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Speaker 1: The following takes place between eight pm and nine pm.

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Speaker 2: All right, let's keep rolling, no reason to slow down

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Speaker 2: at this point. Eight nine Welcome in on RNAL Carrier

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Speaker 2: Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet. I'm Lance Pcalister. How

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Speaker 2: about some Reds baseball? You know and you love Our

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Speaker 2: next guest as a longtime Reds analyst on TV and

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Speaker 2: in the radio booth for over the past thirty three seasons,

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Speaker 2: he's going to be the featured speaker at the annual

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Speaker 2: Franklin County Baseball Dinner coming up Thursday night in Brookville, Indiana.

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Speaker 2: A night of food, fun and fundraising and talking baseball.

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Speaker 2: It is a pleasure to welcome in. Chris Welsh, how

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Speaker 2: are you.

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Speaker 3: Lance LANs great to talk any time I can talk

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Speaker 3: to you. And there's snow on the ground, I mean

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Speaker 3: that's that's a good thing, right yeah.

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Speaker 2: And there's even like some hot stove news to melt

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Speaker 2: the snow. Tonight, our guy see Trend has reported that

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Speaker 2: the Reds have reached an agreement on a two year,

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Speaker 2: twenty million dollar deal with Emilio Pegan the second year

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Speaker 2: of player option. Your instant reaction A great.

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Speaker 3: Move, really good move. I was kind of distressed to

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Speaker 3: think that he was going to be gone, To be

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Speaker 3: honest with you, you know, he's an interesting guy. He

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Speaker 3: had a tough twenty twenty four. He was injured, his

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Speaker 3: velocity dropped down, he just didn't feel well. I think

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Speaker 3: he had a lap problem that he really never did

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Speaker 3: heal from. And then last year, you know, his velocity

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Speaker 3: bumped up as high as it was in his entire career.

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Speaker 3: So here he was thirty four years old, throwing as

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Speaker 3: hard as he ever did before. His splitter was really

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Speaker 3: good last year. I think hit or sit like a

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Speaker 3: buck twenty off of it or something like that. And

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Speaker 3: you know, for all the worry that the people had

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Speaker 3: about signing him to a small ballpark like Great American

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Speaker 3: know Flyball, it didn't work out like that. He was

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Speaker 3: a solid guy and he's really solid in the clubhouse,

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Speaker 3: super leader. I'm delighted that he's back now.

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Speaker 2: The other news, Ken Rosen, everybody from Ken Rosenthal to

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Speaker 2: John Hayman writing that the Reds are quote serious about

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Speaker 2: Kyle Schwarber, that Kyle is at least willing to listen.

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Speaker 2: What would you what would you say to us dropping

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Speaker 2: Kyle Schwarber in the middle of that Red's line up,

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Speaker 2: Chris Welsh, it would change.

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Speaker 3: A little bit. I mean, you know, he was kind

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Speaker 3: of the missing link. In fact, there are a lot

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Speaker 3: of teams that could use him right in the middle

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Speaker 3: of the order obviously, and the Reds hopefully, you know,

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Speaker 3: are on the trail and you know they've got a

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Speaker 3: lot of things going for them and trying to re

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Speaker 3: sign him. But you know, it's one of those things

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Speaker 3: where you need a guy who puts a little bit

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Speaker 3: of fear in the opposing pictures, and the Reds didn't

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Speaker 3: had that guy. I mean, they had good players, they

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Speaker 3: had versattle players, guys who could play all over the place.

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Speaker 3: Some of that could put the ball in play. Someone's

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Speaker 3: struck out a little bit. But if you put Schwarburn there,

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Speaker 3: when you're a pitcher, you know where he is in

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Speaker 3: the batting order, I mean, is he on the deck circle?

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Speaker 3: Is he in double deck? You know, do I have

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Speaker 3: to face the next sitting Managers feel the same way

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Speaker 3: when they're plotting out the lead part of the game.

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Speaker 3: Where is Schwarzer And because he can change a game

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Speaker 3: on a swing, So it would be great, certainly, I'm

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Speaker 3: you know, optimistic, but I'm tempering that a little bit

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Speaker 3: because you know, the free agent market is a crazy thing.

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Speaker 3: It's very unpredictable, no doubt.

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Speaker 2: No doubt they and they have some work to do.

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Speaker 2: I want to go back to the bullpen. They still

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Speaker 2: have some work to do to rebuild that bullpen, Chris.

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Speaker 2: Why are the performances of relievers so seemingly volatile one

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Speaker 2: year to the next. Why are they so hard to

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Speaker 2: figure out and know what to count on and who

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Speaker 2: to count on year to year?

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's not only with the Reds, but

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Speaker 3: it's everybody. And I think that because everybody. I think nowadays,

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Speaker 3: lance is being evaluated according to numbers. You know, how

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Speaker 3: hard do you throw, how hard is your slider? How

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Speaker 3: many times do you get thwings and missus? What is

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Speaker 3: your soft contact? You know. The last thing that I

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Speaker 3: think teams look at nowadays are earned run averages and

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Speaker 3: wins and losses and even number of saves and holds

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Speaker 3: and things like that. Those statistics are out the door now.

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Speaker 3: Everything that they're looking at is being grabbed by a

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Speaker 3: high speed camera or some kind of an analytical machine

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Speaker 3: that is breaking down the pitch. You know, the stin

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Speaker 3: the axis of the pitch, the release point. Here's something

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Speaker 3: for you. Here's one thing that made Emilio Pegan so

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Speaker 3: good and deceptive. He throws ninety six miles an hour.

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Speaker 3: But he's six feet two inches tall. When he releases

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Speaker 3: the ball to home plate, he's almost six feet nine

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Speaker 3: inches tall, So he gives you, you know, six inches

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Speaker 3: of extension, and that's six inches sneaks up on the hitter.

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Speaker 3: Those are the kind of things that teams are looking

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Speaker 3: for nowadays. And I think the reason the teams are

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Speaker 3: up and the players are up and down, pitchers especially,

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Speaker 3: is because you know, they're chasing the unhittable pitch and

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Speaker 3: they're trying to throw it so hard and snap it

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Speaker 3: off so hard that they lose the consistency around the

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Speaker 3: strike zone. And if you're wilder outside the drug zone,

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Speaker 3: you're going to be wild inside the strike zone, and

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Speaker 3: those guys get hit. So it's as simple as that.

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Speaker 3: That's why it's very hard to predict pictures, especially relief pictures.

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Speaker 2: I wonder Tony Santion was really good last year, but

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Speaker 2: he was really worked last year eighty appearances. How much

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Speaker 2: concern do you have about the carryover effect into the

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Speaker 2: next season. After a workload like that.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of worry about that. I mean, well,

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Speaker 3: once a guy gets to about seventy games a year

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Speaker 3: and how he's worked and so on, you see fewer

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Speaker 3: and fewer relievers wanting to take the ball down the

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Speaker 3: road when they've been they've been used like that. I mean,

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Speaker 3: their agents are now telling them that, hey, you know,

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Speaker 3: you shut it down until you know the month of

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Speaker 3: August because you know you're coming up on free agency

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Speaker 3: and you can't afford to go seventy five games this year.

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Speaker 3: They're going to use you. They know you're going to

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Speaker 3: be a free agent. This is not Tony santi This

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Speaker 3: is in general. So this is the one thing that's

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Speaker 3: going on kind of behind the scenes in baseball that's

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Speaker 3: very disturbing, where you're getting pitchers that are healthy who

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Speaker 3: are not pitching because they're afraid they're going to miss

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Speaker 3: the big pay day when they become a creation or

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Speaker 3: and they get an arbitration. So you know, Santio is

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Speaker 3: a team player. He's a guy that went out there

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Speaker 3: time and time again. He went out there, you know,

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Speaker 3: on fumes many times, and I think that he's going

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Speaker 3: to be well rested he's a big dude, man. I mean,

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Speaker 3: he's a big, burly bull out and I love him

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Speaker 3: and I don't think other hitters like to sit in

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Speaker 3: the sit in the batters box against him either.

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Speaker 2: Chris, Are you bullish on a bounce back from Matt

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Speaker 2: McLain this coming season?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I am. I think that. You know, he had

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Speaker 3: a really serious shoulder injury. I think the expectations for

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Speaker 3: Matt McClain were way out of whack at the beginning

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Speaker 3: of the year last year. I really do now really

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Speaker 3: for me, Matt McClain, he has to be for simple.

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Speaker 3: He just got to fix a couple of things at

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Speaker 3: the play. Number one, he's got to stop chasing the

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Speaker 3: high pitch. If he stopped doing that, you're going to

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Speaker 3: bring the ball down in order for him. He's got

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Speaker 3: a small strike zone. He's a little dude right highwives.

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Speaker 3: He's a big, strong, early kid, but he's not real tall,

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Speaker 3: so it's a nice compact strike zone. He's got to

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Speaker 3: make the strike zone his friend rather than his foe.

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Speaker 3: And he started chasing things all over outside the zone.

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Speaker 3: And you know, you pitch him in with fastballs, you

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Speaker 3: pitch him away with sliders. The age whole way of

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Speaker 3: doing it, and that was the way they got him

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Speaker 3: out last year. Once he figures that out, you know,

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Speaker 3: he's a speedy kid. He's got a great arm. He

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Speaker 3: wants to play. He's got this burning desire inside him,

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Speaker 3: and that's probably the thing that I like the most.

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Speaker 2: You are the featured speaker at the annual Franklin County

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Speaker 2: Baseball Dinner coming up next Thursday night. Are you excited

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Speaker 2: to be in Brookville, Indiana for a big night of

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Speaker 2: talking baseball?

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Speaker 3: I am, indeed and not doing that, but I'm going

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Speaker 3: to see my old battery mate who ended up being

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Speaker 3: a Reds manager, and Dave Miley. Yes it was Miles

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Speaker 3: that called me and he got me over there. He's

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Speaker 3: involved with that program over there, and it's going to

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Speaker 3: be a lot of fun. It's not big fancy dinnering.

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Speaker 3: I think they're doing pizza and salads and things like this.

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Speaker 3: But I'm going to give a good talk about, uh,

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Speaker 3: you know, about the Reds. Maybe have some broadcasting and

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Speaker 3: some history and maybe some jokes mixed in. And I'll

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Speaker 3: tell you, and I'll tell everybody that shows up. If

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Speaker 3: you don't like my speech, I'll almost get your money

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Speaker 3: back so you can't beat that.

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Speaker 2: Love it if you want to ticket information, Chris has

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Speaker 2: information on his X feed at think Pitch. I've also

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Speaker 2: reposted it as well on X at lance Percallister. Hey,

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Speaker 2: it is so great catching up with you. Love talking

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Speaker 2: baseball with you. Thanks for making time tonight.

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Speaker 3: All right, Lance, anytime talk baseball with you, it's always

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Speaker 3: a fun thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Chris. Take care,