Alex and Bobby discuss the anti-climactic end to the regular season and what they want to see out of the playoff vs. what they actually expect to happen. This week’s Three Up, Three Down features Congresspeople procrastinating, a dress down of rabid praise of the Rays, and a tapping of the “it’s not your money” sign.
Links:
Giants concessions workers reach tentative contract agreement
FiveThirtyEight polls congresspeople on, just like, baseball
Songs featured in this episode:
Yo La Tengo — “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House” • Shuggie Otis — “Strawberry Letter 23” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
BOBBY: This episode of Tipping Pitches is brought to you by Anchor. If you like this podcast and you wanna make your own, you need to hear about Anchor. It’s a free program filled with creation tools that allow you to record and edit your own podcast right from your own phone or computer. Anchor handles distribution for you so you can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and every other paid podcast hosting platform. You can even make money making podcast thru sponsorships like this one we’re reading right now with no minimum listenership. It’s everything you need all in one place so download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started.
[INTRO MUSIC]
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and and and being able to relay that message to Cora when you watch Kimbrel pitching and kind of help out so he wasn’t Tipping his Pitches. So Tipping Pitches, we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand, what Tipping Pitches it’s all about. It’s amazing. That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, the Major League Baseball, regular season, come to a close. I sit here with you, on Sunday evening, we’ve disrupted our normal recording schedule. Like we’re real podcasters or something like we’re real members of the Baseball Media. Pretty soon I’m gonna get that follow back from Jeff Passan, Ken Rosenthal, we’re doing live reaction pods, do an instant reacts. How’s it going?
ALEX: We don’t need that. If, if, if that’s what it takes to, to get that follow back from Ken Rosenthal–
BOBBY: [01:05]
ALEX: — I don’t want to react. You know?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: If love and Ken is, ahh wro–
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: –we’re gonna carry on with the podcast.
BOBBY: Uhm, I have a question for you to start this podcast as per usual.
ALEX: Naturally.
BOBBY: So game 163 did not come to four from any of the teams that were in the running to have to play a game 163, all fun was completely crushed for neutral observers. Happy for Yankees fans, I guess. I don’t know why I said that. I’m happy for Red Sox fans, I guess? I also don’t know why I’m saying that.
ALEX: Wow, canceled left and right.
BOBBY: Happy for Giants fan? Uhm–no joy here. Game 163–
ALEX: Keep digging.
BOBBY: Not, not happening. However, I had the question for you. Do you think that they had like a presenting sponsorship sold for game 163 just in case it happened? Obviously, they sell a sponsorship for each round of the playoffs. The wildcards will be like the wo–here’s this year’s wildcard presented by Doosan. Do you think that they had one for game 163? Or was just more of like a continuation of the regular season? Do you think that Rob Manfred had like a deal all mocked up ready for the Giants to blow it on the last day of the season, so you could have game 163 between the Dodgers and Giants presented by Halliburton?
ALEX: You didn’t think you needed to clean up at the end of the year. But here you are, game 163 presented by Tide. You know, like–
BOBBY: Made more of a mess than you were expecting to by blowing the late lead, “Bounty the quicker picker upper will present you game 163”.
ALEX: Accidentally rigged the lead, league so that only half the teams are competitive. We’ve been there.
BOBBY: That’s what, that was my question. So what do you think? Do you think that Rob had a plan for it? Do you think it was just gonna let that–
ALEX: Leave that money on the table.
BOBBY: He’s not known to be a guy who leaves money on the table very often —
ALEX: Right, I was supposed to say, do we think that Major League Baseball the Corporation was like, “Nah, we’ll just play it by year when it came to sponsorships”.
BOBBY: Uhm, I’d like to I’d like to open from the listeners who they think would present game 163. Uhm, please tag us on Twitter about ahh who is the sponsor for the hypothetical game 163 that never happened and why? Ahh, we’re going to quickly react to the final day of the regular season, then we’re going to do a very robust “Three Up, Three Down” that will be most of the, that will be most of this week’s podcast, ahh because we had a lot to talk about in the final week before playoffs started. Ahh before we do all of that I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley,
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[TRANSITION MUSIC 3:51]
BOBBY: Alex no game 163. I guess we have to preview the playoffs now, which kind of sucks. Uhm, we the dream scenario, I think I’ll speak for both of us. The dream scenario was Yankees lose, Red Sox lose, Mariners win, Blue Jays win. Four teams vying for two spots in the AL, Giants lose, Dodgers win. Two teams vying for the NL West to see which team has to go play the Cardinals in the NL wildcard. Literally none of that happened. So here I speak to you with an AL wildcard nightmare scenario that you laid out a few weeks ago. Yankees-Red Sox and an NL wildcard nightmare scenario that you came out weirdly in favor of two weeks ago, Cardinals-Dodgers. You were at Yankee Stadium today. Tell me about the vibe.
ALEX: I was there. It was rocking.
BOBBY: Uhmm.
ALEX: And–
BOBBY: It sounded, sounded live.
ALEX: It sounded like. Yeah, remarkably rocking for a game in which neither team scored until the bottom of the ninth inning.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And yet so a lot of fun, honestly and I remarked this to the friend that was with on the way over that Yankee Stadium may not be the best physical stadium like best ballpark.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But I do believe that it’s one of the best places to be to see a ballgame because of the fans because they are so into it as much as you and I may love roast Yankees fans, they know how to show out.
BOBBY: Yeah, I agree.
ALEX: It’s fun. It’s fun to be there in the in the environment. It’s also fun to be on the on the winning team there because I’ve seen many ahh, many a game there where the, my team wasn’t on the winning side.
BOBBY: Are you rooting for the Yankees?
ALEX: As much as one can. Roots for the Yankees.
BOBBY: Alex pivots to Cardinals in Yankee fandom on the podcast. Well, I didn’t expect to end it this soon. But you’ve had a nice run my friend. Uhm, it’s–
ALEX: You either ahh–
BOBBY: –podcast–
ALEX: –you’re the die hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: That how that works.
BOBBY: You either die an A’s fan or live long enough to see the age leave Oklahoma you become a Yankees fan.
ALEX: Oh, bleak stuff.
BOBBY: Uhm, it was a very good game. I did watch it in full as I did with all of the other games that had 163 and our wildcard implication. Uhm, I very quickly turned off the Blue Jays Orioles game because the Blue Jays absolutely hammered them into oblivion by the third inning and it was clear that they were going to lose. Uhm, but it was all moot. The Yankees game specifically felt like ahh, there was so much anticipation leading up to this they’re playing the race. They’re obviously rivals, they control their own destiny. But it was a real hurry up only to wait situation for eight innings. No runs, not many hits. Not a lot of real scoring opportunities even. And then, in the bottom of the ninth inning for a weird reason they pitched to Aaron Judge. To me, this is my, I was reading, uhm, I was reading the Tea Leaves, the competitive Tea Leaves of Kevin Cash, the Rays Manager. And I really thought they were like, we, doesn’t matter if we lose this game. So we might as well just pitch to Aaron Judge because of Kittredge who was pitching for the Rays at the time strikes out Aaron Judge and John Carlos [07:41] and back to back to keep the Yankees out of the playoffs. They will just completely break the franchise and that’s the Rays goal.
ALEX: Wow. So does that mean we were both briefly on Kevin Cash slash by extension the Rays side? Unwillingly–
BOBBY: No, no, I was I was also I wanted the Yankees to get into uhm, I’m officially and this is sad for our country. But this is great content. It’s like this is sad for the values of our podcast. But this is great content–
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I need the Yankees to advance a little bit further for the sake of RTC to just candidly.
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t even feel like the Yankees are the like public enemy number one of the podcast anymore.
BOBBY: No they’re not. Listeners will realize later in this podcast who public enemy number one is and ahh spoiler alert, it’s the team that the Yankees for playing Okay, we’ve spent plenty of time talking about that game. Ahh, I’m glad that you got to go see it and experienced that raucous environment. Maybe we can send you to one of the playoff games as a boots on the ground reporter with the Tipping Pitches–
ALEX: Uhm.
BOBBY: –budget. If they make the World Series, you know, we can just drop $5,000 on one ticket for you to go by yourself.
ALEX: That’s Baseball, one Baseball by Robert Manfred.
BOBBY: Yep, Uh-hmm. One Baseball that we can all access. Uhm so now that the playoff picture is set, I figure it’s not really constructive for us and our listeners for for us to break down every series or break down, uhm who we think the favorites aren’t necessarily but we might as well before we go to that robust “Three Up, Three Down” that I hinted at earlier, which was a lot of fun, which we recorded earlier today. We came back to record this segment. Uhm, I might, I might as well get you on record about who you think is gonna go to the World Series and when and also who you would prefer to go to the World Series and when. So, wha–ahh let’s do it, let’s do it. Predictions.
ALEX: All right. Well, earlier this week, we recorded a podcast episode with our friends over sports as a weapon, which in, in which this question was posed to all of us and I would feel somewhat like a fraud If I was to change my answer in the 48 hours. In which have reported–
BOBBY: In that small sample size–
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Changed your opinion on someone–
ALEX: Am am I gonna say, actually the white talks they’re getting bumped first, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah. Even though that’s definitely happening.
ALEX: I think it’s not. I–
BOBBY: Well now that you made that very compelling case.
ALEX: Right, yeah. Uhm, I have all the analytics behind me in that their team is very cool–
BOBBY: Yeah, and handsome.
ALEX: –and, and really handsome. And I like to look at them a lot.
BOBBY: Sure.
ALEX: And so as a result, I think that it’s their duty to advance beyond the first round, you know.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: I think it is going to be Dodgers–
BOBBY: Or Astros? You have to pick a team.
ALEX: I know, I know I should pick a team. I’m rooting for the, I honestly I’m rooting for the White Sox.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: I don’t know how confident I am in them actually doing that. Right, you said who we would like to see versus who we think will actually happen.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: I’d like to manifest the White Sox winning. I think there’s a very good chance the Astros just come through.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: See–seem all through the AL–
BOBBY: Feels that way.
ALEX: It’s unfortunate because you want to know what the last thing in the world I want to see is?
BOBBY: Dodgers-Astros rematch?
ALEX: Dodgers-Astros rematch.
BOBBY: Well, I’m glad you say that, because that’s my prediction. Ahh, for what I think will happen. Even though I know that the Dodgers have more of an uphill battle uhh given that they’re playing in the wildcard. I mean, once you advanced past that, it’s back to a level playing field. And I would choose the Dodgers to win that game against the Cardinals, maybe seven times out of 10, maybe six times out of 10. So I might as well just assume that it’s going to happen because that’s as close as we can get in the Baseball world to certainty. And that was basically the Dodgers winning percentage for this entire season. So uhm, every game going and I was like the doctors are gonna win because they are by far the best team. So I think that it will be Dodgers-Astros, I’m a little less convinced about the Astros half of it. They’re flying under the radar in terms of top to bottom lineup production. They are one of the best hitting teams in a long time, including the different iterations of the same Astros team, you know, like they are hitting as well as they ever have. I don’t see compelling evidence from the White Sox because, you know, they’ve been up on a lot of bad teams in the AL Central they’ve had some fits and starts in terms of looking like a dominant team. I agree with you that they are very likable, though I don’t think that I can fully get behind them because I don’t really want to see Tony La Russa be validated. And I don’t want to see that decision to hire him be validated. So ahh I’m picking Astros-Dodgers to go to the World Series. I think the Astros–
ALEX: I think the Astros are the ones who need to be validated in their strategy.
BOBBY: I just don’t think anybody would validate them if they want it. But I do think that people would valorize La Russa, if–
ALEX: Uhm.
BOBBY: –they want the roster. To be like they hired this hall of famer and he’s the one who dragged him over the top. He’s the one who brought him to the top of the mountain, you know there’s all of that just waiting to happen. What matchup do I want to see? I know what I don’t want to see. I don’t want to see the Rays get back to the World Championships–
ALEX: I know, I was about to say, you know what’s going to happen as we talk about a Dodgers-Astros rematch is the Giants in the Rays are going to get to the World Series and that might be the end of the podcast? But–
BOBBY: That’s my absolutely bottom–
ALEX: not actually sure–
BOBBY: –that–that’s my absolute bottom of the barrel right there–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –like Giants – Rays is absolute nightmare scenario which–
ALEX: We we love our job–
BOBBY: –gonna happens here on the podcast. We really do.
ALEX: Nah.
BOBBY: Just kidding, we love our Giants fans. Uhm, but I just I, I can’t–
ALEX: [14:22] haven’t mentioned our Rays fans.
BOBBY: Are, Is there anybody who listens to this podcast is a Rays fan? I actually think there are a couple called–
ALEX: [14:31]
BOBBY: –reached [14:33]. Uhm, call in and also Collin McHugh, who’s been on this podcast.
ALEX: There you go.
BOBBY: It literal tape of array. Uhm, no I, I think that I am rooting for in terms of likeability matchup, I agree that the White Sox are the most likable team but I don’t want to see La Russa. So I yes, Yankees? I guess Yankees to go on AL side. Yankees–
ALEX: What did I say?
BOBBY: I’m just–
ALEX: Die a hero?
BOBBY: –a guy. I’m just the TV ratings guy. I don’t think that the even the spoiler and the NL side of the bracket. Being Cardinals or Brewers. I don’t even think either those teams are particularly likable, to be honest.
ALEX: No, I don’t particularly like the Cardinals and I don’t particularly care about the Brewers.
BOBBY: Even though you have come out in defense of the Cardinals. Alright, so those, those are our picks. Uhm, I–It’s it’s a fool’s errand to try to predict who will win the World Series this early on on October 3, so I won’t make you do it. It’s not what we’d really do here. Ahh, I’m glad that we got together after we actually knew who was in the playoff picture. Ahh, and I’m glad that Baseball Twitter will absolutely eat itself. Like a wormhole during Red Sox-Yankees, AL wild card game, that’s going to be a nightmare. It’s going to be broadcast by One ESPN. So I look forward to the playoffs ending before they even started because the Baseball universe was itself whole.
ALEX: Can I just say, real quick, before we kick to “Three Up, Three Down”
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: I would like you, Bobby, and the listener, to imagine a scenario in which the Philadelphia Phillies make the playoffs. The Cincinnati Reds make the playoffs. The San Diego Padres, of whom, I think you and I both are our fans.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: The Cleveland Indians who 79-82
BOBBY: Do they really win 79? Wow two more games than the Mets.
ALEX: This is the reality that Major League Baseball once, this is ladies and gentlemen, expanded playoffs.
BOBBY: Yes, which has been a stated desire of the Owners, which they put into effect last year, given that they had the authority to do so and the Players Union signed off on it. I think that that is an astute point that you’re making that that would really have watered today down and it would have made you know, the Mariners would be in obviously, which would be cool. The Red Sox and Yankees would have been guaranteed to be in the Blue Jays would be in all of those teams would have been guaranteed to get a spot. But I think that it would have really watered today down and particularly for a team like the Mariners. So we haven’t spent a ton of time talking about this year. We haven’t even really given them their due in this here segment, for how close that they got and how electric that building has been for the last week plus. Uhm, I just don’t think that you want to make it in an expanded playoff version where more than half of the teams are making it at now what Mariners fans turn it down? No, should they turn it down? No. But like, I think that it just takes the air out of the balloon in a way that then sort of in a pernicious way reinforces some of the anti competitive behavior that we’ve seen from teams more and more over the last decade. It just makes trading away, you’re closer at the deadline in even more defensible move. It makes all of these things not running a payroll higher than 150 million, even more defensible, because then you can just say, look, the record speaks for itself, we made it into the playoffs. And from that point, it was at crapshoot. And it’s honestly hard to disarm that argument because it is kind of a crapshoot once you get to the playoffs. So 16 teams are making it, then people like you and me almost can’t even say anything to these GMs, because they’re giving themselves a shot. They’re getting into the playoffs, but they’re not giving themselves an earnest shot at actually beating the best teams in Baseball once they get there.
ALEX: If it meant that the A’s got into the playoffs, I would see what people were saying. But since that’s not the case, frankly, I can’t get behind it. It’s these greedy Owners who just want a little bit more.
BOBBY: You’re like a member of Congress who’s like fielding different pitches from lobbyists. You’re like, what’s in it for me from this industry?
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Maybe I’ll pass legislation for the other industry.
ALEX: Right, spinning the wheel constantly looking back at the audience, ahh seeing what they think. How much pro owners to owner? Is too pro owner.
BOBBY: All right, well, there’s not too much to be confused as pro owner sentiment in this upcoming “Three Up, Three Down”, which we already recorded. Uhm, and are going to go to in just a minute, but I wanted to shout out really quickly. You mentioned we’re on sports as a weapon that’s going to be out later this week. Ahh, I also appeared on a socialist podcast called Auxiliary Statements To Do a special Baseball focused episode. I believe that will–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I believe that will be out Tuesday or potentially Wednesday. So you know, if you want to hear us talking elsewhere, not just under normal platforms with just each other. Ahh cue those episodes up in your podcast feed this week. We’ll obviously be sharing it on Twitter if you need a more direct place to find it. So let’s take a quick break and then we’ll come back “Three Up, Three Down”.
[Transition Music]
[19:10]
BOBBY: All right, Alex. It’s now time for the final vaunted “Three Up, Three Down” of the 2021 regular season. Are you ready for this?
ALEX: I am ready for this. I think so, although it didn’t occur to me that this is the last one. So I feel like all my picks need to really be, I don’t know, popping off.
BOBBY: Much like the Los Angeles Dodgers who were trying to chase down the San Francisco Giants over the last six months of the whole regular season. Since the Giants have been leading that Division for the whole year. Uhm, you gotta bring in, you gotta bring it if you want to keep pace.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Do you wanna start with Up or Down?
ALEX: Let’s uh, let’s start with Up this week. I’m feeling good, I’m in a good mood.
BOBBY: Okay, okay. Why don’t you kick us off then if you’re in the good mood.
ALEX: It’s early for me. First Up for me this week. Is a tweet, as much of our lists are, are often composed of–
BOBBY: Man.
ALEX: –just just tweets.
BOBBY: How do you think this show would play out If Twitter didn’t exist? I think it would be worse? Is this the only thing that Twitter makes better?
ALEX: I think so. It’s Twitter is against all odds, a a crucial part of our preparation for this podcast.
BOBBY: That says more about how broken our brains are than it does about how effective Twitter is in creating good podcasts.
ALEX: I think so. Yeah.
BOBBY: Uhh, the–“Up, Three Down” brought to you by Jack Dorsey. Thanks, Jack.
ALEX: The Oakland A’s were officially mathematically eliminated from postseason contention this past week. And that’s not my Up, obviously, because that brings me deep sadness. Uhm, but–
BOBBY: Although you’ve expressed in the past, how you don’t like actually watching your own team in the playoffs because you feel bad, because you just want all the guys to win. You just feel bad when any of the teams lose.
ALEX: It’s true. It’s also excruciating to watch–
BOBBY: –Oh my God, it’s terrible–
ALEX: –my own team in in the playoffs? It’s just–
BOBBY: Don’t recommended at all–
ALEX: You think you, you think you want it? And then you get there, and you say no.
BOBBY: No, the only time you should ever want your team to make the Playoffs is when you think they’re actually going to win the World Series because otherwise it’s just pain.
ALEX: Exactly. You might be familiar with the Twitter account on scorecards–
BOBBY: Yeah, uh-hmm.
ALEX: –which for the for the, ahh for the listener who’s not aware is essentially a Twitter account that I mean, it’s kind of what it sounds like it’s a it’s a scorecard, It’s a report card on each Umpires performance accuracy in a given game. And the person who does this account does God’s work, and–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –I really don’t know how, I mean this must take an insane amount of work to do this for every Umpire, every single day. But there was one that that caught my eye this past week, and it it happened to catch one Chris Bassitt’s eye as well. In fact, the scorecard was the game that Chris Bassitt pitched in.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: This umpire was Adam Hamari, who was absolutely next level, and how good he was at calling balls and strikes. He had two missed calls the whole game. Chris Bassitt, quote tweeted this scorecard and said, “Honestly, this is absolutely absurd for how bad I was spraying the ball yesterday. Two missed calls all day is elite.”
BOBBY: Wow. What a role reversal.
ALEX: And I yeah, I just gotta say, I appreciate Chris Bassitt coming out doing the heel turn and saying, “No, you know what? Give credit where credit’s due.” And I think, I think we should see more of that. I’ve you know, I I have long thought that Umpires do get a bit of a bad rap because you you only really noticed notice them when they’re bad. And when they’re good. You think well, that’s what they’re supposed to do.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But I can respect a pitcher, recognizing that this is a person who holds their fate in their hands, saying “No, you know what? Great job, you should reach out today. We could all use that positive reinforcement at work.
BOBBY: Alex, since you brought up Umpires This is not in my “Three Up, Three Down”. I kind of forgot to write this down in my notes at all. But this would not be an appropriate send off to the 2021 season if we did not–
ALEX: Uhmm.
BOBBY: –also give an appropriate send off to a legend of the game. A piece of history every day he took the field. One “Cowboy” Joe West, who is retiring after the 2021 Baseball season and will not be invited to Umpire any playoff games. He is not, perhaps because of things like MLB scorecard. Joe West is not going to be invited to Umpire 2021 playoffs. So he is going to ride off into the sunset, having not qualified, missed a postseason berth. And I just have to say, I think he’s officially become one of the characters of the game. I’ve now referenced two different titles off of the album Diamond Dreams and I don’t think you rea–realized either one.
ALEX: Nope, I don’t think so. Do you think that he’s retiring so that he can have more time to record these Spoken Word Country Albums? It’s like–
BOBBY: On ironically, yes.
ALEX: –do you think he’s got another one coming down the pipeline?
BOBBY: I do, I think that. Because this album, I don’t know if it was created in 2020. But it was posted to Spotify in 2020. So that leads me to believe and the copyright is 2020 Kent Goodson Music. So that leads me to believe that he was you know, he was starting to see greener pastures. He was starting to to imagine himself in a post umpiring career.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: They say that once you start not loving the grind that’s when you should retire. And it sounds like you didn’t love the grind anymore.
ALEX: Right. Was that so is it fair to say that maybe that was ahh, that’s like Joe West’s reputation? Like he needed to work through some stuff creatively–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –in order to in order to get to a more elevated point in his artistic career he he really needed to uhh, you know, is going to be divisive. Obviously it wasn’t going to be for everyone but there was going to be a lot of creative ideas bouncing around there. And uhh–
BOBBY: This is Joe West’s–
ALEX: –I think he’s gonna–
BOBBY: –reputation–
ALEX: –come out the other side better for it–
BOBBY: –but he doesn’t have a Taylor Swift 1989, Red. No, there’s no other album. So I’m waiting, I’m waiting on his his Folklore and his Evermore This is honestly closer to his Folklore though, because he’s just like, low, even keel, whole Spoken Word Album. Doesn’t–
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: –get to hype doesn’t get to up doesn’t get to down has some real true emotions in this out. Nobody knows what we’re talking about unless they listened to the episode where we’ve discovered Joe West a Spoken Word Country Album.
ALEX: Right–
BOBBY: With a titles such as “A Thank You to our Military” and “The Men in Blue” song tracks.
ALEX: Does that make his umpiring career, just his reputation? You know?
BOBBY: Okay, should I actually do my first Up now?
ALEX: I think you should, yeah.
BOBBY: My first up this week is a follow up to a story that we’ve been talking about for two or three weeks now, which is the #FairBall wristbands that have been worn by Minor Leaguers. Uhm, in the Phillies and Mets organization as protest of unfair Minor League working conditions. Uhm, just wanted to throw it on my Up this week because a couple more Major Leaguers wore them during games, Jason Heyward was seen wearing one and so it was José Ramírez. These are high profile MLB stars. And then just today, as we record this on Sunday, Skip Schumacher who is a coach with the San Diego Padres, former MLB player. Ahh, he was seen wearing one of the dugout on the final day of the regular season. So certainly seems to becoming a bit of, certainly seems to be becoming a bit of a thing, Alex, the protests that is catching on within Baseball’s ranks.
ALEX: it’s picking up steam.
BOBBY: What makes you think that? Perhaps there’s an obvious right and wrong in this debate.
ALEX: Well, we’re gonna have to hear both sides, right? We haven’t heard from MLB on why the the players should be paid a sub minimum wage.
BOBBY: No, you’re right. Actually, there are several Supreme Court briefings about why they think that. But you’re right. I think that we should let them speak their truth in a safe space. Here on this podcast, they come on the show, and they open the books and they explain to us why they can’t afford to pay Minor Leaguers more. Do you, do you support that endeavor?
ALEX: I do. What if we have, we could do like a roundtable, you know, like ahh–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –primary debate.
BOBBY: Rob Manfred. Who else? Which owner? I like Jim Crane. We could get him on.
ALEX: Jim Crane is a good one.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: He actually built housing for his Minor Leaguers. So maybe he would, by the end decide with us. What do you think?
ALEX: Yeah, maybe the Ricketts. We get the Ricketts up in here.
BOBBY: Good one. All of them? We just say the Ricketts, which one–which one actually runs the team now? Is it Ted, Ted Ricketts?
ALEX: I thought it was Tom?
BOBBY: Tom? Who’s Ted?
ALEX: I think Ted’s the–
BOBBY: You know why I confused it with Ted?
ALEX: Why?
BOBBY: Because he looks like Ted Cruz. That was–
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: –actually with the association my brain was making.
ALEX: Yes, spitting image.
BOBBY: Oh, the–the other guy that I was thinking of his brother is Todd? The other brother is Pete and the sister is Laura. I think collectively they run the team but I think that Tom is the control person. You know, there has to be a control person for it. I mean–
ALEX: He’s he’s the one who actually shows up at, uhh at public events.
BOBBY: Wearing Cubs Quarter-Zips, pouring cold water on children’s heads.
ALEX: Yeah. Personally evicting people surrounding the, the area of Wrigley Field.
BOBBY: He just brings around scotch tape sticking on eviction notices on any door that he sees that looks kind of like someone might need to get out of there. It’s a hobby–
ALEX: Right
BOBBY: –you know. And look, everybody needs hobbies. It’s been a hard 18 months. That’s my Up this week. You’re Up next.
ALEX: All right. Next Up for me. The Congressional Baseball game. Was this past week.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: And–
BOBBY: [30:37] at the hot corner.
ALEX: Town right. See you had Pelosi do out there. Unfortunately, she she was on the sidelines. Uhm, as per usual–
BOBBY: Not contributing to winning in any way shape or form.
ALEX: Just letting the rest of them fight. Uhm, I actually don’t, I don’t care about the Congressional Baseball game. Uhm, If–
BOBBY: Who won?
ALEX: –you, if you do more power, more power to you.
BOBBY: Who won?
ALEX: Uhh, The–
BOBBY: That was a high scoring affair, barn burner–
ALEX: Yeah, The Republicans won 13 to 12. The Democrats took an early two zero lead, but I suppose it makes sense that Democrats holding a lead has never really been their strong suit.
BOBBY: Was this game gerrymandered? Or did they actually play with the same amount of players on the field?
ALEX: Well, they it was only seven innings. So–
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: –it does seem like maybe Rob Manfred had a hand in that. I’m not, I I couldn’t be sure. But the reason I bring this up is because our beloved friends over 538, who never miss an opportunity to–
BOBBY: I mean, do you consider Nate Silver like the Godfather of why you got into media, right?
ALEX: I do–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –yes. He’s my primary understanding of ahh, of politics. Right? Now anything’s possible. Ahh, th–the intrepid reporters over a 538, ahh took this opportunity to reach out to each of the Congress people who are who made up the Democratic and Republican teams to ask them about actual issues in Baseball. Actual conversations that you and I talk about here.
BOBBY: Wow. Cool.
ALEX: Is this cool? I am, a decent amount of them responded, it was 19 overall. Ahh, I just gotta say, first off, I’m pretty sure we’re in the midst of trying to avoid a government shutdown and pass a $3.5 trillion Bill. So I respect that these ahh Congress people said, “No, I got time for this, I have time to talk about the universal DH–
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: –and seven inning doubleheaders.”
BOBBY: They didn’t even ask them about like, serious issues. They asked them about like rule changes.
ALEX: It was rule changes, yeah. So I’ll run through some of the answers real quick. Most of them are relatively uninteresting–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –but there was a, there was there was one brief quote that caught my eye.
BOBBY: Ilhan Omar’s, like sixty feet, six inches is what it has to be. That’s what it’s been, and that what it will continue to be.
ALEX: Uh-hmm, yeah. Well, not surprisingly, a good amount of them. Ahh, were resistant to a lot of the rule changes that have been implemented. I, I didn’t go through and look through every respondent, but of the ones quoted, I think it was a majority just you know, of older white men.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Which I think about tracks. Sort of a skewed sample 68% oppose the universal DH. Uhm I think we should primary, all of those people. Uhh–
BOBBY: On the contrary–
ALEX: –six–
BOBBY: –on the contrary, who are those people? My throat a dollars their way?
ALEX: Hmm, uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I definitely feel good about blindly pledging my support to 68% of people who support the universal DH in Congress.
ALEX: Open up act blue and win red, right? You know, we’re equal opportunity givers over here. Ahh, majority dislike seven inning doubleheaders. Uhm, majority don’t like extra innings. With the runner on second base. These are all pretty, pretty standard things and a vast majority 89% said no to robot umpires.
BOBBY: Because they want to keep the jobs.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: All these people are job creators.
ALEX: Well, and these are the, you know this is backing the blue of baseball.
BOBBY: Right. What, what’s next–
ALEX: –replace you.
BOBBY: We’re gonna replace cops with robots? NYPD? Has that robot dog working out?
ALEX: The quote that caught my eye was from one Democratic Representative Tom Malinowski.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: Whose name I didn’t know before reading this article.
BOBBY: Right. So many Congress people, like 450 of them, so many–
ALEX: Literally–
BOBBY: –more than Baseball players.
ALEX: It’s quote in arguing against the introduction of robot Umpires into the game is maybe one of the more salient ones I’ve heard. Even though I think it’s a little pernicious. I think it’s also one that will ahh, will resonate with people.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: And his response is that “you can’t kick dirt on a balls and strikes machine”. “If there’s no Umpire there with, who are you going to argue with?”
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: “Who are you going to show up when a call doesn’t go your way?” You know, when you’re frustrated at yourself for taking a pitch on the outside corner that you maybe shouldn’t have. You got I have someone to projected that anger on to others–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –what are you just going to do? Go back to the dugout?
BOBBY: I know. The Yankees who take more close pitches than any team in baseball and whine about it more than any other team in Baseball and by a matter of 10. They need human umpires because they need someone to divert the blame to.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Cuz otherwise it’s just gonna be what are you gonna yell into the void and the void is just gonna echo right back to you because the void happens to be a robot.
ALEX: I mean, I love the idea that we need those humans there, ahh just so we can shit on them a little bit. You know, it’s almost like, it’s almost like we can’t automate wage worker–
BOBBY: I just gonna say.
ALEX: –I need to yell at someone when–
BOBBY: Waiters–
ALEX: –my McDonald’s orders wrong.
BOBBY: That’s tougher, though. That’s tougher.
ALEX: You’re right.
BOBBY: McDonald’s workers, way less power in the equation than Joe West.
ALEX: So true. This is a this is coming from the same man, though, who at the outset of this interview said “I’m politics liberal, ut at Baseball conservative”–
BOBBY: He.
ALEX: So–
BOBBY: Tim Anderson?
ALEX: No. I mean, they asked him about backflips as well. of which ahh, which 12 out of 19 of the respondents approved of. There were some people, some liberals who said, “You know what? You want to act like you’ve been there before.”
BOBBY: Yeah. Someone has to be the Joe Manchin of Baseball.
ALEX: It’s so true. We’re not talking enough about this.
BOBBY: No one’s filling that void. Uhm, wow, this was enlightening. Thank you for doing the research here. reading this 538.
ALEX: I mean, yeah reading the article, shoutout to the Daniel [37:20] research team over at 538. For for bringing this to our attention. This is this is true. I’m a single voter issue now. And it’s on whether or not my representative supports the universal DH.
BOBBY: Okay, my next Up this week is Fernando Tatís Jr. hit a baseball out of Dodger Stadium, Alex. He hit it out of the whole stadium in left field. This has only been done by five other people. According to research displayed on the broadcast of the San Diego Padres on Valley Sports. Uhm Willie Stargell did it twice, in 1969 and 1973. Ahh, Mike Piazza they have the projected distances really isn’t it’s just mind blowing. Mike Piazza, Mark McGwire, Giancarlo Stanton did in 2015, you might remember, we have high def of that one. Uhm, Stargell’s longest one was projected to go 506 feet. I don’t even know how you how you project that it was 1969.
ALEX: Did the–do just like run out there and grab where it landed?
BOBBY: Didn’t leave like a divot in the ground? I don’t really know. Either way–
ALEX: There ask spectators, “Where do you, where do you think that landed?–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –and measured from there.
BOBBY: Yeah. Uh-huh. This is 1969, not 1869. But they did have TV. Uhm, Tatís says when projective by statcast. A very much more reliable projection system. 467 feet, it bounced off the roof over the bleachers in left field, which is that’s a shot bro. That’s a, he put a jolt into that one, as we say in the business. And this is not actually out of Dodger Stadium. There are concessions and stuff behind there. So there are people back there who were like, why is the Baseball coming over here? Did somebody throw it at us?
ALEX: Right now I’m over here to avoid any potential interaction with a Baseball game.
BOBBY: Yeah. uhm, man, I wish I was there to see that because apparently the crowd reaction was just like, how did this guy do this? And they don’t like Tatís. Dodgers fans, let me tell you, he’s a villain to them.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Coz not only has he played really well against them, not only is he on an extensible future rival even though that raffle read didn’t actually turn out to be much in 2021 because the Dodgers are too good and the Padres collapse. He’s like taking a little bit of shine away from the Dodgers. You know, I think that a lot of people when they thought about the NL West, they thought about all the incredible talent, stacking the Dodgers roster, and then Tatís came in there and he threw a complete wrinkle in there and he’s like, you know, the best show in Baseball more or less, give or take in Ohtani or a Vlad Guerrero. And I think that his fans resent that. Just in my experience from having more Ned Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey to at Dodger Stadium. To Dodger Stadium, uhm you get your fair share of boos. I was in the bathroom once wearing my Tatis’ jersey and someone walked in with ahh two of his friends. And he turned to his two friends and he said, Oh, we got a Tatis Jr. jersey in here? In the bathroom, I was like, yeah man Tatis’ fans got a pee too. I don’t know what to tell you.
ALEX: Oh my God. My man’s wants segregated bathrooms for di–different Baseball fandoms.
BOBBY: Yeah, I don’t really know what he was advocating for. That’s a single issue voter topic. Uhm, but that’s an absolute incredible highlight. If you haven’t seen it, I really encourage you to go watch it. Because it just, it looks like reality bends for a little bit. Fortunately it doesn’t break in the world doesn’t end but it does bend when he hits this.
ALEX: Uhh, Padres shortstop Ha-seong Kim told reporters, “it was a monster home run. This is my 42nd time seeing it, but it still amazes me every time and frankly, shoot same every single time that man puts one out of the park. I just I have to stop what I’m doing and and admire for a second.”
BOBBY: What is your last Up this week?
ALEX: My last Up this week is a follow up on something that we have been discussing over the last few weeks regarding the concession workers at Oracle Park, who this past week averted a strike by reaching a deal ahh with the Giant subcontractor for food services, bone appetit. They reached a tentative deal that would afford them a raise and better health care.
BOBBY: This is also my third Up.
ALEX: Hell yeah. I’m I’m reading from the reporting from Alex Schultz over at SFGATE who’s been following this closely. And uhh, this is a win, this is a huge win. It ahh, just it’s a display of what actual labor solidarity and labor power or recognition of you know your power as a worker. It’s it’s what that actually looks like in action. Uhm, the deal will guarantee workers are retroactive $3 an hour raise, uhm a $1.50 an hour in hazard pay and significant improvements to their health care and pension plans. So largely a win on most of the things that they were looking for.
BOBBY: Yeah, uhm, some workers will get up to a $7 an hour raise according to the Unite Here local to Twitter account. Uhm, COVID safety measures were drastically improved that was the first thing that they came to an agreement on because that was the most pressing issue as to why they felt the need to vote yes on the strike so that it could be authorized if it needed to be used because I think up to 20 workers or something like 18 workers are tested positive for COVID because of the relaxed COVID restrictions in Oracle Park. Uhm, because mostly because fans not wearing masks and you know you and I were at Oracle Park like two weeks after this and the mask usage was better than I was expecting it to be I think in large part because of this like you can actually affect change they were announcing more over the loudspeakers there were more signs everywhere and uhm, I think that fans were taking it more seriously because of that. It’s it’s only natural that if you continue to remind people and you say “hey we’re gonna have to kick you out of this game or you’re not going to be able to purchase this item if you don’t wear your mask properly”. These are necessary reminders in order to protect workers this uhm contract was ratified 99.8% voted yes on it. So that’s that’s amazing I mean that’s what solidarity and action looks like.
ALEX: Yeah, I I don’t have much more to add to this, this is a rare win in the labor landscape. So, but i’m i’m looking forward hopefully to two more of these in the coming months and and years.
BOBBY: Yes, here’s hoping that they become less rare. I’m waiting for the biggest win of all which is, well actually the biggest one of all is when Amazon votes yes on the union but this is a Baseball podcast so the biggest one of all is when Minor Leaguers finally vote yes on their union. Uhm, so we go to Down, can I kick it off this week?
ALEX: Please, by all means.
BOBBY: We just spent a bit talking about the San Diego Padres, uhm young shortstop superstar Fernando Tatís Jr. I’d like to talk about the person who stands about 15 feet to the right of him when he actually plays shortstop when Tatís play shortstop and that his third baseman, Manny Machado, who you will remember Alex, was one of the most coveted free agents of our lifetime, just two seasons ago. And the slow offseason, the concoction of teams not wanting to spend a lot of money and Manny Machado being obviously good enough to get a lot of money and willing to wait for it. Meant that he is free agency drug all the way through January. I Think perhaps he signed in January, maybe early February for 10 years $300 million with the San Diego Padres. This was universally lauded as a great signing because Manny Machado is phenomenal. He is one of the best third baseman in MLB history. Through every age season that he has played through. No–nobody thinks that he is going to retire as the greatest third baseman in MLB history. But he certainly has shown that he is worth every penny of that contract. And more, considering how much he did not get paid with the Orioles, considering how well he’s played for the Padres, on the field, how much he’s done relationship wise with Tatís off the field those guys out in a fight about three weeks ago. But I really think that that’s the kind of thing that you do with someone who you have a close relationship with and you’re experiencing frustrating times with you argue, you get over it, you’ll be fine. This was a very long preamble to say that my Down this week is I saw a lot of people being like time to trade Machado. Everything is blowing up time to trade Machado. Now perhaps some of those people were uhm not acting in earnest because they were maybe Mets fans who were hoping that they would trade Machado to the Mets. But it is the latest installment in the trend, which is celebrate the contract when it’s signed, because you brought the star in. And then two years later forget about how big of an achievement it was to bring the star in because you’re looking at numbers on a balance sheet. It’s not sensible, it doesn’t hold up to logic doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, he is still one of the best third baseman in the league, he’s still worth every penny of that contract. And if you’re panicking now about payroll, there are other places to look like Eric Hosmer. I mean, I know that they’re, they’re also trying to unload him and nobody wants him. So the thinking is, we’ll trade Manny Machado because we could actually get a team to take him. And we would actually get something back in return. I don’t actually think the Padres are thinking any of this. But that’s what fans seem to be thinking when they float these theories. But like the whole point of paying money so that you can have good players, so don’t get rid of the good players who you’re paying money to. It just doesn’t make any sense. All of the worst moves that we’ve seen in the last five years have been teams just wanted to salary them. Why the Cleveland trade Lindor? Why did the Rockies trade Arenado? Why, you know, you could go on and on and on and on. And it’s just like, when are we going to learn as fans collectively? It’s not your money, if you like the player, and you like watching him, his contract is not a burden to you. Because you don’t have to pay it you don’t have to come up with that money. So Truly, I cannot say in strong enough terms. Just let it go it’s not your money. Enjoy watching Manny Machado because he is a delight to watch. Even if he got paid $60 million a year because it still wouldn’t be your money.
ALEX: Well this kind of perfectly ties into my first Down this week, as we as we reach the end of the regular season as the Padres in an epic nosedive since the beginning of August. At their at their height, right they’ve had the effectively the worst record in Baseball since then I believe since like August 10. Meanwhile, the Rays are sprinting ahead in the AL East with the what I believe is their winningest team in in their history. And I know that we’ve talked about this before, but I am positive that we are heading towards a cycle of discussions around how spending isn’t worth it. Because look at how the Padres turned out. They poured all this money into that team and they couldn’t make it work when the Rays who were just you know scrappy old team scraping by on pennies were able to put together a playoff juggernaut. I’m already seeing stuff like this being being written about how well you know you gotta you can’t hate on the Rays. You gotta hand it to them. They know what they’re doing. No one ever said they didn’t know what they were doing.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: They know exactly what they’re doing.
BOBBY: Too well.
ALEX: And and they’re and they’re good at it. I’m I think you and I would our our beef with the Rays is not that we think that people give them too much credit, right? Or at least my that’s not my beef with the Rays. I think we could maybe tone it down a little bit. They’re not, I don’t think they deserve more credit than any other successful Baseball team. But the Rays, very good, very good Scouting Department, very good Development Department. My beef with them is that they’re often used as the as Exhibit A on why you don’t need to actually pay players to to win to find success. Which, once again, as you just mentioned so eloquently, it’s not your money, doesn’t matter. Rea–it really doesn’t matter. The Padres can be very good at what they do, and have completely fallen apart this season. Just as much as the Rays can be very good at what they do, despite not playing–not paying their their players commensurate salaries.
BOBBY: Might be put the raises on multiple levels, I’d love to break it down for you as quickly as I can. So we don’t waste too much time here. I I will never insinuate that they are not better at player development than basically every other team not named the Dodgers. I will never insinuate that they’re not better at player scouting than every team, including the Dodgers. I think that is sort of a Catch22 to talk about those two things. Because the fact that they are better at those things, is the reason I think that they get too much credit. You know, it it’s hard to explain, they get so much credit. And they get so much praise from National Writers like Passan, Rosenthal, whoever it is, I don’t, it’s not even worth singling out those two guys, but I did it anyway, because those are the biggest Reporters in Baseball. And they frequently praised the Rays. But every National Writer does it every single person, including a lot of our faves, including a lot of the quant people, the analytical people, the people who have worked at fangraphs, or who currently work at fangraphs. They rightfully praise the Rays for being the best at those two things because those two things are very hard to be good at. What’s easier to be good at in terms of achievability, but harder to convince your organization to do? Spend more money. And I think that they have the Rays by being so good at those two other things and getting so close on the back of just those two things. They have proven that they’re they deserve more criticism than any other team in the league, because they’ve squandered more opportunities to win more titles. If you have the best front office, and you have the best player development, and you don’t win a World Series, you deserve even more criticism than the teams that don’t have those two things and can’t figure out how to get them. Like if the only thing holding you back from winning a World Series is spending more to get players that you consider that are slightly out of your budget, but that you probably know are better. Like do you think if you got Eric Neander on this pod right now and you asked him who’s a better third baseman, Manny Machado or Yandy Díaz? Do you think he would say Yandi Díaz? No, he would say Yandy Díaz costs a fraction of what Manny Machado costs. And it’s that type of stuff that makes me want to criticize the Rays even more, because of course they have enough money to spend a little bit more. Of course they do, of course they do. But it’s their principle to not do that. And they fallen short because of it. And if they win the World Series this year, maybe I will reassess this specific strain of criticism. But I just saw them get to the World Series last year against their foil, the team who is almost as good a player who is just as good at Player Development, and almost as good at Player Scouting, and also happens to spend three times as much as they do, and they got beat. They just got outplayed by the Dodgers, so sorry, until I see it work. It doesn’t work. Until I see Billy Beane win a World Series. Guess what? Moneyball is just a way to save money. It’s not actually a way to compete.
ALEX: I like saving money, though. It’ll trickle down to me eventually. The fan.
BOBBY: Free tickets? Oh, wait, no, wait, they’re increasing season tickets by 40%.
ALEX: Right, uh-hmm.
BOBBY: All that money saves that they could charge you more money.
ALEX: Yeah, almost like there’s no correlation there. Uhmm, okay–
BOBBY: Where did the money go?
ALEX: What is what is uhh, what is next Down for you?
BOBBY: Ahh next Down for me of, this is quick one, Th–the Washington Nationals–
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: –hosted, and I’m reading from a Dan Steinberg tweet. Who is a who works for The Washington Post, he’s a Digital Sports Editor over there. He says “Big game tonight, the Nats will host the inaugural DEA Night with a pregame ceremony with students from Operation Engage a comprehensive program that targets the top drug threat identified by the local DEA while continuing to focus on drug trafficking, violence and crime.” DEA Night Alex, you know, the DEA, beyond reproach. worthy of celebration, definitely has had not had a negative effect on every Metropolitan area in the United States, including DC, especially DC.
ALEX: What’s the impetus behind that?
BOBBY: I don’t know, such an unforced error by the Nats.
ALEX: I mean, would they did the DEA just give them some money to do this?–
BOBBY: Or like–
ALEX: –we need? We need a we need an improvement of our ahh, our brand identity. So you know what we should do is get the Washington Nationals to host an Appreciation Night for us.
BOBBY: I just I can’t I can’t rationalize it. It it’s hard to even make jokes about it, it’s just so out of the blue. Usually nights like this are on the schedule at the beginning of the year and people talk about it. But this one I guess just fell under the radar. Whether that was because it was a late addition or whether it was just because the Nationals are so bad that no one was paying attention to the schedule that closely. Uhm, but I mean, in the year 2021, if one calendar year after you’ve put so much effort, allegedly put so much effort into reforming your organization, not the Nat but Major League Baseball as a whole, into understanding how Rays plays into our society in the 21st century, in the different ways that Law Enforcement enforce this racist system, to then also just be like, DEA Night, the DEA has done so much good for this community. Completely unexamined behavior, Alex, completely unexamined.
ALEX: If there’s one thing I think Major League Baseball has engaged in good faith with. It’s the presence of racism in this country. I really took their word for it last summer. And this is shocking to me truly shocking.
BOBBY: Your, I can see the shock, roll shock waves rolling across to your face. Uhm, okay, what is what is your next Down?
ALEX: Next Down is another brand whose public image is in need of a bit of a revamp. That’s one New York Metropolitans. Who, who have hired a PR group to retool the team’s image, to ahh, to boost engagement with younger more diverse fan bases at the intersection of Pop Culture and Digital Technologies, because the problem with the Mets is that their commercials aren’t good enough. I mean, is that they need to do better on social media–
BOBBY: I think their numbers not not up enough these–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –court.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: Sandy Alderson said, we have an enormous opportunity in front of us.
BOBBY: I love that they tried out Sandy Alderson to talk about literally everything under the sun that he doesn’t know about.
ALEX: Yeah, I know.
BOBBY: It’s just like, would you like to go on National Television and make an asset of yourself again? And he’s like, “Yes, sir. May I have another?”
ALEX: Yeah. Uhh we have an opportunity to both excite existing fans, and entice new ones with with the additional expertise and resources of range forefront and based design the PR firms as we make the New York Mets one of the most iconic teams in all of sport. New York Mets already pretty storied history.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Pretty iconic New York team.
BOBBY: It’s not like the–
ALEX: Uhm–
BOBBY: –Mets struggle to have fans. It’s that the bands are being shit on all the time.
ALEX: Maybe the problem isn’t the public’s perception of you. Maybe it’s the stuff you’re actually doing.
BOBBY: Yes, yes, this is a very good point, this is what I was gonna say, this is such a modern capitalism story. Don’t actually change the action, just to spend all of your money on PR–
ALEX: Yeah–
BOBBY: –so that people don’t–
ALEX: –spending it–
BOBBY: –don’t think that the action was that bad anymore. Because it’s way harder to unroot every thing that causes the action to begin with. So you can just blow all of this money on PR consulting firms, which is they–consulting firm for just like legal money laundering, by the way–
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: –it’s a whole different podcast, but maybe we can talk about that at some point in the future. You just spent all that money, so you don’t have to pay it in taxes. You just give it to a PR company.
ALEX: Yeah, the Mets which have had no shortage of ahh PR slip ups, to put it lightly over the last couple years. Uhm, I you know, and I recall, when Steve Cohen purchased the team, there’s a lot of discussion about how he really wanted to remake the organization’s culture.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Right. It was you know, they were going to do this overhaul, they’re going to get rid of uhm the, the people from the Wilpon’s era, and you’re now you’re going to start new. This signals to me like ahh maybe that, maybe that’s not going so well.
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: That journey.
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: So you need ahh, you need someone to to throw some roses on there. I saw a tweet going around this this past week from Ken Rosenthal that said uhm, one, one thing that may really entice prospective General Managers to want to come to the Mets is that–
BOBBY: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: –they have, you know–
BOBBY: Two draft picks.
ALEX: –two first round picks because they didn’t sign Kumar Rocker and they have another potential couple potential compensation picks after–
BOBBY: Yeah, second round, yeah.
ALEX: –get Syndergaard and uhh–
BOBBY: Conforto–
ALEX: –Conforto don’t sign their qualifying offers. To which I say the thing that is going to entice or push away potential candidates for these roles has absolutely nothing to do with the number of draft picks they get. Out is not like, that’s not a calculus that most people are are making if they want to actually attract good General Managers, they would signal that they have a a positive culture.
BOBBY: Yeah, no, you’re right. I, I thought you were gonna say you saw that tweet going around and you were like, why is Steve Cohen wasting all this money on PR when Ken Rosenthal is just doing it for him for free?
ALEX: Let’s go, top row.
BOBBY: All right, last–
ALEX: –just one of the regular season. Gotta get them all in.
BOBBY: Can I do my last Down.
ALEX: Yes, you can.
BOBBY: So I went to a Dodgers game last night is my final Baseball game of the 2021 season. Though I am considering if the Dodgers make it to the World Series I’ve ever been to a World Series before. I don’t know if my heart could take it If the Mets actually made the World Series saw just go to a neutral World Series. Uhm, we’ll see if I you know have to sell a kidney to make it to Dodger Stadium for a World Series game. But anyway, I went to Dodger Stadium last night, ahh I had a lovely time. It was beautiful night, Dodgers played very well. But the Down for me this week was that California is requiring later, later in October, California will require all Stadiums, Sports Stadiums to require proof of vaccination, or a negative test within 72 hours prior to the game in order to enter a game. I think starting midway through October, so this will affect the Dodgers should they make it to the playoffs so they make it that far. So over the PA system, they came they announced that in about like the fifth or sixth inning and a men two rows behind me about 15 seats to the left. He stood up and he just booed. He just booed the vaccination requirement. He was like I’m out. I’m out here at this game. And I’m gonna publicly boo a vaccination requirement with all these–
ALEX: I’m going to–
BOBBY: –with all these people around me–
ALEX: Yeah, I’m gonna stand up and spray my ahh, my my body’s water droplets–
BOBBY: My distaste–
ALEX: –my breath all over–
BOBBY: –my physical distaste for this vaccination requirement. And it was just it was very unsettling. To be honest, it was like, oh, not everybody did their due diligence before coming to this Dodgers game. There’s a guy who didn’t and I’ve met there are a lot more of them. I I I posted about this on Twitter and uhm a couple other people said that they had a similar experience with with announcements about vaccination requirements at sporting events, Dodgers Dodger Stadium elsewhere, etc. And it just, it just upsets me, you know, Dodgers fans, frequently standing up to do things that I don’t like like booing vaccination requirements, the wave–
ALEX: Disliking Fernando Tatís Jr.–
BOBBY: Disliking Fernando Tatis Jr., come on Dodgers fans, Come on. It’s not a Dodgers’ problem obviously, this is a–
ALEX: Human problem?
BOBBY: That is my final Down this week. Did you do all three of yours?
ALEX: No, I still have one more.
BOBBY: Okay, close it out.
ALEX: And frankly, it’s irrelevant at this point. By the time this this episode drops, which we are obviously recording this on Sunday, the final day of regular season Baseball. This is about a game between the Red Sox and the Yankees this past week.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Both of them, put on the maybe the worst inning of Baseball I’ve seen, ever? It was pretty incredible. I it was actually a joy to watch as someone who didn’t have a vested interest in the team because I kind of wanted. I think the A’s have not been eliminated yet at this point. So I was rooting for them both to lose and boy were they both trying their best. Ahh, in the bottom of the seventh, the Yankees were trying to hold on when all of a sudden DJ LeMahieu, Joey Gallo dropped two cans of corn to easy pop flies in the same at bat. One Kyle Schwarber got got three lives and and took advantage. Ahh, LeMahieu had an opportunity to catch up pop up in foul territory that was right by third base. Then Schwarber lifted one two center which Gallo glided in to drop, which allowed the Red Sox to to ultimately take the lead. The Red Sox very clearly felt felt bad about that, because they return to the favor. The very next half inning in the top of the eighth kick started by one ahh, when Tyler weighed on the Yankees who ahh stole second and decided not to slide because why would you slide stealing? Uhm, and was tagged out by about three feet on a play that he most likely would have been safe on. If you he had slid. So uhh so the Yankees gave him a little bit and then the Red Sox said you know what you guys you guys dropped some balls we’re gonna drop some right back Aaron Judge hits a pop up to third baseman Bobby Dalbec. Who, as you may be able to guess now proceeds to drop it then swings at a foul tip for strike three.
BOBBY: Oh yeah.
ALEX: Which which Christian Va–Christian Vazquez drops on the transfer. And they just say he didn’t catch it, which is just a whole other thing.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I don’t really think we’re at the end of this podcast. It’s been a long one. I don’t want to go into like, reviewable plays and not but everyone watching this game said wow, they got that call wrong. The the Yankees really got away with one there because it should have been out, Judge should have been out. He catches the ball, Vazquez catches the ball, moves the glove to his bare hand. And again, like I said drops along the transfer. Joe West was doing his best to impact as much Baseball as he could. In in the little time he had left by saying “no Vasquez that’s you just didn’t catch the foul tip.” Which I respect.
BOBBY: Yeah, last for one for one final terrible call out for Joe West.
ALEX: Of course Aaron Judge back on his third chance hits the go ahead double which would ultimately win the Yankees the game. Is really enjoyable, frankly, to watch them both struggle. I was watching this with a a Yankee fan. And I think it was probably less enjoyable for him. But this is the kind of energy I’m hoping to see from these teams in the playoffs.
BOBBY: So So what is the Down? Just that they’re bad at Baseball?
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t know, this, I guess this is the fourth Up for me. Uhh–
BOBBY: It supposed to be things that either spark joy or take joy away and it sounds like this spark joy despite the fact that they suck at baseball.
ALEX: Right. Exactly.
BOBBY: I guess the Down is that fundamentals Alex–
ALEX: Those good fundies weren’t there.
BOBBY: They’re being left out of the game. These kids these days, they don’t respect fundamentals. Uhm, that game was absolute tire fire. Uhm, speaking of things these kids, these days don’t respect. Uhm, our listeners time, Alex, we’ve gone quite long here on “Three Up, Three Down”. Let’s wrap it up. Ahh, if you have a team that has definitely made the playoffs by now a time of recording. Uhm, if you have a team that you’re rooting for in the playoffs, best of luck to you. If you want to talk about your anxieties about them, your assuredness that they are definitely going to win the 2021 World Series, you can drop us a line at tippingpitchespod@gmail.com, tipping_pitches on Twitter. You can call into our voicemail, if you feel the need to express it verbally. That will be more cathartic for you, 785-422-5881. If you want to buy some Tipping Pitches merch to wear in October. if anybody gets on National TV on a Fox broadcast, wearing any Tipping Pitches merch, that person will be invited onto the podcast to discuss the experience. So, do something that’s going to get you on the broadcast is my advice. Uhm, legal legal and safe things that we’ll get to in the broadcast. Uhm, that’s pretty much it, Alex, anything any sage words of wisdom for our listeners as we head into October?
ALEX: My heart goes out to all of the, all of the fans whose teams are playing. Good luck. Most of you will end up very sad.
BOBBY: Sorry, sorry for the harsh reality. Oh–
ALEX: Oh man. Uhh–yeah, I don’t know. Go Blue Jays.
BOBBY: True.
ALEX: Go, White Sox. Go, mar–, go uhh Mariners–
BOBBY: Even those teams are probably not in it. But that’s okay. Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to everybody next Monday.
[Music 1:09:03]
[Outro 1:09:23]
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello everybody, I’m Alex Rodriguez, Tipping Pitches, Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most Tipping Pitches. So we’ll see you next week. See ya.
Transcriptionist: Vernon Bryann Casil
Editor: Krizia Marrie Casil
Tipping Pitches 
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