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This is… THE SWEET SPOT, a show about the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona.
I’m Jeff Hinkle
HOST INTRO: The Arizona State Sun Devils men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed. The Bobby Hurley-led squad got matched up with the Nevada Wolf Pack who are a familiar foe for the Sun Devils.
VOICE TRACK: Despite the Sun Devils never facing the Wolf Pack during the regular season, the two programs are familiar with each other. Nevada’s head coach Steve Alford formerly coached at UCLA where Bobby Hurley and the Sun Devils played them every year.
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VOICE TRACK: Starters for the Sun Devils, 5th-year guard Desmond Cambridge Jr. and senior forward Warren Washington, decided last off-season they would leave Alford’s Nevada program and transfer to ASU.
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VOICE TRACK: Cambridge Jr. and Washington’s time at Nevada could help in preparation for the Wolf Pack but their on-court contributions all season long have been a big reason why the Sun Devils are dancing.
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VOICE TRACK: For the seven-footer Washington – his presence has been felt in the paint.
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VOICE TRACK: The Sun Devils have made it to the Big Dance for the third time with Hurley at the helm. When it comes to March Madness it’s all about surviving and advancing and that’s exactly what the Sun Devils will have to do. I’m Sam Eddy, Cronkite Sports.
HOST INTRO: A 15 year old, a high school student and a driver that didn’t start racing actual cars until his teens, what do they all have in common? They won a race last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. I went out to Phoenix Raceway to be a party of all the action.
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*Nat Pop – “Drivers start your engines”*
VOICE TRACK: The racing weekend started off strong at Phoenix Raceway with the ARCA Menard’s Series taking the track on Friday night. And after a tough day at the track, and spinning his tires on the overtime restart, Tyler Reif (Rife) battled back and sealed the victory. He’s only 15 years old!
*Nat Pop – Xfinity Cars Zooming by*
Saturday brought the Xfinity series into the desert, and history came along with it. For the first time ever, an 18 year old won an Xfinity series race at Phoenix Raceway. Sammy Smith led a race-high 92 laps, and had to deal with 11 cautions along the way. Smith led the last 52 laps of the race after taking the lead from all-time Xfinity series wins leader Kyle Busch on Lap 149. Three late race cautions forced Smith to have to hold off Busch and others on the restarts.
[Duration 0:11]
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*Nat Pop – Cup Cars Zooming by*
Then, there was Sunday. Kyle Larson looked dominant all weekend. He had the fastest time in practice on Friday, he snagged pole position for the start of the race on Saturday, and even led 201 laps on Sunday. But a late restart turned out to be the only downfall of Larson at Phoenix.
[Duration 0:10]
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But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough to hold off William Byron, who took the victory, and made it back-to-back victories of the season. The driver of the #24 Hendrick Chevrolet won in a very similar fashion last week in Las Vegas where it came down to another late race restart in overtime. It’s something that he would rather not have to deal with.
[Duration 0:17]
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The next time these drivers are back in Avondale at Phoenix Raceway will be to crown a champion on Nascar’s Championship Weekend November 3-5.
From Cronkite Sports… *Nat Pop – tire changing gun I’m Jeff Hinkle
[music under]
HOST: UCL tears have been steadily increasing in baseball players age fifteen to nineteen Cronkite Sports’ Jake Brown has more on the outcomes of the injury.
VO: Demetrio Crisantes is a Nogales high school superstar. The 18-year-old shortstop was drafted in the 2022 draft by the hometown Diamondbacks in the 7th round after hitting .485 over the course of a 34 game season. However, this season came after Crisantes had to repair his UCL, a surgery commonly known as Tommy John surgery.
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Crisantes injured himself after playing travel ball in Indiana. Year-round baseball is one of the reasons why UCL tears have become so prevalent in teenagers.
While Tommy John surgery is usually performed on pitchers, many position players, like Crisantes, have received Tommy John surgery in their careers. The amount of position players receiving the surgery has spiked from 9 in the 2000s to 20 in the 2010s in just the major leagues alone.
Tommy John surgery can be a long road to recovery, as it may take 9 to 18 months until a player is fully healthy.
Major league pitcher Ken Giles, who had Tommy John surgery in late 2020, is still climbing his way back to the major leagues, throwing a bullpen session at Phoenix Municipal Stadium for 17 scouts in hopes that he would get signed by a team for the 2023 season. Giles said he changed personally after having the surgery.
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While Crisantes doesn’t have the experience like Giles does, the long road through rehab didn’t stop him from working on his craft. To rehab, he would travel from Nogales to Phoenix 3 times a week, working not just on his arm, but on his lower body too, eventually gaining 19 lbs of muscle by the time he was back on the field, jumping from 161 pounds to 180 pounds.
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The lower body workout helped, as Crisantes hit 7 home runs in the 2022 season, almost doubling his career total from his freshman to junior seasons.
While Crisantes doesn’t say his game changed post-Tommy John, his high school coach, OJ Favela, said he was a whole new player. He was faster, stronger and was better at studying opposing pitchers.
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According to The Guam Daily Post, 80-85 percent of players return at the same level of skill as they were pre-surgery, but that leaves 15-20% of MLB players not returning to form. Former D-Backs pitcher Jarrod Parker had multiple UCL repairment surgeries that unfortunately ended his career prematurely. Former Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel was forced to become a hitter after having Tommy John surgery.
According to coach Favela, Crisantes is the type of guy who’s personality won’t be an issue on the road to recovery.
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According to Favela, he says Diamondbacks fans should expect an all-around good player and good person that is homegrown talent.
Crisantes was on the 60-day injured list to start his minor league career, but hopes to make his professional debut sometime this season.
For Cronkite Sports, I’m Jake Brown
That’s all for this week. The Sweet Spot is produced by Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau. Additional reporting in this episode is by Jake Brown, Sam Eddy and me. I’m your host, Jeff Hinkle.
Make sure to find and subscribe to The Sweet Spot anywhere you listen to podcasts.