Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Geoff Buchholz breaks down latest on talks between Gov. Pritzker, Bears (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

In the third hour, Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed a variety of sports topics in the 5 On It segment. After that, WBBM political editor Geoff Buchholz joined the show to share the latest on the talks between Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the Bears regarding a new stadium.

The score. This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. Wow. It's time for five on it. Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score.

I got five. Got six. Number one. Sports business expert Mark Addis joined David Haw and Ruthie Polinski here on 104-3 the score this morning to discuss the latest on the bear's push to build a new What did all of the developments yesterday do to the chances of the Bears building a stadium in Arlington Heights? I think it enhanced the chances. And the reason why is if that was not, yesterday it should have been a massive wake-up call for the legislators in Springfield.

Stop playing around. Stop three years of, oh, it's not a priority. Oh, well, you have to focus on Chicago. Oh, Howard Street is actually the demilitarized zone. and it's good South Korea versus bad north suburbs. All of that needs to be in the past. And if they don't wake up from that, then they will go to Indiana.

But I do not think they will stay asleep. I think Governor Pritzker is on top of this now. Over the last few weeks, since around Christmas, I've started seeing the kind of machinations in Springfield that typically leads to a deal getting done. It's been recent. Unfortunately, they should have done this a long time ago, but it's not too late. And I do believe that it will turn out to be the wake-up call. Now, if they don't wake up, Hamon, Indiana is where they're going.

But I do believe they will wake up. Sports business expert Mark Gannis with David Haw and Ruthie Pallinsky here on 104-3, the score earlier this morning. Do you agree with Gannis? Yes, and I haven't always agreed with Gannis, which is why I think when he's saying it, then that lends a lot of credibility to the fact that this is about leverage. Like, that's my concern the whole time. And that's why I'm like, hey, you'd better not waste the state of Indiana's time and money here. You know, if you really want to do this, then go ahead and put forth a real proposal.

And when we found out from the Hammond mayor that there was not yet any set location, even though the vicinity is agreed upon in Wolf Lake, then that's not enough. So I feel like this was some sort of leverage play for lack of a better term. I agree with Gannis because he hasn't always been on that page. Man, listen, that news yesterday and the way it came down and the way Indiana came to play ball and the way the Bears issued their statement, it served as a nitro. If you play video games, you know you hit the nitro and your car goes really fast after going regular. Fast and nefarious?

Yes. It's served as an espresso. It served as bounty. You know, the quicker picker upper. It's served as a laxative. Just get is done. That's what it served as. And now,

now everybody understands, there's not going to be, as Mark Gannis pointed out, there's not going to be this arguing, oh, put it on the old Michael Reese. No, no, it's Arlington Heights, or we leave and we go to Indiana,

get it together if you want to keep it in Illinois. I think the message is clear. It is firm. and I think everyone understands in Illinois, including the Bears, doesn't have to be the best offer. It just can't be ridiculous in their eyes. Now, what is ridiculous in their eyes? I don't know.

But Indiana is going to offer the best package, and it's out there, and it's looming. And next week it's probably getting signed into a bill in some shape, form, or fashion. But now Illinois knows they are officially on the clock. I don't know if it necessarily enhanced Arlington Heights's chances, but what is dramatic as the release

looked yesterday, part of the release was the due diligence part in Indiana, which needs to be, should be exactly interpreted as Arlington Heights has time right now. So I guess if you believe the time that the state of Illinois has

means that they have a better chance now of getting the bears to build there, then yes, that would be the case. Illinois has time right now to get to catch up and get things done in expedited fashion, but if they don't get it done in expedited fashion, if they lollygag,

then they're going to lose the stadium to Indiana. And you nailed it to, Marshall. The people that I spoke to confirm exactly what you just said, and that is if both proposals are equal, even if Arlington Heights is lesser. The state of Illinois is a little bit lesser. The benefit of the doubt will go to the stadium, which has been purchased.

That would be in Arlington Heights. on it. Number two. The Bears have released veteran linebacker, Amen Ogbong, Bomega. Who's next? What? I'm worried it's,

it's Tremaine Edmonds because of the cap hit that the Bears would take, which is a little over two million. It's just about two and a half based on the cap hit that he would have if he were playing, which is much higher.

So because of that, I feel like it just might be Tremaine Edmonds, and it stinks. And if you look at the stats, even though he was on injured reserve, he was the Bears most productive linebacker last year. And that's what makes this hard to deal with.

But given the fact that it seems like it's inevitable, I feel like linebackers on teams come and go. And it's a shame that perhaps his truest year to himself was this past one. But it just makes me worry because T.J. Edwards isn't healthy yet. So that leaves a big space, but I think they might look at the number and say it's one that they can't refuse. Grotes, I see you nodding. Of course, Tremaine Edmins is like top of the heap just because of the $15 million cap savings.

But I guess what I was going through my head, Layla, and then you noticed on my face is I'm also thinking about Cole Komet. I don't like thinking about that. But Cole Kemet. He's a friend of the Take the North Podcast. He's a friend of the Take the North Podcast. He's a friend of the score. He was here for FM Day. He's a friend of Chicago.

He really is. It's not just that, but you'd save $8.4 million of cap space if Cole Comette was to be released. And then, you know, D'Andre Swift, right, just right behind Commet in that regard. 7.47 million and a 1.333. cap hit as well, or of dead money. Dead cap, yeah. You're a cap hit when you're there. You're a dead cap when you're not.

And that's really brutal language. It is. It really is. Factual language. It's no longer there. You're dead to me, at least. And I think here's why I think Colquemette, I'm a little bit more hopeful that he sticks around

because of the way his contract doesn't end after this following season. I think he's more in line because he's only 26 years old. He'll be 27 next season. Because everything's two tight ends, and he may be three tight ends. And I think he played very well.

You could argue he had his best season as a bear last year. I want to say the restructure might be the way to go with Colquamette. Add some years to that contract to get him through his age 30 year, and you're getting a good chunk. He's good for the room.

I think Titan is valuable enough and knowing you've got a rookie right now and Colston Loveland playing alongside, that duo can do do damage in coming years. I think it is Tremaine Edmonds. It might be Tremaine Edmonds and it might be Tremaine Edmonds and it might be somebody else too. You could look at the running back situation with DeAndra Swift. It might be both those guys in what order I could not tell you, but Tremaine Edmonds to me sticks out like a sore thumb in this discussion. Can I illustrate Colquette's season in one play? Sure. Don't you think it was the one where he was supposed to block on the two-point conversion And then he fell down and he was like, oh, and then he ran into the end zone and then got clocked as he was catching the ball for another op.

And then I was worried about his head. And then he got back up and he was fine. That was Cole commence 20-25 season. And then there was that one catch in the back corner of the end zone thrown 51 yards in the air by Caleb Williams. Swing the bat. Swing the bat. He's baseball player. Every time I think of the swing the bat for some.

It's the Stacey Dale's angle that was so good. But yeah, Cole was such a huge part of the line block. I think it'd be tough to lose Colquette, like, on a lot of levels. I don't like it. We'll see. We'll see. Number three. This is five out of nine, 104-3, the score with Lailorheamy, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody.

Here is question number three. Bullsguard Jaden Ivy was a healthy scratch for last night's game against the Raptors. Acting Bulls head coach Wes Unsell Jr. was asked about Ivy being the odd man out. Strictly a basketball decision. It's really tough to play six guards. We played five guys, and I wanted to push to see if I could get Josh and Trey, you know, their minutes up. We had to be mindful, of course, the stretches. We got them to a place where I think we were comfortable, you know, given, you know, where they've been.

And in doing that, you know, somebody got squeezed. That is Bulls acting head coach, Wes Unsell Jr. What do you make of the way the Bulls handled the roster last yesterday? Let me give you some Jaden Ivy quotes to set up my answer to this question. because this man in post game, if you don't follow Joel Lorenzi, if you don't subscribe to the Athletic, you are missing out because his article in the athletic

about this situation, he got a D&P coach's decision for a Bulls team that I was told was trying to figure out if Jaden Ivy fit alongside Josh Kitty, Modis Bezellis, yesterday would have been the first opportunity for those three guys to play together.

He did not. And so to understand after the game, he was saying, things like, I don't think it changes my character. When lose or draw, I'm here to do my job, glorify God. I don't really think that it affects me that much as far as not playing. I know that's why you guys are asking me these questions because you think it affects me. And then he says, whenever coach needs me and calls my name, I'll be out there and be able to play. But I'm going into it, obviously getting traded. That's what happens in the NBA. And this is the final one. I don't

really trust the NBA setting, Ivy said, asking if his impending restrictive free agency impacts his approach to all this. I trust the Lord. And you know what? If you're on the Bulls right now, you better have some faith in a higher power. Because the Bulls don't have a plan as far as I can tell, because they didn't do exactly what they were supposed to do when these other guys came back in Trey Jones and Josh Gideon,

Jalen Smith, and Isaac Coro. And right now, it is maddening to watch what they said not become reality at the first chance they got. and J.D. Ivey doesn't need any more DMPs. Colin Sexton, if anyone does not fit the timetable, he should be the one on the bench and out of the rotation. Isn't Jaden Ivy the one dude we all think the bulls should keep out of the trade deadline acquisition? Seems like there's the potential there.

Right. Like the age lines up with their timeline. The shock creation lines up with what they need offensively. And in the search for nine or ten good players, Jaden Ivy fits the bill. And he fits the profile that Josh Giddy had where he just got squeezed out of minutes on a good team where they had other people playing. Like that's what's frustrating. Do you really want to make that guy mad?

But at the same time, Wes Ensel Jr. said the obvious part out loud. It is hard to play six guards. What are you supposed to do? Is this an audition process for all these players that they just acquired? I feel like in a way it is because somebody's going to have an expiring deal

that could get renewed with the Bulls most likely. So I don't hate the process of understanding ending, there are certain guys you have to sit. There are certain guys that you have to figure out what combination works best. Arturis, Carter-Shovis alluded to that. I don't know who in the post game, though. I don't know who started the question with. I know Arturis's priorities may be different from your priorities,

but that had me howling. Speaking volumes, right? Howling. So does this bring up the six guards and Wes Anseld Jr. Is he doing the angry Billy Donovan too now? Do you people understand what it's like? to have six guards that I got to get in. Do you understand what I'm going through with a team that hasn't practiced together?

Do you understand? I don't know what to do with all these second round picks. Do you get where I'm coming from? The only thing I'll add right here is that the Bulls have now lost seven straight games. They play the mighty Detroit Pistons, and I don't say that ironically. They're a really good team at 40 and 30. So we're looking at. Just blew out the Knicks.

Yeah, just blew out the Knicks. We're looking at eight straight. I don't know if you guys caught this because I'll admit, like, I had the Bulls game on for the entire game. but mostly background. I was getting all sorts of good stuff done last night. While the Bulls game was on, it got good in the end, and it was sick to watch,

hate to say it, that shot by Brandon Ingram was pretty sick, that ultimately was the dagger in the game. But Patrick Williams was discussed. Casey Johnson had a report. Great report by Casey Johnson saying that Patrick Williams wants to be more of a vocal leader. I didn't know what to do with that.

Oh, you do you? You want to be more of a vocal leader now? I just thought that that was hilarious. He closed out on an open quarter three on the next possession, and they didn't get it. Six points and seven rebounds for Pat. Isn't that cute? He wants to be a vocal leader. In 27 minutes, in 27 minutes he had the six points that you're talking about.

Last thing I'll say on this. Yes. It might be, I'm not putting this past the Bulls. Are they sandbagging Jaden Ivy to make sure that his restrictive free agent contract doesn't get to a certain level because, well, you won't have done anything. That's so Cubs. That's so Chris Bryant. You film me on that, though, right?

Oh, that's a dark timeline. Who knows? Number four. It's a big day here on 104-3, the score because it's our first chance to hear Cubs baseball in crystal clear FM quality. It's major. That's major. So here's the question.

Who's your pick to click in this afternoon spring training opener between the Cubs and White Sox? Well, well, well, we got ourselves a lineup for both teams, by the way. So it's Jonathan Long, Alex Bregman, San Joseoki, Miguel and Maya. Then you have Dylan Carlson, who is in Rightfield. Additionally, Chas McCormick has made an entrance into this game. Pedro Ramirez for the Cubs. And you also have Scott Kingery.

He's playing shortstop. He is batting ninth. B.J. Murray is batting eighth. How about that? Well, okay, I'm going to get weird, Scott Kingery. Because I feel like he's our new gauge tater workman. I thought you said he couldn't be. He couldn't be.

I still want to give him recognition. So Scott Kingery, congratulations. You're my pick-to-click. Well done. Mind simple. Look at the cleanup spot in the White Sox lineup. Monitaka Murakami. Batting forth and playing first base.

Turn that man loose and watch him do work. Moonshots. I'm calling it. We want lots of moon shots. Let me tell you about my technical. click. I think you mentioned him and Jonathan Long. Drafted by the Cubs in the ninth round of the

2023 MLB June amateur draft. If there was ever a time to pick Jonathan Long to be your pick to click, this would be it. It might be the only time. Yes. Because there's got to be a name that we don't know now like Gage Tater Workman. That's it? That comes out of

this thing big. So don't overthink it. Raising eyebrows. With your mutatakas and all that. I mean, that's easy pickings. Well, that's what everybody's going to say because he's the new guy and he's the slugger. There's three of us. Only one of us said it. The man brought a bidet to the White Sox Clubhouse.

How could you not be excited about it? I didn't mean Arsh. I heard them talking about it too on Mullen and Hodge. Oh, yeah. I'm Mully and them? Mully and them boys. That's right. He's not Mully and them boys.

Mully and them. Number five. Five on it on 104.3, the score. What's your favorite part of spring training? Okay. So I've been to spring training in both Florida and in Arizona. And covering spring training is fun because you get to know the players. And you actually put in the time.

And so it's a good thing that's considerate throughout the season because they know you put in the time at spring training to talk to them and get to know who they are. That's great. Knowing about baseball is fun. But that's not my favorite part. My favorite part is watching games and inevitably seeing who fell asleep on the berm. Somebody's always asleep on the grass.

Oh, you're right. Always. And the best part is always watching the TV crew pick out who it is. Because here's the thing. The camera people at games, they see everything. The production truck knows all. They are your equal eyes. And they always pay attention to that type of stuff.

So I enjoy literally catching people sleeping. Not just in the metaphorical way, but actually seeing people who are so enjoying themselves that they fall asleep in the sunshine. I was debating between all the experiences I've had and more than, a decade and a half of covering spring training. And I got to tell you all, it's either the time where I got my company vehicle towed

in Bradenton, Florida, while covering the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the day. This is so long ago, this is when Jason Bay was an all-star for the pirates, just to give you some... Hello, Jason Bay. Yes. And then I ultimately said, no, it's definitely that one time. The spring before COVID, not the spring

where it got interrupted, but the spring before, so I guess that would be 20 2019, right? Or 2020? 2020. Yeah, 2020. Okay.

So. No, I got interrupted in March of 2020. So it was 2019. So 2019, I'm covering the giant spring training when I was working in Sacramento. They put us in this resort like a few blocks away from where the Giants play. I don't know if you know where their base is. It's in Scottsdale. And Scott's still.

Let me tell you something. I hadn't been there in a while. When I say it's a party, nonstop. Hardy. I had such a good time in Scottsdale with friends from the area, made some new friends. Look, the best part about spring training is the spring brightness of it all, because that's what it feels like when you're not there there, when you're just there for a limited time, a couple of weeks or maybe a week. Yeah. Well, I'll follow, and I know we've got to go quickly here, but I'll follow right. It just follows up with what you just said, and I just scratched it down. Your day is done basically at 1 p.m. Yes. So you have the rest of the – now you have your responsibilities for your respective radio station or TV station.

But the day is done, and you're in Arizona, and you're in a cool place, and life is good. So I love that part covering spring training. The one experience that I had that was hilarious was way back in the day. This was when Mike Quadi, former Cubs manager, was a third base coach – and really bad manager for the Cubs, by the way. But he was a third base coach. The White Sox trained in Tucson then. I have family in Tucson.

So I go to Tucson every year of my life, basically. And we went to a Cubs Sox game in Tucson, and my cousins were younger cousins, were taunting my Quadi the whole time. And Quadi, because you can have conversations in the stands with players. And they can hear you. They can hear everything. And Quadi, to his credit, played along and shot back at my immature at the time, cousins. What do you say?

Yeah. I mean, I don't remember exactly like he would just challenge that. What the hell are you talking about? What are you doing? What are you? I should have wave that guy home? what are you talking about? Why do you want to wait?

Like he would actually like, and my cousins were just looking for reasons to nitpick this guy. Like, you know, there were beers involved, but they had a whole system. The Arizona natives did my cousins. Shout out to my Arizona cousins. Now I'm laughing because there was the day we just decided to name a bunch of managers on the Cubs and I forget why. Did you forget Qaddy?

No, you mentioned him immediately that I countered with Dale Swain, but I have no idea why we were mentioning them names. Yeah. It gets pretty muddy with some of the managers with the Chicago Cubs for a period of time. And then there's the College of Coaches. Okay, so anyway, we have more coming up. The latest on the Bears Stadium discussions. And we decided to call in the big guns.

WBBM News Radio political editor, Jeff Buckholtz, joins us next. Rahimi Harris and Grody, Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. Warren chose not to be in that meeting. And indeed, they had instead one of their other leads who's been in every conversation with us as well. She's a terrific representative for them. And, you know, we trust her. And we had eight people in that discussion involving the legislators, involving the governor's office, involving the bears and their representatives.

And so, again, lots of progress, but a surprise this morning to wake up and see that statement. That was J.B. Pritzker. after the Bears decided to postpone their meeting with the ILGA regarding an infrastructure bill for Arlington Heights. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. And we go out to our hotline. That is where we find WBBM News Radio political editor Jeff Buckholtz, who is right now joining us from Oak Park, where an event held by the governor just wrapped up. Hi, Jeff.

Hey, Layla, how's it going today? Good to be with you here. We appreciate having you on. What is the latest from what you observed? Because we understand J.B. Pritzker did speak about this issue today. Yeah, he did. He was here at Oak Park and River Forest High School talking about a legislative initiative he has about cell phones and schools. But, of course, reporters can't be stopped if they have a question they need to get to him. And today, the question really was about the Chicago Bears and the status of negotiations there.

The governor told us that indeed there have been conversations back and forth at sort of a high staff level between the Bears and the Governor's people. And a lot of those conversations have been apparently sort of walking back that statement that the governor has talked about. He first mentioned it yesterday when he was with reporters down in Collinsville. The statement from the Bears that talked about how the proposal that passed the House committee yesterday setting up the stadium authority was like the most significant development in their search for a new stadium and they were committing to finish and due diligence. The governor, as you heard yesterday, and he said it again a little bit today. His nose was a little bit of joint that the Bears statement would have talked effusively about Indiana and the work that's been done there but said nothing about the three. hours of talks that they engaged in in Illinois, and the fact that the Bears asked the Illinois leaders to put off consideration of the property tax measure that the Bears say they need for

the Arlington Heights property. A lot of the conversations today, according to the governor, over the last 24 hours, have been the Bears saying, well, we didn't mean that we're moving to Indiana, and we really only did that, we only put that statement out to mollify, was the word the governor used, the state of Indiana, which has made noises that they didn't really want to move forward with this unless they got some kind of a commitment from the Bears organization, and that statement apparently represented that. So I guess a lot of the conversation has been happening now was, well, what we really meant was blank, and what we really didn't mean to suggest that we're moving to Indiana or whatever. And the governor, again, repeated that, you know,

he's willing to help with infrastructure and he's not opposed to the, it's called the pilot bill, the payment in lieu of taxes bill. This would let the bears lock in long-term property tax rates for Arlington Park to head off what some estimates suggest would be a property tax bill on that property of between $100 and $200 million, but that the state is really not going to spend money on a new stadium for the Bears. and also said that the bears should consider affordability as they think about their ask, because, as the governor pointed out, a lot of people can't afford to attend to bears. Okay, so Jeff, just to make this clear, when you say Molify, you mean appease.

So the bears made that statement to appease the work that they had done with Indiana, and they're walking it back when it came to the statement that they issued yesterday? I can't, I mean, I suppose if I had a dictionary in front of me, Lela, I would be able to sort of parse the difference between peas and mollify. I'm going to stick with mollify because that's the word the governor used, and I don't want to, like, put words in his mouth. But he certainly is creating the impression or is telling us that, at least privately, the bears have been trying to soften the statement that they made,

which I would admit is, you know, is probably, there are gaps in that statement from the bears that are probably big enough to get Cole commit through if you work hard enough. But thank you. I've been working on that. That's good. But it seems as though what the governor is trying to communicate is the bears haven't packed. And there isn't, at least at this moment as of, you know, what time is it as of 1234 in the afternoon on Friday the 20th of February. There's not some, like, you know, late-night move like the Colts out of Baltimore to try to, you know, scurry across the state line.

So, I mean, we'll see. We haven't heard independently from the Bears about that. And so it remains to be seen whether they're genuinely going to walk that back, although I don't believe, and I haven't checked my inbox recently. I don't believe that bears have issued any additional statements beyond what they said yesterday. They have not, to our knowledge again. that's Jeff Buckholz. He's the WBVM News Radio Political Editor, just getting done with an event this morning in Oak Park, where Governor J.B. Pritzker spoke and talked about mollifying.

Let me give you the definition of mollify. Apease the anger or anxiety of someone. I'm just giving you this straight off. That's the Dictionary.com edition. So appeasing is there, and it's when you know someone's upset, you try to get them back to where you want them to be back on the rails, if you will. And I get it because the bears are clearly playing both sides of this. They're playing Indiana and Illinois, and I would argue they're playing Indiana to get the best offer they can from Illinois, because I think their intention is still to build in Arlington Heights.

I get all that. My question for you is, having monitored this situation, do you feel like Governor Pritzker understands that this is all just part of negotiation? Or are they indeed taking any of this personally when I say the governor and also the representatives from around the state as they deal with this issue of trying to keep the bears in Illinois? I asked the governor today if he felt the bears were negotiating in bad faith, because you're absolutely right. They are playing mom against dad here, and I'll let you all decide who's who in this scenario. But they are definitely playing the parents against one another in terms of how to get the best deal. And the bears, you know, we talk about the, you know, the connection of the bears to the Chicago area and certainly the McCaskey family has deep roots here. The fact is the bears are a business.

They are, as the governor pointed out today, a $9 billion business. So clearly they're going to operate in what they believe to be their best interest. And when I asked the governor if he felt like the bears were operating in bad faith, he said, look, negotiations are hard. Sometimes these things happen, or people say things, and then you end up kind of walking them back. And, you know, I think we're still committed to getting it done. We still think Illinois is the best place for the Bears. And he said this yesterday, and he said it again today.

we are waiting to hear what the bears would like to do now. So it's very much in their, you know, sort of in their purview right now in terms of what happens from here. Makes sense. Jeff, I just want to use the word mollify too, since both my partners did. I want to make sure that I was able to use that word as well. It's very midday show. Nice work, Grody. I appreciate that.

Drawing on your political knowledge, I asked this. question out loud earlier, because I don't know the answer to it. We all know, obviously, some of this is a public relations game for Governor Pritzker. So I'll just ask the question, what is worse for the governor now and for potentially other political ambitions? What would be worse for him? The tax payers having to pay more or losing the Chicago Bears to the state of Indiana. I believe you are referring, Grody, to the widely held belief that Governor Pritzker is going to seek an office other than the governorship of Illinois. That would be correct, to mollified my statement. Yes, that would be correct. Good job. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So the,

and that's an excellent question, and believe me, there's been tons of speculation about that. my personal feeling is that people hate taxes but they love football more so i think the um i do think that it would be difficult for j b pritzker to seek a higher office or certainly he would have to have a way to explain in a run for higher office why he was the governor who let the chicago bears the chicago illinois bears as he described it uh go to Indiana. On the other hand, our colleague Brandon Eisen was out in the loop yesterday talking to people about what he thought about,

or what they thought about a potential move to Indiana. And most of the people that Brandon heard from kind of pinned it on the bears. It remains to be seen if indeed the bears end up highing to Hammond. It remains to be seen how much blame the state's, takes for that. I mean, some people, a lot of the people I talk to seem to think that Pritzker would definitely wear the, you know, the satin bears jacket for this one. But I have a feeling that the bears come off not looking great to the fans. And surely the McCaskey family, which is, I mean, they're smart people. Otherwise, you know, they wouldn't have gotten the success, the business

success that they have out of this team. Certainly the McCaskey family is aware of the risk involved here. And I do think that it would be something that the governor would have to explain, but I also think there's a lane for the governor if it gets to that point to say, look, we had a limit to what we were willing to do. This is a hard time in the economy right now. A lot of people in the state of Illinois are hurting. The bears wanted too much from us. Go enjoy Wolf Lake. Wow. Well, we appreciate your time. And thank you for doing so, Jeff. This has been very informative, as usual, and we all learned a new word today. If that's what I bring to the folks at 104-3, the score, I'm happy to help.

Hey, we're just trying to live in the FM world like you guys have been for years. We're new at this, so we don't understand your world. You used to do reports for them on FM. Oh, that's right. I did do sports updates over there. I believe it was when Jeff was at the producer desk. By the way, you're awesome, man. Your reporting is terrific, and you're so good at rip. Like, you were an awesome producer.

and now like you are spectacular at what you do. You sound great and I love the information. Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate that, brother. Thank you so much. I'm just trying to be the politics to English translator. And any day I can do that is a good day. Well, you did it today for us, Jeff.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Jeff. You can hear the latest on our sister station, WBBM, of course. Jeff is the WBBM News Radio political editor, kind enough to take some time to tell us the latest. and now our show is brought to you by the word mollify. Yeah, to be clear, I want to make sure everyone, I didn't know what mollify went meant. I just wanted to. Oh, did somebody come at you?

No, I didn't know. I said appease, and then he said, well, I don't know, you know, mollified appease are two different words. And then Marshall busted out dictionary.com. No, I just want to make sure people understood. And I understood where Jeff was coming from in this world, man. Like, if he uses, if the governor uses the word mollified, don't use the word appease. It is where this is a mollify.

situation. Well, previously the report said, Indiana asked the bears to say that. So that's even more pointed. But either way, I don't know how you don't look at this and think that sounds like a walkback. I don't know that it's a walkback. I think they're just negotiating with Indiana and they're negotiating with Illinois and they're doing what it takes to keep both parties heavily interested. You're talking about the bears walking back their statement from yesterday? Laila, is that what you It sounds like you're having to soften the effects of that statement quite a bit. Well, but the second sentence of the press conference talks about doing the due diligence, and they had to clarify that.

Yeah, and I didn't even think it needed clarification. I was like, I think the due diligence is letting them have the breathing room to be able to like, hey, yeah, your friend did see me on a date with another girl because we're not exclusive yet. Right, that is the correct interpretation, the interpretation that Illinois wanted, or that the bears, excuse me, wanted to have out there was, you've still got time. The bears are dating, and they're not even in the exclusive relationship, but people are acting like somebody's already put a ring on someone's fingers.

Because somebody bought a ring. You buy the land. The ring is there, but no one's been, the ring has not been given to anyone. Before we get into extended metaphor, talk. Where's all my single ladies? All the single ladies, all the single ladies. Put a ring on it. Craig Counsel talked about Pekro Armstrong to our

afternoon show ahead of this Cubs game we've got in just over an hour right here on the score. So let's listen to what he had to say next. Rahimi Harris and Grody Midday's tidal two on Chicago Sports Radio. That is thanks to 104 through the score. This is Rahimi Harris and Grody. We're still not used to saying that yet and we have a game coming up. Today is your first chance to listen to Cubs baseball and crystal clear FM quality with the Cubs opening spring training against the White Sox in Mesa.

Cubs and Sox to start to start spring training. Coverage begins at 155. I'm smiling so much, I can't talk. Pekar Armstrong is not in the Cubs lineup today, at least not to start. But Craig Castle was on with our afternoon show and talked with Spiegel and Holmes about trying to balance the excitement of PCA with the excitement of PCA. that's what every player goes through that's part of it right um i think the word is improvement right it doesn't have to i think sometimes we think we want these like go from zero to 60 here on some things

and i think improvement on what he'd accomplished last year that's really how you how this thing works you're just you're just always improving and i think that's his mindset um i think spring training is a time to you know, you have some thoughts, you have things you work on in the winter, you have goals on things that you want to improve on, and you kind of, you test those things out, where does it have me, where does it take me? And then as you get closer,

you kind of hone that in as to what you're going to take into the season in terms of some adjustments you made. And over the long haul, that stuff should add to improvement. You're going to miss on some things, you're going to hit on some things, but over the long haul, that's improvement. And at Pete's age, I think we all know, the athletes at Pete's age, that's what they go through.

I think it is as simple as trying to harness that excitement into just a little bit more plate discipline. You want the refined plate discipline. There's a lot of energy there. There's a lot of potential there. There's a lot of everything there. Can you get it all just into every pitch that you see and just contain it in like a nuclear, like a nuke?

like you know what the nuke just explode and go everywhere because then people die but if you can harness the nuclear energy it can power a whole city so you want a laser basically yes a laser from nuclear power that is PCA a laser I think all the right things are being talked about as it pertains to peter armstrong right now very good layla's doing the dance right now I think the idea of as it was it sahata sharma who wrote the article in the athletic he's got to get smaller all of that kind of stuff the problem I see here with PCA is that once you get a taste of hitting the ball out the park, you know, like to a point where you're thinking, oh, man, I might be able to hit 40 home runs this season.

You make it sound like he's addicted. You also made his inner monologue sound like Hawk Harrelson. I guess I'm all over the place. I might just hit 40 home runs. Let me tell you about Hawk, Erelson. I do like to talk about Hawk, and I have had addiction issues. So it all makes sense what you guys are. saying about me right now.

But I think once you've had that taste of hitting the ball over the wall, do you really want to go back to being a disciplined, get smaller hitter? And I'm sure that PCA will talk about that. I'm sure that he will try to do that. But wouldn't you, especially his age, 23, 24, whatever he is in the back of his mind, man, he has had a taste of hitting home runs. How do you overcome that and then become what, an 11 home run guy who gets on base a ton? When you hit 45 doubles?

Do you think that's going to say? I don't think it would. I don't think it's going to say it. Yeah, so that's what I worry about. We are in that period of time with baseball for both of our teams where everything is great. Everything's about getting better and guys that were bad last year had slumps. Here's what they're doing to get better. And then it could all come unraveled again once the real stuff starts.

I think the shame of knowing that the strikeouts looked so bad with the timing. You know, and he was swinging at balls that were so low, for example. But he would hit those too at times. Yes. but I think that's the real problem here is you can't let the ball out of the strike zone be the thing that you search for because when that happens, that's when this all falls apart. Like the stats tell the tale. I mentioned this the other day.

Last two months of the season, he only had a 45 weighted runs created plus. That is ridiculous. And if you pair that with the third highest chase rate in Major League Baseball, you know, you can experience the joy of the home run. run enough, but the agony of defeat is coming at you pretty well. Which one's stronger? The high of a homer or the downer of chase rate? Is it the love of the bears, the hate of the taxes?

Well, the last two, you know, the last baseball they had after the All-Star break, his OPS was just a 634. So that tells you what the problem is, is when you're chasing too much for that, you're not making any quality contact. your eye is off, you're not hunting fastball. Like, tell me your fastball approach every day. And I will show you that if that answer makes sense, we'll see a better version of Peek-Rour Armstrong at the plate.

It's interesting because essentially what we are talking about, whether you want to call it strikeouts or weak contact, do you hate that more than you love home runs? Because you can make contact, not hit the ball of the park, and be a very productive major league hitter. I'm not even taking it down to like the Nico Horner said, but that kind of fits that mold. we know Nico's not striking out a bunch and he's not, he's going to hit line drives.

Now, he's not going to hit a bunch over the fence, but he's going to be an effective hitter because he's so consistent at getting on base and not making bad outs. Whereas Pete Carr Armstrong, you look at what he did in the clutch with runners in scoring position in the second half of last season. That's what made it so painful because there were plenty of opportunities in a lineup that for the first half of the season was one of, if not the best in baseball, as far as offense goes. but the reason why they aggregated to a top five offense over the course of the season is players like PCA did not get it done after the first half and they were searching for it,

if you will, and they had too big of a strike zone. So I am interested to see how much he pairs down what he believes is an acceptable pitch to just swing at. Start with that and then work your way from that. And what does you really want to be as a ball player? Maybe that's a dumb question because every player wants to hit 30 to 40 home runs. but is he willing to accept that that he needs to, again, take it down a notch, get smaller, as was written in the article with all of the statistics, too, that Layla's given.

Well, and I think it's, he can't be bad ball hitter. Like, that only works for so many people, and the people it did work for are athletic outliers. Guerrero, basically. Both Guerrero. Both the Guerrero. His back also somehow folded in the middle, whenever he, vertically, whatever he would swing a bat, like Vlad Sr. So if that's the comp, that doesn't work for most everyone.

So that's why you're right, Grotes, it's got to be, who do you want to be as a hitter? And that's when I think what goes back to, what is your approach to the fastball? When you figure that out, everything else I think will come into play a little bit better. We're not asking him to be Tony Gwynn. We're not asking him to be Kyle Schwerber, but we need him to be a little bit more consistent somewhere in the middle. Schwerver. Also, additionally, we've got our Twitter. Maw bringing up the Cub slogans.

Oh. You know, this is the Cub slogan this year. But I'm still in everybody end girl. No, but you got to say this. That's the Cubb slogan. I saw it with the delivery. People were like, what, what is it? And you're like, no, no, no, no, this is the Cubs slogan.

I saw it on a billboard on 290. I saw it too. And I liked it. It resonated with you? It did resonate. And it didn't resonate when I just heard it. I think I heard you guys talking about it. And then I saw it driving.

I'm like, oh, I kind of like it. Had a little red in. parentheses. I think it was read and it said this. Was it in like a box? Yeah, it was like a box or brackets or parentheses. What's the difference between brackets and parentheses? Brackets or something that you can put parentheses inside of to start with. Oh, wow. That's very complicated. It's a newer type of thing

is what it sounds like. If you're writing a bracket is like a, you're filling in the gap but they actually didn't say it. Parentheses usually add reference. Okay. So if you say he in the brackets it'll be like P. Kroa Armstrong because that's who the he was referring to. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Also, our friend, 630 says, 20 years in nuclear power and I've never heard of a nuclear laser. I didn't think it existed, but just something that was like focused. It's just an idea, man. We're out here ideaing, okay? It's Friday, okay?

Let us live. We're mollifying as what we're doing. That's what our deal is today. Next thing you know, we're building a stadium in the middle of the lake. Coming up next here on Rehemi Harrison Grotie, I think that's where we've got to return to is the latest that we heard from Jeff Bocultz of WBBM,

what Mark has heard in his reporting and then let's parse through some of what J.B. Pritzker had to say that's new today as we continue to figure out what is the latest with the Bears Stadium discussions next.