthy, fingers crossed.

There's a lot to like about that kid.

And you know, we met his parents, or at least I did.

We were walking into that game.

That was the beginning of that little montage we played.

And they made the trip.

And they showed them throughout the course of the game.

So here's an interesting thing.

One of six players in Major League history

to record two home runs in their regular season debut.

That's amazing.

Over 100 years of baseball, right?

And he is the first Indian slash Guardian player

to do it in his debut, too.

He becomes the fifth Cleveland player to Homer

in his first official regular season at bat.

He joins this fraternity.

Earl Avril from 1929, he did it.

Jay Bell, 1986.

My senior year at Baldwin Wallace, he did it.

How about Kevin Kuzmanov in his first ever regular season

Major League at bat?

Not only does he Homer, Kuzmanov gets a grand slam in 2006.

And then John Kenzie, Big Christmas, Noelle did it in 2024.

Now Chase the Lotter has joined that group.

Yeah, I don't know what was better for me yesterday.

A 6-4 winner for the Guardians are the fact

that I ate two dogs in the afternoon.

I mean, that might be the good luck charm.

Maybe I should have sugar nail hot dogs today

to will the Guardians in their next win.

And they play again tonight at what, 9.45 or something

like that?

Something like, I was so discombobulated last night.

I'm watching the 7 o'clock game, the 7.30 game

for basketball, right?

Then the Guardians are at 10.10 pm.

And the two early basketball games were phenomenal.

I did not watch any of the late basketball games

because I tuned into the Guardians, and I didn't tune out.

I stayed with the Guardians the rest of the night

and checked the scores for the basketball games

on my phones until that Guardians game was over

with Kate Smith getting the save in the ninth inning.

I made notes throughout the course of the night as well,

but mostly I was watching baseball.

I flipped over during one of the commercials,

and this is my note.

11.30 left in the game and Houston has only scored 26 points.

There went my bracket.

26.

Mine too.

I had them getting to the final four in one of my brackets.

I thought for sure they're winning against Illinois yesterday,

but JT, how about the big 10?

The big 10 has dominated this tournament yesterday.

Iowa beats another big 10 team, Nebraska 7771.

Purdue knocks off Texas at the buzzer 7977.

Illinois takes down Houston 6555,

and Arizona beat Arkansas.

No big 10 team in there to beat either one of those schools.

And so Illinois, Arizona, Purdue, Iowa advanced and then four more games tonight.

You've got one, two, two more big 10 teams playing tonight in the sweet 16.

Not unlike everyone else in the country,

we always overthink this,

but we shouldn't because we're in the heart of the big 10 country.

We should look at this tournament and we should make a note right now

that moving into it next season.

There were nine big 10 teams that made it into the NCAA tournament.

There were six that made it into the sweet 16.

You're guaranteed at least one of those teams into the final four now.

Why don't we consider the fact that it is the best tournament,

or I'm sorry, the best conference in college basketball,

and they should be able to advance.

And what they do is they just instill their will on their opponent

because those other teams like the Houstons of the world

aren't ready to do battle physically with a team from the big 10.

Well, Houston is a physical team.

That's what surprised me about yesterday that Illinois had their way with them

and held them to that low point total in that first half.

And here's the reason why I don't believe in the big 10.

When is the last time the big 10 team won an national championship against state?

Yeah, what year was that, 2000, 2001?

It's been that long, okay?

That's why I don't believe in the big 10,

and that's why I shy away from picking a lot of teams to advance in this tournament.

But you got to go back and you have to remember.

Back then there was probably about 12 teams in the big 10.

I don't know exactly how many there were, but there are 18 now.

And it's a much better conference.

And they're spending more money.

So we should look at it and say the style of basketball hasn't really changed in the big 10.

They're still physical, and we talked around Stokes the other day.

They've also adopted more of a European style basketball.

So we can pound you inside.

But man, when push comes a shove, we've got three point shooters in this league.

Yeah, and that was really evident last night in those games, right?

I mean, I love the Iowa Nebraska game, got it wrong.

I picked Nebraska, Iowa wins, Purdue, Texas.

I had Purdue winning that one, but it was a tip in at the buzzer that ended up being the difference.

I don't know what happened in that.

There's the tip in for Purdue, 79, 77 over number 11, Texas.

I didn't watch any of the Illinois Houston games just saw the score updates.

So I don't know about that.

But I will say this.

The one thing I did get right, Arizona is the best team, you know, maybe in the entire country.

They're a final four team, I think against Michigan.

That may be the only thing I get right in my bracket.

And you might get it is easily wrong, is you might get it as easily right.

And the reason for that is single elimination.

Anything can happen.

And it all comes down to coaching and pressure.

You saw Nebraska not have five guys on the floor.

That's unbelievable.

You would get to the sweet 16 and make a bone headed decision like that and not have

enough guys on the floor.

That to me is amazing and Fred Hoyberg's a hell of a coach.

How did that happen?

I have no idea.

No clue.

But you know what, you blame the column can coach basketball, man.

It doesn't matter what level of basketball for that guy, Ben McCollum, who was the head coach

at Iowa is one of the up and coming young coaches in the entire NCAA.

I wouldn't be surprised if North Carolina or Kansas, after this tournament's over, you

know, go calling for him to see if he'll leave Iowa and take one of the blue blood jobs.

But JT, we're going to have a little bit later on, Jeff Young on the head coach at Walsh,

because he's, I think, played against or coached against Ben McCollum in Division 2 before

Ben became a D1 head coach.

And we're going to find out why this guy is such a great coach.

Well, I'll give you an idea of why it might have happened.

If you watch the end of the Guardians game last night, you watch the post game, and I'm

paraphrasing.

It was like three or four of the players had said, and they were talking about how young

this team is.

They were talking about the young guys that were playing.

And a lot of it was, you know, like geared towards chase the lotter.

Well, the moment's not too big for him.

But they said something to the effect that his breathing slowed down.

And the thing that that means to me is, they're really not getting psyched out of the situation.

The moment isn't too big for them.

The lights aren't too bright like they were for Jared Allen when they played the New York

Knicks a few years ago in the post season.

So if these guys are cool, common collected, it shouldn't surprise anyone.

But what it does do is let you know that this guy, the hell of a coach, moving forward,

moment's not going to be too big for him.

Let's see if maybe they can impose their will on the next opponent.

I look at that Iowa team and I go, man, how are they doing it down the stretch in all

those games?

All the announcers like, uh-oh, I was in trouble and then at the end of the game, somehow

some way they win it.

Yeah, Ben McCollum, I compared him to Jim Trestle and I think it's a fair comparison.

That's not going to work at division one.

Yeah, you won four national championships, you know, one AA or whatever you want to call

it, right?

Division two.

Yeah.

You know, that, that just is, you know, him finding a way to win at that level.

Well, no, if you can coach basketball, it translates to any level.

His name is football.

Jim Trestle won four Youngstown State, won one at Ohio State, played in three national

championship games.

Ben McCollum's won four at division two.

Now he's got his team in the elite eight at Iowa early in his tenure there at Iowa.

And I think the, you know, the, the future is extremely bright for Ben McCollum wherever

he ends up coaching next season and Iowa, hey, they're going to do everything they can

to try and keep him.

But when you get into the deep pockets of North Carolina and Kansas, it might be too hard

to do.

So enjoy them while you have them, I guess.

Here's the thing you like about a coach like that.

Now, a lot of people are comparing him to Kurt Signetti, the football coach at Indiana.

But you look at this guy and what he's done over the last, I don't know, five to ten

years.

We'll start back in 2017, D2 champion, 2018, D2 first round, 2019, D2 champion, 2020.

He wins 30 games, D2 tournament canceled, D2 champion in 21, D2 champion in 22, D2 round

of 32 in 23, 24, D2, sweet 16, 25, D1, 32, 20, 26, elite, eight.

This is what you look for.

You look for a guy that can win 20 games or more per season.

And that is one of the reasons why I text you last time and go, you got to text this,

Jeff Young.

You know, this guy, he's probably rein into him somewhere along the way because Walsh is

now D2 and whether or not he coached against him, played against him, knows this dude, probably

saw him at some coaching clinic or whatever.

You know what I was really thinking?

How many times has Jeff Young been approached to be someone like this McCollum?

Do you think somebody's ever offered him a job?

You know, years we've talked about it, you know, it's just a matter of time.

Somebody's going to come tap their cares on the shoulder and we thought at one time he

was, you know, in line to take the Kent State job, he liked being at Mount Union, you

know, a smaller school, you know, big fish, small pond.

But then again, you look at his advanced age at that time.

Had he had the success as a younger coach, maybe he would have made his way through like

Jim Tressel did and gone up to the D1 level.

It's amazing to me with as much success that Jeff Young has had at Walsh that he hasn't

left unless he just likes it here and never wanted to leave.

We can ask him that.

I think he can coach at a max school.

No problem.

I don't think there'd be any doubt in my mind that Jeff Young could do that.

So everybody has their parameters or what's best for them with their family, their kids

and all of that factors into it.

So he's going to join us around 435 to talk some March madness.

We're also going to talk some Browns and Buck Guys.

A little football later in the show today is Scott Petzrak, brownzone.com will join us

at four Steve Hellwagon on the Buck Guys pro days as well as spring practice.

We'll join us at five o'clock.

We're going to hear from Chase DeLotter, Stephen Vote.

How about this is one thing we kind of jumped over because of the DeLotter debut.

And that is Tanner Miby had to leave the game with right, shoulder inflammation, I guess,

is what they're calling it for right now.

How concerned are you about this?

One of my keys yesterday, if you remember JT was they can't afford to have any injuries

to the starting rotation because they're not as deep in that area as they have been in

the past.

And here we are one game in and now we got to see what's going to happen with baby.

I'll be more concerned when I figure out what the extent of this is and whether or not

they just shut them out as a precaution because they knew there was inflammation because

they truly don't know.

And I don't know if he's been scheduled for an MRI, I haven't heard anything.

You know, since we're talking about that game anyway, and moving forward, we know that

Logan Allen is already down on the farm.

Do you think they already put a call into him or will he just join us next week when

they get home for the home opener in the first home stand of the season?

I want to give a shout out to two local guys in that game last, I had no idea.

This Luke Rayley and Dominic Kenzone, I call him Calzone.

They combine for three dingers and they're all from, they're both from Northeast Ohio.

Yeah, how about that?

They went yard like that and mad underwood as I was watching it and on TV talking about

the local flavor to this and everything like that.

So kudos to those guys, always good to represent Northeast Ohio and the great thing about

it is they did well and the Guardians won.

So it was a good night for Northeast Ohio and of course the Cleveland Guardians.

And the other thing that we haven't even mentioned in what are we, about 15 minutes

into the show?

How about Reese Hoskins in his Guardians debut yesterday?

I didn't think he'd be in the lineup because it was a right handed pitcher.

Hey, Stephen Vogue, two time manager of the year puts this guy if you're watching on

Facebook and on our YouTube channel in the game and that is Reese Hoskins at first base.

And all he does is go three for three with a double, a couple of singles, he's firing

up the bench and everything like that and has a outstanding debut that is overshadowed

because of what Chase the water did.

Yeah, the key to your game did not have the bottom of the lineup having seven hits.

That was incredible.

I mean, you look at that lineup and what do they have?

12 hits combined for the entire game, something like that anyway.

And the pitching staff did exactly what we expect them to do.

They gave up a lot of home runs, but they didn't give up big innings.

And Kate Smith, man, was lights out in that night, then he was nasty man guy first save

as the official closer to start the season first time ever for his.

So the other guys too that they acquired, right?

In the off season to lengthen that bullpen, strengthen that bullpen did their job as well.

Give you a statistic yesterday is the first time the Cleveland Guardians have won their

opener three times in a row since 1963, I believe, how about that?

So what are we 63 years?

It hasn't happened.

I always get two up for that too, because I always want to win that first one.

I know nobody's ever going to go into feed it or anything, but to me, it's just it sets

things off in the right direction.

We learned this two years ago, Guardians start off the season on the West Coast as they

always do because the weather so lousy in Northeast Ohio that when they got on to a heater,

they were able to bankroll that into a whole season.

Don't know if that's going to happen right now, but man, that's a nice game to win last

night.

It is.

And not only did Chase the Lotter, Homer in his first big league regular season at bat

and have a two home or game, do you realize JT?

He was the 15th different starting right fielder on opening day for the Guardians in the

last 15 years.

We've had a different starting right fielder every year since going back to 2012.

Here's the list.

All right.

2012, your right fielder.

And I guess he was also the right fielder in 2011, right?

So it was Shin Su Chu, okay?

He starts this list and then it goes Drew Stubbs, David Murphy, Brandon Moss, Colin

Cowgill, Abraham El Monte, Lonnie Chishol, Tyler Naquin, Domingo Santana, hey, Josh

Naylor played right field one year and started on opening day.

Steven Cwan in 22 was our starting right fielder.

Will Brennan, bird killer, Ramon Lauriano, John Kenzie Noel last year and now this year

Chase the Lotter.

How about that 15 straight years, 15 different starting right fielders on opening day for the

Indian's Guardian?

Well, it shouldn't shock you because yesterday we were talking about Nick Castelanos and

a team that will not go out and find somebody, whether it's a veteran like they did with

Reese Hoskins.

Reese Hoskins is going to be a DH in the first basement, but they will not look for a new

right fielder to come in with experience and what that tells you is they're looking and

they want to rely on this youth movement and find a replacement or someone that will

be able to be platooned because do you think they would ever settle on a right fielder?

Well, I mean, if Chase the Lotter hits cover of the ball, would they put him in right field

and leave him there or would they still as his youth and his history would suggest that

he might get injured, that they would still platoon him.

He is going to be your every day right fielder in my opinion for at least 100 games, okay?

And what I think they will do with him is they will be careful against good lefties.

They will be careful of playing him too many games in a row because he is injury prone,

but I think he will start at least 100 games for the Guardians in right field if he can

stay healthy and that's the big if.

Since we're making predictions, I'll make one.

All right.

So, Roqueo moves over to short and we get Travis Bazzana soon.

Maybe not the first month of the season or so, but I think it's just a matter of time.

Bazzana starts hitting the ball triple A. I have a feeling they're going to move Roqueo

to short, bring Bazzana up, put him right there at second base and move Arias into maybe

one of those Swiss Army knife rolls.

Okay.

So here's what we have to keep an eye on.

I was having the same thought and I agree with you on that because I'm not an Arias

guy.

I've seen enough if he would be a utility guy fine, but you have Schneeman for that, right?

So I would like Roqueo at short and Bazzana if ready to come up and play second.

So I was looking at this a full year of service for a major league baseball player at the major

league level is 172 days on the act of roster or injured list, meaning you've got to come

up, play for the Cleveland guardians, okay?

Or play for them, get hurt beyond their injured injury list, right?

For 172 days, that counts as a full year of service.

The guardians, I almost can guarantee this, will make sure he doesn't come up for more

than 170 days.

They don't want to even be close on losing that year to Travis Bazzana if he doesn't start

the season with the team out of spring training.

So we've got to count 100 and a days into the season, JT, and I think that's when they

will start looking at Travis Bazzana to be called up.

Well, I'm looking at it from a talent standpoint and I look at Arias and he gave you a hit last

night, okay, fine, but I don't think he's that good of a glove.

I don't think he's that great of an infield or so.

I mean, whether or not it's Bazzana coming up and playing second and moving Roqueo or maybe

they bring up somebody from Triple A, I'd like to see a better shortstop defensively.

Am I wrong in saying that?

Nope, not at all.

And I think Roqueo would be that better defensive shortstop.

Roqueo doesn't care.

How about the rope he hit yesterday?

He hits a double, drives in two runs, again, the bottom of that line up and I like him

in that number nine spot and chased the lotter.

Looks good in that number two spot ahead of Jose Ramirez and then you have whoever you're

going to put in as the clean up hitter might be Reese Hoskins.

It might be Kyle Mann Zardo, who knows who else they would possibly throw in there.

But I like Roqueo down there in the number nine spot, less pressure on him and he can

be a real, you know, tone setter for that team at the bottom of that order.

Man, it could be one, Bredo too.

I don't really care.

But I look at it since you're going to embrace this youth movement anyway.

Go get me a better middle infield or I mean, we've been talking about these middle

infield.

We're talking baseball, man.

How about that?

How about that?

All right.

I'm going to go even a step further with the love for chase the lotter.

I know it's only one game, but wait, let me ask you this though before I do this.

When is the last time you were this excited, maybe about one player for the Guardians?

Well, who was the, I knew you're going to ask me this and I'm not prepared.

And I mean, obviously you could say go Joe Sharbinau, but who was the other outfielder

that everybody was talking about?

I think I think it was an outfielder.

I guess I'll have to go with Joe Sharbinau.

Is Joe Sharbinau the last time we had a rookie of the year?

No, Sandy Alamore.

Sandy Alamore.

Yeah.

Sandy Alamore.

Sandy Alamore.

Yeah.

1990.

I was this excited about Francisco Lindor and Manny Ramirez.

Those are the two that I go back to, okay?

And that's why it's going in this direction.

So I decided, you know what?

24 Manny Ramirez, now wearing 24 chase the lotter.

Oh.

Manny Ramirez drafted 13th overall in the first round in 1991, chased the lotter, drafted

16th overall in, I believe, 2022.

So I went back to see what Manny Ramirez did in his first ever Big League game.

Well, Manny went 0 for 4 in his first ever Big League game, JT against the Minnesota twins,

okay?

And that was in 1993.

However, in his second Big League game in New York against the Yankees, Manny Ramirez

goes three for four with two home runs, a double, three RBI's and three runs scored, chased

the lotter in his first game, goes three for five, two homeers, two RBI's, three runs

scored.

They both wear 24.

They were both first round picks who chased the lotter, be the next Manny Ramirez for the

Cleveland Guardian.

Well, more importantly, you keep pointing back to the last draft where we had the first

overall pick and it was Travis Bessonning early.

Oh, we missed on this guy because there's other guys that are already at the Big League

level.

Well, let's, let's play devil's advocate now and then we'll go back to the 20, what was

it?

20, 22 draft, chased the lotter as pick 16th.

There's a lot of guys ahead of them that other teams missed out on if this dude ends up

being for real.

He's for real now, man, and I love it.

Yeah, first, first official regular season game and I've got to believe JT, it helped

that he got caught up and got to play in the playoffs yesterday, like a walk in the

park, right?

Compared to three games against the Tigers, do or die or the season's over, what he had

an air on the first ball hit to him in the playoff game and everything.

So yesterday was no big deal to chase the lotter and he hits two home runs.

Cardians win, 162 and O is still in play for the two time defending champs.

Your Cleveland Guardians will talk more about chase the lotter.

We'll hear from him and Stephen Vote, Tanner Bibi as well.

We'll get into the March Madness, sweet 16.

Also Cavaliers in action tonight.

We'll tell you about that and who might be back in the...