The Fan Early Morning Show
Let's get ROWDY!
We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation, download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Tempe check. What kind of summer are we having this year? A family road trip summer, a beach bump summer, or a wake me when the sun's set summer? With Instacart, choose your own adventure and skip the shopping side quests. Where available, you can get ice cream delivered to your hotel, sunscreened to the pool, or cold brew to your bed. Well, door, in as fast as 30 minutes. Wherever you find yourself this summer, you can get the goods. Download Instacart for free delivery on your first three orders. Offer valid for unlimited time, minimum $10 per order, excludes restaurants, additional terms and fees apply. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep and when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury with over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. Pirates will know on Sunday who will represent them. No starters named for the pirates tonight. Line drive to left toward the corner and this ball is fair and gone. Home run, running to Les. He's snuck it right down the left field line and over the wall for a home run. Three to one pirates. Let's get rowdy in Pittsburgh. To Lez Homer, it was on base multiple times in this game. Though the Cardinals did come back, pirates were able to also come back, tie it in extras, and then winning it five to four. Now the series is split. A game of peace third and final game is later today. Pirates Cardinals and that game is going to be at 1235 this afternoon. Welcome to the fan early morning show. My name is Nicholas Ericallis, the fan only morning shows for the average Joe. When the average Joe wants to shop like a pro, the average Joe can go to CGR wholesale. Pirates win five to four against the Cardinals. Pirates claw back a little bit in the wild card standings and the race remains tight. It's good to see that the pirates are still kind of swirling. It's glad I'm glad that they didn't just absolutely fall off. They did well and they're keeping pace with what they've been doing all season. It's still frustrating that they're circling the same area. They're not breaking through, but they're not falling off and that's something to be grateful for. They forced a rubber match and they won their last couple, I believe. They right now are on a good trend of pitching in rubber matches, pitching in series tied game threes. And let's see. Pirates three back now of the third wild card spot, the Padres won their most recent game in the Cardinals last yesterday, so the Cardinals back to that third wild card spot, Mets are a game and a half up. That's where we are. I mean, it's still June. It's not June anymore. Yeah, June went by fast. It's July. It's now into July. We're still in technically in the first half of the year, where we're pre all-star break this season. And so I will begin to maintain that there's still time, although I still have my opinion otherwise. But I've kind of taken on to that opinion. I mean, I've heard other people say it. I focused on the wild card standings a lot because I just like to put in position and put in perspective where the pirates are and why these series are important. I think it's extra important now even to emphasize that because they're playing the Cardinals and they can push the Cardinals right out of one of those spots. But I'll calm down a bit. I mean, I've heard some feedback from you guys and I'm like, you know what? Yeah, maybe I'll maybe I'll take a step back on the wild card race. Now they have to they do have to break through at some point. They do have to do better than they've been doing to push into the playoffs. That's a fact. But you know, whether they do it now or in September, I don't know. Does it really matter when they do it? If they do it, maybe not. So I'll talk a little bit more about that where they are. If you have an opinion, you're welcome to call. As always, 412928-9370. You can also talk to me on X at callus underscore three three. That's C-A-L-L-A-S underscore three three. All right. We're talking about the pirates a good bit here because I have a I have a theory on winning formulas for the pirates that I want to go over in a bit here. If you want to call and talk about the hot dog eating contest as well, you're welcome to them. That's honestly, I actually yeah, I'm feeling a little worse for wear this morning. My forearms are very tight. As soon as I went home, I took a nap and then I went out and I had some some beverages and I'm sure that didn't help, but it felt good at the time. I had a soda and one of those adult beverages and it was fun. It was a fun night and then I woke up this morning and it's yeah, not feeling great. I mean, in the moment though, eating those hot dogs was fun and then you just got to the, I mean, that's a quarter pound of hot dog. I didn't realize and so for all of you that I told that I could eat 18. That was a, that was a, that was a bit of a stretch there. I really do think I could have put down 10 of the small ones, but the quarter pound ones, yeah, they, they took you down fast. And like I said in my interview, I didn't pace myself well, but that was a lot of fun. I'm going to see if I can work on this morning getting some audio to that video that we had on our YouTube stream. Just so you guys can have that, you know, somewhere. So I'll work on that this morning for you because I know I heard that there wasn't sound on the live stream. And I feel bad personally, even though it wasn't my fault, but I'll see what I can work on there for you guys. But also, that was a lot of fun. It was a good time. And well, I do it again next year. Absolutely. I'll pace myself better though. I really thought I could just go in and turn into a bunch of hot dogs, which I did quickly, but too quickly. And T bird does not have an X account and that's very upsetting. Everybody wanted to congratulate him and they're asking him if he has an account. And I realized he didn't have one tag. He's a very, he's a very nice man. He's relatively new here. I met him at the five alarm marathon. And he's, he's a good dude. And coming out of nowhere. No, I like him. He's cool. And Donnie and I finished with five, five quarter pound hot dogs. Man, it was quite a time. It was a good time doing that hot dog eating contest yesterday. So thank you all for watching and listening and Yeah, I think we're definitely going to do that again next year because that was a lot of fun. But I had to listen to my body. I really did not want to throw up on on a live broadcast. Would not have looked great. So quite a challenge. Just quarter pound hot dogs. Try for yourself to his fourth of July. She's still haven't bought your hot dogs yet. They're a lot. They are a lot. Okay, hot dog eating contest, talk over. I guess if you want to call and talk about it, you can for one, two, nine, two, eight, nine, three, seven, zero, which I thought if you were surprised, if you thought it was a good idea, or if you watch it again or listen to it again next year, let me know for one, two, nine, two, eight, nine, three, seven, zero, and our next at callus underscore three, three. All right, we're going to focus on the pirates a little bit. Actually, most of the time this morning, but we're going to focus on different aspects of this team. But there's one prominent one that I want to go over first. So yesterday, I said, I think I've maintained this opinion for a little while now is that when O'Neill Cruz, yes, because Donnie and I were talking about, would you rather have L.A. Dayla Cruz or O'Neill Cruz? And I said, I don't think L.A. Dayla Cruz is that much better than O'Neill Cruz. L.E. steals more bases. But other than that, their averages are pretty much the same, their home runs are pretty much the same, their offensive output, for the most part, is pretty much the same. They're very similar stats. So I'm not giving up on O'Neill Cruz. I think L.E. has got his moments too, where he goes and gets streaky. And I mean, that's kind of what Cruz does. Cruz is streaky. L.E. is streaky. They both have similar outputs. There's no reason to to yearn for L.E. Dayla Cruz. He's exciting when he's hot. Yeah, but then when he's not hot, like nobody's paying attention to him. Nobody cares about him when he's not hot. And there's there are stretches right now where he also mightily struggles for the Reds too. When he was hot, I mean, they were winning 10 in a row last season. I brought this up too. When he was hot last season, I mean, the Reds were thriving. They had won 10 in a row. They were on a real hot streak. Cruz gets figured out by the lead or Dayla Cruz. I'm sorry, over there. Not to confuse the two. Dayla Cruz slows down over there last season. And he's not hitting. Nobody on the Reds is hitting. They lose 10 in a row. So they were in a secure playoff spot and they had it. And I know a lot of people out there scrutinized the Pirates for being 20 and eight at one point early on in the season after April or in the month of April, they were 20 and eight at one point and they fell off. I mean, Pittsburgh guys, I mean, we're going to we're going to scrutinize the Pirates because that's the team we root for. But the Reds had won 10 in a row. And then they also lost 10 in a row that same season late and it pushed them out of a playoff spot. So that can also correlate to Ellie Dayla Cruz and, you know, he was hot before he was doing a lot of exciting things. And then the league figured him out. He got he got cold. Reds don't win games. Not only they don't win games, they they they had lost 10 in a row down a stretch and it was very ugly for them. So I think that the same principle can apply to the Pirates where O'Neill Cruz, when he's doing well, the Pirates do better when he said it. Yesterday he put the bat on the ball pretty consistently very well. And he got two hits as a result. And one hit was huge. It was in the it was an extra innings bottom of the 10th. He roped the line drive down in the right field and got the winning run home for the Pirates to win five four. So when he's on, when he's putting good swings on the ball and then over the shoulder catch to he had early on, it was great. When he's on, when he's performing well, when he's hitting, when he's fielding well, this team just seems to do better. And I think it's because maybe subconsciously in their heads or maybe the way that the lineup is constructed, the way that the teams constructed, whether the players are aware or not. I think we as fans definitely expect this, but he was expected to come into this season and be the guy. Be the ultimate power threat in that lineup that you needed to make the lineup threatening. And last year I said this over and over again, is that I really thought the Pirates would have maintained a winning stretch if they had only a cruising lineup because when he's in the lineup, he is a threat. You know, he's somebody that I think pitchers should fear. And in some cases, I do think pitchers fear him because when he's hot, like, I mean, you see what he can do. Last ball into the river, hit a line drive, 100 plus miles off the bat. So last year, I mean, that was the hypothetical. Man, if we had O'Neill Cruz, it would be so much better. They'd do so much better. And now we're looking at this season when he's not on, when he's not putting good swings on the ball, when he's cold, they don't do as well. So I feel like maybe his absence last season made this blatant. You need him to produce him without him. There's no threat in the lineup. Or at least there wasn't when the season started. And a lot of guys got cold last year. So maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration by me. He's one of the only hitters in your lineup that is real scary and real frightening. Now, I was just going to maintain consistency, but I've noticed that this season too, where he's been off, you know, where he struggled, when he's not hitting, but when he makes errors in the field, the team just overall does not do well. It feels like they respond better when he's one of the guys in the lineup contributing consistently. Is that an unfair expectation? Maybe. I mean, this really is his first full season in the majors when you think about it before he hadn't had too large of a sample size in the majors. So maybe it's unfair to think that he could just come in and hit 40 home runs when the archivist career is still on a quite on an upward trend. But at the same time we're seeing here, it seems like the roster is constructed for him to be one of the catalysts in this lineup. And when he doesn't do well, they don't do well. So I've just noticed that I'm not willing to give up on him. I think that, you know, in time and with more experience, he'll become more consistent. That's just something that's got to come with time and a little bit of patience. His focus though, I mean, that's something too, and we can't prove where he is mentally. We can just look at examples of things that he's done in the field and speculate on our own. And it's fine to do that because there are times where he's looked disengaged and there's times where he's just doesn't seem like he's in tune with the sport. There's times where he's done awkward things that frustrate us. And so those are all fair criticisms as well. And maybe it's a mental block by him. I don't know. Maybe he just hasn't adjusted to the majors yet. There's been a lot of scrutiny from national guys as well. And I think it's warranted in some cases. He just has looked bad doing certain things in the field. He has looked bad swinging the bad at times. But really, I do believe that he could figure it out enough. And it's games like yesterday that inspire me. He saw one pitch and extra innings and sent it in the right field. And got the pirates to win. Got another hit there. And he put good swings on many pitches in that in the game yesterday. I only got two hits for it, but he's running the bat well. So I'm good. I mean, I'm good with him right now. When he has performances like that, it's great. And it's extra great to see how much he influences this pirates lineup. I think that's part of what Ben Jerington was talking about. I still think that they should go out and acquire somebody big to just stick in the middle of the lineup. But I think that's part of what Ben Jerington was talking about that they have to get better within. Like they have to trust that a new crew is one of their top prospects has to hit like he was projected to hit and play like he was projected to play. Not play disengage, not play borderline lazy. I won't call him an outright lazy, especially if you're seeing what the Steelers did last season with two receivers not blocking. But yeah, I rarely call athletes lazy. I don't want to say that he's lazy. I just think that he's disengaged. You can be disengaged and not lazy, I think. And so I'll call him disengaged. There are moments where it seemed like he's been disengaged, but that's everybody on the team this season. And for that, I would say, or I would argue that they just got to get through that mental block and they can't get through that mental block. It's tough. It's tough though. It's a tough pirate season. Everybody's got to get through everybody's got to get through that mental block and push through. There have been times where the season has been immensely exciting. There have been times where these guys have seemed like they don't want to play again. That's not good. I would argue though that that's that that is on the manager at times as well. Make sure that these guys are engaged the whole time now. Shelton said the right things prior to the game on Tuesday, then they ended up pretty much laying an egg. I mean, they were making a comeback, but it was a rough one. It was a rough game. It was nice to see that though yesterday was refreshing to see them put out the performance they did. They clawed back. They were down early. They took a lead. Game was tied late. They lost the lead in the 10th, but they were able to win it score two in the bottom of the 10th. That's what that's what it's good to see. And I think just to put a wrap on this one, O'Neill Cruz, I think when he does well, he's a catalyst and he's somebody that the pirates really should be relying on to do well. And I think that he's got to understand that too and know that when he's on, they're doing well. There's one more guy in the lineup too that I could say the same thing about. And he also had a big game yesterday, even bigger than Cruz's. And we got to talk about him because I have a refreshed opinion on this gentleman. And we're going to talk about that next. You can call me at any time for one, two, nine, two, nine, three, seven, zero. My name is Nicholas Kerry. Callus. Good morning. Nice. Nice talking to you this morning. You can join the conversation at any time for one, two, nine, two, nine, three, seven, zero. You can also talk to me on X at callus underscore three, three, that's C-A-L-L-A-S underscore three, three. I'll be back right after this fan of the morning show on sports radio 93, seven, the fan. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives well better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation. 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Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury with over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. Before the July, by the way, that'd be independent today. But the sports world does not stop. Oh, for some holidays, it does, but not many anymore. And fourth of July is not one of those pirates played today at 1235. So you could enjoy your independence day with a matinee game, a matinee rubber match between the pirates and the Cardinals. And if you want to listen to that game on the radio, you can do it over on 100.1 FM and am 1020 kitty K. I believe actually don't know if you know it is. No, I lied. Hold on now. Okay, because it's a holiday. So we're going to broadcast Pirates game right here on 937 the fan. That's unusual for a matinee, but it makes sense because it's a holiday. So as a matter of fact, Dan Zangrilly will host the North Shore tavern leadoff showed 1140 today. So my apologies at 1140. He'll be right here on 937 the fan giving you pirates baseball. So there you go. There you have it. Listen to the game right here on 937 the fan rubber match pirates Cardinals at 1235. Our coverage starts at 1140. Awesome. Fan weather brought to you by Sun Chevrolet. It's the Chevy summer drive at Sun Chevrolet. You can get up to $7,500 in rebates terms and conditions apply and can be found at sunchevy.com. Today, high of 86 low of 71 65% chance of rain. That's not going to come until later though. The forecast looking mostly it's going to be overcast throughout the day, but a 65% chance of rain throughout the day at any time. Then tomorrow I have 87 low of 70 60% chance of rain. That's fan weather brought to you by Sun Chevrolet. So hello again. My name is Nicholas Harry Callis got a few more minutes with you here. And if you want to join the conversation on this 4th of July, you can at 4129-289-370. You'll also talk to me on x hat callus underscore 33. That's C-A-L-L-A-S underscore 33. I also understand that only crazy people like me wake up at five in the morning or before five in the morning sometimes too on a holiday to do work. But you know, I mean, I get to talk about sports. So you can't feel all that bad, right? And it doesn't. I love talking to you guys and I love having these conversations, love talking baseball, love following baseball. I love being here. So it's nice to be with you this morning. So if you're crazy though, and you're up at this hour in the morning, you can also talk to me. What are you doing for the 4th of July? Do you like fireworks? I thought Donnie had an interesting conversation yesterday with me and we're talking about it. You know, some of the public shows I like, they're fine. I don't get to see them too often. Donnie worked in baseball for the West Virginia Black Bears for a little while there. And they would have fireworks nights pretty frequently. So if you're an employee who has to put on these fireworks shows or be around the fireworks shows consistently, I can understand how they could lose their luster after a while. But then there's neighbors that are susceptible to setting off fireworks. And that to me would be a little much. I'd say if one of my neighbors next door was lighting fireworks and leaving debris, you know, in my yard and around the neighborhood, I would not be too pleased with that. But overall fireworks, good thing. I like fireworks. I don't think they're overrated. I think they're they're legit. It's nice to see those and anticipate those because I don't see them very often. I'm sure you don't either. But if you were an employee of a baseball team, like the Pirates or the West Virginia Black Bears or anywhere in baseball, you know, our baseball teams love to set off those fireworks. So I can get it. I can understand that perspective. All right, we got to call it on the line 4129289370 wants to talk. And as a matter of fact, actually, no, they went away. So oops, call back. Why not? One more player I want to highlight for their performance in yesterday's game. And I was talking about O'Neill Cruz. When he's hot, the Pirates do well. That seems like a correlation that's that's fair to make there when he's hot, the Pirates do well. Another player that I think that could apply to is route each lunch who went three for four yesterday, ran the bases well, hit a home run, drove himself. Thanks. It was a solo home run, but he scored twice throughout the game. I got three for four three hits and four at bats. When he's on, I think the Pirates do well too. And I have a, I have a theory. Now, right until I was just heating up and whatever advice he got that wasn't, I guess wasn't on the Pirates. The Pirates trying to help him out. They couldn't, you know, he went back to something that he did before he was on the Pirates. And in his, in his swing fixes, mechanics went back to something that was working before. And lo and behold, he's doing better, which seems like a theme for the Pirates this season, which is frustrating. Players are going to outside help to make adjustments and they're doing better. And so I owe Roddy to us, I think an apology first and foremost, I was blaming him a lot for his failures when it might have actually been the coaching staff on the team failing him because, I mean, that's with every player. It seems like it's been this season or like most players, but Cuchins are veteran. There's not too much. He's got a tweak. He's been getting on base. He's been doing his job out of the top of the order. Brian Reynolds always starts this season in June. So I don't, I mean, he might be an outlier, but I mean, to Les Nick Gonzalez, Jack Swinsky, to an extent, Henry Davis kind of, I mean, all these guys who went to outside help to fix their swings. And then they've actually, they haven't actually fixed their swings. I mean, I'm confident Roddy to Les now can be a consistent middle of the order hitter. He can be a four or five hitter. They can produce. I mean, before he just looks so lost, now he doesn't look lost. A slight fix in his mechanics, got his timing together. Now he's hitting the ball and he's doing it consistently. He's been getting hits pretty well. So I apologize to him. Maybe it's the team that was failing him. But when he's on to this team seems to do better. I mean, that stretch of games at the end of April in the beginning of May where they just weren't hitting and they were losing the last seven in a row and they were just down. I don't want to feel that way anymore. I want to feel more like these games yesterday where, you know, they could have lost and it was close and it was scary, but they fought back in the cloud back and they won. And they did it with a whole host of characters, Reynolds and Cruz. Hayes even had two hits, strove in a run. But to Les going three for four with a homer, that's awesome. You got to see more of that from him. And so my final synopsis, I think on the whole thing, because I guess you can apply it to anybody. If any, if any, if any, if any one player hits the team has a better chance of winning, that's for sure. And they were collects hitting yesterday. The pirates were to stay in it. They fell down late, but they came back, worked through some mistakes and they beat the Cardinals in a big, in a big game in a big series. I think that the pirates need at least two hitters in every game to do well for them to win. Like two hitters need to shine, not just one. They can't rely on just one person. They need a cruise in a teles, that kind of pairing. They need a Reynolds in a teles or Reynolds and Cruz, all paired with McCutcheon getting on base to be in position to score from the top of the order. They need two guys on. They need two guys to hit well in every game to do well. That's my first theory and I also think that they need to score. They need to score in in more than one inning throughout the game. And they did that yesterday too. They got two in the fifth, one in the seventh and they knocked home two in the 10th to come back and win. Everything about yesterday showed good signs and maybe my theories will hold. And I, and I think that's what I look at and I think they need two guys on at any given time. They need two guys to be up to the plate producing runs. They can't have just one person doing it all. And they, you know, they can't score all their runs in just one inning. And then that's it. They've got a score throughout the game. They've got to put pressure on the pitchers throughout the entire game. And only then will they have consistent success. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. 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