WEBVTT

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This is Sham and I with the
Mets and welcome to Backflips Enders. Hello

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and welcome to Backflips and then the
Baseball Podcast with a British Twist. I

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am your host this evening, Russell
Lisam and I'm delighted to be back to

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talk about baseball. To doos with
with me today, I have Ben Carter.

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How are you doing? Ben?
I'm good, Ross. I'm a

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bit hot, Yeah, been in
a non air conditioned office all day melting

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away, but other than that,
doing very well and joining us on standby

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so he may have to leave at
any moment. Noticed Tom Bringle, how

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are we doing. I'm sure you're
breaking some sort of natural security by mentioning

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that. Yeah, listening to this
live so very true. That is very

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true. Yeah, I'm good Like
Ben, I'm extremely hot, but this

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country is so rubbish, isn't it. We're either too freaking hot or too

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cold. That makes mind up.
Literally two weeks ago we had the heating

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on what the hell is going on? Yeah? I think you can probably

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just put a nice simple global warming
getting that the glabor Warming Podcast. Some

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good some good non believers out there. Well, this is the reason why

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we need to build submarines, Tom, so we can have our own submarines

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and deal with the flooded world,
haven't we built them yet? Less than

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a minute in And she wasn't even
your fault this time. It was Russ

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Rechat. Okay, Okay. Obviously
we put out a pod last week and

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John put out a quick note at
the start of that to kind of say

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that, like we recorded it just
before we may have passed. But yes,

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that that happened, and I think
it's worth while talking about that and

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the impact of kind of like the
recorwood Field game. So obviously May is

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one of the greatest players of all
time, so people have some people had

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regarded him has the greatest living player
who was still around, and I think

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his impact on the game is beyond
measure. But I was wondering if Ben

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and Tom, if you had any
kind of like specific things about Wemye that

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you've always kind of either found very
interesting that it came out in the last

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couple of weeks or something that you
were always just like just that was one

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of the reasons why you knew he
was one of the best. Good of

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you Bed first, Yeah, I
mean, obviously I'm not old enough to

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ever watch him play. Tom Tom
might be, but I will say I

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will say that you know, you
obviously hear about Willie Mays really when you

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start hearing about baseball, right,
I mean, his name is is probably

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on the or his face beyond the
Mount Rushmore of baseball figures. Right.

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I think we all know about his
catch in the was it the fifty four

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World Series? That you know,
he was just a legend for his team

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and obviously really paved the way for
a lot of black players. And that's

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why it was obviously so poignant that
we had the record game last week.

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Obviously sad that he passed away before
he was able to kind of see that

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come to life. But I thought
it was really nice that we were able

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to shine a spotlight on what he
did, the way he paid, the

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way his achievements as a player,
what he achieved off the field, to

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how much he meant, I guess
to so many current players, are so

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many fans that I just thought was
really nice to see as part about those

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celebrations last week. So for me, yeah, definitely learning a lot about

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him and his life and what happened, which is needed, right. I

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mean, you know it's easy for
us to watch based one a bit of

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a vacuum and see the scores and
results and not think about, you know,

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what part it has played in the
sort of culture and fabric of the

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United States, and I think Willie
May sort of represents that almost better than

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anyone. Any additional thoughts, Dog
echo over them Bender. So here's a

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huge amount I can put on.
But if you want to learn a lot

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about Willy Mays, then I highly
recommend the book that will May's Like the

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Legend by James as Search, which
I managed to pick up years ago and

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happened to just casually read it.
But my word, he's upbringing was tough,

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and also just the way he was
treated in San Francisco and when he

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moved over there was absolutely insane.
So yeah, highly highly recommend go and

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read that. And as Ben said, he's had such an impact on the

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game like this people still wear in
Mage journeys Joseph today, isn't there The

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tributes are incredible as well, So
yeah, huge loss. Yeah. The

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one thing that I found really interesting
from hearing discussions over the last couple of

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last week or so was that he
seemed to understand that baseball was also like

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entertainment. I found it very interesting
to have who see some videos of him

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discussing that sometimes like he would deliberately
fall over after he made catches to make

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it look more difficult than it was, because he's like he's entertaining like the

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crowd. And I always think that, like piliers are out there to do

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their best, but if they can
do that and entertain at the same time,

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and then you think about everything that
he's going through at those moments as

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well, just I think as a
phenomenal player. And yeah, I think

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if we now talk about like Rick
Wood, you saw the moment where they

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had a moment to hear him out
on the field with so many players of

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great caliber, of a bunch of
Hall of famers, a bunch of people

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who probably should be Hall of Famers
out there kind of like celebrating the impact

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that game will I think get into
a minute in particular. But I think

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it would be remissiless if we didn't
also talk about like the poignant comments that

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Reggie Jackson had made. But you
kind of I think a rare w for

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kind of like sports coverage that they
kind of just let him have two two

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and a half minutes to kind of
talk about the bad things that happened well

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after, like the segregation well after, like the Jim Crow laws, like

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in the States. It's still very
it's tough to hear that, like these

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things were still going on, but
it's still important, I think, to

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people who were able to kind of
to hear those comments about what was going

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on. Yeah, I'm actually glad
you put this into the show notes because

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I hadn't seen this when it happened, so I sort of looked them up

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after you after you mentioned it today, and so really powerful, I mean,

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like visceral stuff from Reggie Jackson.
Yet if you haven't watched it,

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obviously do search it out. He
made some comments I think prior to the

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game on the on the broadcast,
sat around the sort of pundits table with

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the other former players. But yeah, they, as you say, they

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were very clever. They gave him
room to breathe and he kind of went

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off for a few minutes. But
it was, Yeah, such powerful sentiment

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to listen to to hear his stories
and you can hear the anger in his

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voice and like rightly so, I
mean that was you know, so long

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ago now, But like you say, it also wasn't that long ago,

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and it's crazy to think of,
you know, what those players went through

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and the fact that he was is
and always will be a legend of the

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sport and still had to go through
that on and seemingly a daily, nightly

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basis. So yeah, I'm glad
that you got me to seek that out

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and listen, because it was one
of those moments where you kind of you

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and stunned silence after you hear it, And I think the other guys with

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him were literally in stun silence when
they didn't know what to say when he

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finished, because what I mean,
how do you respond to that? But

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yeah, really powerful stuff, and
that's the whole, the whole point I

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suppose of this game. Right,
it's easy to forget what a lot of

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players had to go through, how
long and hard the road has been to

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get to where we are today,
and obviously there's a lot of work to

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be done. But yeah, hearing
his sort of first hand comments on how

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he was treated what it was like
for black ball players in that era was

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yeah, like powerful and yeah,
not quite hard to hear. I'm just

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reading through the transcript bag. Exc
I didn't see it either. Just seeing

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some of the lines of those like
absolutely shocking, Like you say, bent,

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it's so good that he was allowed
to talk about it, and like

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something we need to be reminded of
constantly say, yeah, it's really really

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good to say try to drink and
do the talent to a bit of professional

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and gets it all wrong. No, But then obviously let's talk about like

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brickwid Field itself like kind of like
one of the old the oldest kind of

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like professional ballpark that's out there,
host to kind of like so many back

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in like the nineteen tens is when
it when it was opened, host to

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kind of so many kind of moments
in baseball and Negro League baseball, and

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to kind of have that kind of
like the Birmingham Barons that kind of like

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that went through there. That game
I think was probably one of the most

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well produced games of baseball I think
I've ever seen. They took everything that

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was kind of like they were trying
to memorialize, trying to bring to light,

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and they did it perfectly well.
The Scorebug looked beautiful and old style.

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That did a whole entire half inning
in black and white, where the

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graphics were the same that they would
have seen in like the nineteen fifties or

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even earlier when like some of the
games would have been going on there.

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It just felt so well done that
as it just felt that like some people

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have actually just really got why this
event happened. That sounds brilliant. I

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didn't see it, but I didn't
realize that that sounds really really good.

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And I was just thinking about the
jerseys and the hats as well. They

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looked absolutely super like incredible. I've
got to get one of those giants hats,

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the Bear's hats. The Yeah,
I didn't realize they've done that.

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It's kind of It's a bit like
the NFL and their SpongeBob broadcast that they

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do for the Super Bowl, isn't
it on Nickelodeon? Very very similar but

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very different reasons. I'm gonna say. I think we're always very quick to

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criticize MLB when they get things wrong, and they can sometimes make it very

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easier for us to do that.
But I also think we should be quick

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to give credit where it's dumid and
as you say it, lust, I

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really think credit should be due for
the way this entire event was put together.

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Everything from as you say tom the
uniforms, through to the production of

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what we saw on screen, through
to the way the ballpark looked. Mean,

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it was like something out of a
movie, some of the shots they

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had at that ballpark in the background
with the sun setting. I mean,

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yeah, I think they did a
spectacular job. Obviously didn't watch the game

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live, just caught the highlights the
next day, but it really took you

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look, took you there in a
way that I think they intended it to

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be right, and especially that half
inning in black and white. I mean,

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that was just such a joy to
watch and to enjoy, and it

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was done so brilliantly. I know
a lot of people were saying they wanted

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to have, you know, more
games done that way, and I think

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we'd probably get tired of it quite
quickly. But I wouldn't mind seeing like

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stuff like that used more often,
especially in situations like this where there's,

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you know, a real point to
be made and we really do need to

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open people's eyes to the history of
the sport a little bit more so.

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Yeah, I think tip of the
hat to Major League Baseball, to the

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teams, to the broadcast as everyone
involved it from starts finishing what I could

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tell it was a huge success.
I never knew. I didn't realize that

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San Francisco team was actually San Francisco
Sea Lions. I thought it was a

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bear And I'm literally just reading about
the fact that it's only a bear because

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they bought the team that was called
the San Francisco Cubs. Didn't know that,

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which I'm sure we're sending the broadcast
playing times and lots of people already

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know. Yeah, I think kind
of what the what comes out of this

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is that I think that there is
the opportunity to do this more often.

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I think that what MLB has that
most other sports don't have. It has

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a long history, has a longer
history than most sports. It also has

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one hundred and sixty two games in
a season. So if you can take

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games away from the home fans,
and there'll be some that won't like this,

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but if you take two, three, four home games away from a

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team, they've still got seventy five, seventy six, seventy seven home games

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to watch. Like this means that
like things like the London Series, things

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like all of the world tall they're
doing these things, things like going to

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the Little League World Classic, or
even doing things maybe when like the college

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baseball world, like like championships are
happening, anything where there are kind of

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these old like memorial stadiums or whatever
that could be kind of like worked with.

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We had the Field of Geams one
the other year, which was a

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little bit more commercial, but I'm
imagining there's some things like you could probably

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do some sort of like sandlot game
or thing like that where it kind of

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it very much feels like you have
the vibe of all of these different moments

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in historic moments from baseball which could
be brought back and kind of given to

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everybody in small doses to the fact
that they kind of like appreciate it is.

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Ben, if you got anything or
Tom, have you got anything that

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you would love to see like redone
or kind of like repurposed for baseball.

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I think you've kind of hit it
with a number of games have got and

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MLB clearly want to like encourage new
fans and the way they're probably going to

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encourage new fans of doing things like
this, And some may argue that pick

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Rickwood was quite an old thing,
but it's going to be dragging people from

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the past who may not be watching
baseball anymore to talk about Ritwood, to

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talk about what happened there and how
it's so important. But then they can

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also tell it to their kids,
their grandkids, and they can develop new

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fans that way, and like you
say, they can do these kind of

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like gimmicks within the game as well. Surely it's going to encourage new fans.

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I mean we all say, will
a lot of people like watching one

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hundred and sixt two games in the
season, and I think it's great to

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go through every single game watch it
exactly the same way. But I think

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unless you've got some sort of entertainment
factor in there, whether that be the

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team in the field or the announcers
or something they're doing to make it different,

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and people are going to get bored. They're going to get tired of

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it, especially if the teams not
very good. So yeah, I think

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I think they can do more.
I haven't got any ideas right now,

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but well, we could have a
team in London. That'd be nice,

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that'd be really good. But I
think that's probably a bit of a stretch.

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Yeah, I think the logistics behind
that one is slightly more difficult than

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it is for the NFL to potentially
have a team out here. But I'm

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thinking, like when you talked about
the SpongeBob game, it's like there's the

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opportunity again about it's not necessarily maybe
that the games have to be in different

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locations, about how you broadcast it
in a different way to kind of like

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bring people in. Ben, if
you've got a kid's TV show that you

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want to have for commentating on baseball. Yeah, well, I was going

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to say, it would be really
great to see like an exhibition game where

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the Colorado Rockies field and comportant team, you know, just something like that

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the fans aren't used to seeing that. A few new viewers then that's that's

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too far fetched, mate, let's
a little bit. I'll never buy it.

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No, I think it's a great
idea, like you say, Tom,

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for the average sports fan that like
the rigmarole of a Winds these two

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game season just gets a bit dull, right, Oh judgeing on the home

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run great, you know so too
did this and tiny did that, which

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we all love, as you say, Tom, but a lot not many

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people do. I think it's doing
something different as often as you can,

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whether it's Richard, whether it's London, whether it's the Yeah, the field

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of dreams game. Wherever it might
be, it is good for the sport.

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It just gets people stopping and saying, oh, what is that?

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What happened? Reading up a little
bit about it, maybe watching a couple

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of highlights, and that has value
for Major League Baseball. I guess the

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concern is poor that Murray Cook can
be cloning. There's only so many places

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you can go to to set up
new baseball field, isn't there there is?

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I think like you're talking about doing
something gimmickying different. Do you think

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it just loses shine though as well, because I absolutely love hearing Snoop Dogg

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in the announcers booth, no matter
what game it is or whether it's the

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Olympics, I absolutely love listening to. I don't know if I could do

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one hundred and sixty games and Snoop
Dogg, I think I'd get a bit

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tired of it. So I think
it's a fine balance they've got to play.

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But hopefully stuff like this has really
shown that they can do it.

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And like you say, if we
can clone Murray Cook, then why not.

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Yeah? I think from the broadcast
effective like we've had those stack cast

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broadcasts as well, where they've kind
of like lented it from a more analyticals

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perspective. If you watch any of
the BBC broadcasts when they had like Melaning

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that lot there, they've concentrated far
more on like the newer audiences to come

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through. So I think there are
like broadcasts and doing broadcasts differently or getting

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some interesting guests on that hey we
know or don't know. I literally threw

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a prost about the softball game also
a softball game the other minute ago,

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and I'm like, I kind of
know Chiron Pollard and Pedro Martinez on that

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list, so it's like, maybe
we're not the target audience for that event,

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But yeah, there are so many
different ways of kind of bringing people

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into the sport. It's interesting you
boys talk about that because I wrote an

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article we put it on the site
the other week which I talked about what

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we could potentially get in the London
series in the future. So right now

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we get two games. I think
in twenty twenty six we're going to get

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two games. That's the way it
works. If we want more, it's

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kind of I think fact it's quite
difficult to do it, Like we could

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maybe extend it, get like a
three day weekend out of somebody kind of

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do that. I went for a
bit more of a maybe like nuclear and

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kind of I want an MLB Cup. I want if you've any of you

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follow NBA, this is kind of
something that they've put in in the last

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two years now because they want to
kind of buy into this atmosphere they get

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from like European sports, especially from
football, this idea of like there's something

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that kind of like anybody and everybody
could win. So I kind of proposed

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the idea of kind of just replicating
the like the the NBA Cup, but

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having it effectively for MLB and you
have it in like six different locations,

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So you have a week of baseball
in a location almost like the WBC,

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where you have ten games over like
five days, and they could be anywhere

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in the world, Like they don't
have to be in the States, most

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of them can be in the States, but anybody you can host them.

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I think it's a really cool way
of potentially like expanding MLB beyond like the

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domestic kind of like market. I
think it's really good. I think,

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like you say, the idea of
trying to get a three day weekend unless

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it's bank holiday in the UK.
That's not going to work. You imagine

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London Stadium on a Monday morning,
like trying to film that up to show

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daytime based would just be tricky.
I can't imagine there be anyone there.

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But you know, you could push
it to the evening and push it that

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way. But I like the idea
of the MLB Cup. I think,

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like you say, you could do
Mexico, you could do Career Japan,

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so your West coast could go out
there, central go to Mexico or stay

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in the US as the East coast
can come across to US or Berlin or

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in Holland. And I like it. I think it's good. Yeah.

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I don't follow the NBA very closely, but I know that when the nd

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season tournament was first announced, it
was criticized quite a lot. Right people

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thought it was a gimmick, it
would never last, the players wouldn't enjoy

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it, fans wouldn't enjoy it.
And as far as I can tell,

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and you guys can correct me if
I'm wrong, within two years actually it

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seems like people have really brought into
it and quite enjoy it. And like

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you can say, Russ, it
gives I mean, and that's obviously the

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NBA, which who have what an
eighty two game schedule, that's half the

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time that Major League Baseball players spend
out on the field. And still the

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NBA were like, we've got to
do something about how long and boring the

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schedule is. We've got to put
some kind of tournament in there to make

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it interesting. So Major Baseball should
absolutely be taking notes and learning lessons from

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that, and then the fans are
brought into it, from what I can

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tell, and I think they went
in too. I'm sure people would call

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it silly and trivial and wouldn't enjoy
it and would turn a naise up at

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it, because that's what we always
do when something new comes along, right,

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But I think you need to have
that kind of radical thinking to push

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this sport forward a bit. And
I'd love to see something like that,

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you know, take place and an
inject a bit of life into the doldrums

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of you know, whether it might
be Dune July or times in the season

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where it can be a bit dull. The game is not the answer.

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Yeah, that's thicking to me.
Like I really don't think much of the

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All Star Games, so I love
this as kind of like a potential like

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alternative that, like the way the
one to win the NBA works is that

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all the group stage games are still
like league games as well, but it

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just kind of counts for you getting
out of like your the group that you're

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putting as well. So teams still
have to kind of compete with them to

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the highest level because they do have
impact on their rankings. Games afterwards aren't.

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But then there is incentives. There
is player incentives because I think in

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the NBA one players could earn a
bonus that was roughly equivalent to like a

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rookie contract, and like the teams
were offered potential draft picks. So it's

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a way of kind of like incentivizing
the people to kind of like actually do

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it. So, yeah, of
the idea obviously I created it. Well,

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I didn't create it. I stole
it and basically just said let's do

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it for baseball as well. And
yeah, I think it has gone down

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well. I think they just signed
a ten year deal with Emirates to be

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the sponsor the NBA Cup. So
I might have put in my article suggested

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a certain sponsorship should be the lead
sponsor for the for the MLB Cup.

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I don't know if you'll be able
to guess which website vessels that work under

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the water, it might have been. But yeah, so yeah, I

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think we all stand to hear,
and I think most people out there any

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getting baseball into as many different places
as possible is always going to be great.

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And I think how IM will be
continues to do this, how that

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CBA looks in a couple of years
time. It's going to be really interesting

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to see how we can push this
thing. Yeah, it's difficult with the

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one six to two though, isn't
it. I mean, if you're taking

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games out of the schedule to do
it, then fine. If you're adding

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games to the schedule like that's surely
you're going to start looking at six seven

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million games at least try and cut
it down. But then how do you

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00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:03.400
make them counts? I love it. I think it's a great idea.

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It's just how you integrate it,
Like the one sixty's got to be taken

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into account, hasn't it. Yeah, there are some logistics behind it that

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you can kind of work through.
I'm assuming Anthony Rendo would love it if

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we went to or we'll still be
playing the Probably he's got to have a

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contract. So the thing is also
with the one six two, it isn't

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as kind of it's only been around
for like the last sixty years. If

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00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:26.880
people love the Father Baseball and baseball
history or whatever, less when there was

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less teams, So yeah, you
kind of go with that, Okay.

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Other big highlight for last week,
especially for people in this country, was

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Michael Peterson's debut a British born player
playing in Major League Baseball. It is

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and has been a long time,
depending on whether you regard PJ. Conlin

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as British or Iris or born.
He was born in Belfast. He was

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00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:53.480
effectively kind of like the last person
who kind of got to that point of

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view. We had a few others
in like the twenty tens, but it's

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00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:02.200
not been It's been a long time
basically since we've kind of really seen British

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players kind of like get it through
to this moment. So it was pretty

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00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:10.839
amazing to see. I have probably
a personal interest more in Michael than anybody

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00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:14.319
else because a lot a lot of
this is I met him back in twenty

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twenty when the WBC was supposed to
happen. I went out to Arizona to

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00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:22.079
go kind of cover those games,
and then that all got canceled when Rudy

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Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, and
then every league shut down in an instant

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And I was in a pub with
Ian Carroll, like Will Linton and and

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Michael. He was one of the
few players that had arrived early, and

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00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:40.400
it was like, well, let's
just drink our tiers away because like this

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00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:44.119
isn't going to happen. So seeing
everything that comes out afterwards has been amazing.

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But I guess I think first to
you Ben, as somebody who kind

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of like plays baseball like in the
UK, how awesome is it to see

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00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:53.960
kind of like this happening? Awesome? I mean, like representation matters.

356
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.119
We talk about it all the time. But when you want to inspire,

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00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.079
you know, kids in this country
to take up baseball play and go somewhere

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00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.440
with it one day, it's a
lot easier when you can point at the

359
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.119
you know, the guy in the
Dodgers uniform getting the win on his debut

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00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:07.400
and say that could be you.
If you know, you grow to be

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six foot seven, I'm say ninety
miles an hour. So I think it

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is really important, and you know, just putting British baseball in the map

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00:21:15.799 --> 00:21:17.720
in a serious way is always a
good thing, right. I mean,

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we've been blessed in the last few
years that the national team has has done

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00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:23.839
us massively power on the global stage, and that's been awesome. But like

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you say, PJ. Connum aside, we haven't necessarily had you know,

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00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:30.359
born and bred players how you want
to describe it, taking part in Major

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00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:33.680
League baseball for a long time,
so only time you can have someone like

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him who you know, admittedly didn't
spend a lot of his life in the

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00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:41.000
UK, but is absolutely born in
this country, in Middlesex, of all

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00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:44.279
places out there, representing US.
I think that's awesome and it just gives

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00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:45.880
people like a nice tie, doesn't
it. Like you wake up in the

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00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.079
morning, you check the box scores, you see how your team did,

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00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.200
and you kind of want to see
how he did, if he got into

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00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:52.519
the game, and whether he played
well. And I think, you know,

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00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:55.680
we see that all the time in
other sports, where you know,

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00:21:55.880 --> 00:21:59.599
countries really start to root for a
certain player as they you know, progress

378
00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:02.119
through league just because of their link
back to that country. And you know,

379
00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:04.720
Michael Peterson probably won't become a star
in Major League baseball. But he's

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00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:07.640
very much looked at home so far, and that just gives us something nice

381
00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:11.039
to kind of rally around and chat
about and check and see what's going on.

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So I don't think we can underestimate
that. And you know for tmg

383
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.039
B as well, that they're rallying, cry really can be around guys like

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00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:22.119
him, and you know what's the
phrase they have, like you can do

385
00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:25.000
it here, you can do it
there. I don't know something like that,

386
00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:26.920
but but he's like the embodiment of
that, isn't he. So from

387
00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:30.480
that perspective, just super important.
It's fantastic, It's it's super cool,

388
00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:33.920
Like it's really really good. It's
really nice to see. My only worry

389
00:22:34.279 --> 00:22:37.599
is are the British press going to
follow it and going to push it?

390
00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:41.839
Now we know Rachel is clearly Rachel's
going to keep pushing it and keep keep

391
00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:44.480
writing articles and getting his name out
there, and we're going to push it,

392
00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:47.319
but is it going to make mainstream
of people going to be talking about

393
00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:49.039
him. I'm just I'm just a
little bit worried. And this is no

394
00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:55.000
disrespect to Michael at all, because
he's clear awesome athletes, but is he

395
00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:59.960
going to be the one that really
highlights baseball to British people, Like he's

396
00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.319
not hitting dingers, is not a
closer, he is not a starting pitcher,

397
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:06.240
Like, is this going to be
the one? And that's no dispect

398
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.200
to Michael. This is like amazing, just an incredible feat to get there,

399
00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:12.000
and at thirty years old, and
you know as a reliever he could

400
00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:17.799
go for what another ten years potentially
still relieving and maybe in the majors,

401
00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:18.960
So you know he's going to He's
going to make something out of it if

402
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:22.640
he can do it. I'm just
a little bit worried that he's not the

403
00:23:23.079 --> 00:23:26.839
one at the moment that's going to
tip us over the edge. No,

404
00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:30.079
I don't think you will be.
I think kind of is one of the

405
00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:33.240
signs of this episdes I think he's
another like WBC success story. If we

406
00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:37.400
kind of talk about Michael's career.
He was drafted four times in rounds that

407
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:42.319
don't exist in Major League Baseball's draft
anymore. They shortened it down. He

408
00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:48.400
spent time in the Milwaukee system,
got injured, got picked up by the

409
00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:53.039
Rockies, got injured, had a
like I think, had TJ surgery when

410
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:56.039
he was like twenty seven, which
most people are like, well, if

411
00:23:56.039 --> 00:23:59.519
you do that, you're kind of
pretty much done, and he still was

412
00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:02.000
just like now, still going to
do it, still going to try it.

413
00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:07.759
Came back like didn't pitch all the
Rockies between like twenty nineteen and twenty

414
00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:11.799
twenty two, and then yeah,
because of the WBC, he got a

415
00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:17.559
moment where people got to see what
he can actually do. Struck out like

416
00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:22.359
Noel and Aaronado in a game against
the USA, like and was touching one

417
00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:26.400
hundred, which is like, that's
gonna make MLB teams be like, hmm,

418
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:30.240
this guy. Yeah, he hadn't
played at that moment, he hadn't

419
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:33.839
played above high A. That's crazy. And then he went immediately the Rockies

420
00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.359
put him into Double A. Ian. By the end of last year,

421
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.440
he's playing in Triple A with the
Rockies. Didn't make it up. They

422
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.880
let him go, and the Dodgers
picked him up in like early January.

423
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:45.799
So it's a pretty kind of quick
move on there to point to kind of

424
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:48.240
pick up the free agent and be
like, hey, he could do something.

425
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:52.119
He was impressive in spring training,
went down to Triple A, started

426
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:56.839
off in kind of medium leverage,
ended up the closer for the Oklahoma City

427
00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:59.759
team and got called up because,
as we all know, the Dodgers are

428
00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:03.000
app asolutely having a horrid of time
because of injuries, and yeah, he's

429
00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:07.160
gonna be in low leverage moments right
now. It's ridiculous that he has two

430
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:10.359
wins or into his name in three
games that he played. He came in

431
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:14.960
when the Rockies were absolutely destroying the
Dodgers, and then the Dodgers had a

432
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:18.960
seven inning, a seven run inning, the after he after he pitched and

433
00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:23.240
got the W. And then last
night again he came in early in a

434
00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:26.640
game because Bobby Miller was poor,
and he picked up two innings in the

435
00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.839
middle of the game and picked up
the w because the Dodgers came from behind

436
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:34.079
then. So it's like he has
he's already like tied seventh or eighth I

437
00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:38.720
think on the British win list.
So the renaissance of the Winds start.

438
00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:45.079
Oh yeah, we all we all
love wins now, we all I want

439
00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:48.839
to get that Billy Bean meme.
And instead of he gets on bass,

440
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.240
it's just he gets the win.
It's just what we needed. I think

441
00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:59.160
that there was a really good interview
done by the Baseball Isn't boring Boring podcast

442
00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:03.480
with Michael. The kind of the
really interesting side to it was that he

443
00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:06.359
was always over the last couple of
years, had been expecting his debut to

444
00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:10.000
come at Causefield, and for his
debut to still come at Colsfield, even

445
00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:14.400
though he was playing for the Dodgers
instead of the Rockies. Was just this

446
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.079
kind of weird moment that like added
to all of it. Yeah, must

447
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.200
have been quite satisfying for him.
I mean, we don't need to talk

448
00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:22.759
too much about the incompetence of the
Rockies, but it just goes to show

449
00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:26.440
that he's in their organization for so
long, as you say. They kind

450
00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.839
of let him flounder away in the
high Minders last year without ever giving him

451
00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:33.599
a chance, and he makes his
debut against them, He looks great,

452
00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:37.440
he gets to win in a pretty
unbelievable Dodger's comeback. That had to be

453
00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:40.519
quite nice for him to kind of
go out there in front of pitching staff

454
00:26:40.519 --> 00:26:42.640
in the front office that I'm sure
he knew well over his time there and

455
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.839
kind of show them like, yeah, I can do this on the biggest

456
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:48.519
stage, and I can do it
against you, so that you know,

457
00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:51.640
I'm sure he wouldn't brag about it
and say it out loud, but inside

458
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:53.559
that must have been quite a satisfying
feeling. Yeah, I think there's there's

459
00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:56.799
a moment in his first game where
like a grounder goes to like Freddie Freeman

460
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:00.359
to like end the inning, and
he kind of does his PfP goes in

461
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:03.200
the direction to start off with,
see he isn't needed, and then basically

462
00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:06.480
as he's coming off, like he
gets a tap on the back from like

463
00:27:06.519 --> 00:27:08.519
Freddie Freeman. I'm like, I
don't know how he thinks. And we

464
00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:11.440
sometimes probably when you are a top
end professional athlete, you kind of have

465
00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:15.680
to think that you are amazing as
well. But kind of having that player

466
00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:17.880
just kind of like giving you a
tap on the shoulder, you've got to

467
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:21.079
be like, hell, yeah,
it's pretty cool. That is very cool.

468
00:27:21.400 --> 00:27:25.680
So from a pretty awesome topic,
it was just going to quickly talk

469
00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:30.799
on something that's not so good.
Obviously, we've had another potential betting scandal

470
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:36.000
come out from Major League Baseball.
This time we have an umpire, actually

471
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.359
one of the kind of well regarded
younger umpires, part Hoburg, has been

472
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:44.559
had a suspension offered. It's not
he's like declined it and he's appealing it

473
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:48.319
or some betting related incidents. So
we don't know much details around this because

474
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:55.640
it's still ongoing and Hoburg and the
Umpires Association are appealing the suspension that MLB

475
00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:00.400
wants to lay on him. But
effectively we have somebody who was guarded as

476
00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:04.319
one of the best. He had
a perfect game as an umpire according to

477
00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:07.960
one of the like the umpire scorecards
sort of things in the World Series the

478
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:12.440
other year ago. So it's they
think we're going to talk about this only

479
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:15.839
briefly because we most of us,
if you listen, you will know what

480
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:18.680
our view on betting is. Kind
of like to do with this podcast,

481
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:22.599
but just feels like we're just seeing
what's just creeping in and creeping in and

482
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.680
creeping in. But there probably are
just tons of people who actually bet because

483
00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:29.160
it's so easy to do. So
yeah, I suppose if you bet and

484
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:30.160
you think you can get away with
it, you get worried it once,

485
00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:33.839
you'll continue doing it, won't you. It's just so weird though that,

486
00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:38.559
like I've just reading MLB statement to
say that the Emory did not say if

487
00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:44.680
in its investigation showed Hoberg bet on
Baseball League also didn't find any evidence gains

488
00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:49.079
work by Hoberg were compromised or manipulated
in any way, but added discipline was

489
00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:53.160
warranted. So it's it's a really
weird one, like it seems to be

490
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:56.720
involved but not involved. I don't
really know. But if he's if he's

491
00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:00.640
that good and his performance has showed
is that good, then it's a really

492
00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:04.759
strange one. If he's done it
is obviously snuck it in there somewhere somehow,

493
00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:08.680
I mean the Angel Hernandez. Then
we'd be talking a different ballgamen't we

494
00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:11.759
completely because we'd all just be laughing
and go, well, clearly he's been

495
00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:15.720
betting the entire time. That's not
say's betting. Please don't sue us.

496
00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:19.279
So yeah, I don't know how
many would be doing it, But I

497
00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:22.480
suppose if you get away with it
once, you might want to try and

498
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:25.160
get away with it again. But
I don't really know what it's like in

499
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:27.240
the clubhouse, is either I know
football is a huge no no, isn't

500
00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:30.119
it? So it was like he
was really frown upon and people will be

501
00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:33.400
shunned if they try and do it. So I don't know. In baseball

502
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:37.440
like it's it's on like the walls
of the clubhouse, basically like clou shalt

503
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:41.480
not bet. It's like it's a
it is a big thing, but with

504
00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:45.039
the what you kind of the ease
of it as it is now makes the

505
00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:51.359
people who make a mistake very easy
to be now like found out like I

506
00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:53.359
don't want to say the kind of
that there are some sites where you could

507
00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:56.839
look at, like to keep a
marcano like that was probably a problem and

508
00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:02.160
probably an addiction. Like he was
betting when he was injured and bet like

509
00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:04.640
a very considerable amount of money doing
it. The other players that were suspended

510
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:07.119
at the same time, it hears
I think their total bets were like less

511
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.160
than five hundred dollars. And when
you're like, well that kind of is

512
00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:17.519
just to me, that's like you
done goof like you've just completely forgotten something

513
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:19.759
and you've just gone like, oh, it's a tenor do they really good

514
00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:25.000
to care about? Like and so
this is when you have I just still

515
00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:29.559
to me, it's like it's the
juxtaposition of MLB being like baseball is one

516
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.640
of the most like the betting on
baseball is one of the most fundamental parts

517
00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:34.039
of our game. We will not
have anything to do with the players,

518
00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:37.799
and umpires shouldn't have anything to do
with it. And like this message is

519
00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:42.640
brought to you by time. Yeah, MGM bet or draft Kings or whatever.

520
00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:45.680
It just still seems to kind of
just doesn't sit quite right with me.

521
00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:48.640
I don't know how you feel.
Bent. Yeah, yeah, I

522
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:49.720
don't have a whole lot to add, to be honest with you. You

523
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:52.279
know, we've obviously covered at on
his podcast. I know John and Rob

524
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:56.839
talked about it a bit last week. I echo all of your guys sentiment.

525
00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.839
Really, it's sad to see how
pervasive it has become in sports,

526
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.160
to see it effect and ruin the
lives of you know, not just people

527
00:31:03.640 --> 00:31:07.640
like well, we'll see what happens
with the hope both people like him and

528
00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.000
Marcano, but you know, thousand
people's lives all over the world every day.

529
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.119
So yeah, look, hopefully people
will learn from this, but it

530
00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:17.839
does feel like this is kind of
the tip of the iceberg rather than some

531
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:21.839
kind of moment that's gonna change change
things. Yeah, and on that we're

532
00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:29.519
going to swiftly move into talking about
maybe some actual baseball. What we talked

533
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:32.079
about it, it's because you got
me on that's why you're not talking about

534
00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:34.000
baseball, because what Tom's going to
tell us, he's going to only know

535
00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:37.160
some part of things. So we'll
get there in the end. But I

536
00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:41.920
think we're at the point now where
we are close to trades. There have

537
00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:45.599
already been one or two things that
have happened that are being very minor on

538
00:31:45.640 --> 00:31:48.759
the Rickter scale of trades. But
we're at this really weird moment where I

539
00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:53.400
don't remember it ever being like so
many teams are kind of in it.

540
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:57.960
Obviously we've expanded the playoffs in the
last few years. But from the AL

541
00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:04.720
side, the Toronto Blue Jays have
like the fourth worst record and they're only

542
00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:07.160
six and a half games back,
with their Angels, Athletics and White Sox

543
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.319
being like ten, fifteen and twenty
two and a half games back, respectively.

544
00:32:10.359 --> 00:32:14.319
Like those three are done, like
there's nothing they're getting from the season.

545
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:19.480
And on the NL side, the
Cincinnati Reads the third worst team and

546
00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:22.240
they're four games back, so only
the Marlins and Rockies are kind of out

547
00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:28.440
of this, And it's like,
who's actually gonna trade here that I'm worried,

548
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.920
Like, is there gonna be some
team that's gonna be like, ah,

549
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:31.680
yeah, you know what, We're
not even gonna try. We're going

550
00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:36.079
to try and use the fact that
there's this limited trade market and we're going

551
00:32:36.119 --> 00:32:39.119
to bail on this season for another
season. Or is there actually anybody from

552
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:43.240
the Angels, the Athletics, the
White Sox, the Marlins, or the

553
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:45.119
Rockies that people might actually want are
go to you, Ben, because you

554
00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:51.799
might have an idea on that.
Yeah. Ouch, I think the those

555
00:32:51.799 --> 00:32:53.160
teams will have some pieces. The
White Socks have got some pieces that might

556
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:55.759
be of interest, the A's have
got a couple of pieces that might be

557
00:32:55.799 --> 00:32:59.799
of interest. And those guys are
fairly obviously going to be on the chopping

558
00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:01.759
blow or the trading block. I
should say, we're not getting rid of

559
00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:06.640
them at some point this summer.
But I think we'll also see a bit

560
00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:08.720
of a standoff between a lot of
these teams that are on the bubble or

561
00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:12.400
however you want to describe it,
you know, sort of clinging on to

562
00:33:13.079 --> 00:33:15.720
world card hopes at two, three, four games back, they'll probably try

563
00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:19.400
and sit and wait as long as
they can to see whether they want to

564
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:21.839
end up being buyers or sellers.
And I think you're also going to end

565
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:23.759
up with some upset fan bases.
You know, I think we know what

566
00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:27.200
fans are like, and for good
reason, they want their team to try

567
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:29.880
and win. I think there are
a lot of fun officers out there who

568
00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:32.799
are going to stick to their timetable
regardless, And you can argue whether that's

569
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:36.599
a smart thing to do from baseball
perspective. In my view, you should

570
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.839
do whatever you can just to get
into the playoffs because you literally never know.

571
00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:43.039
Just look at last year's World Series. But there will be teams that

572
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:46.279
decide. Actually, especially if you
know someone comes knocking with a huge hole

573
00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:50.640
for one for one of your players, huge prospective hall that you decide you're

574
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.200
going to flip them and you're going
to say, you know what, we're

575
00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:53.039
not going to compete this year.
We're going to say that we're going to

576
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:55.680
make a run next year or the
year. After looking at teams up the

577
00:33:55.720 --> 00:34:00.279
pirates, I guess who maybe they're
you know, plans been brought forward of

578
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:01.759
a year because they're competing quite well
this year. Well, they're still two

579
00:34:01.799 --> 00:34:05.680
and a half games back of a
very competitive wild card spot. Don't think

580
00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:08.320
any of us really see them being
World Series contenders. Do they end up

581
00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:12.599
selling some of their players that are
expendable. We'll see. I'm sure fans

582
00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:15.360
won't like it if they do,
but that's just the nature of the business,

583
00:34:15.400 --> 00:34:17.800
I suppose. So we'll see.
I think you'll be a fascinating sort

584
00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:22.079
of deadline as it creeps closer and
closer, and we'll be to see which

585
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.039
teams sort of they can move first
in which sit on their hands and wait.

586
00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:27.599
I think, like Ben said,
like you said, Russ, it's

587
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:30.280
going to be really interesting to see
those teams that do decide to pull the

588
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:31.880
tricker, because they're probably going to
get a lot more than they would have

589
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:37.280
been expecting previously, especially with so. I still can't believe how many teams

590
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:39.679
in the nl're in the wildcard
race and all below five hundred. There's

591
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:43.880
literally three teams in the wild card
slots and they're all above five hundred.

592
00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:45.199
The rest are below. Do you
know why, Tom? Do you know

593
00:34:45.239 --> 00:34:52.679
why? No? Tell me?
Because the al Central is good. I

594
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:54.719
did have a real big shock thing
because I was looking at some of the

595
00:34:54.760 --> 00:34:59.400
players and the leaderboards and I was
like, well, maybe which junior is

596
00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:00.000
going to get trade? And then
it looks I was like, oh,

597
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.280
my god, the Royals are like
forty three and thirty eight the how did

598
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:09.360
that happen the last couple of weeks? So have just absorbed all of the

599
00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:15.159
bad from the division. Yeah,
we've got it, boys, you carry

600
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:17.360
on, you have a good one. Yeah. I think it'd be fascinating.

601
00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:21.199
I think we're going to see some
potentially some real last minute ones.

602
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:22.599
But like Ben said, like there's
gonna be fan base it's gonna be super

603
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:25.679
pissed off if they get to you
know, if they're at five hundred and

604
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:29.480
they're you know, two games back, and the team decides to sell,

605
00:35:29.559 --> 00:35:31.519
they're like, oh my god,
we haven't had a playoff appearance for X

606
00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:35.000
amount of years, How the hell
could you do this? But then I

607
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:37.679
suppose, like the NBA, if
you're a number eight seed in the NBA,

608
00:35:37.800 --> 00:35:39.119
you're not going to win the NBA
finals, You're not that good.

609
00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:43.599
You've just crept your way in and
that's it. Whereas as Ben mentioned,

610
00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:45.079
anything can happen if you get in
that wild cards a lot. So I

611
00:35:45.079 --> 00:35:49.760
think there'll be there'll be fan bases
that we feathe in if they sell and

612
00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:52.800
don't try and buy when the two
games back with you know two games to

613
00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:55.639
go to the trade deadline. Yeah, because I think last year we saw

614
00:35:55.800 --> 00:35:59.719
a couple of interesting things. We
thought the Angels go for it when everybody

615
00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:04.840
was like Tradeotarni and I applaud them
for that. I question whether it was

616
00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:07.119
the right decision to make from a
from a the season point of viewing for

617
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:09.480
a long term point of view,
but that's what you want teams to do.

618
00:36:09.639 --> 00:36:14.519
You want teams to like go for
it, like we've seen other teams

619
00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:17.159
like the Orioles last year didn't really
kind of like stampat when you're like,

620
00:36:17.239 --> 00:36:20.159
no, you're in the position now
when you need to go for it.

621
00:36:20.199 --> 00:36:23.599
I think, and especially even now
like they are like now by a little

622
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:27.840
bit behind the Yankees, they're looking
a little bit light on pitching because of

623
00:36:27.880 --> 00:36:30.559
like what's happened. Like if they
don't actually actively go for it, you're

624
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:34.119
going to be like, well,
you're kind of potentially missing out on your

625
00:36:34.119 --> 00:36:37.280
opportunity. Like there was a really
good article by Dan Zenboorlski on like the

626
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:42.679
Cub's Dynasty, and it was very
much like talking about how like Bryant,

627
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:45.480
Baiers, Rizzo and all of those
other players were like this is when they

628
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:47.639
won that World Series, we were
like, oh, this is a good

629
00:36:47.719 --> 00:36:51.920
young team. Yeah, they're going
to be there for years to come.

630
00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:55.280
And you're like, these guys have
fallen off the cliff. What happened?

631
00:36:55.400 --> 00:37:00.239
Like obviously there were potential like things
to say about all of them buyers,

632
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:04.000
there's always potentially a liability that could
kind of like waiting to happen. But

633
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:07.280
Rizzo has had some just some bad
injuries, the concussion stuff to do that.

634
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:14.440
Bryant seemingly took a nice cushy deal
in the in Colorado to probably just

635
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:17.280
enjoy himself instead of maybe competing at
the highest level. I don't want to

636
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:22.480
say whether he's he's gone to Denver
for the cush but uh, I even

637
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:29.320
mention it. Everyone do what you
meant, But yeah, I feel like

638
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:30.800
teams that have to go for it. And on the opposite end, you've

639
00:37:30.840 --> 00:37:35.559
got the Blue Jays, which have
just kind of stunk a bit this year,

640
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:37.119
and it's kind of, well,
are they going to be like,

641
00:37:37.159 --> 00:37:43.119
Hey, we've got a really difficult
division with Baltimore and New York and Tampa

642
00:37:43.199 --> 00:37:45.119
all ahead of us. It's going
to be more difficult for them to kind

643
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:47.119
of get those games back. Are
they going to be like, yeah,

644
00:37:47.119 --> 00:37:51.039
you know what, we're out of
this. We're going to look to blip

645
00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:53.960
some people and try and compete again
in like a short time period. I'd

646
00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:57.880
be very interesting. I think the
really interesting one to look at though,

647
00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:01.800
for is it's all about the Mets. Maybe it's all about the grimmest run.

648
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:06.679
The grim run is insane, wasn't
it. That's something that I can

649
00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:08.559
get on board with. Is a
very casual baseball fan there, The grimmest

650
00:38:08.599 --> 00:38:12.119
run really got me back into it. That was that was waking up and

651
00:38:12.199 --> 00:38:15.280
checking the Mets score every morning.
Yes, lives And it's just that they're

652
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:22.840
now a game and a half outside
of the Wildcard Racer game back from five

653
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:25.079
hundred now, which when they were
probably coming into the London Series, I

654
00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:30.239
think we were all thinking that they
might be trading Peelonzo. Now I doubt

655
00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:34.639
that's going to happen unless Cohen really
eats into the fact that, like they

656
00:38:34.679 --> 00:38:37.000
are thinking about next year more than
this year. I thought so yeah,

657
00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.039
And that's I mean, do they
even need to make any acquisitions there?

658
00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:44.719
And they've just got the grimmest magic. Now I imagine the Phillies are looking

659
00:38:44.760 --> 00:38:46.840
over their shoulder worriedly. You know, it's only a thirteen game division leader

660
00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:50.559
at this point. The way the
way the Grimmist Mets are going, they

661
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:52.159
could overhaul that by the end of
August. Yeah, maybe they'll just be

662
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:55.199
trying to bring in like the Hamburglar
as well, and a few of the

663
00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:00.840
get all the team in. Can
you name all the team? McDonald Grimace

664
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:09.280
Hamburglar. I was more thinking just
other purple people, the dinosaur people like

665
00:39:09.320 --> 00:39:15.400
that, purple people. That's a
that's an interesting the Rockies mascot skeleton,

666
00:39:16.119 --> 00:39:23.880
isn't it. Yeah, And now
all I'm thinking about is that remember or

667
00:39:24.039 --> 00:39:29.039
just singing that the the Hey are
sung by the Fall non blondes, but

668
00:39:29.079 --> 00:39:37.639
the humanvit man. That's an old
meme probably purple character. Well, while

669
00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:47.159
Tom's doing that, thinky winky yes, count count count yes one. Dariusis

670
00:39:47.679 --> 00:39:53.920
Taris Is even said this. Of
course, of course the energy that and

671
00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:59.239
the Mets have combined, I think
is a perfect match. Absolutely, he'd

672
00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:02.719
be he'd be great reliever, I
think, or Luigi good long arms.

673
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:07.800
Okay, so before we get to
the too good, too bad, want

674
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:12.519
to quickly briefly say some exciting news. You may have seen on our Twitter,

675
00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:19.039
but we have teamed up with Athletic
Logos and we have some T shirts

676
00:40:19.079 --> 00:40:23.320
out there for the first time in
Blackflips and NERD's history. It's a really

677
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:28.519
exciting thing for us to do.
We're kind of really glad that the Athleticos

678
00:40:28.559 --> 00:40:30.360
guys came and spoke to us about
whether we wanted to do a partnership,

679
00:40:30.559 --> 00:40:35.840
and we came thought through quite a
few ideas and decided that one we have

680
00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:42.199
to have something about roy Utah to
commemorate Rob's single greatest moment on the pod

681
00:40:42.239 --> 00:40:45.760
as far as I'm concerned coming up
with that, And then one that came

682
00:40:45.800 --> 00:40:50.800
through discussions with all of us about
maybe we need to take back the ownership

683
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:53.559
of the round Us come back.
So the big fan of the Rounders T

684
00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:58.000
shirt. I think it's one that
I very much love, and I'm gonna

685
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:00.920
get a few things of that and
give it to a few friends who I

686
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.440
played baseball with to kind of be
like, we're gonna we're going to own

687
00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:08.280
this, take control of this kind
of like comeback. That's it, and

688
00:41:08.679 --> 00:41:12.800
these T shirts help support us.
We don't we don't get any money that

689
00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:15.760
we put in our pockets for this
this, anything that we do, any

690
00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:19.760
giveaways that we do, any trips
that we do, we try and pay

691
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.000
for everyone's food. We try and
pay for flights where we can, hotels,

692
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:24.880
cars, whatever it may be,
just through this fund, through doing

693
00:41:24.920 --> 00:41:29.119
the podcast. So if you can
buy them, wear them, put them

694
00:41:29.159 --> 00:41:31.960
on streams, put them on Instagram
tag us, that'd be awesome because then

695
00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:36.199
at least we'll get people out there
seeing them, and it helps us continue

696
00:41:36.239 --> 00:41:37.679
doing what we're doing. So yeah, we don't put any of this money

697
00:41:37.719 --> 00:41:40.960
in our pocket. It all goes
back to you as the listeners, especially

698
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:45.599
the giveaways. We spent a fortune
in London out of the fund to basically

699
00:41:45.719 --> 00:41:49.320
pay for giveaways and do stuff.
So go and buy our T shirts.

700
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:53.599
I've just discovered the groak who I'm
going to show to the cameras to these

701
00:41:53.639 --> 00:41:58.840
boys who looks like Grimace, but
he is pure nightmare fuel. I think

702
00:41:58.880 --> 00:42:02.599
that might be the image for the
podcast. Just that. While you were

703
00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:06.679
doing that, I also was thinking
of like Ganngar, if you're going from

704
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:13.199
like a Pokemon ghastly purpose, yeah, ghastly hunter Gangar, the whole evolution

705
00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:16.000
chain. You can probably but I
was thinking Ganngar because he's just another chonky

706
00:42:16.079 --> 00:42:24.079
lad like and also just want to
say that obviously we are still getting new

707
00:42:24.159 --> 00:42:29.800
contributors coming on. There's plenty of
opportunities for people to come right for the

708
00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:32.239
site. We are trying to put
everybody in touch with our edisters and cut

709
00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:37.519
them any ideas they want to put
out there. We are doing potentially looking

710
00:42:37.559 --> 00:42:39.519
at a kind of like mid season
report for your team, So if you're

711
00:42:39.559 --> 00:42:44.239
kind of looking forward to writing something
around that and the team are going to

712
00:42:44.280 --> 00:42:46.519
try and put a selection of articles
together kind of saying what's gone right,

713
00:42:46.679 --> 00:42:51.400
what's gone wrong? And Yeah,
if you look for the right for his

714
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:54.920
page on our homepage of backflips and
dot com, you will find where you

715
00:42:55.000 --> 00:43:00.480
can kind of submit your kind of
like idea and hopefully you can become a

716
00:43:00.559 --> 00:43:05.199
contributor on our site. So too
good, Too bad? Ben, I

717
00:43:05.320 --> 00:43:07.559
will start with you because I think
you're going to talk about one of my

718
00:43:07.639 --> 00:43:10.400
favorite things from the weekend as well, be signed with the goods. Yeah,

719
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.800
yeah, I'll start with a good
Yeah. Well, my first good,

720
00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:15.639
like you say, I think we
had to talk about it at some

721
00:43:15.719 --> 00:43:22.480
point, was the first ever walk
off pitch clock violation that took place over

722
00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:23.960
the weekend in the game between the
Rockies and the Nationals, and for once

723
00:43:24.039 --> 00:43:29.400
the Rockies from on the good side
of a calamitous play. It was a

724
00:43:29.480 --> 00:43:32.199
Brandon Finnegan I believe that the Nationals
closer on the mound. It was a

725
00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:37.159
tie game, bottom of the ninth
thinning. I think Ryan McMahon was at

726
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:39.800
the plate for councer, A real
perfect storm of circumstances for something like this

727
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:43.480
to happen, which obviously has to
be. And yeah, I think he

728
00:43:43.559 --> 00:43:50.320
is a fairly serial pitch clock fraction
violator. Yeah, he's done it a

729
00:43:50.360 --> 00:43:52.039
lot, and he did it again
here in a big moment, and it's

730
00:43:52.039 --> 00:43:54.840
a brilliant like moment. First of
all, the like Shaer confusion of what

731
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:58.760
was happening as it happened, because
you just don't really expect in a big

732
00:43:58.800 --> 00:44:01.119
moment of the game like that,
come storming out from behind home plate and

733
00:44:01.159 --> 00:44:05.000
started stipulating. But actually that was
the best part of it. I think

734
00:44:05.119 --> 00:44:07.480
was just a theater and the excitement
the umpire had as he ran out and

735
00:44:07.679 --> 00:44:12.199
pointed at his watch and pointed at
Finnegan and pointed at home plate. And

736
00:44:12.599 --> 00:44:15.599
it was all chaos and obviously quickly
the players realized what was happening in the

737
00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:17.039
announcers realized what was happening, and
after the moment of chaos, it was

738
00:44:17.079 --> 00:44:21.840
sort of one of the oddest warkoff
celebrations you'll ever see. Is McMahon wanted

739
00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:23.079
to celebrate, didn't know if he
had to run to first base. I

740
00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:25.119
think he started to run first base
and he was like, do we have

741
00:44:25.199 --> 00:44:29.480
to do that? I'm not sure. Anyway, the one scored. It

742
00:44:29.599 --> 00:44:31.719
was a bizarre walkoff win and what
a perfect game for it to happen in

743
00:44:31.960 --> 00:44:36.960
and entirely forgets about Nationals Rockies game
in June. So yeah, that was

744
00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:39.079
that was a very exciting moment for
those of us who liked to follow baseball's

745
00:44:39.159 --> 00:44:43.280
quirkier side. Yeah. I think
the only thing I can add to that

746
00:44:43.599 --> 00:44:47.599
is that the technical term is a
sleep walk off. I think that we're

747
00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:52.840
going for. Tom Tango was definitely
tried to go for the sleep walk for

748
00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:57.079
any like walk that goes from a
pitchure clock violation. So I think we

749
00:44:57.280 --> 00:45:01.159
like sleepwalk off is a is great
one to go with. Yeah, it

750
00:45:01.280 --> 00:45:05.639
was mental like Also the fact the
finingan is just one of the worst players

751
00:45:05.679 --> 00:45:07.800
are doing this. Think he's already
got eleven violations like so far this season,

752
00:45:08.159 --> 00:45:12.239
like most players have basically got significantly
better compared to last year or got

753
00:45:12.239 --> 00:45:15.400
to difficuely better during last year.
About this kind of just seems like he

754
00:45:15.480 --> 00:45:17.880
doesn't care. And maybe when you
are the closer for the Nationals, like

755
00:45:19.880 --> 00:45:21.960
most of the time that you might
be involved in the games, it doesn't

756
00:45:21.960 --> 00:45:25.199
really matter. But it is highly
amusing to kind of to see this happen.

757
00:45:25.840 --> 00:45:29.079
So I did have one fun question
for you on this. YEP,

758
00:45:29.920 --> 00:45:32.679
on Fangass, they measure you know, how many pitchcock violations have been done

759
00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:36.280
by certain pitch so and his and
I wondered, is it a skill if

760
00:45:36.320 --> 00:45:38.920
you're a hitter to cause a pitchclock
violation just because you're so hard to pitch

761
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:42.119
too? So would you like to
guess? And I think you probably could

762
00:45:42.159 --> 00:45:45.960
guess which hitter has caused the most
pitchclock violations so far this season? So

763
00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:51.480
one Soto is correct. He has
caused five pitchclock violations so far the season,

764
00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:53.119
which kind of makes sense, right, He's actual an elite disciplined hitter.

765
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:55.880
Pitchers are probably overthinking what they want
to do to him, take a

766
00:45:55.920 --> 00:45:59.519
bit too long pitchcock violation. So
I thought, there's a little bit of

767
00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:01.639
substance to my theory here. Then
I scrolled down a little bit second on

768
00:46:01.679 --> 00:46:06.400
the list Jeff McNeil. Turns out
the theory is completely ruined. It's one

769
00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:09.760
of the worst this season. Four
times a pitcher has gone, I don't

770
00:46:09.800 --> 00:46:13.400
know what to throw to him here. So, yeah, theory ruined.

771
00:46:13.480 --> 00:46:20.119
But Ben's glorious secret stat is gone. I found the next sort of inefficiency

772
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:23.159
in baseball just to find good pitch
clock violator causes. It was about to

773
00:46:23.239 --> 00:46:27.440
become part of the pits rankings,
But no is that. Is that how

774
00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:30.039
Jeff McNeil is going to get his
next contract? Just by going? Yeah,

775
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:35.719
but look, I cause most pitch
clock violations what to do? Hey,

776
00:46:35.800 --> 00:46:37.960
if I don't know what I'm doing, they definitely don't know what I'm

777
00:46:37.960 --> 00:46:40.760
doing. If Guya and Nimmo got
contracts basically by leaving their elbow over the

778
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:44.559
plate and getting hit by pitchures in
the zones, I think there are plenty

779
00:46:44.559 --> 00:46:49.320
of other ways that players can can
do that. Yes, so my good

780
00:46:49.639 --> 00:46:53.639
I'm going to do a very homer
thing here and talk about stephenque He had

781
00:46:53.800 --> 00:46:58.440
an amazing start of the season,
got injured and everybody was like, oh,

782
00:46:58.559 --> 00:47:01.239
well, was it short amount season? Whatever? Come back, He's

783
00:47:01.280 --> 00:47:06.760
still amazing. He basically has turned
around like the way that he plays,

784
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:09.480
but hasn't basically changed the way that
he plays, and I think it's a

785
00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:14.280
really remarkable thing to do. There's
a great article but about Mike Petriello today

786
00:47:14.280 --> 00:47:17.079
all the other day or yesterday about
how it's kind of worked out and he's

787
00:47:17.239 --> 00:47:22.159
kind of decided that in the right
moments he should become a more power hitter.

788
00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:25.480
So when he's in good counts,
he is lifting the ball a bit

789
00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:29.320
more, he is pulling the ball
a bit more, and that means that

790
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:32.639
he's got seven home runs this season
when he got like four in all of

791
00:47:32.760 --> 00:47:37.760
last season. And it's just remarkable
to see that. Like if you look

792
00:47:37.800 --> 00:47:40.840
at hard hit metrics, if you
look at contact metrics, like Kwan is

793
00:47:40.840 --> 00:47:45.079
the person with arias who makes contact
with the ball most when he swings.

794
00:47:45.239 --> 00:47:49.119
He's also got like the least amount
of power in one of the slowest batswings

795
00:47:49.159 --> 00:47:53.519
in the game. But right now
his ops is only worse than like Aaron

796
00:47:53.559 --> 00:47:58.840
Judge and Juan Soto, which like
this, this shouldn't be the case.

797
00:47:58.840 --> 00:48:01.719
He's added like three hundred points to
like his ops compared to like where it

798
00:48:01.880 --> 00:48:07.079
was last year five nine. He's
tiny, yeah, and it's just it's

799
00:48:07.159 --> 00:48:09.440
and it's not a power hitter,
not a power hitter, but he's choosing,

800
00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:14.239
he's choosing to kind of get in
and so he's pulling the ball.

801
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:16.519
He's like and he's kind of like
doing that. It's it's also some of

802
00:48:16.599 --> 00:48:21.760
it is that he's really punishing like
low leverage situations. So I think in

803
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:25.920
some regards when pictures and he's basically
just taking the bad stuff. Mike Petuli

804
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.360
showed something amazing that like third time
through the order, he's like utterly crushing

805
00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.840
it. He has like a six
hundred average and like a one fifteen hundred

806
00:48:34.880 --> 00:48:37.440
ops when he faces the hit a
bitcher for the third time, which is

807
00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:42.360
like those are things that are unsustainable
numbers. But it's also just like seemingly

808
00:48:42.400 --> 00:48:45.280
he's one of those players that like
he's got his eye in you're done for.

809
00:48:45.800 --> 00:48:47.679
He also just seems like a really
lovely guy. I don't know if

810
00:48:47.719 --> 00:48:53.239
you read Zach Mysaul's article in The
Athletic, but he profiled Quiets next in

811
00:48:53.280 --> 00:48:57.599
piece. I'd recommend it, but
kind of seems so nice and likable and

812
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:00.360
down to earth and like not the
kind kind of had to have an ego

813
00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:04.880
at all. Like it keeps playing
down his achievements, but you can kind

814
00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:07.960
of tell in there he's grinded so
hard to get to this point and become

815
00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:09.239
the baseball player that he has.
You know, he's been up against it

816
00:49:09.320 --> 00:49:13.719
for reasons, you know, like
his size and the power profile, and

817
00:49:13.760 --> 00:49:15.760
he's never really seen to be a
great defender all that kind of stuff,

818
00:49:16.039 --> 00:49:19.360
and all he's done ever since is
just Rake. And you know, he

819
00:49:19.400 --> 00:49:21.760
thought he'd never going to make it
as a college baseball player, never mind

820
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:23.719
in the majors. So yeah,
the whole story about sort of how he

821
00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:25.760
made it to the big leagues,
what his approach is at the plate,

822
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:30.800
you know, how he thinks about
the game is fascinating. So you know,

823
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.039
as someone who doesn't follow the Guardians
that closely, I can't help but

824
00:49:34.119 --> 00:49:37.320
root for Quin and hope that he
continues to do what he's been doing.

825
00:49:37.719 --> 00:49:40.079
Yeah, I think what's kind of
like the Guardians have done this year some

826
00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:44.239
of it. They've changed the little
way that some of the outfield works.

827
00:49:44.239 --> 00:49:45.960
They've removed some things, so the
balls are traveling a little bit further than

828
00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:49.360
they did before. So they've got
a bit more power to that team.

829
00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:52.559
But it's very interesting to kind of
see that they've kind of gone, oh,

830
00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:54.119
we just we were a good contact
team, but we need to get

831
00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:58.280
a little bit more umph to actually
do that, and it seems to actually

832
00:49:58.320 --> 00:50:01.840
be working. Tom, Do you
have a good do anything you would like

833
00:50:01.880 --> 00:50:05.519
to talk about? Our T shirts
are really good, Go and buy our

834
00:50:05.559 --> 00:50:08.800
T shirts? Should say there are
more T shirt designs coming soon. Yes,

835
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:10.760
that's a really good point. Yeah, yeah, we've got some more

836
00:50:10.840 --> 00:50:15.480
excellent Well we think they're excellent,
whether you don't, and that doesn't really

837
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:19.000
matter it kind of does you need
to buy them? Please buy our T

838
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:21.599
shirts? Who wants to be any
more cool stuff? There is one I'll

839
00:50:21.639 --> 00:50:24.119
be buying the minute it comes out, since it will become very clear when

840
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:28.519
it does come out. Give me
a little clue. It's not Rockies related,

841
00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:32.199
certainly, isn't. I can chip
in with a with a bad yep.

842
00:50:34.519 --> 00:50:38.760
I'll go for poor Hunter Green and
his poorly tummy. I'm assuming everyone

843
00:50:38.800 --> 00:50:43.000
has seen this by now, but
during his his start last night, in

844
00:50:43.079 --> 00:50:45.199
the first inning, he made them. In the first hitter, he faced

845
00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:51.599
Hunter Green release the pitch and almost
simultaneously absolutely hurled his guts up on the

846
00:50:51.719 --> 00:50:57.159
mound vomited directly down, seemingly towards
the rubber, literally right after. I

847
00:50:57.199 --> 00:51:00.519
think that as the batter was swinging
and fouling off the pitch, Green vomiting

848
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:04.039
on the mound. It's quite extraordinary
to see. He got checked on by

849
00:51:04.119 --> 00:51:06.559
the by the pitching coaching, The
trainer came out to see if he was

850
00:51:06.559 --> 00:51:07.800
okay. He, to his credit, gutted it out. I think he

851
00:51:07.880 --> 00:51:10.079
ended up going four and easy to
give up six runs or something. He

852
00:51:10.119 --> 00:51:14.880
wasn't his first performance, but fair
play for for clearly playing through something that

853
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:17.760
had upset him. We do see
guys peop on the field sometimes. It

854
00:51:17.800 --> 00:51:21.679
seems to happen quite a lot.
I guess maybe heat related in summer,

855
00:51:21.719 --> 00:51:23.920
and who knows what some of these
guys are putting into their into their body.

856
00:51:24.039 --> 00:51:27.679
But it's never felt more relatable for
me, as someone who plays,

857
00:51:28.239 --> 00:51:31.280
who has played a lot of baseball
games extremely hungover to see a player hurl

858
00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:35.199
a pitch and actually just turn around
and vomit behind the mound. Felt very

859
00:51:35.239 --> 00:51:38.480
relatable. I don't think I've ever
vomited on a field. I'm quite fortunate

860
00:51:38.599 --> 00:51:42.360
that's it. I've played a lot
of games I'm talking about football, played

861
00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:45.000
a lot of games hungover as well, But I don't think I've ever vomited.

862
00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:46.599
You're seeing the NFL a lot as
well, don't you. In college

863
00:51:46.599 --> 00:51:51.400
football, the guys are like like
in the huddle or they get they're going

864
00:51:51.440 --> 00:51:54.519
up to that what'd you call it? When they're at the yeah, scrimmage,

865
00:51:54.599 --> 00:51:57.719
Yeah, and they're just like vomiting
there. And then you're like,

866
00:51:57.920 --> 00:52:00.360
can you imagine me in the opposition. You're like, oh mate, ah,

867
00:52:00.199 --> 00:52:02.880
no, Yeah, I've not done
it playing baseball. I did it

868
00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:07.079
playing a couple of times playing ultimate
tournaments when I might have imbibed a little

869
00:52:07.079 --> 00:52:12.760
bit too much. What's an ultimate
tournament? Frisbee? Oh? I didn't

870
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:15.880
realize that. Oh, it's ultimate
Frisbee. They call it ultimate because frisbee

871
00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:21.039
is a or the flying disc because
frisbee is as Yes, because frisbee is

872
00:52:21.079 --> 00:52:24.280
a trademark termed by like whatever company
made it, like Hasbro or whatever.

873
00:52:24.960 --> 00:52:28.480
Is this like Alan Pardridge when he
says and he says, no, that's

874
00:52:28.519 --> 00:52:35.159
a that's a brand name. Yeah
as not as you yes, talk about

875
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:38.559
something else that happened firly recently,
if not last night, My bad Dave

876
00:52:38.639 --> 00:52:43.119
Martinez and the Nats. Tom will
obviously have an opinion on this as well,

877
00:52:43.599 --> 00:52:50.400
but basically admitting that he allowed his
picture to throw at someone for celebrating

878
00:52:50.440 --> 00:52:53.360
the walk off the night before and
maybe just putting a tiny bit of that

879
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:59.599
celebration towards your team instead of celebrating
with his own team is the childish mentality.

880
00:52:59.760 --> 00:53:01.639
That kind of is the one thing
that really annoys me about baseball,

881
00:53:01.840 --> 00:53:06.280
like the some of the unwritten rules
things where it's like, oh, we've

882
00:53:06.280 --> 00:53:10.039
got to get back at somebody like
he celebrated too hard. Like I'm I'm

883
00:53:10.079 --> 00:53:14.280
a petty individual, and I can
understand some of that to a regard,

884
00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:15.800
But if I was Manny Machado when
I hit that home run, I would

885
00:53:15.800 --> 00:53:23.199
have been rounding the bases with two
fingers up, just going like obviously that

886
00:53:23.239 --> 00:53:27.599
would escalated things in the wrong way, and Manay Machado, maybe for once

887
00:53:27.639 --> 00:53:30.800
in his career, handled things in
a fairly kind of well I desperately wanted

888
00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:35.039
to talk about this, like the
fact that Manny Machado was the only one

889
00:53:35.159 --> 00:53:37.320
pretty much who was telling everyone to
calm down. Everyone else was kicking off

890
00:53:37.360 --> 00:53:39.679
and he was the only one who
stood again no, no, no,

891
00:53:39.800 --> 00:53:44.599
I'm literally watching it now highlights Again, he's the only one there. There's

892
00:53:44.639 --> 00:53:46.639
pointy time. No, no,
everyone calmed down. So I think it's

893
00:53:46.679 --> 00:53:49.679
like, it's kind of I also
have to say that are bad. I

894
00:53:49.719 --> 00:53:53.079
think goes to the umpires as well. They issued warnings and then Mackenzie Gore

895
00:53:53.400 --> 00:54:01.800
hit Jerreks' profile and then they didn't
eject as well, Like is that looking

896
00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:05.840
at the pitch? I don't think
it was actually intentional looking at the pitch.

897
00:54:06.159 --> 00:54:07.960
I don't know, kind of another
scene. It's kind of like it

898
00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:10.880
wasn't It wasn't like in the ribs, was it. I genuinely don't think

899
00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:15.599
he was intentional. Well, and
I must have agreed, Yeah, yeah,

900
00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:17.679
it's for the fastball at ninety eight
to hit him in the leg right

901
00:54:17.880 --> 00:54:22.400
right off an argument at homeplate.
Yeah, but maybe he just disguised it.

902
00:54:22.519 --> 00:54:25.960
Well, yeah, it's just there. You just have the all it

903
00:54:27.039 --> 00:54:29.559
takes from Schmidt to be kind of
like, yeah, I know it wasn't

904
00:54:29.599 --> 00:54:31.280
handled like in the best way,
but no, see I get no manager

905
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:35.480
is probably going to do that,
Like we don't have any managers in MLB

906
00:54:35.639 --> 00:54:37.760
that are going to be like Hosey
Mourinho and call out their player for being

907
00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:43.400
an idiot. But yeah, the
unwritten rules of baseball are just so dumb

908
00:54:43.800 --> 00:54:46.920
and this kind of level of kind
of I called it like middle school like

909
00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:50.519
melodrama in one of the chats we
have here, like in the UK,

910
00:54:50.679 --> 00:54:52.880
that's that's what it is. It's
like it's kids who can't deal with their

911
00:54:52.920 --> 00:54:55.000
emotions deciding that the only week they
can deal with their emotions is lashing out.

912
00:54:55.239 --> 00:55:00.000
I think it might have been a
Ben Limberg podcast when he said,

913
00:55:00.199 --> 00:55:02.559
like, could you imagine trying to
explain somebody who's never watched baseball before.

914
00:55:02.679 --> 00:55:07.360
They just go, this is ridiculous. These they're acting like children, like,

915
00:55:07.480 --> 00:55:09.960
get a grip, get rid of
it, David Martinez, get a

916
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:13.559
grip. So let's double up on
the bad. So we end on some

917
00:55:13.639 --> 00:55:15.880
goods, Ben, what was your
second bad for the week. The second

918
00:55:15.960 --> 00:55:22.159
bad was going back to the Mets
again and Edwin Diaz being ejected and then

919
00:55:22.199 --> 00:55:25.639
suspended for having sticky stuff on his
hands. I think it was on Sunday

920
00:55:25.679 --> 00:55:30.280
night baseball. Wasn't it so particularly
high profile game as well? But he

921
00:55:30.519 --> 00:55:32.199
entered the game the reft the umpires
stopped him had like his hands, and

922
00:55:32.679 --> 00:55:37.519
we did see a few broadcast shots
of well it like quite a significant amount

923
00:55:37.559 --> 00:55:40.039
of sort of gray substance on his
hands. The umpires decided that it was

924
00:55:40.320 --> 00:55:45.760
stickier than usual, by the usual
bizarre method of umpires touching you and deciding

925
00:55:45.800 --> 00:55:50.960
if it's stickier than a normal sticky
hand. That his hand was too sticky.

926
00:55:51.079 --> 00:55:53.199
Obviously, pass him from the game. That's an automatic ten game suspension.

927
00:55:53.559 --> 00:55:57.159
I don't believe he's appealing. He's
going to just play it out,

928
00:55:57.639 --> 00:56:00.119
which is a big miss for the
Mets. I mean, to start with,

929
00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:01.280
obviously, in the middle of a
pretty good run at the moment,

930
00:56:01.360 --> 00:56:06.320
Diaz was just seemingly returning into his
top form. He all now missed ten

931
00:56:06.360 --> 00:56:07.239
games. Obviously, they're not able
to replace him on the roster, so

932
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:12.079
they'll just be down a player for
ten games. And also, I guess

933
00:56:12.239 --> 00:56:15.159
just kind of like shows how silly
this whole process is. He claimed it

934
00:56:15.320 --> 00:56:21.039
was just Rosin combined with song screen
or whatever it is that they are allowed

935
00:56:21.079 --> 00:56:22.320
to use. That he did what
he usually does when he comes into the

936
00:56:22.360 --> 00:56:25.239
game, and you know, maybe
he did put on a little bit too

937
00:56:25.320 --> 00:56:29.199
much this time and got a bit
carried away, and the umpires within their

938
00:56:29.280 --> 00:56:31.840
right to determine his hand too sticky. But the whole system just seems a

939
00:56:31.880 --> 00:56:36.039
little bit broken. I get why
they have to do this every now and

940
00:56:36.079 --> 00:56:38.320
again and just clamp down on it
in some way just to deter players from

941
00:56:38.360 --> 00:56:42.119
actually taking it too far, but
it does seem like a kind of broken

942
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:45.400
system where umpires can just kind of
feel up a hand and go that one's

943
00:56:45.400 --> 00:56:47.119
sticky, but not sticky enough we
to do anything. You're fine. Oh,

944
00:56:47.199 --> 00:56:52.159
actually that one's a bit too sticky. Y're gone. So yeah,

945
00:56:52.159 --> 00:56:54.280
it kind of just shows how silly
the system is. Still not quite the

946
00:56:54.719 --> 00:56:58.239
way I want it to be,
or the way I don't think majorly Baseball

947
00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:00.400
want it to be, and especially
when it's a high profile player like Diaz.

948
00:57:00.440 --> 00:57:02.199
He gets ejected on Sunday Night Baseball, not a great look for the

949
00:57:02.239 --> 00:57:06.920
sport, But I understand there has
to be a way of stopping guys from

950
00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:09.719
cheating, and maybe he was so
yeah, just just a shame way to

951
00:57:09.760 --> 00:57:14.159
see him ejected from the game and
suspended in that way. Yeah, I

952
00:57:14.239 --> 00:57:19.360
think I've got up here the quote
from the crew chief umpire Vicky Carapaza.

953
00:57:19.800 --> 00:57:22.440
It definitely wasn't rosin and sweat.
We've checked thousands of these. I know

954
00:57:22.599 --> 00:57:27.800
what that feeling is. This it
was this was very sticky. It's like,

955
00:57:28.760 --> 00:57:32.440
what training do they get in this? Do they do? They go

956
00:57:32.559 --> 00:57:36.599
to MLB umpire school and there's just
a bunch of hands and they go,

957
00:57:36.800 --> 00:57:38.000
oh, that's sticky. I don't
like that one. All no, that

958
00:57:38.119 --> 00:57:42.800
one's that one is Oh no,
that's wine gums. That's all right.

959
00:57:42.880 --> 00:57:45.440
That one's fine. This one,
oh no, that's rosin. I'm not

960
00:57:45.519 --> 00:57:47.840
happy about this one. This is
this is subjective bullshit, isn't it.

961
00:57:47.920 --> 00:57:52.159
Let's be honest. Yeah, it's
it is, And I think that there

962
00:57:52.199 --> 00:57:54.400
are probably very easy ways of not
making it subjective. It's like you can

963
00:57:54.559 --> 00:57:59.559
literally have something like a baseball that
the plump pire just goes grip the baseball.

964
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:01.159
Does it fall out of your hand? If the answer is no,

965
00:58:01.599 --> 00:58:06.679
then it's probably too sticky, mate. That It makes a great theater just

966
00:58:06.760 --> 00:58:08.639
pictures holding a ball and then having
to hold it upside down and does it

967
00:58:08.719 --> 00:58:13.920
stick? Does it for got to
be there for like ten seconds and then

968
00:58:13.960 --> 00:58:17.679
he gets banned. Yeah, they're
all the kind of the way that I

969
00:58:17.760 --> 00:58:21.960
think I've seen a few pictures come
out is just be give a substance.

970
00:58:22.519 --> 00:58:25.840
Just say that kind of like because
has sweat it and sweat and sun's green

971
00:58:25.960 --> 00:58:30.199
or whatever. These things are allowed
to be used, but can be combined

972
00:58:30.280 --> 00:58:36.119
to create some various kind of like
sticky levels of substances depending on kind of

973
00:58:36.199 --> 00:58:39.360
like how you use the ross in
the sunscreen and when the apothecary and they've

974
00:58:39.360 --> 00:58:44.159
got their big caldron just spinning it
around. Yeah, so it's just like

975
00:58:44.320 --> 00:58:45.920
provide something, get on with it, or get the TACKI ball out there.

976
00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:51.199
They've used it in like the MPB
for years. So I think something

977
00:58:51.239 --> 00:58:53.119
that may be annoyed match funds too, is the inconsistency in which the law

978
00:58:53.199 --> 00:58:58.000
is applied. Some players seem to
get told wash their hands and come back

979
00:58:58.039 --> 00:59:00.719
in. Some players seem to be
kind of given bit of a warning by

980
00:59:00.760 --> 00:59:02.039
the umpires, like you're on the
edge here, I don't want it any

981
00:59:02.079 --> 00:59:05.880
stickier next inning. You know,
this kind of stuff, and whereas other

982
00:59:05.920 --> 00:59:07.960
guys get told while you're out the
game, you're done for ten games.

983
00:59:07.039 --> 00:59:10.280
You know, that is a very
severe punishment. So I think if they

984
00:59:10.320 --> 00:59:13.559
are going to use it, you
know it needs to at least be levied

985
00:59:13.639 --> 00:59:16.280
consistently, which is hard to do. But you know, I can see

986
00:59:16.280 --> 00:59:20.519
why they're de frustrations to fans who
you think it's one rule for some players

987
00:59:20.559 --> 00:59:25.320
and another rule for others. So
my second bad is around the dearth of

988
00:59:25.480 --> 00:59:30.679
like First Basement power hitters. They've
kind of just pseudo disappeared again, Like

989
00:59:30.800 --> 00:59:35.639
we've got like Freddie Freeman and kind
of Christian Walker doing pretty good obviously in

990
00:59:35.719 --> 00:59:38.559
Bryce Harper, but if you kind
of look beyond that, like Vladdie's not

991
00:59:38.639 --> 00:59:43.920
had a great season like the other
players that you kind of expect to be

992
00:59:43.960 --> 00:59:46.840
like Paul Goldschmidt, some of these
other kind of like hop First Basement are

993
00:59:46.960 --> 00:59:51.639
just not good. And even then
the other teams, some teams are putting

994
00:59:51.679 --> 00:59:57.719
out some horrendous people playing first base, like not to kind of shoot down

995
00:59:57.800 --> 01:00:02.159
on the on the Rockies, Harrison
Alas Montero, who I think has a

996
01:00:02.599 --> 01:00:07.480
minus one point six f war for
his appearances at first base so far this

997
01:00:07.599 --> 01:00:14.199
season, Josier Brew another kind of
like minus one war Spencer talkers and Christian

998
01:00:14.519 --> 01:00:17.800
like Ericsson, even good old Yandy
Diaz lovely level, love Yandy, but

999
01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:22.599
likes not been good. It's like
they're seemingly with what the changes we're seeing

1000
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:29.320
in baseball this year, that those
big swinging power first basements are really struggling.

1001
01:00:29.480 --> 01:00:32.480
I had a look and like the
WRC plus for first basement is like

1002
01:00:32.519 --> 01:00:37.320
one hundred and five this year,
above average, but it's always been one

1003
01:00:37.400 --> 01:00:39.360
hundred and eleven hundred and eleven hundred
and twelve hundred and eleven hundred, like

1004
01:00:39.400 --> 01:00:44.840
it's always been like a bit more
than this. We're really kind of seeing

1005
01:00:45.239 --> 01:00:49.719
some all first basement kind of like
those power hitters doing there. And I

1006
01:00:49.800 --> 01:00:52.920
think this is like we've lost the
dhs. I think there are many teams

1007
01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:55.480
that now have like a to get
a dedicated d H. I think we

1008
01:00:55.559 --> 01:01:00.320
could be losing like these kind of
how we're hitting first basement as well.

1009
01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:04.440
I think teams are just starting to
use people who can provide more to them

1010
01:01:04.519 --> 01:01:07.360
than just playing first base. You
don't know what you've got till it's gone

1011
01:01:07.599 --> 01:01:15.719
miss yet Princefielder's gon Myyer still playing
probably not okay. So to end on

1012
01:01:15.800 --> 01:01:19.599
some positive notes, Ben give me
give me a good. So my second

1013
01:01:19.639 --> 01:01:23.559
good is good. Old Max Scherzer, he is back. Made his season

1014
01:01:23.679 --> 01:01:28.400
debut I think a couple of nights
ago now for the Texas Rangers, and

1015
01:01:28.480 --> 01:01:30.880
you look great. He went five
scorers innings. I think he retired something

1016
01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:36.039
like thirteen of his first fourteen batters
faced. He was on a fairly strict

1017
01:01:36.079 --> 01:01:37.480
pitch count. I think it might
have been sixty pitches or something like that.

1018
01:01:38.320 --> 01:01:42.239
But from what I've heard, he
yeah, he pitched brilliantly. That

1019
01:01:42.280 --> 01:01:45.920
they've lost, team looks strong.
For his first game back, he tied

1020
01:01:45.480 --> 01:01:51.960
Greg Maddox for eleventh on MLB's all
time strikeout list, which is pretty awesome.

1021
01:01:52.800 --> 01:01:54.079
And I think, you know,
we know he's on the tail end

1022
01:01:54.079 --> 01:01:58.960
of his career now and probably hasn't
got an awful long time left pitching at

1023
01:01:59.000 --> 01:02:00.559
the top level. So I kind
of just want to enjoy it while he's

1024
01:02:00.599 --> 01:02:04.039
here and while he's pitching, and
while he's effective. You know, he's

1025
01:02:04.039 --> 01:02:07.039
always been so entertaining to watch on
the mound. He is an animal when

1026
01:02:07.119 --> 01:02:10.760
he's you know, squaring up against
someone in the battles box. He's delivered

1027
01:02:10.800 --> 01:02:15.000
some unbelievable moments over the last decade
or so. He was the best picture

1028
01:02:15.039 --> 01:02:19.239
in baseball for a short period.
I think indspeed to be so so yeah,

1029
01:02:19.360 --> 01:02:21.760
look great to see him come back
and come back with some form.

1030
01:02:21.800 --> 01:02:23.760
Hopefully he can stay helpy for the
rest of the year and help drive the

1031
01:02:23.840 --> 01:02:29.000
Rangers back into playoff contention. No, it's amazing to see Madawax back on

1032
01:02:29.039 --> 01:02:31.440
the mound, especially he seemed just
back in the dugout. I saw he

1033
01:02:31.599 --> 01:02:36.679
was. Heckelic Peter Alonso the other
day for not swinging at the master player

1034
01:02:36.760 --> 01:02:38.840
pitching, which is just yeah,
you got to love having those guys because

1035
01:02:38.840 --> 01:02:43.559
Max is just like he doesn't care. Like obviously he's a brilliant when it's

1036
01:02:43.599 --> 01:02:45.639
his game day or whatever he's on, but he's at that point of his

1037
01:02:45.719 --> 01:02:49.599
career now where he's just like,
I'm going to have fun. So yeah,

1038
01:02:49.719 --> 01:02:52.800
No, it's it's great to see
Max back up there. I'm also

1039
01:02:52.880 --> 01:02:54.679
going to end on a picture.
I just want to highlight someone which might

1040
01:02:54.719 --> 01:02:58.760
have been missed because people probably haven't
been watching any games that he pitches.

1041
01:02:58.840 --> 01:03:02.639
But Garrett Rische has had an absolutely
like phenomenal season and had a really good

1042
01:03:04.039 --> 01:03:07.920
June in Across like the five games
that he pitched, he has like just

1043
01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:10.559
over three AAR and a kind of
like a two and a half FIP across

1044
01:03:10.679 --> 01:03:15.360
seventeen starts so far for the White
Sox. He's not going too deep.

1045
01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:17.480
That's why he's kind of only got
like ninety four innings pitched. But he

1046
01:03:17.559 --> 01:03:21.400
didn't start a game in the last
three years for the White Sox after they

1047
01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:24.639
brought him up early in the twenty
twenty seasons straight after being drafted like this,

1048
01:03:25.079 --> 01:03:30.840
he hasn't basically started for three seasons
until they kind of extended him out

1049
01:03:30.920 --> 01:03:34.280
to start for this season. He's
looked phenomenal, Like he's looked like one

1050
01:03:34.280 --> 01:03:37.559
of the best pitchers in the league, which really kind of makes you question

1051
01:03:37.039 --> 01:03:42.159
why they haven't done this in the
last couple of seasons, But also they've

1052
01:03:42.199 --> 01:03:45.119
done it now and it looks great, and it kind of to be to

1053
01:03:45.239 --> 01:03:47.119
say that, like to some people
out there that like there are there are

1054
01:03:47.239 --> 01:03:51.280
real reasons to watch like White Sox
games or whatever. For some of those

1055
01:03:51.320 --> 01:03:52.400
fans, they still have something to
go out there and see. But yeah,

1056
01:03:52.480 --> 01:03:55.440
Gara Crochet really go have a look
at some of his his starts.

1057
01:03:55.719 --> 01:04:00.840
He's been pretty epic so far,
really high strikeout rate. We all laugh

1058
01:04:00.880 --> 01:04:01.599
at the White Sox a bit at
the start of the season two when they

1059
01:04:01.639 --> 01:04:04.079
announced him as you know, opening
day starts here and he is going to

1060
01:04:04.079 --> 01:04:06.480
be a starter again, And you
know, this just seemed like another thing

1061
01:04:06.599 --> 01:04:10.360
that one of the worst run teams
in baseball was getting wrong. Like you

1062
01:04:10.440 --> 01:04:13.239
say, hadn't started in three years
and struggled with injuries. It seemed like

1063
01:04:13.320 --> 01:04:15.360
the worst idea possible. So I
guess credit to them, I mean more

1064
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:18.039
credit to him, but for letting
him flourish in a starting role where he

1065
01:04:18.119 --> 01:04:20.039
where he has been so good.
And maybe there is a bit of a

1066
01:04:20.119 --> 01:04:23.960
trend of you know, we see
so many starts has converted to relievers.

1067
01:04:24.039 --> 01:04:27.800
We have actually seen some relievers converted
to starters pretty successfully recently. I know

1068
01:04:27.880 --> 01:04:30.400
we joke a lot about him,
but Seph Lugo has been brilliant again this

1069
01:04:30.559 --> 01:04:32.719
year, seemingly staying healthy when he
couldn't really do it much as a reliever.

1070
01:04:33.599 --> 01:04:36.199
I think everyone assumed Hunter Green would
end up a reliever, and when

1071
01:04:36.199 --> 01:04:39.559
he's not throwing up on the back
of the mound. He's actually been a

1072
01:04:39.599 --> 01:04:42.559
really good starter, So you know, I think that's a good thing for

1073
01:04:42.599 --> 01:04:45.559
baseball, right when we can have
guys who can go the other way and

1074
01:04:45.599 --> 01:04:48.239
actually show they can go deeper into
games. Maybe it's easier when deeper into

1075
01:04:48.280 --> 01:04:51.280
games there's only five or six innings
now, But yeah, I think it's

1076
01:04:51.320 --> 01:04:54.559
great. The team's going to give
guys a chance to to lengthen out and

1077
01:04:54.639 --> 01:04:57.880
be impact starters. And who knows
Approche will be dealt with the deadline.

1078
01:04:57.880 --> 01:04:59.559
But if he, if he is, I think he's going to get them

1079
01:04:59.639 --> 01:05:02.039
kings Roun. Yeah, I think
the one that jumps to minus Tanner,

1080
01:05:02.079 --> 01:05:04.719
how can I think it was obviously
the season before last when he kind of

1081
01:05:04.760 --> 01:05:08.960
like switched back from being like he's
been a starter. Then they put him

1082
01:05:08.960 --> 01:05:11.199
as a reliever and I'll push him
back to a starter, and he's look

1083
01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:14.079
up to like phenomenal. Listen,
it is. It is amazing to see.

1084
01:05:14.159 --> 01:05:18.039
And yeah, like Crushet, maybe
even Bede or whatever with the with

1085
01:05:18.119 --> 01:05:21.199
the white socks for two of those
people that people could be want to do

1086
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:27.440
a king's ransom to get Okay,
that has been a fun hour a bit

1087
01:05:27.480 --> 01:05:31.280
of podcasting about baseball. Ben,
Tom, I'll ask the obvious question,

1088
01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:34.519
which the answer was probably know,
got any writing in the works? No?

1089
01:05:35.079 --> 01:05:39.400
Yes for me by a T shirt. I don't have to write buy

1090
01:05:39.480 --> 01:05:44.960
the T shirts obviously, as we
said, yeah, please do kind of

1091
01:05:45.079 --> 01:05:47.800
like if you want join us,
plenty of opportunities for you to write.

1092
01:05:47.840 --> 01:05:51.320
I'm gonna hopefully trying to get a
couple of analytics Peak pieces out in the

1093
01:05:51.400 --> 01:05:55.559
next few weeks as I have a
bit of spare time on my hands right

1094
01:05:55.639 --> 01:05:58.920
now. So look to that for
some things about some of the swing speed

1095
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:01.480
data which don't know if you know
it's available now, it's become available ont

1096
01:06:01.639 --> 01:06:05.480
cast. Really interest to see who's
swinging hard. I'm like, do you

1097
01:06:05.559 --> 01:06:08.760
want to, Tom, do you
want to guess who swings to the bat

1098
01:06:09.119 --> 01:06:13.280
the hardest on average in Major League
Baseball? Umm, it's probably Aaron Judge.

1099
01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:16.039
Isn't it close? Right? He
placed for the team, Jan Cardinal

1100
01:06:16.079 --> 01:06:20.320
or Stanton Oh? Is he healthy? He remained healthy. He's actually just

1101
01:06:20.360 --> 01:06:24.559
gone onto the IL. Do you
know what? I did see that the

1102
01:06:24.599 --> 01:06:27.159
other day and I was like,
surely is that his first trip? Because

1103
01:06:27.159 --> 01:06:29.920
he's done very well to get that
fire into the season. Yes, he

1104
01:06:29.960 --> 01:06:33.679
has, but I was going to
say we also have discussed the hit that

1105
01:06:33.880 --> 01:06:38.320
Santon had that led to a double
right before he popped his hamstring, when

1106
01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:42.079
Jared Knick and center field made the
worst attempt at catch I think I've ever

1107
01:06:42.119 --> 01:06:44.639
seen. I don't know if you
guys caught it and he's got turned around.

1108
01:06:44.840 --> 01:06:46.719
He got turned around the wrong way
completely by the ball almost as second

1109
01:06:46.760 --> 01:06:49.960
into it being in flight, ran
to the wall, then jumped into the

1110
01:06:50.039 --> 01:06:53.760
wall, but all importantly forgot to
even try and put his glove up,

1111
01:06:54.639 --> 01:06:57.320
fell to the dirt in a heat. That is a very bad explanation,

1112
01:06:57.480 --> 01:07:00.159
but please do look it up and
find it because it looks like someone he's

1113
01:07:00.199 --> 01:07:01.519
never plaid end field in his life. Yeah. I think it goes up

1114
01:07:01.559 --> 01:07:04.880
there with the Ozuna clip where Azuna
climbed up the fence to get the ball

1115
01:07:04.920 --> 01:07:08.480
and then realized it was landing kind
of like five foot in front of the

1116
01:07:08.519 --> 01:07:11.559
fence. Yes, as long as
lines, we're gonna watch it. But

1117
01:07:11.719 --> 01:07:15.800
yes, as always, please go
to the website to look at the amazing

1118
01:07:15.880 --> 01:07:19.239
articles that have been written by contributers. That's backflips and nerds Dot com these

1119
01:07:19.320 --> 01:07:25.239
followers on Twitter at Backflips, Underscore
Nerds, and look out for more podcasts

1120
01:07:25.360 --> 01:07:26.480
like this in the future.