June 18: What You Missed

THE LEAD:

A lot has been said recently questioning Pete Carroll‘s claims of innocence regarding the Reggie Bush situation at USC. Can coaches really keep an eye out on all of their players off the field? To help answer this question, Kevin Calabro and Jim Moore turn to “The Dawgfather” himself, University of Washington coaching legend Don James.

Coach James also shares his thoughts on the recent Pac-10 expansion, the challenges for coaches transitioning from college to the pros, and how Jake Locker stands up against other former Husky greats. And of course, he can’t leave the show without taking a light hearted shot at Pullman, much to the chagrin of the “Go-2-Guy.”

On how tough it is to run a program and know what’s going on at all times:

“You’re only allowed to be with (the players) 20 hours a week … and say you have 100 sons out on the streets on a Saturday night … there’s no way you can tell what’s going on. And you can’t go out to the parking lots and see what kind of cars they’re driving. … You don’t know what’s going on half the time.”

On where Locker compares to some of the great quarterbacks to come out of UW:

“Well if you break him down physically, Jake is more like Billy Joe Hobert. You know, a real studly guy. Jake’s probably faster… We had a lot of guys with really good arms and guys that could move… We were very blessed to always have a good quarterback, and most of them made it to the NFL.”

On when the last time was that he went to Pullman:

Coach James: Whenever the Huskies played there. That would be the last time.

Jim Moore: You’ve had no reason to go back?

Coach: Why would I go back for?

Jim: Because it’s such a beautiful place.

Coach: I stayed in a hotel over there one night, and it’s the worst back I’ve ever had, because of the mattress.

Jim: We did that on purpose.

Check out the full audio from Coach James’ interview here.

On a Lighter Note:

Possibly the best part of watching the Lakers celebrate back-to-back championships last night was Ron Artest‘s post-game press conference. Ron-Ron got a little excited about the win, and especially his three-pointer with a minute left that put Los Angeles in control. Check out the audio here.

He also said in interview that he already had a rap single ready to be released called “Champion.” Observing Artest’s antics led Kevin so compare him another NBA enigma: Dennis Rodman.

In Other News:

Tonight the Mariners begin a home interleague series with the Cincinnati Reds. To give us some insight into the team that is surprisingly leading the National League Central we brought on Hal McCoy, who has covered the team since 1972 and is credited with coining the term “Big Red Machine.” He also developed a very close relationship with Ken Griffey Jr. during his time with the Reds.

We asked him about his experience covering Ken Griffey Jr and his memories of some of those great Reds teams of the 1970.

On Griffey’s time in Cincinnati:

The fans turned on him and blamed him. They thought they spend $116.5 million on Griffey when they could have got some pitching. They say that in hindsight because poor Junior spent most of his time in Cincinnati in the training room. … When he didn’t produce the fans started getting on him and started booing him. It wasn’t always a happy time for Junior in Cincinnati and that was very unfortunate because this is one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

On a conversation he had with Griffey after announcing his retirement:

He just got frustrated that he wasn’t getting any playing time. He thought he was an anchor around the team because he wasn’t getting a chance to play. It was an ego thing for him. He’s been great player all his life and then to sit on the bench I think it just got to him and he decided enough was enough and it was time to get out.

On his relationship with Griffey:

The first year I didn’t like him at all. He was very aloof, kept to himself, very quiet. … Then as I got to know him and spent more time with him I found out how personable he was. You could walk up to him anytime and talk to him about anything, not just baseball. I found out how much his family meant to him. … The one thing that I will never forget is that he did it right. He was playing in the 90s on an uneven playing field, because all these guys were juicing up and Ken was doing it clean. That just told me a whole lot about his character.

On the success of the 2010 Reds:

They’ve got several of their No. 1 draft picks playing for them. … You’ve going to see a lot of hitting from this team. They score a lot of runs.

Check out the full audio from Hal McCoy interview here.