Wake Up Mintzy with Taylor McGregor | 7.23.24

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right what's up fellas and ladies it's time for wake up M we're coming to you not live from the bar Sports office we're up here we got some energy we're chugging some Stella Blue coffee and I'm join special guest today in studio Cubs reporter Taylor McGregor what's up Taylor how you do well what's going on I don't have my coffee because true story I was drinking like five cups of coffee a couple years ago and I was like I'm going to die of a heart attack if I keep this up so I had to change to Amino Energy have you ever had any I have not okay well it's it's like a pre-workout and this is my my form of coffee so I'm going to be chugging this as you're coffee okay all right well I'm going to continue as always to chug Stella Blue coffee shout out big cat check out they cold brew flavors perfect for summertime my personal favorite the blueberry but I got some hot coffee cuz I'm trying to get fired up and get energy cuz unlike Taylor I still drink three to four cups of coffee a day it's pretty bad I might get back into it if I have some of that so no that's still blue it's good stuff and hey and you're supporting big cat and it's named after his dog Stella and there's a Grateful Dead song called Stella Blue uh well first of all want to welcome Taylor into the studio very fun Journey you've had actually met so I met Taylor I guess this was two years ago on the two-lane sideline you work for the Cubs but you also do football in the fall yeah and you're just like traveling all over the country yeah so I think we met twice right that season one was a two it was a two-lane Cincinnati game when Cincinnati was the number two team of the country and I I remember that game felt pretty big because if if Cincinnati loses that game they don't go to the college football playoff and blah blah blah and T Lane fought him that game they fought him and that was kind of the start of when you saw T Lane begin to turned things around and then obviously the the following year for them they went on to to win the cotton bll beat USC and uh they've had a nice little journey since but then I think I saw you again that season on Old Miss sideline right yes yeah see we're just all over the South together um I yeah I cover colge football it's so much fun and I think one of the the most rewarding parts of the job is getting to meet people like you on the side you never know who you're going to see on the sidelines of a college football game that's that's for dang sure as always wake a mity sponsored by the find folks of dude wipes they're taking over the toilet paper world it's a revolution one use of dude wipes will change your life Amazon Target Walmart and Nationwide look it's fun be sponsored by a product so good mole man's on them you should be too check out dude wipes all right a lot of stuff to get to with Taylor so I kind of want to get her background so you're from Colorado originally I am yep uh I was born in fville Arkansas I I ended up going back to the University of arkans but I I was raised the majority of my life in Golden Colorado just outside of Denver and it was wonderful we've also connected over the fact that we both love P Widespread Panic and tough week for that right now I know it is um but I fell in love with live music because I got to go to Red Rocks all the time so that's kind of uh you know my connection to Colorado it was great growing up there went to Arkansas shout out the SEC that's really where I fell in love with college football and uh after a few other stops now I'm in Chicago we're both in Chicago I know I know it's wild so you born in fville Denver you're up here I'm from North Louisiana somehow made it up here but hey I love Chicago look I'll say this this is my first first full summer here and the hype on the summertime Chicago was massive and it lives up to it in every way and being from Louisiana where it's like a hundred with 100% humidity every day and I'm just like walking home from work and it's like 75 of the breeze I mean I don't see how you could beat this so it's it's cool with the Cubs because we play Day games on the weekend so Friday Saturday Sunday the visiting team and the visiting team reporters oftentimes I'll take them out to dinner and we'll go around Chicago and like every reporter is like I can't believe this is your life in the summer like we get to still do the job we love and then at night we get to go hang out around the city go to these fancy dinners have a good time um and so it's just it's one of the the places that every everybody else in the league is like I am so jealous of your life and I'm like yeah this it's the greatest city in the world in the summer and it's especially with the Cubs the day games like it's the best yeah I mean wriggle field it can't be field yeah I mean I guess you grow up going to Red Rocks and then you work at wrigly field I think you've got two of the the greatest American uh places W so okay so you grew up in Colorado and then when it came time to pick a college you had some tied to Arkansas and you knew you wanted to go to the SEC yeah so actually so when my dad was working at the University of Arkansas Houston nut was there okay and so I Houston was still the head coach at Old Miss when I was in high school I thought about going to miss oh wow yes I could see that I mean I would have loved Miss I did go there a couple times in college and had a phenomenal time um so I was like University of Florida ol Miss Arkansas I looked at Texas um but Arkansas was just the right place for me you know given my family ties and I mean I absolutely loved fville I had the best time there and uh super grateful I chose that place yeah so f fville I catch a lot of crap about this cuz my freshman year roommate at Old Miss transferred back to Arkansas and still lives in fville and I'll probably hear it from Arkansas people in the bar Arkansas never been to fville still which is terrible on my part because I've been to almost every SEC Stadium you haven't been to fville I've been I saw I went to LSU Arkansas in Little Rock when Arkansas had that great team when Ryan Mallet beat LSU and they made the Sugar Bowl and they lost Ohio State I was at the game they beat LSU but I haven't been to fville which is a shame and like everything always he about Northwest Arkansas fville it's beautiful it's up in the Ozarks you know I know the econom is great there's kind of a land of opportunity it's just kind of hard to get to it is that's the one tough thing about it being in the SEC so many of the places are drivable to each other um and I remember in college being a little bummed out by how far of a drive it was to Auburn to Alabama you know to some of these other schools across the SEC because most of them you can just drive you know with within a relatively short period of time but fville sits up in Northwest Arkansas so it's just you got to go across the whole state to get to to ol Miss to Louisiana to Alabama so uh yeah the location within this state isn't great but it is 10 out of 10 obviously unbiased but like I think this now is we got to get mincy to fville can we make this happen yeah we need to make it happen I want to go it's funny you should go to the Texas Arkansas game well Old Miss like luckily I I feel good about the miss misses at Arkansas this year I feel usually F builds a house of hores for Miss for years I mean it's been it's always a good game between Arkansas oh always always always but yeah it's been rough in fville for old mes but I think this year I feel pretty feel pretty good about it going I you should feel confident in Old m i i I've I've started to do a little bit of my prepper college football I've been doing it a ton I've been doing a ton lately and I I Feel Like Old Miss I mean they've been able to score points they've had good offenses but they just haven't had the depth at the line of scrimmage and now we bought all of them oh my gosh I mean whether you buy them or what I mean you guys I think can hang oh yeah so I'm excited to see Miss and gosh just the SEC I get so I literally get chills thinking aboutall and uh I just I mean from top to bottom this year I think it could be really fun and look I can say bottom because I which Arkansas were picked to finish 14th in the League this year you're Pi head to Mississippi State though right we are picked and shout out Brandon Walker maybe you're listening to this maybe you're not um although I do like Jeff lebby covered him last year at Oklahoma I think I think that was a great hire no I do too I think I think lebby he was all miss and then he was at Oklahoma he's a really good hire I just think it's GNA be it's gonna take some time yeah I also don't think State really has much money in their in their in aisle and in this day and age that's tough yeah that that is tough but I I say the bottom of the SEC because I always expect Arkansas to have a couple big wins now I I don't I'm not ready to tell you they're going to be a 10- win team but I look I hate to say this they could beat they could beat an Miss they could beat an LSU like they always fight last they lost4 they lost 3431 deu and Baton Rouge last year I easily could have won that they loost I think there was like five games they lost by one score including like Alabama LSU oh they were winning the Old Miss game late there quter yes yes so um I'm so excited for football five weeks away people let's go heck yeah well I would ask so okay you went to Arkansas how did you get into sports broadcasting did you always know that's what you wanted to do you were telling me off the air your dad played college football or played in the NFL for a second right correct yeah okay so you grew up around Sports and just always loved it is that what happened well okay yes it is I always say I sort of learn learned Sports through osmosis my grandfather was a legendary High School football coach in the state of Colorado so like I from for me I learned football from him and and then my dad played eventually got into baseball so I learned a lot about baseball and football from him but until I was about 14 I thought I wanted to be in the CIA what how I tell you how old were you and you realized you didn't want well I think I was like 14 and honestly I it's just funny so I my dad was able to get me into contact with a CIA agent and I talked to this man he was wonderful to me and he basically was like all right you can do this and it would be awesome blah blah blah but here's the thing you need to know it's going to be really hard to have a family and you're going to be gone a lot and so I was like okay well you know I do want a family that is important to me so maybe being a CIA agent isn't the thing for me and then I chose sports broadcasting which by the way also very hard to have a family and also got a lot so uh clearly I was thinking through when I uh made my next career move but listen I after I put the CIA thing to bed I knew I wanted to work in sports I just didn't know why and kind of came to the idea that I wanted to be a sideline reporter from watching other reporters women on TV and thinking that would be really cool and uh I I'm super grateful and I'm grateful to my grandfather my dad for Paving the way for me just the idea that you know I could have a career in sports because both of them did and here I am now I'm talking to you I mean I mean I mean what could be better than that I mean you know like I mean working for the Cubs and working for see football I mean just nothing compared to being in the bar store office to wake up mity clearly true truly clearly so did you major in journalism I did broadcast journalism the University of Arkansas which that to me I I really believe I work at ESPN right now because of my timing going to the University of Arkansas so when I was there the SEC network launched and and when the SEC network launched essentially what they did is they went into every campus and they built a control room to be able to do digital games and linear games games from every campus across the SEC so what that did for me in college is it exposed me to not only live television but also all the bosses and all the decision makers who were coming to campus all the campuses across the SEC I ended up meeting um Laura rage was a reporter for the SEC network when it first started I met her she introduced me to Steve akles who ended up hiring me at se or at ESPN years later so I it all kind of came full circle um but yes to to answer your question I gave you a really long answer for for I did ma major in uh broadcast journalism yeah I I took I didn't even take one journalism class at OBS and I graduated with the two in finance and now here I am so here you are but you majored in a good time at the library didn't you yeah I mean yeah I had like three different ears in Oxford it was so so long I graduated I was like 31 it was it was uh it was it was everybody's got their own Journey yeah exactly misund misunderstanding so you were doing so you doing some SEC network ESPN stuff you get done with or so how did you wind up getting to the CBS so um okay so when I graduated I started in local news because that was sort of what I knew to get experience so I my first job was in Casper Wyoming oh wow Wyoming baby I love the state of Wyoming huge fan loves my what Casper Wyoming like well it's very remote it's a town of like 60,000 people and I remember Googling it online when I got a job there I'm like pros and cons of Casper Wyoming and one of the there was two cons the weather gets very cold and windy and the other con was remote like it's 4 hours away from Denver which is the closest big city so there's just not a lot around there's 500,000 people who live in the entire State and it's a massive state so very remote but I I got I'm really into the outdoors and so loved my time being able to get outdoors I got really into triathlons when I was there so I was like I did the um Ms ride which is miles on a bike like I was in the best shape of my life when I lived there and loving life Outdoors just doing all these fun things uh in addition to the job and kind of getting experience so that was wonderful I went from there back to Arkansas to work in local news in Little Rock and then when I was there a little different than while a little different uh you know back to the SEC SEC country um and it was cool because I got to cover Arkansas my alma mod which was fun um but like three months into the job there the Rockies job came came open and obviously I had grown up in Colorado my dad worked for the rocky so like to me that was a a dream gig and I felt like it was a really good chance for me to kind of take that next step and and it's hard to get a job in baseball there's only 30 jobs um so I had interned after my freshman year with what was then Root Sports then became AT&T Sports Net basically the TV home of the Rockies I had intern there so I had a lot of relationship with the people there and I reached out and was like Hey I have you know at that point three years of experience in the industry here's my real I would I would love an opportunity and um after you know several back and forth interactions uh they hired me thank goodness and I was there for a couple years and then in 2019 um I had also interned at MLB Network when I was in college and in 2019 you kind of got a resume going here I I I was a professional intern I mean I had like a bazillion internship so I always tell girls or boys whoever if you want to get in this industry for me what really helped were the internships um I but anyway so in 2019 a guy that I had interned under at MLB Network was helping to launch Marquee and I was put in contact with him and basically he asked if I would want to come join the Cubs and to be honest at first I was like I don't think so because I was at home I was in a I was so comfortable with that job and then I came to Chicago and I was like wait a second I think I want to come here and of course it's the Cubs like just history yeah yeah it's Wrigley Field it was it was and I started to talk to people at the Rockies and they were like you got to take this like what are you doing and I'm so thankful that they challenged me to do so because it has been such an amazing move for me I love that job so much um I work with such amazing people I get a call Wrigley Field my office and it's it's really just has been an awesome awesome job so you moved up here in what 2019 so it so was the end of 2018 I moved up here I was supposed to move up here in March of 2020 we all know what happened that month and so I ended up moving before the co shorten season in like end of June of 2020 okay yeah so you've been up here I guess wow it's crazy that's four years ago now I know it's like it's like days become months become years and crazy so okay so you've got obviously you've got to travel all over the country for baseball football I want to hear some of your well actually before I get into your favorite venues yes shout out on y'all making American history two weeks ago thank you first ever all female broadcast team for Major League Baseball game that's like American history that's uh what was that like to be a part of well I I've been saying this and I I mean this sincerely it was so much more about Beth mowen and Elise meder than it was about me because they're the two women who were holding roles for that broadcast that women predom L do not hold the reality is a lot of women around the game are sideline reporters that's what I do every single day um but Beth was play byplay Elise was the analyst and so I felt like I was riding their coattails a little bit I was just so grateful to be there and it was it was cool for me to reflect on their Journey my journey and and just the idea and hope that hey this sport has a lot to offer for everyone and hopefully there's some girls at home who could watch and say all right now you know I was aspiring to be a reporter but now I want to Aspire to be in the booth um and you know just help girls dream bigger because that's kind of the goal is to maybe Inspire the Next Generation if we can so it was it was it was so it was awesome and I I'm grateful for the reception all across the country I mean I had people all over reach out to me about that so it was really fun heck yeah well that's awesome I mean that's awesome I mean literally like I said American hit I mean you look at baseball and I mean how long's this been going on 160 170 Years first time ever that's a lot I mean a lot of history in that sport that's for sure so that's really cool you get to be a part of that moment so you've been in Chicago now four years I want to ask about because you've got to travel everywhere so what are your some of your like when you go on the road what are like one to three your favorite stadiums and cities to go to okay so for baseball I love Dodger Stadium okay I don't love downtown LA but Dodgers stadium is the best um I just love the history the Dodgers have been really good the last several years since I've you know been working in the sport so they always get good crowds and um have a good team so it's it's a ton of fun um Fenway of course Boston's amazing Boston's a wonderful City especially in the summer so Fenway is is up there and for me like growing up a Rockies fan one of my favorite life memories was the 2007 World Series and oh yeah when they won the 20 in a row yeah yeah 20 out of 21 it was it was great um so being back there in April was really cool for me because I could reflect on that year and um and just that ballpark it's a lot like know is awesome oh Kors yeah Kors is great too well and then I would say being home probably um up there as far as college football LSU the LSU night games I mean it I grew up going to him it's the LSU night games it's it's gotten to where the big SEC one Still Rock like insanely the non-conference ones aren't necessarily as much but those night SEC games when they're playing like Florida or Auburn or hammer or Miss whatever it's uh it's just yeah it's like Marty gr on campus all day it's literally it literally is Marty girl and K like I I forgot I hadn't done the all day LSU tailgating in years like I'd still go to some games and I I actually worked for ESPN Baton Rouge before I came up here so I got a lot of relationships down there and last year I did the like the Arkansas game was like a seven o'clock game and I was out on campus tailgate at 10 a.m. and I was like I forgot how Wild this is yeah it was uh and I had been as a student Arkansas LSU at LSU night game was amazing and then to go back as a broadcaster you're just I mean it it people always ask about pinch me moments like doing a night game in Death Valley was a pinch me moment where I was like I can't hear what somebody two feet away from me is saying and I love every second of it so I would say there I also love dop Campbell and let me preface this by saying saying I did the Florida Florida State game there a couple years ago so I think my um experience of the stadium probably a little different than like just a random ACC matchup but like that Florida Florida State game was lit it was so much fun so I I just think back on like experiences that I really enjoyed and that was that was at the top um I love Old Miss um I okay I got to be honest though like the pregame Miss is the best in the SEC as far as like tailgates I've been to the Grove is insane the the the stadium is really wonderful it's not as hyped up though as the Grove to me does that yeah yeah they've actually well I gotta give Miss shout out on this I always thought that same thing and in the last couple years they've changed it and now they have like drone shows and they got new speakers and like light shows and stuff and so now it's way more turned up than it was 10 years ago they've really gotten the atmosphere up but I I I would agree with that in the past but uh you know like that LSU game last year like the second half was the most turned up I've ever seen this okay so I have impr I have yet to do um an SEC versus SEC game there so I'm hopeful that this season I'll get to do an M Miss versus an SEC opponent there to get the full experience because sometimes I did uh I did miss to Lane there which was still a great match up but it's different than obviously like ol Miss Alabama so hopefully I'll get to do a bigger game there and then I'll report back but I I and I love the town of Oxford I mean the square is so cute the library is so much fun it's impossible to get dinner reservations anywhere so if you know somebody help me out just next time just text me and I promise it'll be it'll be no problem we'll get you we'll get you in City grocery immediately perfect I can I can I can assure you that how so how does it work like how far in advance do you know where you're going during the season do you find out like the week of few weeks out like how does all that the scheduling work so we find out the Sunday before the upcoming Saturday so like all the games happen on Saturday and then the bosses kind of have to see what happened and then that influences the games that they want to pick they call them the six day picks that influences kind of how they pick the games and then usually Sunday morning everybody gets an email and it's like all right here's where you're going on Saturday and so that's really when you begin your prep is that that Sunday you have about six days to get ready for the two teams and so it makes it fun you just are always you have no idea where you're going to be seven days before that's wild and then do you like you'll travel on what like Thursday or Friday yeah usually Thursday night sometimes Friday morning um I've been on Crews where we do meetings with coaches in person so you really just have to be able to be there before the coach's meetings on Friday so if you can get a direct early Friday you can do that or sometimes you have to fly in Thursday night just depends who are some I mean I'm not going to have you single out ones you don't like because I'm not going to put you on the spot like that but who are some of your favorite coaches you've got to meet oh gosh um okay well off the top of my head Rett Lashley at U he's tearing it up they won they won theer yeah ACC now I did that game actually the American Conference Championship when they beat two lane on my birthday by the way so I got to my birthday in New Orleans it was great um I'm excited for what he's going to do at SMU now that they're in a major conference in the ACC I think they're going to be able to recruit the DFW area like never before so he and he he's AR our grad so we have you know that connection he's been wonderful to me um I really love his offense and kind of just the Firepower that they play with um I just did Duke Manny Diaz is great I like I I think one of the coolest and and I believe this is my job is to like connect with the coaches you have to get them to trust you and like for the most part I have enjoyed them all in different ways um different personalities for sure and you have to figure out kind of how to work with them all um but I could go down I mean Dan Mullen now that he's my coworker I adore that man he's been so wonderful to me and and very insightful to me on how to do the job and help me understand what coaches are thinking and in certain things to ask not to ask I did uh the Liberty Bowl with him a couple years ago and and he helped me a lot which was which was great so yeah I really could go I could go down the list of guys who I've enjoyed covering okay yeah sounds like you have a better relationship with t m and then any of the Old Miss people do after how talk it just got so it not even just putting it all on him but the the wait wait wait I got a I got a trivia question for you okay go ahead who was the first number one ranked team in Thea State Missippi State yeah was Mississippi State with with him there yeah that was the crazy year in 14 when State and Old Miss were number one and number three yeah nobody could believe it happened to college football and then that Miss won the egg ball and knocked them out of the SEC Championship good times oh yeah that game was that game was yeah that that was that was a wild uh time it was Mississippi like over Auburn B that'll probably never and by the way I forgot to mention Sam Pitman that was messed up in me I I wish Sam Pitman the best at Arkansas this year he's been so great to me and just like a big teddy bear one of the best guys to cover very very honest and transparent and open which is what we we love his reporters so shout out to him as well couldn't forget that he seems like uh everybody loves him you know obviously there's I mean he him and Napier at Florida probably more heat on those guys going into this year than anybody but uh you know everybody that like knows St Pitman loves him so we'll see you know I don't know he's gonna have to Ian they're gonna have to make a bowl probably patrino as the OC yeah I know and it's almost kind of anyway it's kind of weird because like if something goes bad they've got patrino just be the interent them so I don't know hopefully it goes well for Pitman but that's going to be an interesting situation uh to watch going forward SEC football this year so 12 team playoff in college football this year yes so pumped about that so excited like I think that's going to be so great for the game and I also think the bowl game I mean it is what it is but the bowl games have kind of been dying because of the transfer portal and everybody's just worried about where they're going to play next year and not these postseason games but it's funny it's funny and you know this is probably going to sound like a calculated answer but I I mean this sincerely it's like everybody always says like oh Bull games you know they're not as they don't mean as much but like the ratings on the bull games are enormous still so it's like people still care because they're tuning in to watch and so um like that's always my answer back to that question it's like well people are still watching because they're still football on and and people are still interested so until the ratings like die off I I'm not ready to fully buy into this idea that people say that the bow games don't matter no you're you're right they they do get big ratings when everybody watches them during the holiday days uh I I I do like them going to the 12 team playoff though with more especially on campus like the first round being on campus like how fun if Miss gets to playoff game I mean that'll be electric yeah it's December 20 it would be December 21st and my friends and I are like already talking about you know you don't want to like Jinx the season but we're trying to you know in case this happens have some kind of plan you know put it out into the atmosphere yeah exactly what's going to be interesting going forward so like the 5 through eight seeds get to host it on campus playoff game then the quarters semis and finals are all neutral sight bowl games I think the on campus games are going to be such a big hit that the quarterfinals the one through four seeds are going to W up next year I think that's going to be how it morphs because I mean like it's just like unfair like who has money to travel all around the country for the quarters semis and finals like during the holidays it's like kind of unrealistic well and I just think I you know I was I I've thought about this so let's go back to last year in the NFL one of the most anticipated matchups was Rams lions with Matthew Stafford going back to Detroit like if that game would have been played at a neutral site it does not hit the same and so for me it's like just the idea of creating storylines and creating big moments is good for the sport so I'm with you like I just think those oncampus games will be will be huge and it'll be interesting to see the way that it plays out in years to come yeah just college football to me the on campus the rales and that's what that's what makes it like I'm not as into the neutral sight thing and I think people are realizing that you know it's literally like that's what makes the sport so unique are literally the rivalries and I'm so glad that a lot of these rivalries are playing again like Texas Texas A&M back to Thanksgiving now that the SEC like yeah Texas Texas have to play each other like you got to give the fans what they want yeah I completely agree so yeah no I love the God I'm just getting so excited so I'm in that chills I know I'm in that college football college football so much I know I'm in that like dog days of summer like getting super excited I've been listening to SEC podcasts and like learning personnel and all that stuff and like look you know like you said it's about five weeks away I mean we're kind of you know getting there but you you're still you still are obviously very uh busy with the Cubs in this this meantime uh I actually so over the weekend I hadn't done this since I moved here yet I actually went to Wrigleyville Saturday night during the game but didn't go to the game and just went out popping around okay did you have a good time hell yeah had a good time could I know I hadn't done that yet since I moved here just like we went to like seven different bars and it was it was cool okay um so there's a ESPN Sunday night baseball game coming up and I was thinking about doing something like that just hanging around Wrigleyville I don't do it enough I love to go grab dinner up there like if you know if it's a national game and we're not working and we're around um it's great but I don't pop around Wrigleyville enough it's such a fun atmosphere and everybody's just so happy and excited so I I need to get on board with that yeah well the thing is like you said the Cubs having all those afternoon Day games probably is good for your social calendar I would think it really is but I just don't spend it in Wrigleyville the West Loop is kind of where everybody my age hangs out yeah I live I feel like Wrigleyville is a little younger crowd like turns out I'm maybe older than people think I don't want to reveal my age yeah I don't you're not as old as this guy sitting in his chair I can tell you that I think I got a good bit on you I'm sure no so you said you like hanging out Wesley like Chicago wise like what do you have any what are Summer favorite place well I so I love a good dinner um I I love to do that on a Friday and Saturday after Day games um I'm a big RPM fan all of them really I love Chicago cut I mean what's RPM so RPM you've never been like RPM seafood or RPM Italian I have not Well mincy turns out I know where we're going to dinner so up what bring your girlfriend bring bring a group of people um uh no yeah we're we're we got to go there like especially RPM Seafood right on the water it's great Vibes the food's great um so I love to do that there's a ton of restaurants in the West Loop I really enjoy anywhere Outdoors like on a patio in the summer I'm all four I really I'm not I'm not picky like I just love a good vibe good people to hang out with and like I'm good I've been loving I feel like I get like I it's kind of weak on my part like I need to get out and explore the city more but like like you said the West Loop thing popping so hard like I just go to Rolph Street and full Market all the time there's just so many good places and it's awesome I mean it's like everything you could possibly want just in that neighborhood totally just walkable right right around there and Chicago music scene's great too I don't know it's just it's it's fun like I said I I I knew it was the right move to move up here but I'm enjoying it even more than than I expected I same I knew I was going to really enjoy Chicago it took a couple years for me because I moved in the middle of the pandemic so to like meet people sort of gain a life here and and get back to normaly took a little bit but now I'm so happy I feel like I am thriving which I feel like you are too I think like I feel like plays a big part of that because it just such Positive Vibes and yeah it's great I'm I'm super happy the winter wasn't it was milder this year said it wasn't too bad but like the summer makes it all worth it and I cheat a little bit because I obviously am off in the winter so like basically after my final bowl game in January is until March like I'm off I go I go down to spring training um but I go back to Colorado so I love to go ski get back home a little bit so I kind of miss out on the winter so I feel like I cheat a little bit because I just enjoy Chicago in the summer and then I get to leave in like the tough times yeah but it makes sense for schedule so do you do spring training too I do so you do spring training baseball season football season and then you get like that I guess January to Mid probably six week break January to mid-February yep to go ski as much pow as possible nice where's your favorite place to ski Colorado so I grew up my family had a home in Breen Ridge growing up so I know that mountain like the back of my hand um but now I would say I ski the most at Veil and crested but I have one of my best friends lives in cres so I basically just welcome myself to stay in her guest's bedroom in the offseason and I just go up and stay with her and ski CB and and I've gotten really into the back country um so you know anywhere around CB has been has been a lot of fun and anywhere I can just be outdoors where there's pal like I'm in heck yeah so you like you I would guess you're a really good skier well I think relative like I don't know how good you are but I I would say people ask me this and I'm like I don't really know how to answer that like I am friends with people who are legitimate professionals so obviously they're way better than me but like I'm probably way better than you and if you saw me you'd be like oh she's really good but like I'm not as good as people I know does that make sense no that makes sense well I my ski I went when I was in high school once and it was fun but like I feel like I hate to be like paranoid and sound like this but I I feel like I I I'm just like most likely person to get hurt on a ski slope and and so many people have knee problems on them so I uh I'm I'm retired I'm GNA say yeah you'll op pre at the at the base no do you snowboard too or just I snowboard yeah okay I actually I say skiing but I'm really a snowboarder okay I I can ski I grew up skiing and then I switched to snowboarding in high school um so I can do both now I'm a much better snowboarder than I am a skier but I say skiing still okay well that's awesome you get to do that every every winter and so you grew up doing the Red Rocks deal that's uh God I'm jealous of that I mean I try to go as much as I can I just went a couple weeks ago still still awesome just Summers Red Rocks is the best like that Vibe at Red Rock so it's like these shows will start when it's daylight still and then when it switches T night and like the energy changes it's like magical I don't know it's magical and the way that the light reflects off the rocks and just I mean it's a natural Ampitheater it's it's so great um and it's my favorite place to watch a show ever but can I tell you something I don't know if you saw on Instagram but I recently was in Jackson Hall okay and I went to The Venue at the top of snow King Mountain in Jackson it is amazing so you're up there on the top of a mountain so like for those not familiar with Jackson Hole the town is actually called Jackson Wyoming it it gets called Jackson Hole because that's the name of the ski resort but the Jackson The Jackson hle ski resort is about 10 15 minutes out of the town of Jackson in the town of Jackson there is a smaller ski resort called snow king So at the top of snow King in Jackson there they they've built this music venue in the summer and you you're up there and like your view is of the Tetons and it is oh my gosh it's amazing I just saw Portugal demand there string cheese was there a couple weeks ago that was how I found it I didn't even know about it but then I I followed cheese on Instagram and they were posting about I was like where is this place I need to go and then I was I realized I was going to be in Wyoming Portugal the man was going to be there I was like sign me up I'll go I I love a good outdoor music venue especially with the mountains I mean that is my like Zen I I've never not been peaceful in a good music venue in the mountains yeah so it's like the summertime you did the music in the mountains and you do skiing in the winter and then you can't doesn't suck no can't beat it and so rest of the year so C obviously real busy with the Cubs shout out by the way on the Cubs front Marty mush one of our own through the first pitcher igly field yeah yesterday I saw okay strike I his pitch Justin steel and him have a podcast up here up up to uh together but I mean that's pretty damn cool throwing the first pitch of regly field I saw Marty in here yesterday I was like man's go like that is wild that's big time I know that's crazy so good for Marty on that front always amazes me some of the stuff the bartool can you would you throw a strike yes I've thrown a couple first pitches but it hadn't been at Wrigley Field uh I threw where' I throw one I threw one at I threw one at a Bas college baseball game in Louisiana I threw one more that I threw a strike I can't remember where gosh I've done a couple of them it's like a lob though like it isn't a direct strike like I I could play I was actually good at pretty good at tennis but I think it kind of like messed up my rotator C where I kind of like feels weird you got to warm up can't forget to warm up no that's so what's okay I'm trying to think so you've got to do so much you've mentioned your favorite places like is there the Florida Florida State when do you have any like particular you mention Florida Florida State you mentioned theight Game of Death fou do you have any like particular like favorite games or twos you've call you've gotten to call oh I did the cotton bow um wi to l oh wow and they came back against kale Williams against yeah against USC and like that was insane because you know to just to recap Kaya Williams had just won the Heisman they were up big they were up big and it was like at the beginning of that game you're thinking Here Comes USC not only in this game but like in the scope of college football like they were kind of right a high they just missed the playoffs missed the playoffs and it was sort of like okay you know they're climbing and this is like go time for SC and then it was like tan starts to come back and again I had done a couple Tulane games that year so I was familiar with Michael Pratt and that offense and Willie Fritz's creativity and I was like oh oh boy like I've seen this script before and I think this could you know end in L's favor and then they just kept rolling rolling rolling and then they won and so that was a really that was a thrilling game that was a thrilling game um I I enjoyed that I mean any of those big bowl games are fun just because yeah they they feel like a big deal and when you're at AT&T Stadium and like they get good crowds too so um that was really fun I also did the cotton bow this year with Ohio state Missouri low scoring game but big win for Missouri yeah and it was like who's going to play quarterback for Ohio State in the second quarter I I mean I might get called in at this point because the the of the injuries and the transfer portal that was uh a little crazy but still still a fun game um I'm trying to think obviously having gone to Arkansas anytime I get the chance to call a Razorback game is pretty special for me yeah you still have a lot of friends in that area totally yeah and i' so I've actually not been able to do a game in fville yet I've only had them on the road so I'm hopeful that you know soon I'll get to do a game in fville I did Arkansas at Florida this year and my dad had coached at Florida in the early 90s and then I went to Arkansas so like those were two of the SEC schools I grew up cheering for so it was kind of like yeah it was really special for me because I had connections to both of those schools um to be able to do to do that game was special and it it I can't remember if it was first I think it was one overtime um it was either like the end of the fourth quarter one overtime it was like a nailbiter down to the end which was fun um so yeah like college football is just the best is that I mean you obviously love it all I guess it's got to be different like pro baseball is great but it's just there's so many games It's So Different yeah and I would say for me one of the things I've really enjoyed about baseball is like kind of nerding out and really diving into the information and challenging myself to try to grasp all of the information that's available to you and like trying to dissect teams in different ways football's just not as much of a numbers sport like the numbers don't tell the story the way they do in baseball um and so yeah I've just enjoyed that aspect of baseball it it's cool too being with one team because you build real relationships with guys um whether that's the players coaches I mean even the other broadcasters you're just around so much so so you you kind of ride the ups and downs of a season with a group which is which is rewarding and special football's different just because you're diving into two new teams basically every week um so the relationships you build just aren't as strong because you don't see them as much um but yeah it's a different team every week yeah but like the atmosphere of a game day in the south is unmatched and a lot of that has to do with you know you're only going to get five six home games and so like they're just built up to be these enormous events you have any particular favorite Cubs players coaches anything like that I mean I'm sure you get along with all of them but yeah I mean I would say like the co coaches that come to mind right now like I had a great talk with Mike Napoli the other day Willie Harris is awesome Ryan fl's been great I I Tommy of like honestly all of them have um been really great to me um we have a great group of guys in the clubhouse too like they've all just been um really receptive to me and and I would say like to our media in general like we have a we have a good group of guys who who get it and it's been it's been fun to cover unfortunately the year hasn't gone the way that um people would have hoped but hopefully you know still 60 games around yeah yeah now there was a lot of hype when Craig Council came over before this year but yeah still still plenty of baseball out uh I know I'm going to the Cubs Friday 120 game against the Blue Jays in a few weeks oh nice yeah we got we got a big crew coming up here we're doing like our big Fantasy Football Draft weekend heck yeah so I'm super excited about that uh yeah are you in the draft we we do an auction draft so we do like an auction so it's like everybody gets an amount of money and we but but it's been going on for 21 years so fun yeah so doing that and then I'm just wait did you see did you see the guy the other day at Wrigley it was on Saturday it was a game so I wasn't working but um there was a guy dressed up as a clown because he had lost his famous football game he had some sign on like I'm an idiot at Fantasy Football or something but what's the best thing you've had to do or make somebody do for losing fantasy football I I'm not sure I'm me but I saw a guy at Wrigley in Wrigleyville the other night that was a butler dressed up in a tux going around serving everyone I was like what the hell are you doing he's like I got last in my fancy last year and so I thought that was pretty uh pretty good my friends made the loser take the ACT oh wow and that was pretty funny like just envisioning her walking into a classroom full of like 17y olds and taking the test did did they take it seriously I don't think so because and I don't actually scor yeah in like a lot long time time commitment I'm I'm currently doing uh we have a MSY Madison project going where I'm having to pass kindergarten through 12th grade right now to prove that I'm not a fool and uh how was I going uh we I passed second grade the other day they made me do an ice cream shop and count exact change and uh it was quite a scene out here uh last week the ice cream's like melting the money's like flying everywhere my my thing I learned that day was uh if if I walk in an ice cream shop you're getting a big tip from now on that's for sure yeah that was my lesson people the tips yeah yeah got to spread Joy you know Spread spread the joy spread the joy also coffee ice cream I'm fan huge fan yeah that's by far my favorite type of ice cream yeah I love the coffee and then my name's sake the mint chocolate chip you got got got to go with you got it got to go with the mint's name have to what so rest of the summer you're just obviously Cubs getting ready for football season up so I have some exciting things coming up actually um you were just some you were just in Colorado yeah I was in Jackson and then uh Colorado we my family does a yearly camping trip so that was really fun was up there um I am going to our college football seminar in a couple weeks which super pumped about that it's always kind of you know the kick start to college football and then I'm going to Costa Rica really for a bachelorette trip pure let's go yeah so that's going to be a lot of fun then I go back to Colorado for a wedding so my my August is I'm not like I'm taking some time off going to do some fun things and uh kind of gear up for for college football so how do you manage September with football and baseball yeah it's a it's just work every day basically but it it's it's fun I mean honestly it's not that hard like I would say the most challenging part is scheduling calls and zoom calls because so we have our our weekly Zoom calls with our crew but then as the reporter I set up calls with players on both of the teams I cover and usually I talk to about four players from each team so that's eight phone calls throughout the course of a week that you have to schedule and you often times the players want to talk after class after practice in the evening well that's when I'm working okay I'm doing Cubs games so like that that part can be tough just like I mean I'm usually like at Wrigley talking to you know Matt carral from M Miss like hey you know tell me about this why like typing on my computer so um just kind of scheduling that is is the most challenging part but I tell people I it doesn't feel like work to me because I love it so much so I feel fortunate well it's one if you love what you do you never work a day in your life saying no that's cool you love what you do too oh absolutely yeah I get to be myself before we were on the air he was showing me on the office yeah what you think your first time in the BARC office what you think no it was so cool and like the the fullon basketball court out there Brandon Walker was getting his steps in yeah Brandon Walker up here exercising people getting on him he's saying he's trying to get he is he was exercising I could test um and then like you're like oh yeah I just sit on the couch here and hang out with these people and I'm like what a gig yeah it's a great gig it is awesome I mean this is the Fantasy Factory office I'm very lucky to be part of it it's uh super cool like the bar store momentum in Chicago you know it's it's it's been the right move it's it's all super positive well I just as always just want to say thank you uh any final parting shots anything you want to leave stoies with well um maybe Brandon Walker and I should you know have a friendly um bet on Arkansas Mississippi State yeah like who's gonna have a better season I think I'm gonna go Arkansas okay Brandon Brandon you hear that just calling you out some marketas Mississippi State man and maybe I will be fortunate enough to do the Arkansas Old Miss game and then we'll see okay if you do that I'll try to make it how about that I need to I still need to make Fable I know I'm I've got LSU and Baton Rouge October 12th on my calendar and I think I'm doing the Black Friday egg ball nice that's going to be a big that's gonna be a fun one yeah I like that they moved it off Thanksgiving thank God I didn't like that yeah yeah I agree I was actually looking at the schedule the other day and like I always look at games that I could potentially call and like they're it's stacked Texas Texas A&M it's going to be fun it's it's going be a t of fun football season coming and I need a new sweater because this is the old 14 teams but uh we you know we added in the SEC next time you see me hopefully I have a new uh Southeastern Conference sweater there you go there you go well as always big shout out to Tyler Moody holding down the fort in Louisiana love having Taylor in here thank you for coming in McGregor yeah follow her on Twitter and Instagram at Taylor McGregor you can see her on the Cubs reporting all the Cubs games and on the college football Sidelines all fall uh tomorrow another Big Show planned we got a bunch of stuff going on this week I want to mention before I get out of here the rat race Premiere join us tomorrow night at the bar sto bar River North got the rat race Premiere 7 o'clock we got a whole crew of us that are involved in the show going to be there so come see us at sto River North uh really looking forward to that and you know as always tons of stuff going on at bar stol I got another big gu tomorrow four w a MTI I'll be putting that out here in a minute Taylor thank you so much I know you got a busy day Tyler Moody shout out dude white Stella Blue y'all are all great we'll see you guys tomorrow I'll wake up MSY bye everybody oh that was so e e