FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Football Friday with Paul Finebaum - Montgomery safe - Bayway confusion - Mobile Mornings - Friday 9-20-24
It's time for football Friday with Paul Meinbaum, preceded by Bryant Bank. Your hometown bank with big bank benefits, located in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Now, here's Dan Brennan and Dalton Arwig. And now, here is Mr. Paul Feinbaum. You can wake up Paul the Georgia Kentucky game is over. Yeah, are you sure? Is there proof of life? That was, well, I guess you just get these clunkers every now and then, but welcome to our show, Paul, and thank you for being part of our fine bomb Fridays in the football round up that we do every day, every Friday brought to you by Bryant Bank. We appreciate you very much, man. No, I paid for somebody else to be part of the fine bomb Friday. I know. So, why don't we start with that game, surprise to many Georgia hanging on to be Kentucky 13 to 12. Who wasn't surprised? I don't know. I think even. Oh, you weren't surprised. I wasn't. Dan, you called this. Yeah. I kind of called it. This is the Georgia Kentucky game. This is the way it goes, Paul. I think if you watch Georgia over the last couple of years, they are very consistent in being inconsistent. I don't understand it, but it happened last year at South Carolina in Auburn and the year before against Missouri. They just don't like perfection, so here we are, Georgia in the off week with questions. I don't know, maybe I'm thinking here too much, but I think that's exactly what Kirby Smart wants. He wants his team to bear down, get better, because they have some serious injuries that they need players back and eliminate all this. We're going into Bama for revenge, and that's an automatic win, because Nick Saban now wears pancake makeup on Saturday. I wanted to get your thoughts, Paul, on stoops at the end of the game, fourth and eight. Of course, the offense wasn't really moving the ball, but they were on Georgia's side of the field and he punted it away. I thought it was ridiculous. Dan seemed to like the decision. I'd like to return to the dogs van, but what were your thoughts on stoops not just going for it? Well, all you can do is look and see what happened afterwards. We got the ball back for one play, so confirms with 99% of America's thought, it was a stupid boneheaded decision, which is really not unlike March 2, so this guy just does not have any guts and instead of saying screw it, let's try to win the game right now. He played it safe and he got the result that he always gets. Yeah, but his rationale was when they punted it back to us, we'd have to go like the length of the... if they didn't make the first down and then Georgia punted them in a hole, he said we would have very little time and very little chance of going the length of the field. Okay, well, how many places they had when they got the ball back? They had one. Yeah. Yeah. And they were on the other end of the field. In fact, yes. Yeah. And then, of course, the team that's also getting a buy who Georgia's setting up to play next weekend, Bama, and Big Ten folks, Wisconsin folks were hoping for a close game there, but it wasn't really at all. Tyler Van Dyke knocked out in that first quarter and then Bama just destroys the Badgers. Yeah, I mean, that game was decided earlier on a couple of plays and the injury was devastating. I like when Alabama did, I know that there's a feeling that, among some, maybe Alabama folks were getting too high, but why? I mean, to me, you went on the road, you know, an average Big Ten opponent is still better than playing out Georgia State, well, Georgia State for that matter, so I think the end of the year as well, and you've got to win, and that's really very good. And you also have a lot of confidence now as you get the awful week, and here you go. You have the first and several game of the year is coming up. Yep. By the way, I was listening to that game on my way to a friend's house when the quarterback got knocked out Van Dyke, right? The replacement, he sounded horrible on the radio, I mean, just describing what he was doing on the field, and when I got to my friend's house, the TV was on and it was all confirmed. He was not a, they did not have a reliable backup ready to go. Let me assure you, I'm a professionally trained expert. He was horrible. That's kind of great. I'm really not an expert, but some people think I am going to go ahead and declare this issue. No one, boy. Okay. I had to throw it out of court. Also, a backup quarterback who had a much better week than Wisconsin's. Arch Manning. Uh oh. And I mean, Quinn Ewer's leaves with the oblique injury. Arch comes in and then immediately runs for a 70 yard touchdown, something we didn't see much from Peyton or Eli over the years. Is there a quarterback controversy? I know Longhorns fans are saying there's not, but if Quinn Ewer shows up and has a rough half, I could see it just sitting right there. Yeah, I don't think it's, it really is because of the coach, but it's, I don't know when we're going to see yours again, probably not. I wouldn't, I don't know why you would bring him back next week for Mississippi State. I mean, Dalton could quarterback against Mississippi State and probably, he would do fine. So, so then you give him, you give him an off week comes back for Texas. Now, the Texas, Texas old Armageddon, if he, if for some reason, he sputters, then yeah, I mean, you bring in Arch Manning and then you have the controversy, you know, Quinn, Quinn, your start started two, two weeks ago with the high green flavor. Now these listed behind Arch, uh, I was thinking, has that ever happened before? I believe a couple of years ago Spencer Rattler started the season as the high green flavor in Oklahoma and was quickly replaced by Caleb Williams. You're right. That's right. And we've seen that. Yeah, it's very rare, but art shot up the boards. I mean, if you're betting on Arch doing the Heisman now, I think you might have missed your shot just a week ago. Yeah, no, it's, it's like, it's like, it's like, hey, I just saw an interest rate for them. I think I'll, I'll jump in the stock market for it. Hey, the Hank Brown era has started at Auburn and Dalton could not be more excited. Yeah, I'm, I'm excited too, but, uh, I'm going to, I'm going to sound like, you know, one of these cliche monitors, but there's a reason Hank Brown was, was the backup, uh, because he doesn't have the mobility and the, and, and nor do I think he has the ability, uh, he looked good, uh, against a terrible opponent, but Arkansas is a, is a, is a simply mediocre SEC team, but, but they are an SEC team. They are, and that's how Auburn opens their SEC schedule this weekend. I, early in the season, we were saying, all right, Auburn rolls into this three and oh, they take care of Arkansas, then they're waiting on Oklahoma that we knew they had to start hot with five games at home to start the year. Now this Arkansas game, if, if they lose this, we might be talking about a, you know, maybe a two and nine kind of season, I mean, a two and a 10 or three and nine kind of season for Auburn. Here's, here's my suggestion is a, and got me to the sounds familiar. If, if Auburn loses the game, I, I think Jimmy Rain, uh, ought to just walk out to the field and offer the job on the spot to Bobby Petrino, but I think that's happened before and, uh, he's familiar with the Auburn program and, uh, just go ahead and undo what had, what should have happened probably in 2000 and three, uh, that would be, that would be fascinating if that happened. Um, we'll, uh, will you and the whole SEC crew be in, uh, we've been in Starkville for the Mississippi State Florida game this weekend? No, uh, the way we've gone so far this year, I'm not, I'm surprised we aren't there. Um, but, uh, but, you know, we, we, we will be in Baton Rouge. Uh, uh, I know there's a follow up question, but I don't, but I don't have an answer. Uh, just Mississippi State blown out by Toledo, Florida, uh, made it, made this score look better, I guess, against, uh, against Texas A&M than it actually was. Yeah, it was bad. But you've got two really, right now bad SEC teams here playing and, and maybe Napier's job on the line this weekend? Uh, first of all, the, the guy on the other side line, Jeff Webby, I've already had calls. One you know, uh, when he's going to be fired, either he's been there exactly three games. Um, well, but, as far as Napier, I, I don't think his job is on the line. I think his job has already been, uh, adjudicated, I think he's done. Uh, the issue isn't the fire of him, uh, and I, I feel like I am an expert now having been the Florida twice already to see something nobody else has done. Uh, the reason why it's complicated is, uh, had he been fired last week, then players on the team, uh, could have bailed out on, on the red short rule, so they couldn't do it for it to do that. The other issue, I know it's not like I'm, I'm an NCAA volunteer, but if, uh, the moment the coaches are replaced, go back to the last year with Saban, uh, last January, the portal opens. So Florida's got to figure out how to handle this, uh, where they don't, the whole team just doesn't leave, uh, especially DJ Leibway, who, who is the best player in the future in the quarterback. So that's start, that transfer portal opens right when they fire. It's not at the end of the season. I believe it, it opens the, the moment the coach is out. Wow. That's, that's big. That could put a stop to these mid season firings and it's not even mid season. Yeah. I was told that yesterday now, I, I, I asked somebody that I had no idea. So I wonder if you, uh, if you figure out a way to, uh, maybe, maybe have him resign effective, uh, November 30th and just tell them he can't, he just doesn't have to come to work. Wow. That's, it adds another layer to all of this. Yeah. That's, that's a good question. Fantastic. Uh, discussion you had about the transfer portal and hiring and firing and then what the extended playoff means for teams looking for new coaches and, and how that plays into this with the season now going into late January. Mm hmm. Yeah. January 20th is now the championship game and that, that's the second part of that question is who, uh, you know, who, who should take his place. Uh, most people think it's lame. Keep them. People in Florida want like different. I mean, they were changing. They want lane right behind me in Gainesville, which it was, I know Florida fans were, uh, Florida officials were cringing. I, I was loving every kind of the other way, um, but, uh, uh, it was, uh, you know, uh, oh, this is the playoff, the potential playoff team and let it get knocked out of the playoffs they're by losing three games. Uh, he's going to be a tough guy to hire. I mean, unless Lane Kiffin was, uh, you know what, I'm, I'm just going to abandon my team. I'm just going to let, uh, somebody, uh, this isn't like Kirby Smart six or seven years ago where, uh, you're an assistant and we'll let you, uh, shuttle back or, uh, I, I can't imagine a school letting, uh, their head coach coach and other be a head coach somewhere else. Yeah. Wow. Uh, so many layers to that. Uh, let's talk about the big one this weekend. Norman, Oklahoma, soon as first SEC game ever and they're bringing the, uh, fortunate son Josh Hyple back in who's doing a great job with Tennessee balls. A lot of storylines to this game Saturday night, Paul. Yeah. The biggest is the fact that, uh, Josh Hyple was fired, uh, Oklahoma in 2014, uh, after being a coach there for 10 years and, and, uh, winning a national championship. They have not won once since, uh, they're, they're, they're sold on bread and vegetables for now. And I think for now, but there's, uh, 55 hours from now that could change if Tennessee goes in there and just destroys them like they have everyone else. Uh, Tennessee should win this game, uh, they're by far the better team. Uh, I don't know what, uh, Oklahoma's defense is close to being a lead for offense is close to being, uh, dysfunctional. Uh, Tennessee seems like they've got everything going for them. Yeah. To this point of the season, they've shown they've been good on defense. They've been really good on offense and that's been probably the biggest surprise match with Tennessee. At least people are talking about their defense this year, where in years past that wasn't the case, Dalton. Yeah. That, that D line. Yeah. That was the defense. I mean, but, uh, hey, you got to have both. You do. And I know that that D line's looking at, uh, what Oklahoma's O line has looked like these last couple of weeks and Arnold has made some boneheaded decisions, including that pick six, which, uh, put two lane right back into the game this last weekend. So that'll be absolutely fascinating. What kind of a reaction, what kind of reception will hype will get walking into, uh, walking on to the field there? I think it'll be a thunderous ovation. Uh, one thing about Oklahoma people, uh, they really, uh, they're built, uh, on tradition and they know how important he is then, uh, just because he got fired, uh, he abandoned the program. Uh, so, uh, I think, uh, I think it'll be a big moment, um, and I think it'll be very I mean, he was, uh, I mean, by the way, uh, when he played, uh, Brent and Brownables was, uh, was on the defensive sideline. So everybody, everybody knows everybody out there. Yeah. And I wanted to ask you quickly about the, uh, the Heisman race when high pole won the natty with Oklahoma and it was a close race. Chris Winky ended up winning it, uh, for, and Florida State, of course, lost Oklahoma that year. Was that Heisman race as tight as, uh, what I'm reading about this week with all these look backs on that year? I think we'll remember being, uh, uh, although I'm still trying to figure out Chris Winky won anything. Um, but, uh, I mean, Florida State, uh, I mean, Florida State had a couple of those guys like that. Um, but he, uh, but I think that that was a classic case of Florida State probably being the, uh, the marquee team all season long and that's, that's why the Heisman being, being, uh, voted on in early December often isn't a true indicator. Yeah. Well, we know now just three games into the season, Florida State is not the marquee team in 2024. Uh, Paul, thanks again for your time this morning. Great. So you guys, thank you. Paul Feynbaum the Paul Feynbaum show every afternoon here on FM talk 26 5 2 to 6 p.m. And we're coming back more mobile mornings on the way right after this. All we love are weekends down here in the coast, mobile in Baldwin County, and just evidently according to this survey, we're only about it, uh, two hours and 15 minutes from absolute paradise and pure bliss. That would be Montgomery, Alabama. Congratulations to Montgomery, Alabama for finishing number two, number two in the country. Yeah, number two safest city in the country, Montgomery, Alabama, all the, uh, all the stories coming out of Montgomery daily, uh, multiple stories, uh, simply about how safe it is. Yeah. That's what I've noticed. That's, that's the main theme. Right? And when Joey Clark talks to Jeff, Joey does radio up in Montgomery, it sounds like he's sitting in a jail cell like he itself imposed like, I can't even go outside. Yeah. It's even going to get ran over by, uh, exhibitionist drivers or shot by somebody. That's the way he, that's the way he talks about it. And we, you know, of course we focus a lot on the crime here in Mobile and really Mobile's crime has nothing on Montgomery or Birmingham. So it was quite the shock when Montgomery, the city of Montgomery and Birmingham are worse. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mobile has, uh, yeah. I'm not, I'm not proud of our crime. You know, I get it. It's, it's disturbing, but I think the, the, those two cities, things considering the size of them, Birmingham, bigger, Montgomery, a little bit smaller, but no, that's my exact point. Okay. Yeah. Uh, pretty much every metric their crime is worse. Yes. Um, but not according to the city of Montgomery on Instagram and, uh, they use this ranking from, you know, we get these polls and kind of just crap sent to us all the time. Weird rankings. Uh, and this wallet hub, this is from the US news and world report this time, not wall hub, uh, and, uh, they said that Montgomery, according to wall hub is the safest, not a lot of them. I mean, according to US news and world report is the safest city in Alabama and the second safest city in the nation, just behind Augusta, Georgia, you know, uh, okay. So they post this on their Instagram page, a city of Montgomery does. And people had reactions to say that they did, uh, one person commented that if the rankings were true, then why is an Alabama law enforcement helicopter flying overhead all throughout the day? And why did I just have to buy three new security cameras from my home? Another said, not reporting a crime does not mean the crime doesn't exist. One user called it sad that the city would post such ranking while its residents are suffering from the effects of crime. Yeah. Uh, quote, this is coming from someone who lives in Montgomery, capital heights to be exact. The city is terrible. The potholes are outrageous. And the lack of funding that goes to the schools is sad. The police force is underfunded. Shooting is all the time from the streets to the malls. The crime rate is so high. So far so good on this post, by the way, if they would have just, if they would have realized going in, when we post this, we do have a comment section. So people here can actually respond to our posts, uh, so despite the ranking by us news and world report, the reality on the ground, of course, tells a different story. We've, we've been over those stats before, uh, Augusta, they ranked the number one safest place to live in the country. It's got a nice golf course. Uh, right. But it's got a crime, uh, Montgomery, they ranked number two, South Bend, Indiana, number three, Pensacola, Florida, number four. Huh. Well, Pensacola. Nice place. But there's a bunch of crime in Pensacola. I guess, yeah, there's a bunch of crime everywhere too, when you claim any city is, is in the top, uh, edge line. What does that mean? How about this? They rank support St. Lucie, Florida, number five, number six. I don't know what it looks like on the ground. San Juan, Puerto Rico. I don't understand. I mean, these are their rankings. Yeah. It makes the metrics. Zero cents. Uh, wow. Speaking of something that's not making sense to me, we've got to talk about this bridge and Bayway project. Okay. Eric Katamis talked with Jack Burrell and Senator Al Britton, and we'll get into this after the break. Dalton is dazed and confused with all this right now. Hey 34 FM talk, 106 five right now, it's time to head over to McConnell Automotive where we talk with Louis Arata. Hey, Louis. How are you? Good morning, guys. How are you? We are doing great. Looks like a fantastic weekend ahead of us and a good time to get over to McConnell Automotive. You guys offer pretty much anything anyone could need, uh, or do with a car, whether they're buying new or pre-owned or getting their vehicle fixed up, you can take care of it. That's right. If there's anything you would need to do, I'm going to doctor's office right now picking up a car, taking it a service to get it serviced. So, you know, I'm, I do about just about anything. So, uh, but we got plenty of cars to sell. We got plenty of, I mean, anything you want out there, we've got it from the humbers to the gasoline motors just to just about anything. We're going to be here all weekend. Love us. It's going to be a beautiful weekend to come by a car or take the boat out and you need a big truck to pull that boat, just come on by and see us. Yeah. And of course the, the used car selection there is vast, but a lot of the new models rolling out too. Oh, yeah. The new models are coming out. We can order 25 trucks, we can order 25, uh, Yukon's, we can, we can order anything you want. So, just come on by and see us. All right. We appreciate it, Louie. Hey, thank y'all. That's the man right there, Louie Arata. Go see him when he's not out, uh, picking up cars and bringing them back. Yeah. The doctor's office. How kind is that? Uh, go see him at McConnell on a motive on Dauphin Street, just east of I 65 in the website, mcconnellautomotive.com. Some people on the, on the website, uh, I'm sorry, on our text line, not real happy with the news. I didn't know this was breaking news about the Bayway. I think we're all kind of confused by this. Right. I, so. And there's, there's some people who are in the know, uh, you know, boots on the ground or know people who have boots on the ground that are involved in this and some of them are texting us. We'll get to that here in a little bit, but I was, and you know, I texted Erica last night. Um, Erica Thomas, 18, 19 news, uh, who wrote this story after talking with Jack Parell. And I thought I kind of had a basic understanding of this plan, the, uh, the ITN Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project. And I know from, from what I was thinking, I knew you'd have the new bridge, River Bridge, of course, 215 foot tall way on up there, I knew that they were going to build a new elevated Bayway and that part of the plan was to get rid of the current Bayway. Um, they, they say it's because of, uh, how close it is to the water, right? And that it's kind of dangerous. If you have a big storm that comes through or something or other, they had their reasons for putting a new higher elevated Bayway up there. But throughout this whole thing and the big toll conversation, which is, of course, been the story ever since the first inception of this plan was what's the toll situation going to look like. They've been saying, of course the new bridge will be told, but existing options, the wallace and the bankhead tunnels will remain toll free. So in my mind, and maybe I was just assuming wrong this entire time, I guess I was thought that the wallace and bankhead would remain functional and that you would come out of or come into the wallace tunnel onto or off of this new elevated Bayway and that at some point it would join in with the traffic coming from the new mobile river bridge, which was to be told. So this is a six lane bridge they're going to build, uh, three lanes each side, of course, and should, I mean, it should make things much easier and on the traffic load. But this story from Erica Thomas, so she talked with Jack Perrell, he said the new four billion dollar project still on track to break ground next year. Remember, they've been saying this is about a five year build. So initially they were hoping 2028. I'm guessing if they get started next year, we're looking at maybe 2030, potentially before the new bridge is ready to go. Currently environmental studies and geotechnical services are being performed. Also renegotiations with contractors for both phase one and phase two of the project are underway. Perrell said they're basically shovel ready ready to break, practically ready to break ground. He said, he said, good news, recent drop in interest rates could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in savings on this project. Um, the U S D O T and this was the big story, what two months ago or a month ago, awarded a $550 million discretionary grant for the project, which makes up just over or around a, what, uh, an eighth of the total cost. Yeah, something like that. Well, where the cost is now, uh, along with $125 million in federal funds that had already been committed. I think that was from Senator Shelby, uh, Al Dot has committed $250 million towards the project and has been applied, uh, advised to apply for this transportation act loan. Uh, Al Dot said it would ask for the maximum amount, which would be a 49% of the project cost. So talking to around $2 billion, but officials are still waiting to determine if that loan will be secured. Eric also spoke with state Senator, Greg Albritton. He said they're going to have a state level meeting on this project, October 4th. So that's also right around the corner. Uh, he said, there's not enough money in Alabama and the feds ain't going to give us enough to build it. We'll have to borrow large sums of money in addition to going with a toll to get that built. So the toll, uh, last, last I saw on John Sharp, of course, with Al dot com has been on this from the get go. All of the folks over at land yap and numerous TV stations and us here at the station. So $5.50 if you don't have the algo pass, right, $2.50 each way if you do. And then monthly options, which I think they were saying would be around $40 or $480 a year. Uh, and then trucks, big trucks, more axles, higher tolling, right, that was part of the plan all the way through. But what Burrell said here, um, and what Erica has in this story, the existing Bayway will be torn down. So drivers will have fewer opportunities to avoid the toll on the new bridge, but also the decision is not popular, but ensuring the bridge gets paid for is necessary. Quote, if you leave the Bayway open, then you're going to have so much of what they term leakage from the Bayway. Yeah. People getting across the Bay free when you got a brand new Bayway that is brand new. Very expensive. Well, right. The bridge and the Bayway expensive and, and, uh, and, and told, uh, he said they'll never be able to make the new payment, make the payments on the new infrastructure. It would simply be too much leakage leakage. It pains me to say that, but that's the truth and I'll take that bullet. So you know, if you did leave that open, there's going to come a time when it's end of life and you have to close it, but we would not be able to pay the note on the new capacity if that was the case. All Britain said he's heard environmental reasons for destroying the current Bayway, but he's skeptical of that. Quote, the story is that's environmental because of the water level that comes under and it's too low down, whatever I've seen, I've never seen the water level get up to it in my lifetime. But the actual reason in my humble opinion is that's how they increase and manage the toll because they got to have some way that you have to go across and pay rather than scoot by. Yeah. So I'm going to stay on night 10. They got your corner. You're going to pay. You're going to go across or you can. I never, okay. Go. Well, am I just, am I the dumb, dumb here? I don't know the longest time I thought with the insistence that the bankhead and Wallace and Africa town bridge that these would remain toll free. And they are. Right. What they were tolling was the new river bridge and you'd be able to, and I guess I was completely off on this. I thought that the Wallace would, you'd be able to get on to the new Bayway using the Wallace tunnel and it would join up with everyone coming off the river bridge. I may have just been completely off base on that. I don't remember the, here's what, here's where my head was on all this. I'm not surprised at all. They're talking about tearing down the Bayway. I assume that's what they were going to do. And that has been part of the plan. So if you, so where's your confusion? My confusion is, so you have this new elevated Bayway, they take down the existing Bayway, which a lot of people don't think is a great idea because you told another option right now. Wallace tunnel is going to remain and it could join up with the Bayway on the other side. Right. Okay. That's, and maybe that was just completely. So Randy says, according to a project manager for the Bay project, there will be two bridges. Let's see here. There will be two bridges across the Bay. It will build a six lane bridge inside of the current four lane bridge, which will be removed. Okay. Like on the inside of where it's currently built, uh, then the baby bridge will be a four lane toll bridge south of the current bridge. Uh, it will tie back to I-10 just before Daphne Todd, Graham Bay says the fact that the current Bayway is too low is BS. It survived Hurricane Frederick had a text earlier. I want to circle back to that because this was someone who said, okay, I was told from a person that works for the engineering company. The tunnel is going to be removed, not real sure if that's fact or fiction, but that's what I heard. I don't know about removing the tunnel. My question is, are they just going to cut off access to one of the tunnels? Here's the way Mr. Bankhead. If you talk, okay, no, you're not going to cut off the access to the bankhead. Uh, the bankhead is the one on government street, right? Yeah. Right? Mm hmm. So you're not going to cut off that because that's going to remain and it just, it just goes from government to the causeway. No big deal. The other way to the causeway obviously is north and the African Tam Bridge to the causeway that runs alongside the, uh, the, the river and then joins the, uh, the Cochrane causeway which joins the causeway a closer to downtown. So I, I, I never, I always assume the Bayway was going to go away. That structure was not going to be sitting around for people to get a free way to go across. And think about it too. If you, if the Bayway remain, the old Bayway remain, as it is now, you're going to have a, some trouble bottlenecking with three lanes coming down to two when you get to Daphne and maybe eventually to Mobile, I don't know if they'll, they're going to, uh, I-10 will be two or three lanes when you get over here depending on where they, where, where they start that bridge at. So if you're going to go from three lanes down to two, that's quite a bottleneck. If you, the Bayway remained open, the old Bayway, you'd be merging five lanes down to two. And it, it couldn't, yeah, that wouldn't be incompatible. Yeah. And that's not my confusion. Uh, the old Bayway. Oh, yeah. My confusion is, is there a toll free option to take the Wallace tunnel onto the new Bayway and it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. I never, I never assumed that there was, so I'm not, I don't share that confusion with it because it never occurred. I just remember, and I probably remember this wrong, but it was like the Bayway is going to be, the bridge and the Bayway brand new three lanes, both ways, got it. Um, probably coming off of I-10 when there, there are still three or four lanes on I-10 will be my assumption, but I could be wrong. So you don't have to do any fantastic engineering there and that the old Bayway was going away in the, the bankhead tunnel and the Africa town bridge free, free, causeway, free, both them leading to the causeway, both free. I don't, I never assumed that there was anything else going on there. Okay. Let's go to the, uh, we got a phone call on this Joel and Summerdale wants to talk about it. Hey Joel. Hey, good morning guys. I don't, I'm with you. I never felt for a second to say we're going to tear the dang O'Bray bridge down for an excuse to come out with that the water level, the highest water level we ever had still had five or six feet probably underneath that bridge. I mean, it just seems like a lot of wasted money tearing down that other bridge when they could build the bridge going over the river and joined the, the lanes into the bridge that's there. It just seems like a lot of wasted money. No wonder it's going to take so 2030 to build this thing. There's wanting to tear down an existing interstate that's perfectly good, nothing wrong with it. And then also the bridge, they're one of the dabble with the bridge that's right past the battleship. That's a four lane bridge. That bridge is pretty much new. That was, remember, they tore down the old draw bridge or old metal bridge that used to be right there. Talk about it. Yeah. I can't put all this together and it just seems like there's a lot of wasted money. And the, come up with some crap about leakage or not paying for the bridge. Has anybody went out there and looked at the damn traffic that comes from all over the States, we ain't gonna have no problem paying for that bridge. I mean, it's just, it's like, uh, let's, let's, let's keep getting jabbing old stick and the ribs of the people that live local. That's what it seems like. And, uh, and thanks for the call, Joe. I do know that, uh, that the plan, it was to get rid of the, to stop using the current bayway because they've been looking towards the future. This is, this is what they've been saying the whole way through that, you know, it's fine now, but 20 years down the line, 25, 30 years down the line, and what's the current bayway going to look like if, if you just put this river bridge and, you know, made it so that it came onto there, get a ton of texts here. Fish River, Frank says they're going to keep the tunnel open in the bridge open. You can use each to get to each other, but that's it. Well, you, by the way, you can't close the bay. You can't, if you're going to deconstruct, destroy whatever the bayway, the current bayway, that will be after, of course, you know, they open and kind of hamstring ourselves in that way. We'll have to all go the old way, right? Yeah. Up and down. But they both remain open and allow access to each other. I guess it's the easier way to say it, the structure was not, Shane says, I've heard talks they're wanting to alleviate the two tunnels to make the ship channel deeper. That was actually something I asked you earlier. I said, well, they get rid of the tunnel. What does that mean for shipping? And of course, the role that plays in our economy, pretty massive. This texture here, let's see. I certainly hope if they do tear down the bayway bridge that they use the debris offshore for fishing reefs. So if there's a thought, close the bayway down, turn it to a fishing pier. Don is all about the fishing right here, just like so many of our listeners of course. And then use the proceeds to help pay for the bridge, Tucker Causeway to Wallace to I-10. Okay. Yeah. And that's, that was part of what I was kind of thinking through off air. Do you take the bankhead completely out of the mix and just use the Wallace tunnel to get on and off the causeway, and that might be what the plan is here. Why not toll the bayway? Jason says, do we really believe any of this will happen in our lifetime? We don't have the leadership to get anything productive done. Well, they're awfully dang close to breaking ground, Jason. And you know, they say it'll take five years. I don't know if that's the case or not. If they do break ground next year, 2030 really isn't that far away when you think about it. Well, when was the last time that anything this massive came in under budget and or on time? On time. You have to go way back. Yeah. I don't know. Pat says after Ivy gets her ass out of this office, Ainsworth needs to revisit the bridge. It's a federal interstate bridge. We already pay taxes. We should not have a toll that we're already paying for. And George was just in 10. Yes, we were talking about this. Yeah, he was just talking about it. He said, despite, you know, he's been really championing the widen I-65. It's been his move. He's taken over that movement, but he's still yesterday said I-10 is the number one issue. And then I-65 number two issue. He clarified that. Yeah, he ranked I-10 as being the number one issue. He does think that I-65 needs to be three lanes in areas where most of the I-65 is not three lane. I guess it is in some areas near Birmingham. He wants more of that. Daniel and Foley, I've never seen the water near the Bayway bridge. SLS says, "Why not take out the causeway if we're worried about the rising water?" Bill says, "If the Bayway will be closed, please keep it intact in case the new bridge is damaged." It happens. Yeah, and some folks have been saying, "Hey, what if there is a mass evacuation?" Yeah. You want as many roadways as possible. But yeah, I don't see how that would line up like you were saying. If you kept both the old Bayway and the new elevated Bayway, how do you move on and off of I-10 without, you know, I don't know, dirt digger says, "That's stupid to tear down the old Bayway because when hurricanes come, the causeway gets flooded." It means there's only one way to evacuate the bankhead and Wallace Tunnel need to connect Mobile and Baldwin County and new bridge. Some of these texts have a trouble with the way they're worded here. Sounds stupid. Seems like leaving the old Bayway alone and just adding new four lane bridge would save some money. It's from King of all on name textures. Well, it is going to cause money to tear down an existing structure that is about eight miles long. That's not going to be free. Yeah, no doubt about that. I said Mobile Bay was 11 and a half high when Katrina hit in 2005. Chris says, "There's a ton of concrete structure at the fisheries over here in Gulf Shores to be used as fish structures." Chris and Daphne, the toll bridge. Now you're finally getting it. The Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings would have told you that if you touch the new project, you pay a toll. Last week, we could not use the causeway due to flooding. And last year, someone's saying, "Give me a ... Okay, well, yeah, I'll contact you here off the air." Someone who says they have some more information here, but ... I don't know. I read this and I thought I knew exactly what this plan was to be, and now I'm a little confused. Yeah, and it sounds like everyone is, to some degree, on some corner of this whole thing. Like to see an overhead map of the new Bayway, where it's going to go as opposed to the old Bayway and the causeway. It's a 852, Dan and Dalton FM Talk 10065, mobile mornings. Should have had a little Jimmy Buffett music right here. He takes about these SOS Fest, son of a sailor fest, is tomorrow. It's going to be big, y'all. I really think it's going to be big. It's going to be Cathedral Square, a day long celebration of the music and life of Jimmy Buffett. You've got the Buffett tribute band that actually plays, fills in for Buffett and his band when they can't make it back in the day today. And you've got Will Kimbro, all kinds of artists who are going to be there beginning. But the second line parade leaves from the hotel area down there at the Renaissance and then up Dauphin Street to the Cathedral Square, and that's at 11.15 and then the music begins all day long. It should be a lot of fun. The weather's going to be great. Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a fantastic time tomorrow. And you know, early start, stay late, it's going to be an all day kind of thing and the weather looks like it is perfectly lining up with this. Yep, lower humidity should be nice. Jeff Porsche is on the way next. He's going to have Todd Stacy with Alabama Daily News on an hour number one, a Friday edition of the Democrat response to the Jeff Porsche former Congressman Parker Griffith joins Jeff right around 10.30. And an hour number three state Senator Chris Elliot, get to a couple more of these texts on the Bayway. Maas points out, as we were talking about hurricane evacuations, elevated bridges are shut down and high winds won't do any good for evacuation. So and I know the Bayway will be elevated and maybe someone's written it. I know that the river bridge will be 215 foot tall. Yeah. It's going to be obviously massive. Yeah. Yeah. Bayway. I'm not sure what that final height will be on the new elevated Bayway. I need to look into that a little bit further. And I could look at this, wish I knew it. How high the is the Africa town bridge. It would give us an idea of what we're talking about here, because that's pretty, that's pretty elevated. Yeah. Yeah. Matt says a question. Well, the new Bayway bridge be heated in case we have a really bad snowstorm. I had a customer tell me the other day, I need to start thinking like a Democrat. Yeah. Let's go ahead and take care of all make all precautions. That's where Matt was coming from. Just in case we have a blizzard. Let's go ahead and heat that thing and the city could buy some snow plows to while we're at it. Yeah. You and I last night were texting mostly about South and how great they looked, demolishing Appalachian State. And it sure didn't look like South would be capable of that two weeks ago. No. Now they look like a totally different team. But the story of the night was, and I know we have baseball fans out there, but Shohei Otani, first player in major league baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. And he got to those milestones last night. He was at 48, 48 going into the game right last night. And he had three home runs and two stolen bases and 10 RBIs, six for six, six for six, 10 RBIs, three home runs that 10 RBIs tied for third most of the single game. It was a new Dodgers record. Only two other players in MLB history had hit both 50 home runs and stolen 50 bases in any season. They didn't do it in the same one, Barry Bonds and Brady Anderson, Shohei does it in one year. And what a feat. That was impressive. That's something they'll talk about forever. They should. And so you have a guy that, again, to put it in perspective, think about this, he reaches these records that he now owns by himself pretty much with the other two. Yeah. Well, yeah, they did the same feat, but instead of these, they didn't do it all in the same way, if he's the first one to ever do this and he does it in a game, this is what blows my mind. He didn't do it a game where he went one for two and ended up there. He did it in a game where he went six for six with 10 RBI and three home runs. And by the way, he's one of the best pitchers in the league too. He has a shoulder injury. They say he might be pitching in October, but I mean, the Babe Ruth comparisons when he came in were pretty high. It looked like we undersold. I guess so. That's unbelievable. Amazing. Jeff Pour on the way next 859, if I'm talking 106 by with Dan and Dalton, see you Monday.