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This is… The Sweet Spot, a show about the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona… I’m Jake Brown.

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Trouble in (Turf) Paradise/ Jeff Hinkle

HOST INTRO: The fate of horse racing in at least southern Arizona is in jeopardy. One of the most historic race tracks in the state is in the process of being sold. Cronkite Sports’ Jeff Hinkle has more.

HINKLE: Turf Paradise, the oldest horse racing track in Arizona, is up for sale. The current owner, Jerry Simms, who bought the property in 2000 says that owning the track for 23 years has been a great experience, but it’s time for him to step away and spend more time with his grandkids. The track is expected to be sold to James Watson, who is a managing partner of CT Realty, although no sale has been finalized as of yet. The plan is to redevelop portions of the land, but to continue horse racing on a temporary basis. Watson said that he would like to continue horse racing at Turf Paradise for one or two more seasons, but then after that, the only horse racing track in the state would be Arizona Downs in Prescott Valley. Then, for the first time since 1959, the state will only have one horse racing track.

From Cronkite Sports, I’m Jeff Hinkle…

ASU Baseball Nationally Ranked/Kaitlyn Parohinog

HOST INTRO: The Sun Devil baseball team swept the Washington State Cougars this past weekend, earning them their first national ranking of the season. Reporter Kaitlyn Parohinog has more about the team’s successes halfway through the season.

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PAROHINOG: The Sun Devils swept the Cougars at Phoenix Municipal Stadium this past weekend and improved their overall season record to 23-9. After the successful weekend, D1Baseball.com ranked the Sun Devils 24th in the nation. This is their first time being ranked under head coach Willie Bloomquist. The team has won 18 of their last 20 games, with the offense supplying a comeback win in 12 of their games so far this season.

PAROHINOG: ASU came back from deficits in the first two games last weekend as well as in their game on Tuesday against Grand Canyon University. The Devils were down 9-2 heading into the 8th inning, when the offense came alive to score nine runs to put themselves in the lead. Freshman Luke Hill drove in five runs in the inning alone, while Nick McLain supplied four RBI’s in his collegiate debut. This weekend, ASU travels to Seattle to take on the Washington Huskies. They look to continue their success against PAC-12 opponents as they have yet to lose a series in conference play. With the offense finding their groove and pitching shutting down their opponents as of late, the Sun Devils are playing some of their best baseball in the past decade.

Kaitlyn Parohinog, Cronkite News….

Phoenix Suns #4 Seed/Sam Eddy

HOST INTRO: The NBA playoffs are finally here, and the Phoenix Suns will once again have an opportunity to make a run at the title. The Suns will be the fourth seed in the Western Conference with a seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Sam Eddy has more.

EDDY: The Suns are back in the playoffs for the third consecutive postseason after a previous 10-year drought. This year’s team is different though because of a major midseason acquisition. On February 9th, the Suns acquired former MVP Kevin Durant and T.J. Warren in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, Jae Crowder and multiple draft picks. Since the Suns traded for Durant, with him on the court the team is 8-0.The regular season concluded with the Suns losing to the Clippers which secured the two’s playoff matchup. The Suns finished the 82-game season 45-37 while the Clippers went 44-38.

EDDY: Game 1 of the first-round series between the Suns and Clippers takes place in Phoenix. Clippers star forward Paul George has already been ruled out for game 1. For the Suns, despite Durant sitting out the last two regular season games, he is expected to be in the starting lineup for the series’ opener.  According to various sportsbooks, the Suns have the third-best odds to win the NBA Finals. If the core four of Durant, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker and Chris Paul can stay healthy, then the team has a real chance to win it all. The postseason run begins Sunday at a time and a channel that is still to be determined.

I’m Sam Eddy, Cronkite Sports…

Kevin Durant Impact/ Spencer Cihak

HOST INTRO: Kevin Durant has played just eight games for the Phoenix Suns since being acquired from the Brooklyn Nets on February 9th.  Spencer Cihak has more on what Kevin Durant has brought to the floor in Phoenix

CIHAK: Since acquiring Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets at the NBA trade deadline, Phoenix is a perfect 8-0 when Durant has been in the starting five. Suns head Coach Monty Wlliams understands what Durant means to the team just as a presence on the court

<< Monty Williams: He’s a big target. You can just throw him the ball. You don’t need to look really to play calls and misdirection to do what you want to do.>>

CIHAK: The veteran power forward is the first NBA player to finish a season shooting at least 55% from the field, 40% from the three point line and and 90% on free throws according to ESPN researcher Matt Williams.

<< Williams: It’s that and it’s Kevin telling me to sit down and just give me the ball. But we knew once we got him that there was going to be some simplicity involved.>>

CIHAK: Durant played the least amount of minutes in his career this season, in large part due to a sprain in his MCL, and then a sprained left ankle. The postseason will guarantee a spike in time played for Durant.

For Cronkite Sports, I’m Spencer Cihak…

Jill Gearin Interview/Jake Brown

HOST INTRO: Jill Gearin is one of a few female play-by-play broadcasters in baseball. She is entering her fifth season with the Visalia Rawhide, the single A ballclub in the D-Backs organization. I got to speak with her about her career in broadcasting, and being a woman in a male-dominated field.

BROWN: Hi, Jill, thank you for taking time to talk with me today. You are the play by play broadcaster for the Visalia Rawhide and they are a minor league baseball team in the Diamondbacks’ system, and I just want to ask you, what is it like being one of the very few female broadcasters in the league right now?

<< Gearin: Being a woman broadcaster, there’s a little bit of a badge of honor with it where you’re one of the few who’s kind of infiltrated the boys club, but there’s only a few of us like you mentioned and it’s also frustrating because it’s 2023. Why aren’t there more of us? Why aren’t there more coming up behind us?>>

BROWN: Right, and you actually got to call a few innings of a D-backs-Dodgers game just last season. What was that like, and how did you get that opportunity?

<< Gearin: So I was able to broadcast three innings between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in September. And it first started really a year prior to that where I was calling the Arizona Fall League games, and I reached out to Scott Geyer, who’s the VP of broadcasting for the Diamondbacks, and we were in the radio booth, and in the radio booth at Chase, they have walls where everyone signs their name if they were there. And he said, ‘Oh, darn it, I should have brought a Sharpie or a pen and I would have had you sign.’ And I said, ‘That’s OK, I’ll, I’ll come back some other time,’ and he said, ‘Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I’d love to put you on air.’ I thought I misheard him basically… We kept in touch throughout the season and we just figured out the best was the double-header in L A because, at the time Greg was still going through his cancer treatment, so they didn’t want to bring anyone else into the radio booth at home and he said, but there’s a double-header in L A in September, and double-headers are long days for any broadcaster, so let’s have you go and do three innings of the first game. And it just worked out perfectly. >>

BROWN: And I believe it was Christian Walker who hit a home run right when you, just got on the call. So he didn’t waste any time giving you a moment.

<< Gearin: I had two home runs that day: Christian Walker and Daulton Varsho, I think Varsho was the one who had the first-pitch home run. So, I mean, I literally sit down and Chris Garagiola says, ‘And now for the play by play, here’s Jill Gearin.’  Me: ‘Thanks, Chris. Scoreless in the top of the third inning. Here’s the first pitch to Daulton Varsho, hit, swung on, line drive to deep right field and … a home run.’ So first pitch, no breaths. I wasn’t able to relax at all. It was, it was a home run. You know, I think I actually preferred it that way. Yes, it would have been nice to maybe get a few pitches in under my belt, but it kind of reminded me, OK, this is baseball you’ve done this hundreds of times. Let’s go have some fun. >>

BROWN: And I believe you are in the fourth year with the Visalia Rawhide??

<< Gearin: Yeah, fourth season, fifth year that, that COVID year makes it weird. >>

BROWN: So, you’ve done minor league games, you’ve done major league games. How has that kind of changed your career when it’s come to broadcasting as a woman?

<< Gearin: You know, it’s, it’s funny, I think I was hoping that with getting the major league game under my belt that I would have more opportunities to move on from single-A. You know, don’t, don’t get me wrong. I, I love being the voice of the Rawhide and, and I love being here, but I want to move up, and in order to do that, I’m gonna have to move Visalia. leave Visalia, but I think I was surprised that I didn’t get as many opportunities because of that. So it’s really taught me to just keep grinding, keep working. You, you don’t know what opportunities are gonna come in front of you and just make sure that you, you work hard for it. But also it reminded me of where I want to be. I want to be broadcasting a day baseball game at Dodgers Stadium, and I think it’s also helped me earn some natural respect with the guys. I broadcast games for players who are 19 to 23 years old. I’m, I’m 26 I’m older than them. They have seen that I’ve done AAA games, I’ve done major league games. So they kind of come in and realize that I’m the veteran and there’s some natural respect because of that too. >>

BROWN: You mentioned being a woman in a boys club. How have the men responded to your career, whether it be other broadcasters or players?>

<< Gearin: So, in the California League, I was welcomed with open arm, open arms by the other broadcasters. They were great and I immediately felt really comfortable with them, where I was able to go to them and say, ‘OK, this happened is just, is this normal stuff that you have to deal with in baseball or is this because I’m a woman?’ And sometimes they’d be like, ‘No people are just rude, that’s normal,’ and then other times they say, ‘Yeah, no, that was, that had a little underlying sexism in it.’ So it was just nice to be able to kind of check myself because you don’t ever want to be too sensitive, but you also want to protect yourself, you know? So there’s, there’s still times that I’m dealing with it too. I still, I, I shouldn’t be anymore. This is my fourth year. I’m, I’m a veteran. I should have enough respect here, but there’s still some times where, they won’t outright say that they don’t want me in the clubhouse, but there are people who kind of are pushing me out and, frankly, they’re preventing me from doing my job and that’s unacceptable. >>

BROWN: Is there an incident that comes to mind? You don’t have to name the player or team.>

<< Gearin: Yeah, there’s a few. The dynamic has changed a little bit, but at the end of the end of the game, I print the box scores and I give them to the managers and they say, ‘OK, everything looks good,’ or, ‘Hey, I don’t think that should have been an error,’ or, ‘Hey, that looks wrong. Can we look at it?’ So I have to go between the managers, both managers and the official scorekeeper back in our front offices. But the visiting team unfortunately was, it was a really small, tight, like small clubhouse. So when I walk in, I’m kind of like bobbing and weaving through people to make sure that I can get to the manager. And one of the managers told me it wasn’t safe to be in there. I had players, look me in the eye and say, ‘Are you enjoying the show?’ I had one guy as I was leaving saying, ‘Since when were women allowed in locker rooms?’ Just things like that. You know, like I don’t, I don’t want to be in there. I would love to not have to walk into a room where there’s 30 professional athletes changing. Nobody wants to do that. >>

BROWN: And to close us out here, what is your favorite part of being a play-by-play broadcaster?

<< Gearin: For me, I love being the voice of a team. I played softball in college. So my experience has always been, you’re a part of a team, you’re working hard together. You’re, you’re in the trenches together and being able to still be a part of a team is so special to me where I am there for the long bus rides. I’m there for the grinds. I’m there during batting practice when they’re learning from the hitting coach or they’re learning about base running or fielding. I’m down on the field learning too. >>

BROWN: All right, Jill. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

<< Gearin: I appreciate you having me on Jake. >>

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HOST : That’s all for this week. The Sweet Spot is produced by the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau. Special thanks to David Bernauer, and additional reporting in this episode is by: Jeff Hinkle, Kaitlyn Parohinog, Harris Hicks, Spencer Cihak, Sam Eddy, and me!

I’m your host, Jake Brown. Make sure to find and subscribe to The Sweet Spot anywhere you listen to podcasts… See you later sweethearts.

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