WEBVTT

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Hello, and welcome to Blackboots and
the Baseball Podcast with a British twist.

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I'm your host this evening, Roussaisum. I am talking to you live from

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the press box in Chase Field as
we prepare for Game two of the World

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Baseball Classic of GB versus Canada.
But I'm delighted to be chatting with my

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earstwhile colleague gave about Game one against
the USA. Do apologize if there's a

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bit of background noise. There is
obviously music in the stadium and other people

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around us, who I think,
we're very daft. We're recording a podcast

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here. So gav that was a
good game. Yeah, it was a

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fantastic game. It was a fantastic
day. I sort of feel a bit

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drained now because the last six months
it has been working up to that game

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and suddenly it arrived, and suddenly
the players were on the field with Trey

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Turner and Mike Trout and Mooky Betts, and yeah, it was it was

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a long day and it was a
fantastic day. It was. It was

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probably the best result we could have
expected. Yeah, I think I think

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I got to agree with that.
I think the heart was wanting a GB

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victory. In my head, I
was kind of actually just hoping that we

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didn't get mercy ruled. If I'm
perfectly honest, I wanted a team to

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be able to show not just us, but like the rest of the baseball

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world, that this is actually a
good set of players and what GB can

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put out there are is of a
quality that deserves to be here. And

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I think not only have they shown
that from that first game, I think

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they've shown that maybe this US team
isn't all Just because you can follow us,

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a team of all stars together doesn't
necessarily mean that they're gonna hit well

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and amazingly and pitchwell and amazingly for
every single game. So it shows you

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what one game baseball and a single
elimination that we'll get later on will do.

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Yeah. True, But I think
I think maybe GB did contain us,

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and I think someone else is going
to get punished by them. I

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think the power of those facts,
they could just go batting practice on some

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team, So I wouldn't be supposed
if another team in the pool does get

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mercy ruled, so and just place
it wasn't us. Yeah, if we

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quickly for anyone who didn't see what
happened. Tracey Thompson got a first inning

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homer. US lost myself slightly in
the press box after saying that I would

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behave the entire time. I was
on my feet and caring like a madman.

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That is true. You were the
only person in the press box cheering

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like a leptn madman. The USA
loaded the basis in the first but failed

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to score. They got one back, and then they got two back,

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and then Carl Schauber hit the long
home run to make it five one.

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I think, yeah, um,
we were still in with a good chance.

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We've made a few sloppy defensive plays, so that really cost us.

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I think that was the big difference
between it. And then we had Shawn

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Knowles come on and he just looked
like a rocketman, a superstar. Yeah.

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That that that triple that he hit
to go I think was somebody put

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it out. There was ten points
six flight seconds to go from first to

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third. I just can't, you
know, looking at the field in front

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of us, I just can't see
how you can do that in your ten

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seconds. It's incredible. Yeah.
If I think kind of like to go

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back to kind of some of those
first few winnings like GB did make mistakes

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which the US punished, and I
think it is worth while noting the iving

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bands Wally Pitch absolutely amazingly to start
that to start the game, and got

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squeezed by the umpire. Talking down
to some of the GB coaching staff this

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morning, by their calculations, they
got something like twenty to twenty five calls

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wrong during the game. That's for
both sides, and they put it at

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about a plus seven calls to the
US in a game, so that's not

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too far off what can happen in
games. It's just unlucky that it goes

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against GB. It goes against them
in the inning which they then make the

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mistake, and that just cost them
if they'd can't managed to keep it one

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nail after three for a Vans to
manage to close that innings, and the

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pressure just creaked a little bit further. We don't know what that would have

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done to this US team. They
were already there are already some fans who

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were getting a little bit testy,
even though after it was only like two

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or three innings where they were behind. We obviously had also had the constant

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question of was Mookie Beets being mood
or was he being booed? Me and

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Gab pretty much thought it was booing
the whole entire time, but some people

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reliably informed us it was a moo
and not a boo. Your thoughts,

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Gab, Well, it was interesting
because when the gb players came up on

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the big screen, they were getting
obviously getting booed, there was no question

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about that. And then when Mookie
came up, it sounded like a boot.

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I asked a few people in the
crowd and some said, no,

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no, no, it's it's something
which we do, it's a move.

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But that didn't explain why Peter Lonzo
was getting booed and a couple of the

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others were getting booed. But what
I must say is I was really impressed

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with when the national anthems were being
played. That was observed by the US

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fans impeccably. Yeah, I think
something that we've seen, maybe not to

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the great taste of English fans in
sports elsewhere, but but yeah, that

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was done and handled very well.
It was It was a big different atmosphere

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from the game earlier on. If
any of you guys had seen that or

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girls, the Mexico game was very
much This stadium felt like a home game

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for Mexico. This felt like a
home game for the USA, but it

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didn't feel quite like it had like
the same atmosphere. Everybody was wearing like

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most people wearing jerseys for their clubs
that they follow. There are a few

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USA jerseys. Everybody who's team Mexico
was team Mexico. And I think when

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GB get that game against Mexico in
a few days time, I think it's

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going to feel more like aul away
a game than the USA, and so

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it'll be interesting when we get to
that. It will be really interesting.

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I'm not here to the savning,
but it'd be really interesting to see whether

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it feels like a home Mexico game
or a home USA games. Yeah,

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I think it's gonna be a home
Mexico game. I think there's going to

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be more Mexican fans here here later
on. There's certainly a lot more patriotic

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indeed of the national team. But
it'd be a remist us to give our

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highlights of this game and not talk
about the man with the hommatically sealed elbow

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himself, Dan Cooper out there throwing
two innings of one run ball against major

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league competition, striking out major leaguers, like this is just it's just unbelievable

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to see him do that. Like
I'm I'm not an surprised when I see

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the likes of Michael Peterson do well. I feel like he's still an in

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affiliate system. He's we're now dubbing
him British gas throwing one hundred million an

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hour fast balls, like he feels
like that's goin somebody's compete. It just

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feels so odd, so much of
a disconnect that when we see Coop just

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continue to kind of get top talented
players out throwing these eighty four mile an

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hour sinkers, just getting them off
balance. It didn't get as many ground

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ups as we nominates there from Coop. There was a few popouts as well,

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but yeah, it was just a
phenomenal pitching performance in him and to

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kind of for him to be able
to be on the stage and be playing

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against some of the people that he
played ten fifteen years ago when he was

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growing up going through the systems,
like he struck out Lolan Arronado in college,

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he spaced Mike Trout back in those
days. So it was amazing for

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him to have his moment to play
against those players once again, because usually

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if you're doing that, you're all
ten year vets, whereas whereas Coop is

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not quite the same level of ten
year vet. It did show you his

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composure, though, his confidence to
come out in this incredible stage, dame,

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if he's ever played in this environment
before, and then he's got to

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face Ernardo and Goldschmidt, and yeah, he just disposes of them so easily

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that, Yeah, I think nerves
could easily have played on a lot of

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players. Let's talking to the guy
down there from the Bahamas and he thinks

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that that's what happened to Barry,
that maybe nerves just got the better of

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him because he didn't have the greatest
game yesterday, Harry, you do?

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I mean it's third Blase bj I
had the same Barry four. He's known

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as Barry to his mates obviously.
Yeah, that's his new nickname, Barry.

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Yeah. No, because he made
a couple of defensive miscues and he

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went over four three strikeouts. But
he's a much better player than that.

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Yeah, the guy who covers to
Farmers, he was saying, you know,

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he's much better than that, and
I think he just just nerves got

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the better of him. Yeah,
so you know, when you see Coop

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go out there and just made it
look because that's what he does every single

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week, it's fantastic. Yeah,
definitely. I think it's it's worth noting

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kind of like a few other performances, I thought, Jaden Rudd has had

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another fantastic night. He made a
slight misplay on one of the doubles and

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then immediately like the ball afterwards to
say, like that amazing. The baseball

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adage of the ball will always find
you that he just made that slight mistake,

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and then the next next day,
b he makes a great running play

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to kind of keep make sure that
the US don't add another one on.

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It was it was a big league
catch, wasn't It really was? And

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I think all given to pecta that
Jaden's been a late addition to this squad

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because of Lucious not playing, and
I think, yeah, he's and he's

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earned his position in the few games
that we've had, basically in warmups he

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was, as far as I was
concerned, one of the best hitters in

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those games. And it's great to
see him to be able to kind of

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like perform on that sort of stage. We're just watching the guys hit some

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BP in front of us, and
there are actually hidding some some bonds,

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so the ball is flying. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing to say

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is that this this center field in
Chase is cavernus. I think, not

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even just on the center field.
I think there was six catches on a

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warning track last night. I think
three for dB and three for the US.

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We were where we were sat.
We were definitely edge of the seat

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a couple of times to check whether
those were home runs. Yeah, certainly

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we're a long way from home plate
is today. We're much closer today.

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But you said something about wasn't it
four or five? Six of the seven

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longest hits were from GV yep.
So the guys were connecting yesterday and looking

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at it now, they're connecting.
I know this is only bad in practice,

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but yeah, I'm feeling good about
today. Yeah. I think sequencing

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is always like the important thing.
I think last night they didn't quite get

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it right. They were owing five
with runners in scoring position. The US

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were three and fourteen as well,
So kind of it shows you the chances

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that they had, like they just
the game goes a slightly different way.

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It's just not quite timing those hits
together. But yeah, I think they

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showed a lot of things that we
can be pretty confident that GB is gonna

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gonna have a good go at Canada, have a good go at Mexico,

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have a good go at Columbia.
We have to face the Canadians best pitcher

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today when Cal Puntrill, which,
as a India a Canadians Guardians fan myself,

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I know the quality of Cal and
is somebody that I've been looking forward

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to watch for quite a bit of
this this season, so it'll be a

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tough one for them to go through
today. I think he might be the

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best starter that they actually face in
this tournament because of the other team is

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probably putting out maybe they're weaker guys
right, which it's I'm not saying it's

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a must win game for Canada,
but they must look at this as this

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is the most winnable of the fixtures
they've got and they, just like GV,

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they want to win to try to
secure their place in the next World

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Baseball Classics. So yeah, this
is going to be a dog fight.

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But having seen how well they played
yesterday, having seen how easy it would

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be to erase some of those defensive
miscues, and if we can get the

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speedy guys on the basin anything as
possible. Yeah, I think there's something

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that the GB potentially also has,
is the fact that they've played a game

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Canada haven't. Like they're they're still
maybe seeing themselves feeling what they can actually

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do. So yeah, we'll be
we'll be amazing what we can see from

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Canada and GB going into this game. Oh, anything else to say,

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Russ, Nope, I'm just going
to say we managed to have a quick

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chat with vans Wally as well,
so you'll hear that just on the end

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of this pod. And otherwise it's
just I hope all of you boys and

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girls at home enjoyed that first game. I hope you're all at watch parties

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or have been at watch parties one
of the time that you listen to this

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for the next game. But yeah, we will continue to give you updates

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as we have them for the game. Have a nice day. Yeah.

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Yeah, So I'm say I'm here
with fans on the field after game one

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or here this before game two.
First, Like, how did that feel

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for you? Kind of like starting
out on the mound representing TV in that

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game? It was exciting, you
know, Now, this is a game

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that we've been looking forward to since
last year. You know in Germany after

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we qualified, you know, they
shook up the brackets and then we saw

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where we were gonna be head and
that was here instead of Asia, and

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they lined us up against those guys. You know, that's that's the biggest

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platform you can get, is you
know, the last winning team of the

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WBC. Yeah, so let's go
a little bit through that game. If

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to all British fans, you were
horrendously squeezed by by the up last night,

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Yes, you're right. How do
you how do you kind of think

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about that, how it's going on, Like, how do you kind of

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try and get that out of your
head? Or is it any even in

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your head at all? You just
gotta know, like maybe this is his

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zone. It's not good. You
know, every every umpire's got a different

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zone, and you know it's it's
not the first time I've had a guy

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back there with a tight zone.
Um. You know, it's just about

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how you respond. And you know, I'm the kind of guy that's going

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to keep attack on the zone even
if I'm not going to get certain calls,

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because the hitters need to know that
I'm not gonna not throw certain pitches,

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so uh, it makes them uncomfortable
and it allows the team to stay

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in it. Yep. So obviously
like you picked up some you've picked some

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some strong how you strike out some
some very like famous names. There's obviously

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you played in them in the major
leagues before. Um, how do you

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kind of how does this team move
on from this game? Because obviously you

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guys didn't get the result, but
you think you put a very good end

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up kind of we'll show you what
like pretty team g the GD team can

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actually do. So what is to
feel like as the next step for the

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guy who's coming into this game against
Canada and for the other two games?

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I mean really realistically, you know, in this kind of tournament, you

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know it's there's no uh, no
easier games. You know, there's no

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days off. You know, every
you have to treat every team is saying

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you know as if you know,
don't they were those guys, Um,

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but you know, I mean we
shoved it. We can compete against the

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best in the world, and and
you know it's it was a close game,

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you know, had we had some
things go our way. You know,

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that's a completely different game last night. Um, but as far as

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today, you know, I think
guys are, they're still hungry. You

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know, we're not gonna love one
game affect us and how we're gonna go

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out and perform today. No spons