From 바카라게임 this is Let's Talk Cini presented by Western and Southern Financial Group. Put our financial strength behind you. Hello everyone, I'm Curtis Fuller and welcome to Let's Talk Sensi. Today we're gonna talk *** little sports and here with me to start things off, Wayne Box Miller, I should say Hall of Famer Wayne Box Miller. It's good to see you. Good to see you, brother, always. Yeah, I should let people know that you were just inducted. Into the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame, you went in with several other, uh, sports icons here in in Greater Cincinnati. Tell us *** little bit about that. Um, I, I got the call, uh, Tom McKee called me and I first it was *** voicemail and he said, hey, need you to call me back and. Hadn't heard from Tom in years and when I called him back, he said, Hey, I'm calling to tell you about this, uh, event we're doing at Hall of Fame recognizing sports people. I said, oh, OK, I'll come, he said, no, I'm calling to tell you that you're one of the people being, uh, honored, and I had this long pause, which is atypical in this business, right? And I because I couldn't believe it. I was really shocked, overwhelmed, and, and because I don't think we really look at our body of work and, and take inventory we just do the work. And so to be honored and recognized for the, the longevity, I really appreciated that and then to go in with George Vogel and Ken Brew and Dennis Jansen and Paul Docherty and you know just on and on, man. I mean what an illustrious group and John Popovich as well so it it's just *** very. Uh, important day in my life that I hope to never forget. Yeah, and people should know you've been doing this for *** while. You've, you've been in radio, TV, you've done things here at uh 바카라게임. You are currently. The host of the postgame host of uh on the Bengals uh network, talk about that. So, um, I had been doing some spot work for the Bengals. Vince Cicero was the person who had reached out to me. We were doing some work with the Marvin Lewis Community Fund on the game day tailgating kind of thing, and I said, hey, you wanna do some fill in work, you know, because Dan Hoard, who is the voice of all Cincinnati sports, was, was busy with some overlapping. And then they made *** change with the uh lineup on Sunday and asked me did I want to uh. Or would I consider it and I paused for like 11 millionth of *** second and say yes, so I do the pregame which kicks off usually 90 minutes before kickoff. I'll come back on at halftime and then after the game you do *** recap and post. So it's been, you know, obviously *** highlight. You think there are only 32 NFL teams and for you to be part of that group and to have the moments, the Super Bowl moments and. The Joe Burrow moments and and all of those exciting plays and things that happen and in some ways you're *** part of that. I, I just, I think sometimes it's surreal for me and I have to step back and say, you know, remember you were part of that and you had *** responsibility to share on the back side of that or on the front side to kind of get people prepared for what's to come *** long ways from. Maysville, Kentucky, *** long way from Maysville, Kentucky. I, I think, man, how awesome it is to think about that. You know, my parents, uh, moved to Cincinnati. My father moved first like many people's story the same. You want *** better job, *** better life, and he made that sacrifice, but for me to think back from John Gee High School, which was an all black school, uh, to now being part of the Cincinnati Bengals broadcast team, number one, it's *** God's journey and I'm truly blessed, but it's also hopefully an inspiration for some young person from *** small city somewhere. It doesn't matter where you start, man. The path is already there for you. And before we get into talking directly about sports, people should also know that in addition to your sports work you're doing some work over, uh, working with the young people at uh Saint X, yeah, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Saint X is something I really enjoy doing and, uh, it, it gives me great joy to see coal. uh highlighted and shared, um, and to see all of the kids regardless from socioeconomic, uh, race, um, whether it's religion come together and learn about each other's cultures, uh, to be more equipped and one of the things I say to parents *** lot of times is I wanna get your son culturally comfortable. Because then he can get culturally competent when you get comfortable first you can get confident because you can knock down some of those barriers and biases and with our faculty and staff as well. I think one of the joys is that we collaborate *** lot they want to learn about better approaches, best approaches, and they do *** lot of great things. I think they don't give themselves credit for, but obviously we all have an opportunity to grow and that's what I love doing. Let's talk about our friend Dave Parker going into the Hall of Fame. Uh, we, we've been talking about this, I mean, literally for years, uh, and so when he got the, the announcement, uh, I, you and I were excited about that as, as so many others were. I, I, I remember calling Dave and Kelly leaving *** voice message like *** kid as if I want something, but you and I know his journey. And and you and I know that the, the roadblocks that were there that maybe weren't fair, um, so we know that he's had to overcome more than most. But the numbers were there and then the, the accomplishments and the accolades and the, the respect and I think that's the one thing if you're not in the world of baseball or even on the peripheral, the respect that players have for Dave Parker is paramount and they know that he is an icon of the game. One of my biggest frustrations with Major League Baseball, and I'm just gonna look in the camera and say that whenever they talk about all-star game. MVPs, they never talk about Dave Parker being the only one to win on defense, to my knowledge, he is the only guy who's gotten an MVP in an All-Star game for defense and yet every year they talk about the All-Star MVPs and they come and go. I don't know that anybody will ever do that again to throw someone out at third base, to turn around and throw someone out at home and and and with an arm. The 5-2 player he could hit for power hit for average. He had speed. He could steal bases, and he could keep the clubhouse loose. Yeah, that's true that's true. Our hats off to him. All right, we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk *** little bit about the Bengals, uh, as, uh, the Super Bowl is upon us. All right, they're not gonna be there unfortunately. All right, back in *** moment. Welcome back everyone. I'm Curtis Fuller here with Wayne Box Miller. Uh, how did you come up? How did Box, yeah, I, I've, I've called you. I don't know if I've ever asked you how did you get the you're probably the wise one for not asking because my, my typical response is if I tell you I have to kill you, so it goes all the way back to Avondale, you know, growing up in Avondale, so you know, all right, so let's talk about the Bengals. I mean, they finished as good as you possibly can. Um, the start of the season there were *** couple of games where they should have won those games, um, but talk about this team as you've watched them from week to week now as they go into the offseason. You know, I think that this team learned *** lot about themselves. Um, I, I don't like to compare teams, but I'm gonna compare *** player to the Bengal team. Uh, last year I think Pat Mahome said he learned how to win differently because he had so many different challenges. And I think this Bingo team learned how to win differently because they started in such *** hole that they learned about themselves and what they're capable of when their back was against the wall and so many people had counted them out made literally up until the Denver Kansas City game they found *** way to get in position. to get in the playoffs I think this team at the core is rock solid. They really have players to build around obviously Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, but this is gonna be *** very, very telling off season for them. They've got *** lot of decisions to make about *** lot of players. You got contracts with Chase and Higgins if you do. Uh, signed him, you know, you've got uh Trey Hendrickson who had *** superb year last year. He had asked for *** new extension, you know, hopefully that doesn't happen again, but you've got to look at that side of the ball as well, new coaches, coaching staff coming in. So what does that look like on defense for this team, the draft? I mean, there's *** lot that this team has to look at because they believe. They are *** Super Bowl team obviously we all agree with that because you have #9 and number 1. So when you have number 9 and number 1 and hopefully number 5, they're hard to stop as ***, you know, *** trio, and I look forward to seeing what this team does in the offseason to put themselves in position one to get off to *** better start. I mean that's been one of the things that they've had trouble with, uh, and then this year to lose 4 games at home. Is it you just wouldn't, I would have been homeless if you would offer me that bet at the beginning of the season, but the New England game caught everyone by surprise. I think we can all now say that the Washington commanders are for real. So *** lot of people looked at that and said, oh, you lost to the Washington. Man, well, there's *** long line of people that lost to them and they're playing for the right to go to the Super Bowl. So you know what I mean, I, I'm excited, man. I really wanna see what this offseason brings, uh, and just briefly, do you think the NFL will look at, uh, various calls there, there's such inconsistency from game to game, from team to team, and, um, do you think that will be an issue? In the off season, well, when they have the meeting, you know, the owners meetings and the rules committees and things, they've got to look at something. I, I, I mean the inconsistencies are glaring. Uh, the first one that I think about is, uh, Sam Darnold when when his face mask was grabbed and literally turned. And the, the officials right there and how do you not see that at some point will there be an opportunity or *** new rule that will allow you to look at something that appears to be egregious? So you know how the uh coaches have the red flag. Maybe is there, is there an official in the booth that has *** red flag that says wait *** minute this was so bad that we've got to review this one to make the adjustment but I think about Joe Burrow, uh, number of times Joe Burrow was grabbed by the face mask or what was defined. As *** late hit and nothing was called, so, uh, *** lot of times people say well it all evens out. I don't, I don't think so yeah I don't think so either. Well, it's always good to see you. It's always good talking to you and uh again, congratulations on the Hall of Fame induction. That's ***, that's *** big deal. Honored, man. I thank God every day for that. I thank God just for our friendship as well, man. It's been *** great run for both of us other than football season we'll, we'll talk about that later. Alright, thanks *** lot. Alright, we'll be back in *** moment. Welcome back everyone. I'm Curtis Fuller. Again, we're talking sports today. We had Wayne Box Miller. Now we're gonna talk about *** podcast, *** relatively new podcast. It's called We Love Our Team and here with me to talk about that, Jack Jack Greiner and also Randy Freaking and, uh, first of all, welcome to the program. Thank you, thank you, Curtis. How did this podcast come about? We love our team. Well, I, it was something that I had kind of noodled about for *** number of years. I, I always thought it was, it was kind of interesting when you would see. Uh, famous Cincinnatians talk about the Reds, uh, and you know there's lots of stories. Justice Potter Stewart when he was on the Supreme Court, uh, during *** hearing was getting updates from his clerk about *** Reds playoff game, you know, and then just thinking about George Clooney and, and who had had *** tryout. Out with the Reds and I thought, I thought it was something that would be interesting if the Reds pursued like get interviews and show them up on the scoreboard but they never, and I, I brought it to the attention of some people and they never did it. So Randy and I were having lunch now *** couple of years ago and I mentioned it to Randy and you know at this point, by this point podcasting was becoming *** thing and so uh we decided to kind of take the plunge and, uh, credit to Randy for, uh, getting, getting us uh uh *** podcast service and doing *** lot of the. The detail work, but he's *** retired old guy, so he had time to. And it's all about the Reds. I mean, the, the, the first major league team and when you, when you think about the history of the Reds and some of the, uh, players that have, uh, played on this team, you do understand why people gravitate to the Reds. They love their team. Yeah, they really do, Curtis. We've had ***, *** great variety of people on, you know, our main requirement is you have to be *** longtime Reds fan. But we make *** few exceptions here and there, you know, maybe an old Pirates fan, you know, we, we had Curtis on that was one of our great episodes so it's been *** lot of fun. You meet *** lot of good people and, uh, it's, uh, it's not *** moneymaker, OK. It's one of those things it's *** labor of love, and Jack and I just, uh, love, you know, talking to people, asking if they'll be on the show and then we just talk about Reds for 40 minutes or so. Yeah, it was, uh, our, our conversation was interesting. People should know of of course I grew up in Pittsburgh, *** diehard Pirates fan, and, uh, rooted against the Reds when I was *** kid and, um, my granddad was ***, *** big time Reds fan. And so now things have come full circle. I'm on the board of directors of the Reds Hall of Fame. I know my granddad is looking down from heaven just laughing, but, um, and there are *** lot of people like that who probably uh came from out of town. And, and you know, you experience one opening day and you become *** Reds fan. Yeah, we just talked to *** guy yesterday, uh, his name's Bob for for Joel. He, uh, retired P&G executive but grew up in Detroit Tigers fan all the way, came down here after he graduated from University of Michigan. And said, yeah, you know, we go to, we go to the opening day in *** suit and tie with all the other PNG guys and now he's *** co-owner of ***, uh, Reds minor league team. And so he evolved. I think one of the other exceptions we made, we had Mike DeWine on. Uh, Governor DeWine, who was great and an unabashed Reds fan, you know, I, I, we asked him about if he felt the need as the, as the governor of Ohio to have sort of *** split allegiance with the Guardians and the Reds. He said, I'm *** Reds fan, you know, and then funny, uh, after that ran, we get *** call from Sherrod Brown's people and they said we'd like to have, we'd like you to have Senator Brown on and of course we weren't gonna say no to *** sitting senator, but he's *** Guardians fan. And so we, that was one of our exceptions. We, we had to talk *** little guardian's baseball that day. So I, I will ask you about the, uh, significance of Dave Parker finally going into the, to the Hall of Fame. Well, I think it's long overdue. I, you know, I know that Dave, uh, you know, is dealing with Parkinson's. I'm delighted that he got the news while he's still with us. Uh, you know, you know, as ***, as an old pirate saying what *** great player he was, but. I, I, I have told people, I've told my kids, I've told other people when he came to the Reds in 1985. It was huge and he was the most to this day I think the most intimidating hitter I've ever seen, certainly the most intimidating Reds hitter I've ever seen, and I just, just in terms of the size and. You know, uh, how, how just fantastic he was. So I'm, I'm delighted. Yeah, and actually the, I think it was 1985. I mean, he had the stats. He could have won the MVP that year. I can't remember who won, but it was, it just edged him out. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. All right, we're gonna, we're gonna take *** break and then come back. Spring training is right around the corner here and so we're gonna talk *** little bit about that, talk about. Um, what's next for the reeds as the, as the season will be approaching soon? Back in *** moment. Welcome back everyone. We're talking about *** great podcast. We love our team. It's all about the history and the current, uh, Cincinnati Reds. uh, spring training is right around the corner. Um, have you gotten out to spring training at all out in Arizona? I have. We used to go to Florida *** lot and, uh, my wife and I are going to go out to Arizona in March. It's tremendous. We went *** few years ago and it's great for, you know, sightseeing. Sedona's right there. The Grand Canyon's *** few hours away, so it's *** great vacation. You catch *** few ball games and just gets the juices going for the, uh, upcoming season. What about this upcoming season, um, and the. Potential success of the Reds. There, there, it's such *** long season. There are many highs and lows, of course, but uh, what do you expect to see? I love, uh, the Tito Francona hiring. I, I, I think that's uh huge. Uh, I do think, I think managers make *** difference. I mean, in this franchise, when you, when you look at Sparky Anderson and what he did, when you look at Lou Pinnella and you look at Dusty Baker, I mean, managers make *** difference. So I think to get him was, was *** major accomplishment. Uh, I would like to have seen them. And maybe they still will. I, I would like to have seen an additional outfielder, *** power hitting outfielder, I think would be helpful, but I love the pitch. I think the pitching staff is shaping up well, uh, you know, and, and I think that they've got athletic guys who can play different positions, you know, Spencer Steer can play *** lot of different places. I think if, uh, you know, they want to do something with Matt McLean. Uh, whether he's at second base or I could see him even potentially playing some outfield, um, but I think they, they've got movable pieces, uh, and, and I like the, uh, the signing, the, the free agent from the Dodgers. Gavin, Gavin Lu, yeah, I like the Gavin Luck signing, yeah, so I think that was *** that was *** good signing, um, you know, if they stay healthy and, and *** couple of the young guys, uh. Develop, uh, I think this is, I think it's gonna be an exciting season. I really do, yeah, and, and we forget that LA David Cruz is still, he's still *** kid. I think he's 22, and so he has *** long career to learn and, and, and to, uh, really get better and better. Yeah, one question is whether they'll ever move him to center field, but I'll echo what Jack said. I think *** franchise of this size. It's all about staying healthy, you know, 2012 we had *** great run, uh, really, really disappointing what happened in the playoffs that year, but the starting five pitched 161 out of 162 games. *** franchises size, we just can't afford to get uh injured, you know, Matt McClain last year. What if he would have been on the team for the entire season? I'm convinced they would have made the postseason. So I'm very optimistic. I think the Reds will be in contention in September and I'm hoping for *** world championship come October. How about that? So am I. Uh, of course this is *** big season. It is the 50th anniversary of the Big Red machine. Uh, we'll be doing *** lot of events, uh, tied to that sadly. Sadly, we will not have Pete there. Um, what has that? I'm certain you guys have done some, some shows we had talked briefly about that actually when we taped the podcast, it was the week, uh, I think Thursday before he passed away. Um, what's been the conversation point about the loss of Pete? You know, we did, Randy and I, after Pete died, uh, we, our podcast format is we have *** guest. But we just decided, uh, after Pete died that we would just do the two of us reminiscing about Pete and you know, out of the sadness comes, uh, joy because you remember the, you know, the memories and, uh, just, you know, I've got *** story about being at the 1970 All-Star game when he had the collision with Ray Fosse. Uh, I remember another time where uh it was ***, *** meet and greet with kids and they, they let us ask questions. And I asked him if he was afraid of any pitchers, and I will never forget this. He just looks at me and goes, I'm the one with the bat. Why should I be afraid? And I just. Yeah, we, we, we have *** minute left. Uh, any fond memories of Pete? Oh, Pete was the greatest. He was all my, he was my all-time, uh, favorite player, you know, my email address is free Pete 14. I saw him get hit 2000 3004191 up in Chicago, 4192 here. You know, I had the opportunity to meet him *** few times, not that I knew him or he knew me, but he was always very gracious with me. He, he really was. We'll have to have you guys back, but, uh, we love our team. That's the name of the podcast. You, you have to check it out. You have to check it out. Thank you very much. Well that's all the time we have for Let's Talk Sensi today. I'm Curtis Fuller. Have *** good day and *** better day tomorrow.