[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the following program is brought to.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: You in living color on Dell gazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots Podcast. Now here's your host, Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Shots.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Thank you Scott Kesey, and welcome to the Parting Shots Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the Parting Shots Podcast Studio in Schenectady, New York. We have another great show for you and I've had a lot of long shows the last couple of weeks, but this time around want to keep it just over 30 minutes. On Monday I spoke with Kevin Coogler, who will be calling his 17th Final Four men's basketball tournament for Westwood one. Of course you know Kevin from his work on Fox Sports's NFL coverage as well as the United Football League and some Major League Baseball. We chatted Monday and had a nice conversation. Been a while since we had Kevin on the podcast. Good man. He's also known to say the route is on. And of course you follow me on social media with my Union hockey coverage. You'll see sometimes I'll do the hashtag the route is on when a game gets out of hand. So we don't co own that phrase. But yeah, we'll have a nice discussion with Kevin Previewing the Final Four this weekend, Saturday semifinals and the Monday championship game. Before we go to break, I just want to express my condolences to the of former pro hockey goaltender Mark laforest, who passed away on Monday of a heart attack at the age of 62.
Had a chance to cover trees. It was his nickname, of course, with the last name laforest. It's kind of a great nickname. I covered trees both when I was covering Hershey Barrett's. When he played for the Adirondack Red Wings. He was part of that 1986 Calder cup championship team.
And then he joined the Flyer shortly after that and was actually in Hershey and he was assigned as a rehab assignment right before the roster freeze in 1989 and basically took over the number one goaltending spot the remainder of the season. And it played into the playoffs. And if there's some long time Adirondack Red Wings fans remember the Southern Division final between the Bears and the Red Wings. The Bears had three games and none lead in that best of seven series. But the Red Wings came back, won the series on an overtime goal by Adam Graves, beating laforest from the slide, I think went through his pads in the first overtime. An incredible comeback win for the Red Wings of Course, Red Wings went on to win the Calder cup, beating the New Haven Nighthawks. But Treves was a good man. Good to talk to and sorry to hear his passing at the age of 62 on Monday. So our condolences to his family. So, coming up, Kevin Coogler. We'll talk final for basketball here on the Parting Shots podcast.
You guys just didn't want it bad enough. That should have been an easy win. What were you doing out there?
[00:03:16] Speaker A: You gotta hustle.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: You could have made that play if you'd been open.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: On the car ride home after the game, when you think you're helping by telling me what I did wrong and what I need to work on, all I hear is that I'm not good enough. That I'm supposed to be perfect, that it's not okay to lose on the car ride home. All I need to hear is how much you love me and enjoy watching me play. That my worth isn't determined by my performance.
That even on my worst day, I am worthy. That you see me learning, growing and doing my best.
And that is enough.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: This message presented by NSFA and the New York State Athletic Administrators Association.
Hi, I'm Stan.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: And I'm Shen. And each week we bring you the Stan and Shen Show. And each week we talk about fun things through our travels throughout the capital region. We touch on food, we touch on news, try to touch heavily on good news. And Shen's always available with hot takes. Yeah. So if you could follow along and listen to us every week on DailyGazette.com or on all major streaming platforms, we'd love to have you join us. Hi, this is John McGraw, the voice of Colgate Hockey on ESPN.
You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shock.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. The matchups are set for the Final Four in NCAA men's basketball. And my next guest will be calling his 17th Final Four. I think he started when he was in high school. Let's welcome the man who also co owns the rights to the routers on Kevin Coogler. Kevin, how you doing? Long time no chat. How are you things going?
[00:05:09] Speaker A: My friend, I appreciate you loaning it out to me. I've put it to good use over the years, believe me.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: Appreciate that. I mean, I told you this when we tried it before. It's like I heard you when you're doing something like football, saying like, well, he took that from me. He must be following me or something like that. Well, Kevin, as we said 7 17th as I jokingly said, it seems like you were in high school when you start, but 17 years now for you to do the Final Four. Does it get, I mean, does it still get exciting after all these years?
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? This is you. You do all of the regular season and the exhibition games and the non conference games for this week. This is the, this is the, this is the greatest thing ever. And it's very cool for me because it's a Final Four with all number one seeds in San Antonio, which is exactly how I started it 17 years ago. A final four with all number one seeds in San Antonio in 2008. And we had some really good games in that Final Four, including a Chalmers shot that set us to overtime in a championship. So I'm, I'm hoping we can get some similar action this year. But no, it's, I mean, my gosh, it's the big biggest stage for college basketball and I love it every year. It's just, it's amazing to me that I've been able to do it this long. What a, what a dream come true.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, March Madness, we expect a lot of upsets, but this, this year's March Madness, we didn't have a lot of madness. We had just maybe so a couple minor upsets, but nothing really that took us by surprise. Me, how disappointed was that not to see some, you know, dramatic upsets?
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you always want to see those games. I mean, especially in the first weekend of the tournament. That's what it's become known for, is them. I saw a lot of people pushing the panic button after that. Oh my gosh, the game has changed so much and the big schools and the power conferences are running things and they are. That's very true. But at the same token, I'm not ready to just say, well, this is it. The greatness of the tournament is gone. I think this was just one of those years where you saw a very top heavy group. And I think it's going to be harder, Ken. It's going to be harder for the smaller schools, the mid majors to compete because the recipe was always get old. And then in that second and third year of having players in your system, you were able to go out and knock off some of those big boys who are able to go get the five star McDonald's, all Americans. And I don't know that you're going to see that as much because you get good and the guys get taken by the big schools. They swallow them up in the transfer portal. So it's going to be a different approach to get some of those upsets in the years to come. I hope we still have them because that's really the magic, especially of that first week of the NCAA tournament.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Let me ask you about the transfer portal. How much has that We've. For years, coaches, you know, move freely. The players are not allowed to move now. Players are allowed to move and all of a sudden there's criticism, oh, this is, this is bad for basketball. But to me, I mean, coaches had it good for years. Why not the players?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: No, this is not a complaint as far as I'm concerned. I mean, look, I. I love the story of the team that grows and gets old and is able to establish themselves. And you still have that story in this tournament. You have a team in Houston that has gone out. LJ Cryer last year was Houston. I know he started at Baylor, but he's been at Houston trying to build the last couple of years. Jojo Tugler, the defensive player of the year in the Big 12. Homegrown Houston guy. Juwan Roberts, homegrown Houston guy. So you have these stories still. You just don't necessarily have them. From Northern Iowa right now, where I live in Omaha, Nebraska. The hometown team, Omaha, made the tournament. Half of their players are now going into the portal because why wouldn't you? If you have the Chance to earn 2 to 3 to 4 to $500,000 in a year as a collegiate playing college basketball, you'd be a fool not to explore that opportunity. And I don't begrudge any of these kids for doing that. It's changing the way college basketball is played. Some ways good, some ways bad.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it just. It's incredible to see. We see some of these veteran coaches like Tony Bennett retired because they don't want to deal with this stuff.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: No. And I think you'll see some of these other coaches as we move on into the next couple of years. I think they will step aside as well. I think you'll see coaches who are just. They're done with it. I'm hoping that rev sharing changes a little bit for this. I think in the next couple of years, we're going to have to find some more significant guardrails just to kind of make sure that everybody's getting taken of correctly, both the programs and the players. Because if you don't put up some sort of guardrails in this. We have guardrails in every sport. So that's not limiting a collegiate player's movement. You have guardrails in the NFL with a salary cap, you have guardrails with contracts. There are guardrails up in professional sports. And let's be honest, collegiate sports is leaning more towards the professional area. So I think instead of it being just sort of this wild west frontier with nobody in charge, I think somebody's going to be in charge of this. There are going to be some guardrails up like you see at the professional level. I think that's a good thing.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: And you're seeing colleges hire de facto general managers. I mean, Adrian Wojanowski goes to St. Bonaventure from espn, Andrew Lux, the GM at Stanford. So you're, you're seeing, as you mentioned, it's turning pros with hiring these general managers.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Oh, there's no question. You see it all across college football as well, that they're going to the NFL ranks and hiring an assistant GM to become a college gm and they're paying them like a professional general manager. And, and you have to, because if you're a coach, you are going into this, especially if you're an older coach, you didn't come up in this era. You didn't come up in the notion of, all right, well, we've got to figure out our roster management. We've got to figure out how much money we have and how to disperse that money to get the best players. We have to figure out where the best players are. Oh, by the way, I want to be in the NCAA tournament. The transfer portal is open. How am I managing that and this. At the same time, I, I think it's wise to get a general manager, someone you can say, in charge of the business of basketball for my program. You are in charge of the roster management. We're going to talk about what I need. You're not just going to go out and get me seven guards and I'm supposed to make something, do something good with that. But we're going to have you in charge of crunching the numbers, managing the salary cap, rev share, whatever it is they put into place, and take that off the coach's plate. It might keep some of these coaches in the game longer if they don't have to deal with that stuff.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Well, let's look at these matchups, starting with the Auburn Florida matchup. It's a de facto SEC championship game. That's the first semifinal. How do you see this game? You have a veteran coach in Bruce Pearl and Todd golden who looks like he just graduated high school.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: It's sort of the teacher pupil matchup. Right.
You've got a little bit of the teacher versus the pupil.
You have the one meeting in the regular season that you can go back and look at where Florida won 90 to 81. And by the way, Auburn was red hot hot in that game. They'd won 14 in a row before Florida came back from a 10 point deficit to get the win over Auburn. To me, you look at the, the health of Janai Broom as the first story in this. How badly was he injured yesterday? I know he came back and I know everybody's saying the right things, but Janai Broom makes this team go. The SEC Player of the Year is the heart and soul of this Auburn team. If he's not able to go full strength, and that arm was wrapped up a lot yesterday at the end of that Michigan State game. If he's not to go full strength, that really hampers what Auburn wants to do now. It's a really good basketball team even without Janai Broom. But you can't tell me you can take away the SEC Player of the Year and still have a real good chance to beat a Florida team that loves to run, that is balanced, they defend, they score, they're good on the glass. I mean, this is a really deep Florida team as well. I like what Todd golden has built with the Gators. I've seen them a couple of times in person this year. I'm amazed at the quality of their depth. Some teams you have dep, but they're not good quality depth. I think this Florida team has good quality depth and that's going to make them a hard team to beat.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Talk about the impact that Walter Clayton Jr. Has had on Florida.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, he's Mr. Clutch. The man just comes in and scores a double figures every single night. It's like you can, you can just pin in. All right, I'm going to get at least 12 to 15 and probably more from Walter Clayton Jr. He runs the team. He's got the experience at a high level now, back to back years playing at Florida after coming over from Iona where he was so good at Iona and I mean, he does everything. You can count on him at the line. You can count on him to run your team. You can count on him to hit a big shot. He's been through it before. I love what he brings to Florida. He is certainly somebody that when you're Todd golden and you're just still building this thing in your third year, you can really rely on somebody like Walter Clayton Jr. To have a guy like that on your squad to Help marshal the troops around him is just. It's. It's invaluable.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll localize this because what you mentioned, iota, you know, Walter Clayton Jr. Did play against the end a couple times up here at MVP arena. So area fans got to see him playing, got to see a glimpse of what he could be. So. So a lot of interest there. Bruce Pearl, has he made Auburn a basketball school?
[00:14:38] Speaker A: I think he has. I mean, what, 11 seasons now, another trip to the Final Four. This is a team that was the number one team in the country for what, eight, nine straight weeks during the course of the regular season. They had their little late hiccup where everybody's thought, oh, gosh, Auburn looks flawed. Maybe Auburn's tired, maybe Auburn's done. And now they've restarted the engine, which is really hard to do, except you've got a really terrific veteran coach in Bruce Pearl and a lot of guys around him that know how to play the game, starting with Janai Broom and going to Denver Jones and to Hot Pettiford and all of these guys that they are able to put out there on the floor. I think what Auburn did was to survive that lull and now restart this in the tournament and get going again at full speed is pretty impressive. And I mean, you have to say that Auburn and really the SEC now has become a basketball conference, just like it's been a football conference. We all talked about, oh, gosh, the sec. Would they falter when they didn't falter at all. Half the Final Four is sec, and it could have been more with a lot of talent out there on the court yesterday in Tennessee and others.
I've been impressed with this conference all year long, but what Bruce Pearl has done to basically turn Auburn fans into basketball fans. You can remember this, Ken. There was a time a decade ago where if you were talking SEC basketball, you were in a pretty lonely conversation because there weren't a lot of people talking about it other than what you did to fill the time before SEC football began. That's not the case anymore.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's amazing. Of course, they have a lot more teams now with all the movements. But, yeah, it's amazing to me because you look at the ACC for years, you think as a basketball conference, they sort of had an off year. But Duke is back. John Shire, third year as a head coach, has got his first Final Four as a head coach and talk about the job he's done because, you know, the adage is you don't want to be the guy that Replaces a legend. You want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaced the legend. How do you think he is done replacing Coach K?
[00:16:43] Speaker A: I don't know how you could do much better. I mean those, there are few shoes that have been bigger to fill in the history of college athletics. I mean, you can, you can look at college football programs and say, all right, well, Bear Bryant, those shoes, it was hard to fill those shoes. Bob Devaney at Nebraska, the shoes were filled pretty capably by Tom Osborne, I think you could say. When you're talking about legends, who fills the shoes of John Wooden? I mean there's just so many names you can throw out there. Look at Syracuse and Jim Boeheim. It's been hard to fill those, those shoes. But Coach K's shoes, while they've not been filled by John Shire, he brought his own shoes to the party and I think he's done a remarkable job. Now, having great freshman talent helps. I mean, having a guy who is the player of the year and the number one overall draft pick likely in Cooper Flag helps. Having con canipple coming out of Wisconsin who is in any other year probably one of the most talked about freshmen in the ACC and instead is playing second fiddle to another freshman on his team. But he's incredibly talented. It. I think what John Shire has done is something that no coach wants to do, but if you do it, you kind of solidify yourself as a legend. I used to work with Terry Bowden years and years ago and he used to always say that if you were going to take a coaching job, you wanted to take a job, especially in football, where you can improve by one or two wins over what the guy had. So in other words, if you're looking at a nine win program, you don't want to have to go in there and say, all right, we got to win 11 games this year for the year to be successful in football. You wanted to have a three win season so that you could then win five and everybody think you'd made big strides. Well, there's no way you can make the strides that Coach K made. But this Duke team is capable of winning the national championship. They go in as the favorite to win the national championship. And John Shire has done a tremendous job because it's not easy, especially in this era of college basketball, to be able to build the name doesn't mean as much as it used to. It just doesn't carry the same weight unless you back it up with wins. And unfortunately, unfortunately in some cases a lot of money to back it up.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Yeah. What can you say about Cooper Flag, the outstanding freshman guard forward for the Blue Devils? That hasn't been said.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: I don't know if it hasn't been said, but what strikes me watching Cooper Flag is that this young man is 18. He just turned 18 in December. We've seen barely the tip of the iceberg with what kind of ability he's going to be able to exhibit in his basketball career. And all this, of course, can't assume health, which I think goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Assuming health. Cooper Flagg is poised for a long, illustrious career. And we've seen just barely the very small glimpses of what he's going to be as he ages, as he matures, as he fills out, as he gains intelligence from being an 18 year old playing in the Final Four to. To think five or six years from now, he's still going to be 24 years old as a five or six year NBA veteran. We're only seeing the very, very start of what could be a remarkable basketball career. And it's just fun to get the chance to enjoy him even for a year at the college level. Because those special guys, the ones that come along where you just know they're going to be really good at the next level for a long, long time, those are the ones you enjoy watching especially a little bit more because you value the fact that it's only one year that you get to see them here.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: So you're thinking he's going to leave for the pros after this year.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: I feel very confident that Cooper Flagg will be likely the number one overall pick. And if he is the number one overall pick and he decides to stay in college, I would hope he would be looking for better advisors. I think that's a. When you're the number one overall pick pick, there's no money at the college level that can keep you. There's the love of college is great, the love of being on campus is great. But my gosh, if you've got a chance to be the number one overall pick, you take that, you take that leap.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Would you say he's Larry Bird esque?
[00:20:56] Speaker A: It's hard for me to compare to Larry Bird because Larry Bird had that competitive desire that. I mean, there are stories out there of Larry Bird where he's talking to people at the age of 65 saying, I will still beat you on the basketball court because that was just the competitor that Larry Bird was. And I don't know that about Cooper Flag. Maybe he is that competitor to go with that talent. Larry Bird had immense talent. We all know it. He was an incredible shot maker, but he also had the ability, like we see from Michael Jordan, like we see from all the greats, that if he could not knock you out of the way without getting a foul called and it would give him even an iota of advantage, he would do it in a heartbeat. And I don't know, I have not been around Cooper Flag enough to even have a glimpse as to what that is in him, that competitive fire. Because to me that's what takes the guys who are incredibly talented at the NBA level. And then you add that ridiculous competitive drive that makes those guys elevate even more. And if Cooper Flag has that, yeah, look out.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Let's talk about Houston and the job Kelvin Sanson has done since he arrived there. He's got him back to like they were with the five slama jamma years. Talk about the job he's done coming back to college basketball and then making Houston relative and getting to a Final Four.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: It's been fun to watch. We got to spend the weekend with this Houston Cougar team in Indianapolis, watching them go through that, that and you know, got out a really hard fought win against Purdue and then just blast a team in Tennessee on Sunday that I thought was a national championship contending team with a veteran backcourt and a lot of talent and Houston just put a blanket on them. They are a team that has, they've had that great defense and Kelvin Sampson's teams seemingly have always defended, especially later in his career and they defend at such a high level. But, but he went out this year and said we've got to figure out a way to add that three point threat to this defense that I have.
Best three point shooting team in the nation. Now they're not a big volume three point shooting team, but when Milo Suzanne shoots a three, that three is usually in a good spot. When Jojo Tugler goes out there and defends, there are a few better with that wingspan than JoJo Tugler on the defensive end. And then you had L.J. crier in who poured 30 in against Gonzaga, now has 30 point games in two different NCAA tournaments for two different teams. Emanuel Sharp, who hit three massive threes in the second half of Sunday's game when Tennessee was trying with all their might to even figure out a way back into it. And Sharp just went down and popped three straight threes to rip the heart out of the Tennessee Volunteers and end their hopes in the second half. You Coupled great shooters, older players, a coach that certainly knows his system. And he said all weekend long it's been one of the most enjoyable teams to coach because they've never, they've just been open to coaching any single way, every single time. Whatever he wanted them to do, they did without question. And this team reflects Kelvin Sampson in so many ways. And just watching them and getting the chance to be around them up close, that's a confident group that is going to be just an absolute battle at the Final Four. And if you knock Houston out of this, you will have earned it, believe me. That is a tough, tough team to play.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Of course, Houston, you know, in Texas, being in the Final Four, being in San Antonio, any home court advantage you think?
[00:24:41] Speaker A: You know, it's interesting we were talking about that after the game yesterday as we walked out of the arena, Robbie Hummel, my partner, and I, because we'll both be on the call in San Antonio, and it's a three hour drive essentially from Houston to San Antonio. I've actually made that drive before. It's a very easy drive. But I don't know that the alumni base is going to be big enough to provide a home court advantage ahead of that of Florida, which has a massive base, Auburn, which will pour out, and Duke, which is a national brand and I'm sure has people all over the state of Texas that consider themselves Duke fans. It's going to be interesting. It's the easiest travel. But is the alumni base enough to overcome the other brand names that are in this tournament in the Final Four? I'm, I'm going to be fascinated to see what the Alabama Dome looks like on Saturday night.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Yeah, there's been talk about maybe expanding the tournament from 68 to maybe 76. Do you, do you want to see that, or should we just stay at 68 for a while?
[00:25:41] Speaker A: I don't, I don't want to see it. And maybe I'm in the minority on that. But I, I look at what the tournament provided this year and I look at the teams that aren't in the tournament, and I have to say, Ken, is anybody looking at this tournament saying, gosh, this would have been better if name a team that was so called a bubble team would have been in this tournament. Other than the fans of that school, I just don't know that there's a big, There was a, there was a conversation about should Boise State have been in, for example? I don't know. That would have made this tournament a significantly better tournament other than for people who love Boise State. And I totally get that. But outside of that, would this have been a better tournament if they'd been in? I don't think so. And would it have been a better tournament if we'd have played games on Monday vs. Tuesday vs. Wednesday? How they're going to space that out if and when they expand is going to be interesting to see. But I am not sensing a great clamor to expand the tournament any more than it is. We're at a good number.
You get below those 60, 18, and there's just not a lot of compelling arguments for me to, my gosh, we've got to add more teams to this thing.
I'm sure if there's an opportunity to provide more revenue, this will expand. But I don't, and I don't think it'll kill the tournament if it does. I just am not sitting here saying, oh my gosh, please, more teams should be into this thing right now.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: I was looking up to the last time we chatted here on the podcast, and it was in 2021, before that final. And that was the first year without John Thompson, who passed away in August of 2020. This time, Greg Gumbel passed away at the end of 2024. I know he wasn't there last year. It was battling cancer. But now that the reality is he's not going to be there ever again. I know you don't probably, you know, with cbs, I don't know how much connections you guys have or work. How much do you work with CBS and Westwood One? But your thoughts on Greg Gumbo, what he meant to this tournament?
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Well, he was the voice of the tournament for so many years. He was the first face we saw when so many fans turned their attention to college basketball. There are those of us who pay attention to college basketball from November on, but I am not, I'm not naive enough to think that that's the majority of America. The majority of America tunes in late after football season and really focuses in once the tournament starts and once the bracket is revealed. And whose face greeted them single year when they were looking for that bracket? Greg Gumbel's face. Greg Gumbel's soothing demeanor and his dry sense of humor were there to sort of welcome all of the casual fans under the college basketball umbrella and say, hey, there's plenty of room in here. Come on in, let's see where your team's going. Let's see what's happening in this tournament. Let's get some, some thoughts on this thing. And there were few men in this business who are more gracious and nicer to people around him, whether he was working with you or not, than Greg Gumbel. He was just a, he was a gem of a man. He's been missed. You know, you watch the studio shows and I will say they're doing a tremendous job. They've got terrific talent on those sets. But it is missing Greg Gumbel and it's, it missed him last year. It was a very noticeable absence last year. And now that we know, unfortunately he's not going to be with us anymore, it's even more noticeable. And I've thought about it several times, watching games on our off days and watching studio shows on our off days that, gosh, you know, I love having Ernie Johnson on there, but I wish the other channel still had Greg Gumbel on doing that studio show as well.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Well, after you're done with the basketball, you'll be doing some United Football League games for Fox Sports and some baseball. How much? Looking forward to that. Of course, you know, you do the NFL and Fox, you had a different partner this, this past season in Daryl Johnson. But let's talk about, you know, the UFL and majors baseball. It's kind of a, like, no change of pace for you.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: It is. It's a nice change of pace. You know, you, you get done with the basketball season and you think, okay, what am I going to do now? And, and I'm fortunate enough with Fox. There's a lot of things to do still. So we get to do the ufl and I've done spring football now for the last several years. And it's fun. It's a, it's a nice sort of reminder that football is, is and always will be, I would guess, America's game. And that's, you know, no matter, no matter when or what, people want to watch football. And so that's always been kind of fun to, to have the chance to do that the last few springs. And I, I grew up kind of a major base, a major league bas.
That was the sport that I enjoyed going to. I loved going to major league baseball games as a kid and I loved having the opportunity to walk into the ballpark for that first time and see the green grass. And spring training is a place that my college friends and I went every year. We didn't do the spring breaks in Florida. We came down to Arizona and went down to a spring training game or two every single year, which was always kind of fun. So I've always been a passionate baseball fan. And the chance to call a Few games and I don't want to do, you know, I don't. I'm at a really good number. 15 to 20 games over the course of a summer. Take a little bit of a breather, try to catch my bearings again before the NFL season starts. And then we grind right in to basketball. So it's, it's fun to do. It's fun to have a taste of Major league Baseball. My resume, it's been a. It's been a really cool experience.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Who was you root for growing up?
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Oh, I was a Cub fan growing up all, I mean, all through, all through the childhood, you know, I grew up in a small town in eastern Colorado and you had basically nobody. There were no Colorado Rockies at that point, so there was no state baseball team. The Denver Bears were the closest thing we had to professional baseball. We were three hours away from Denver. There was no team in Nebraska. Kansas City was on the other side of Kansas. So that wasn't a thing that we got a whole lot of exposure to. You had two choices. You had the Braves or you had the Cubs because you had the superstations on the cable system. And the Chicago Cubs were on in the afternoons. So I would get home from school and I could turn on baseball and watch baseball. And, you know, they hooked you by playing in the afternoons. And as a kid just sitting around watching games while I had my afternoon snack after school. They got, they got the claws into me very early and it was, it was curtains after that.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: It was Harry Carey and Skip Carry, that, that duo kind of fun.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: The carries, the Carries were the baseball drug for those of us living in small town across the country that didn't have a baseball team. And those were of course, long before the days of the ticket where you could get every single game on MLB tv. It was, you know, you had your choice of superstitions and it was either WTBS or wgn. And that was on almost every cable system in America. And on those cable systems you could watch those baseball games.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And how was it working with Daryl Johnson this year? Because Mark Sanchez was your partner for a long time and obviously with Tom Brady joining Fox this past season was shifted things around. But how was it working with Daryl?
[00:32:30] Speaker A: Oh, Moose is terrific. He's a total pro. He is as good a guy as you would expect him to be. We had a great time this year. We had some tremendous games. Got to end with Bears, packers in Lambeau Field, which was a real thrill for a Midwest kid to end his season in Lambeau Field calling one of the great rivalry of all time. And it ended up being a thrilling end with the Bears winning the game late. So it was a, it was a tremendous season. Really enjoyed Darrell and I've never met a person who's worked with him. And I talked with several of my colleagues before the season started. Just, you try to get your bearings and you know, who am I working with? What is he like? What is he not like? And they said, you are gonna, you're gonna love working with him. He's a total pro. And they were all right. He's a total pro. Loved working with him. Never, never unprepared. He was always ready to go. And, and I really do appreciate that.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: And of course, you have one of the great sideline reporters in Laura Oakman, too. She's wonderful. I've had her on the podcast years ago too, and just a. She's fabulous.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: She's. She's fabulous. She's a great friend both for me and for my wife Michelle. And we've. I value everything there is about Laura, not only her professionalism and the way she does her job, but as a person. She is, she's one in a million. We are, we, we adore Laurel.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm still coming, still on my high with the Eagles, my Eagles winning the super bowl. So I'm Philly native. It's one of those rare times, Kevin, when I, my champ, my team's in a championship game. And I'm not stressing that was just complete annihilation of the Chiefs and I loved it.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: That's, that's a rare thing for anybody to have a stress free championship. I mean, there's, there's no such thing as being a fan most years where it's stress free. And for you, I mean, by the third quarter, you had your feet up, you knew you were going to win the Super Bowl. It's just a matter of, you know, the clock running out.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Yes, I, I know. If you, I know you don't follow my profile picture, at least on Facebook. Is my son picking. My son who works out and runs a, a fitness center here in the area, picks me up after the game. I'm waving my finger. Number one. He's just, that was just amazing night just to watch that because, I mean, for me growing up in Philadelphia and we've had some major heartaches over the years with some bad ways to lose championships, but it was a lot of fun. So, Kevin, I appreciate it. Let's not make it four years. Let's try to, try to get on Here you are more often and I appreciate you taking some time because I know you're busy getting ready for the Final Four and have fun in San Antonio.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: You got it, Ken. Always a pleasure to be on with you.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: All right, that's Kevin Kugel. I'll be back to wrap up the podcast and have the latest winner in the Daily Good Debts auto Racing contest in just a moment.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: High school sports don't just happen. There's a ton, ton of work that goes into every single athletic event and.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: We have our school's athletic director to thank for a lot of it.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Thank you for scheduling officials so I can always play the game I love.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: For ordering quality athletic equipment so I can stay safe on the field.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: For mentoring my coaches so they can be the best role models for me.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: For coordinating transportation so I can get focused for the big game.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: For helping us develop character and learn lessons that will benefit us for the rest of our lives.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Thank you to our AD for always creating a positive experience for us. We'll never forget it. From all of us at the niaaa.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Thank you to every athletic administrator in New York for all you do to enrich the lives of your students.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: It does not go unnoticed. This message presented by the NIH niaaa.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: If you really want to know what's going on in your community, you have to read the Daily Gazette. We don't take a side. We're right down the middle and we're.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Gonna get to the truth.
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[00:36:35] Speaker A: The field bringing you updates every minute with trust, accuracy and integrity. From the first page to the last page. Independent, probing journalism.
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[00:36:53] Speaker B: The Daily Gazette has some great subscription deals happening. Sign up today at www.dailygazette.com. and as always, when credibility matters, trust the Daily Gazette. Hi, this is four time Stanley cup.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: Champion and New York State hockey Hall of Famer John Tonelli. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot Back to wrap up the podcast. The week seven winner in the Daily Gazettes auto racing contest was Chris Grzbowski of Glenville. With 65 points, Chris wins a $50 gift card. Congratulations Chris. The VIP winner was for the second straight week Scott Lucher of CapitaLand GMC with 35 points. I had 15 points. Looking at the VIP standings, Scott Leeds right now with one hundred and fifty points. Jerry Peel of Frankenstein's is second with 105 points. Nick Platel Grand Premier Tire is third with 95 points. I'm fourth with 80 points. Dwayne Leach of All Season Equipment has 75 points and Matt Mariota of SG Roofing has 10 point. I'm sorry, 30 points. So I'll announce the Auto Racing Contest Winners aim and that Winners Aim will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the Auto Racing Contest banner.
Just because COVID 19 mandates are easing, that does not mean you should relax. Be vigilant. If you have not gotten vaccinated or received a booster shot, please do so. Do it for yourself, do it for your family and do it for your friends. And a reminder, vaccines do not cause autism.
Don't forget to download the Daily Gazette app and sign up for our E Edition so you never miss a headline. Subscribe today at www.dailygazette.com. we have a lot of great specials going on. When credibility matters, trust the Daily Gazette.
On the latest edition of the Stan and Shen Show, John Norris visited to talk about his new weekly column, Pint Sized, a look at craft beer across the Capitol region. Stan and Shen then reviewed their top four album listens from each other, talked about submissions to the show, and preview this week's trial Stewart's Ice Cream Flights. Three scoops of ice cream. That sounds good. So what's your favorite flight? The Stan and Shen show is available wherever you get your podcast and I contributed to the four albums and my four albums were two by the Beatles, sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, Pink Floyd's Dark side of the Moon and Prince's Purple Rain.
That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots podcast. I want to thank Kevin Coogler for being on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's s c h o t
[email protected] follow me on X Threads and bluesky at Slapshots.
The views expressed on the Parting Shots by podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The Parting Shots podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette Company. I'm Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Schott. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good sports.
