The Sweet Spot: A bit of Cactus League history crumbles, ASU racks up transfers

  • Slug: Sports-The Sweet Spot. Runtime: 22.26.
  • Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

This is… THE SWEET SPOT, a show about the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona… I’m Spencer Cihak

[music up and fade out] 

Transfers bring promise, excitement to Dillingham’s first ASU football season

Host Intro: It’s a season of new beginnings for ASU football with new Sun Devil head coach Kenny Dillingham’s first spring practice beginning last week there are plenty of new faces not only in the coaching staff but on the field as well. Harris Hicks has more on the matter.

Harris Hicks: 22 transfers were acquired for Kenny Dillingham this offseason, the 2nd most in the FBS. But among them, there are two that clearly stand out. FCS All-Americans, Cameron Skattebo and Xavier Guillory were busy breaking records last season. But now at ASU, Kenny Dillingham is more than pumped to see what these two can bring to the table.

ACTUALITY: Yeah, they’re, they’re hungry now. Like those guys, they come here and they, they’ve eaten our meal room. Holy cow. Right? They show up every day and they’re like, oh my gosh. They have all my gear laid out for me, it’s one of those deals that they’re so humbled by where they’ve been, and on top of that, they’re talented that those guys come up and get extra work more than anybody, just because they’re happy and blessed to be here. They understand the privilege it is to be here at Arizona State.

Harris Hicks: In terms of Xavier Guillory, he’s already raising eyebrows in the wide receiver room, including one of Arizona State’s returning starting wide receivers, Gio Sanders.

ACTUALITY: “Yeah, uh, actually he’s been balling lately. You know, he got a lot of top end speed, you know, every time he runs around. That’s what I think about. I think, dang, he can move fast. But on top of that, he’s, he’s strong. Uh, he, he, he can move people off his spot with his releases, but I think he’s a really good receiver. I like what I’ve seen from him so far.”

Harris Hicks: The spring game hasn’t happened yet and folks, these two are already creating headlines, for Cronkite Sports, this is Harris Hicks…

‘Start planning the parade’: Deconstructing the Suns’ Durant deal

HOST: From the field to the hardwood, earlier this week Shams shah-rah-knee-ah announced that the newest Phoenix Sun, Kevin Durant, is returning at the end of March after suffering an ankle sprain in warmups against the Oklahoma City Thunder in late February. Cronkite Sports’s Harris Hicks talked to AZ Family’s Mark McClune on what the Suns future looks like when KD takes the court.

Harris Hicks: Since Kevin Durant suffered an ankle sprain a couple of weeks ago, the Phoenix Suns are 2 and 4. But with Kevin Durant officially reported to come back around late March, it’s about time we start thinking about what the Suns expectations should be. Cronkite Sports’s Spencer Cihak, Sam Eddy and I sat down with AZFamily’s Mark McClune at Radio Row. This interview was recorded the day after the Kevin Durant trade.

ACTUALITY: And welcome back to Cronkite News here. I’m Harris Hicks, joined with Spencer Cihak and Sam Eddy. And folks, we have a special guest, Mr. Mark McLune. Thank you so much for joining us.

Mark McLune: I thought you were talking about fake Andy Reid. I thought he was the special guest. This is so cool. Radio row. And what a, what a cool opportunity just for all of us. It, it’s kind of like you don’t have a lot of instances like this where it’s like a convention in our business and my head’s on a swivel right now. This is cool. Thanks for…

ACTUALITY: It’s like the wild, wild west out here. You know.

ACTUALITY: It is. But anyway, so a lot of Phoenix news happening, right? Obviously Kevin Durant, the big trade. What are your thoughts on that?

Mark McLune: Well, my initial thought was, oh my gosh, it’s 11:15 at night and we just wrapped up our 30-minute show, and now I gotta go back to the station. We did an emergency podcast on, uh, when was that? What day is it? What, what time zone am I on? I think it was Wednesday. It’s super fun. I mean, this is like what you dream about, you know? I was just like you guys at the University of Texas, 20 something years ago, just wanting to do this for a living and I, I, I, I constantly had to pinch myself and be like, this is my job. You know? So we’re talking Kevin Durant. We have a 30-minute show overnight on Channel 3 at 10:35, The Extra Point, the Valley’s only nightly local sports show. And yeah. Uh, uh, my initial thought about, uh, Kevin Durant is plan the championship parade. I don’t know how you’re gonna beat the Suns. Do you agree?

ACTUALITY: Gotta stay healthy, I think is the key, right? I mean, otherwise you’re right. Start planning the parade.

Mark McLune: Now do you think, were you thinking at the beginning of this week with, you know, the Super Bowl here, Waste Management, big week, we’d be talking about the Phoenix Suns right now? Okay. So actually it was fortunate enough to get Steven A. Smith on our podcast this week, the Extra Point podcast. (Nice.) And I asked him straight up, is KD coming to the desert and he’s like. ‘You’re gonna have to give up a haul.’ He’s, he, he said he wouldn’t do it. He thought they could build a championship team around Brooklyn. So, no, I mean, I, I, I thought last summer it was gonna happen. And then Flex from Jersey. Are you familiar with Flex from Jersey? He’s a son’s insider on the, on the post-game show. He’s become a good friend of mine because I get him in trouble on social media. He’s, uh, he’s said different things on our podcast.I mean, he straight up said they were hitting the pause button on this last summer. So in the back of my mind, This might happen, but I really thought it might be this coming summer. I thought Brooklyn might try to win with just Durant and, and and, and maybe get Kyrie out of there and see if it would work. So yeah, I was stunned. Walking, we were at the riser at the stadium walking out to my car and, and thinking, wow. Um, can anything else happen here?

ACTUALITY: Do you think this is the biggest sports week in Arizona history?

Mark McLune: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s, it’s, I’ve been here, been lucky enough to be here since I was 6. There’s been some big weeks, but this is insane. And I, and I really think we’re gonna look back at this and think about how much it grew the Valley, how much it grew Valley sports, there was a, a carryover effect from the 2015 Super Bowl that we felt, and it kind of gave, it just gave the, the Valley itself just a little more, uh, cache nationally and especially with Durant. Yeah. This is the kind of stuff that, you know, you look back and yeah, why do a million more people now live in the Valley of the Sun? Well, it’s because of this week.

ACTUALITY: True. All that, that I, that’s my last question now. Alright. I’m so sorry to cut you off…

Mark McLune: By the way. Titans fan. Really?

ACTUALITY: Yeah. My team. I’m sorry. I, I, I can see you’re still sensitive about it. Yeah. All right. Well that’ll officially do it this time, hopefully. But, uh, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you. Um, yeah, and thank you. That’ll Do it!

Harris Hicks: With Kevin Durant slated to come back fully healthy, it’s championship or bust for the Suns. For Cronkite sports, this is Harris Hicks.

Suns’ donation adds a little more hope for students at Hope High School

HOST: Off the court, the Phoenix Suns are continuing to champion the community with their latest charity endeavor. The Phoenix Suns donated a total of 275,000 dollars in their latest funding cycle of the 2022-2023 NBA season. A total of 19 different nonprofits received a portion of the grant. The final 20,000 dollar surprise was in support of Hope High School, a Title 1 charter school in south Phoenix. The Suns invited the school out to the Footprint Center for a shoot-around with Suns’ center Bismack Byambo before surprising them with the grant.

Byambo: I think it was great, that we’re in this case for them. In this type of environment, it’s more important to allow them to dream as big as possible.

Cihak: Hope High School Student Enoch Amani reflected on the experience

Amani: It’s my first time seeing a stadium this big. So I’m excited because I know the money is going to the right places. I know that is going to help the team out, is going to help the school out, and I know that is going to really help a lot of kids from us out of town.

Cihak: Phoenix Suns Charities launched in 1988 and has distributed over 41 million dollars in its 35-year history to local nonprofit organizations. In Phoenix, Spencer Cihak, Cronkite Sports…

Advocates look to save crumbling spa that brought spring training to the desert

HOST INTRO: Arizona plays host to half of Major League Baseball’s teams each year for spring training, but its beginnings start with a little roadside hotel in Mesa. Cronkite Sports’ Jeff Hinkle has more

VOICE TRACK: Nestled on the corner of Main street and Recker Road in Mesa is a building that looks like any old, dilapidated building that has fallen into disrepair. The old white paint chipping off the walls exposing the brick and adobe building underneath, a neon sign out front reading “Buckhorn Baths Motel” that doesn’t work anymore, and huge amounts of scrub brush and overgrowth all over the property from around the main lobby, all the way back to the private cottages on the property. This building is one of the reasons why the Cactus League is what it is today, and as the spring training season wraps up, let’s dive into the story of how this tiny roadside hotel came to be one of the founding pieces of the league.

[sfx: music]

Hinkle: Ted and Alice Sliger bought a plot of land in 1936 between highways 60 and 70. It was their home, it was a gift shop and oddly enough it was a place for Ted to show off his huge taxidermy collection, which has since been donated to ASU. Then, after three years of having to haul fresh water between downtown Mesa and their property, the couple decided to dig a well and see if they could find water.

[movie audio clip]

Hinkle: What came next changed their lives. They found water! The only problem with it was that it was about 120 degrees and it was full of minerals. The water wasn’t drinkable but had lots of healing benefits. Not long after the water was found, the motel was built and a spa along with it. The early 1940s brought a lot of tourists, and ailing soldiers from nearby military bases to the hotel, and then eventually, word got around to New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham about the Buckhorn. Stoneham found his way out to Mesa to visit the hotel, stayed at the Buckhorn, and got to know Ted and Alice very well. He would eventually move his team out to Arizona in 1947, and stay at the Buckhorn because of the hot springs and he thought it would be a good place to take his players for treatment. According to Mesa Historical Museum President Vic Linoff, it was a little bit of needed rest and relaxation before the season.

[Duration 0:15] <<Vic Linoff: They would go there, and they would just play. They weren’t in uniform, so the photographs you’d see they were in Hawaiian shirts, they’re running out in the desert, they’re going hunting or fishing with Ted Sliger.>>

Hinkle: Mesa Historical Museum Executive Director Susan Ricci even added…

[Duration 0:09] <<Susan Ricci: We have photos of some of the ball players signing pictures to Alice, but it’s not like they were the owners to them, it was like a family.>>

Hinkle: That is the beginning of a long history between the New York Giants and the Buckhorn Baths. The team would stay there for 25 years, which also included the Giants moving from New York to San Francisco. Slowly but surely, more and more teams started to come to Arizona. The Cubs, who had been training on Catalina Island off the coast of California, moved out to Arizona and started using the Buckhorn as their hotel as well. Then, with the addition of the Indians, who came to Arizona to escape the radical Jim Crow laws in the south, and the Orioles eventual move to Yuma, the Cactus League was born. But what lies ahead for that old, dilapidated building that carries so much history and so many stories.

[Duration 0:10]<<Vic Linoff: There’s a term we use in preservation called demolition by neglect. You let it just stand there long enough, it’ll fall down. That’s kind of where it is.>>

Hinkle: Since the hotel closed in 2007, there have been many efforts to save the building. It is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, so it’s protected for the time being. But according to Linoff, that’s only a placeholder.

[Duration 0:09] <<Linoff: It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s a belief that if you get that designation or recognition, that your property is protected. It’s not.>>

Hinkle: There have been plans for an apartment complex to develop part of the land, but to keep the main lobby intact and treat it as a museum, which would harken back to the heyday of the Buckhorn with countless pieces from the original hotel, along with a Cactus League exhibit to draw the attention of baseball fans in town to catch a ballgame. Those plans have stalled, and now the fate of the hotel lies in a sort of “limbo state.” But if walls could talk, the Buckhorn would have a speech like no other from the things the old hotel has seen, and rumor has it that the pipes in the hotel still hold that mineral water Ted found when he was trying to find drinking water. For Cronkite Sports, I’m Jeff Hinkle.

Pinkies out: A chat and a Red Bull tasting with Giants starter Logan Webb

Host intro: San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb became known for chugging three Red Bulls before a start during the 2021 postseason. Now, he’s expanding his palette and tasting several different flavors with Cronkite Sports reporters Kaitlyn Parohinog and Jaxson Webster.

<nat sound – can opening>

Speaker 1 [00:00:33] How’s it going, everybody? My name’s Jaxson Webster, alongside my co-host.

Speaker 2 [00:00:37] Kaitlyn Parohinog.

Speaker 1 [00:00:37] And today we’re joined by San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb. Logan, how are you doing?

Speaker 3 [00:00:42] I’m doing good. Better now that I have Red Bulls in front of me.

Speaker 1 [00:00:45] That’s great. So the reason that we’re doing this is we’ve heard about your pre-game routine. Can you walk us through your pre-game routine?

Speaker 3 [00:00:53] Yes. I have a Red Bull right when I get to the field, I have a Red Bull 2 hours before and another Red Bull an hour before. All at the same time. Every time. I think I’ve done that for five, six, maybe seven years now.

Speaker 1 [00:01:12] How did that kind of start?

Speaker 3 [00:01:14] I think I just like caffeine, to be honest with you. I like, you know, it’s it’s kind of what we got around baseball. And that’s what was given to me. I you know, it goes back to when I was younger, you know, my my parents, every time we’d go to play a baseball game or something, we’d go get, you know, a Monster or Red Bull or Doe Girls. I remember those. And just like different types of energy drinks. So I just I’ve always loved energy drinks and Red Bull is easily my favorite. So it was easy. It was easy to have that.

Speaker 1 [00:01:48] All right. Well, without any further ado, I think we start off with coconut. And before we start, have you tried any of the other flavors other than original? And you said you did blueberry?

Speaker 3 [00:01:56] I think the blueberry one. I’ve tried. I’m not 100% sure, but the regular one is the one I go for most of the time.

Speaker 1 [00:02:03] All right, we’ll start off with coconut here.

Speaker 3 [00:02:04] All right.

Speaker 1 [00:02:06] Kaitlyn.

Speaker 2 [00:02:06] Thank you.

Speaker 2 [00:02:08] Logan.

Speaker 3 [00:02:08] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [00:02:10] And here we go.

Speaker 2 [00:02:11] All right.

Speaker 3 [00:02:11] All right.

Speaker 3 [00:02:12] Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Speaker 1 [00:02:20] My mom would be really mad. She never had let me had Red Bull growing up.

Speaker 3 [00:02:23] Really?

Speaker 1 [00:02:24] So she was like, No. But now that she knows it’s NSF certified, we might be able to roll. with it.

Speaker 3 [00:02:29] Yeah.

Speaker 3 [00:02:30] What are your thoughts on coconut?

Speaker 3 [00:02:32] I’ll be honest. Coconut has never been my favorite, but that’s pretty good. The berry helps. I think coconut berry, right?

Speaker 2 [00:02:38] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 [00:02:39] Yeah.

Speaker 1 [00:02:39] Out of ten. What would you say?

Speaker 3 [00:02:41] Ooh, a seven. Seven.

Speaker 1 [00:02:43] I’m right with you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 [00:02:45] Yeah.

Speaker 2 [00:02:46] Yeah seven, eight

Speaker 2 [00:02:48] And then another question for you. Okay. Does each clubhouse provide a Red Bull to you?

Speaker 3 [00:02:53] Yes, they do. There’s been a couple of clubhouses where I can’t find the Red Bull, and I kind of freak out a little bit, but I always find a way. There’s always a secret fridge or something that I can find it at.

Speaker 2 [00:03:05] And then kind of going off that question, I think you’ve kind of answered it, but so there hasn’t been a time when you’re in the majors or minors where you haven’t had Red Bull.

Speaker 3 [00:03:13] Um hmm. I think once once I got to the big leagues, it was more of a Red Bull. So I used to go in the minor leagues, it started 2017 or ’18. I would go the night before I was pitching, and I get the biggest one. The was it the 24 ounce or 20, 20? The 20 ounce. And I would get that. I would get that one and then a small one and I would drink the big one as soon as I got to the field and the smaller one little bit later. But, but I yeah, I used to do the big one. That’s that was my minor league one. But in the big leagues it’s in the locker room. And so they actually just sent me a fridge actually. So I got a Red Bull fridge now, stocked. So yeah, I think there’s only one person I think that likes Red Bulls more than me is Brandon Belt.

Speaker 2 [00:04:05] Oh really?

Speaker 3 [00:04:06] Yes.

Speaker 2 [00:04:07] I heard you talking about his pregame shake drinking during the seventh inning? Yes.

Speaker 3 [00:04:13] Yes. Yeah. So he you know, it’s funny. We will have a flight, so we’ll play. Sometimes you end up playing like a night game or something. And we had a long flight, like six-hour flight. So it’s midnight. You get on the plane and there’s Brandon Belt drinking a Red Bull. And I’m just like, Dude, how are you doing that? Like, I drink a lot of Red Bull, but I can’t do that, or else I’d be wide awake, so. Yeah, he is. I think he he has a problem, but no, I’m just kidding. But no. Yeah. He’s one person I think likes Red Bull more than me. It’s Brandon Belt.

Speaker 1 [00:04:46] Right, Right. All right, on to the second one, dragonfruit.

Speaker 3 [00:04:52] Oh, thank you. All right. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Speaker 1 [00:04:57] Your initial thoughts.

Speaker 3 [00:05:04] I like that one. Imma go, imma go 8.

Speaker 1 [00:05:11] What are you thinking, Kaitlyn?

Speaker 2 [00:05:12] I personally like dragon fruit, so I’m going with, like, a nine. That reminds me of, like, the vitamin water dragonfruit

Speaker 3 [00:05:18] Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 [00:05:19] I’m not as big of a fan. I’m like, Give it a six.

Speaker 3 [00:05:21] Okay. Okay.

Speaker 1 [00:05:22] All right. And then our next question for you is how are you kind of preparing for the 2023 season? And you’ve just been named the Opening Day starter. What does that mean to you?

Speaker 3 [00:05:31] Yeah, I’m super excited. You know, I think, you know, like 40 to 50 family members and friends coming so and it keeps on going. Every day I get a text saying, hey, I’ll see you in Yankee Stadium. So I don’t know, it might end up being probably close to a 100 but it’ll be I’m super excited. It’s obviously an honor to be able to pitch on opening day and then especially in a place like Yankee Stadium. I actually got to go the last year we played like a Little League tournament, Cooperstown, and I got to go the last year of the old stadium and haven’t been in the new one. So super excited about that.

Speaker 1 [00:06:10] Oh yeah, it’s super cool, for sure, for sure. All right. Think we’re going to the original now?

Speaker 2 [00:06:14] Original.

Speaker 1 [00:06:15] All right.

Speaker 3 [00:06:16] Yeah, yeah. This one.

Speaker 1 [00:06:18] All right, so this is. This is like your go-to, right?

Speaker 3 [00:06:21] Yeah, I’m already going to say ten before I even I drink it.

Speaker 1 [00:06:23] All right, here we go.

Speaker 3 [00:06:24] Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. Ten out of ten. Can’t beat it. It’s just this O.G. right there. I think.

Speaker 1 [00:06:36] I agree.

Speaker 2 [00:06:37] I think one of my friends said it tastes like apple carbonated apple juice.

Speaker 3 [00:06:42] Yeah. Yeah, it does. I mean, it’s. It’s honestly gotten to the point now that I really drink it for taste most most of the time. The days I pitch. Obviously trying to get a little jacked up, but I just randomly, as of 5 o’clock at night, I’ll just, you know, Red Bull sounds pretty good. Tastes pretty good. So I’ll just drink that.

Speaker 2 [00:07:03] And then our next question is, So, Logan, you had decided to drop out of the World Baseball Classic well before it started to kind of develop yourself as a team leader in the clubhouse. Walk us through what led you to that decision and also kind of how has it worked out so far now that we’re underway in spring training?

Speaker 3 [00:07:24] Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, there are a lot of reasons that that, you know, that were put into it. You know, it’s this part of me that, you know, I got a little FOMO when they came and worked out here just because, you know, looks like those guys are having a blast and watching them on TV. You know, I’m I’m still rooting like heck for for them to win. And, you know, I’m yeah, it was just I thought, you know, there’s a lot of new faces in our clubhouse that that maybe I didn’t know yet or I you know, haven’t gotten to meet yet and or meet yet and the fan fest, you know, that was when I really got to meet everybody. And I was just like, you know, I, I really want to be in the clubhouse, you know, creating the the, the winning culture that we were trying to get back to. And I just wanted to, you know, be a part of that and, you know, try to do my part as much as I can to to really get get us on board and, you know, start off the season really good and, you know, hopefully end up where we want to end up. And I think, you know, that was that was pretty important to me. And, you know, I think I think the organization was a little happy I was I wasn’t playing, too. So it was just it was just a mix of a lot of things.

Speaker 1 [00:08:37] All right. What are we going to next here? Blueberry.

Speaker 3 [00:08:38] Blueberry. Here you go, here you go

Speaker 1 [00:08:41] Thank you.

Speaker 3 [00:08:43] Cheers.

Speaker 1 [00:08:44] Cheers. Cheers. Yeah.

Speaker 1 [00:08:53] All right.

Speaker 3 [00:08:54] Probably not my. Not my favorite. Not going to lie.

Speaker 1 [00:08:56] Okay. Okay.

Speaker 3 [00:08:59] Still very good. I’m gonna give it a 6.7.

Speaker 1 [00:09:03] 6.7.

Speaker 3 [00:09:04] Just because I think it’s a little little sweeter than maybe I would like.

Speaker 1 [00:09:09] But any reason for the point seven specifically?

Speaker 3 [00:09:11] I don’t know. I was just making up something. Yeah, that’s perfect.

Speaker 2 [00:09:15] It tastes like a blueberry jelly bean if that makes sense.

Speaker 3 [00:09:17] Yeah. I don’t remember the last time I had a blueberry jelly bean, but I know what you’re talking about.

Speaker 1 [00:09:22] I’d say I’d probably get that one in eight I like. Okay, All right, you can.

Speaker 2 [00:09:26] I’d say probably a six. Blueberry is not generally my favorite.

Speaker 1 [00:09:30] That makes sense, that makes sense. And then is there anything else that fans should know as you head into the season or about you, the Giants, anything, just as we start to get going.

Speaker 3 [00:09:43] You know, I just to me, I just think like, you know, it was unfortunate we weren’t able to get, you know, the maybe the necessarily the big names that some fans wanted. But I don’t think, you know, fans should kind of use that against the guys that are here. You know, I think we’ve got a very good team, a lot of, you know, guys capable of having seasons, like I won’t say his name, some of those guys had. But, you know, it’s, uh, I think teams should just be super excited. We’re going to have a fun team. We’re going to have a team that we fight a lot, you know, not fight, like physically fight, but just like, fight in like, you know, we’re going to grind every night and, you know, get the job done. So I hope people are excited for that.

Speaker 1 [00:10:27] Yeah. All right. Last flavor here or last one with Logan Webb.

Speaker 3 [00:10:29] All right.

Speaker 1 [00:10:30] Here we go. Which one is this?

Speaker 2 [00:10:32] Peach.

Speaker 1 [00:10:33] Peach. I’ve heard a lot of hype about peach.

Speaker 3 [00:10:35] Really?

Speaker 2 [00:10:35] A lot of people like peach. My girlfriend likes peach.

Speaker 1 [00:10:38] My girlfriend likes peach, too. I don’t know.

Speaker 3 [00:10:42] Let’s try it out

Speaker 1 [00:10:50] That’s solid.

Speaker 3 [00:10:50] I like the peach. Yeah, We’ll give it a nine. I’m not going to lie, I think that one. That’s my favorite flavored one.

Speaker 1 [00:10:58] I’m right with you. I think that’s perfect. What do you think?

Speaker 2 [00:11:01] I’m going to give it a ten. Peach is my favorite.

Speaker 3 [00:11:03] Wow.

Speaker 1 [00:11:05] So thanks for joining us. Our final question is, we know that Red Bull gives you wings.

Speaker 3 [00:11:09] Yes.

Speaker 1 [00:11:09] But will it give you rings this season?

Speaker 3 [00:11:12] Yes.

Speaker 1 [00:11:14] All right.

Speaker 3 [00:11:14] I hope so.

Speaker 3 [00:11:15] Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it.

[music up]

HOST: That’s all for this week. The Sweet Spot is produced by Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau. Thank you to the Phoenix Suns for providing additional audio. I’m your host, Spencer Cihak. Make sure to find and subscribe to The Sweet Spot anywhere you listen to podcasts.

[music out]

^__=