Alex and Bobby rejoice over news of Cowboy Joe West’s new podcast, then pick apart Phil Castellini’s comments to disgruntled Reds fans, the Pirates’ apparent lack of financial woes, and Dave Kaval’s bold claims about the future payroll of the Oakland A’s, wrapping it up with some ideas for some new NFTs for MLB’s most shining moments.
Links:
Phil Castellini’s comments on 700WLW
The Pirates’ payroll is covered by gate receipts
Dave Kaval says the A’s just need a new stadium to start spending
Shakeia Taylor on how MLB can actually honor Jackie Robinson’s legacy
Songs featured in this episode:
Pet Shop Boys — “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” • Bright Eyes — “Devil Town” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
[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? That’s amazing! That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex started on May 2, we have some competition. The Tipping Pitches Podcasts has a new competitor coming into the world of baseball media.
ALEX: Oh my God.
BOBBY: Are you, are you aware of this breaking news?
ALEX: I don’t think so.
BOBBY: It broke much earlier today. But at last, you have told me you are off Twitter for today, which is great. Off work and off Twitter, living a healthy life.
ALEX: What do I have to prepare myself for?
BOBBY: I’m just going to read you the quote from the press release first.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: “I hope the audience will find my experiences and the people I crossed paths with over the last 44 years, interesting as I have. I’m looking forward to sharing my stories and talking with old friends about the game that we love.” Alex, that is from the press release for 5460: The Joe West Podcast.
ALEX: What?!
BOBBY: Beginning on May 2.
ALEX: What?!
BOBBY: I can’t believe you didn’t see this.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Wow. You should stay off Twitter more often, it is good for the podcast.
ALEX: It is good for the podcast, right? You can break this to me.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly.
ALEX: Wow!
BOBBY: The Joe West Podcast, Alex. Can you think of anybody better to give a podcast to?
ALEX: I mean, I thought this was a new like [1:35].
BOBBY: Oh.
ALEX: You know?
BOBBY: No, he’s already done that, like five or six times.
ALEX: Right, right. And I was gonna say, I think we’ve got this, we have his market down already.
BOBBY: No, this is, this is groundbreaking. This is new, this is disruption.
ALEX: This was probably the most logical pivot for him, right? I mean, I, maybe, I would have–
BOBBY: Yes?
ALEX: –put money on getting back into the studio, but I guess he’s there in a different way, right?
BOBBY: I can tell it’s like the TV studio- oh and like then I realized you were talking about the–
ALEX: Recording studio.
BOBBY: –recording studio. Yeah. Uhm, I mean, I guess, I saw a lot of people making the joke that they give microphones to the umpires now and Joe West feels left out. So he just [2:14] and gets a podcast. Do you think this podcast is going to be, be good? Do you think it’s going to be a good podcast?
ALEX: So you said it’s the 5460 podcasts?
BOBBY: I don’t really understand why those are the numbers but that is what it’s called.
ALEX: Okay. Has he given any context as to the content of–
BOBBY: Oh!
ALEX: –the show, any first guest?
BOBBY: Oh, here I’ve read further down in the press release. That’s how many games that he umpired in his career, 5,460
ALEX: Gotcha!
BOBBY: That feels like it doesn’t need to be in the title of the podcast.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: As a, as a Podcast Producer, just given a little free note from my man, Joe.
ALEX: So are there any like guests that he’s teasing? Is it just him shooting the shit with other umpires?
BOBBY: KMOX is Mike Clairborne, currently in his 16th year on the Cardinals radio broadcast will host the show with West. That’s all we know.
ALEX: I mean, that feels like the perfect recipe, right? It’s just give–
BOBBY: Cardinals and Joe West.
ALEX: I wasn’t even going that route. I was just, just give him a mic and let him do his thing, right? Like you don’t–
BOBBY: Sure!
ALEX: –don’t box the guy in.
BOBBY: Yeah. Just the play by play. Just keep it moving.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: Let him be the color. level with me right now. Would you co host this podcast with Joe West? Don’t not leave me, don’t leave me. But you just do this and the other free time that you have?
ALEX: Is this, is this a weekly venture?
BOBBY: I don’t know.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: That’s not a very good press release. I don’t know a ton about the podcast.
ALEX: I think it might be a fun bit for a little while. I think you would probably start to get sick of my shit after a few episodes.
BOBBY: He would get sick of your shit.
ALEX: Well, because–
BOBBY: Right. I don’t think that Joe West is going to do bits.
ALEX: Right. And like it’s–
BOBBY: That’s kind of what we do.
ALEX: And it’s his show, right? So like you kind of have to cater to him. So if you’re just sitting there snickering as he talks about the, the 2951st–
BOBBY: Game that he umpired.
ALEX: –game that he umpired.
BOBBY: Right, he was at first for that one.
ALEX: He was yeah. I’d, I’d respect it if it was like a rundown of every game he’s done.
BOBBY: Just to recap pod?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: 5,460. All right. We are now tuning in to Episode 3722. This one is about Brewers-Pirates 2007, Joe take it away!
ALEX: I really, I, again, not to, not to go too far on this, on this bit. I mean, maybe we’re kind of past that point with Joe West. But like, I’m more interested in his musical career than his umpiring career, frankly. Like we’ve seen his umpiring career. play out. I’m sure that he has stories with which he will regale the dozens of listeners.
BOBBY: Dozens. Just for context, Alex, he has 65 monthly listeners on pu- on Spotify. Cowboy Joe West, 65 monthly listeners. Do you think the podcast will do better or worse than that?
ALEX: It has to do better than that.
BOBBY: You think? Who is the audience for this? Real question. Are you going to subscribe to this? You’ve been known to subscribe to things that don’t actually appeal to you–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –for content.
ALEX: Just so that I’m, I’m, I, I like to stay abreast of what’s going on, on the other side of the baseball world. So I may tune in for episode one, just again, out of sheer curiosity.
BOBBY: I’m going to wait for, for the first 10 to come out and then I’m going to binge them. You know, Netflix style.
ALEX: That’s, good call.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. I asked you if there’s anybody that you’d rather see, be gifted a podcast in the greater baseball world.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Is there anybody that you would want to have a podcast less than Joe West? Is he in the bottom five of people whose podcast you would, you were like waking up in the morning? Or sitting straight up in bed in the middle of the night being like I need this person to have a podcast. Is Joe West in the final five on planet Earth?
ALEX: Right, like most umpires I think, well, here’s the thing, actually.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Yes. I’m like talking myself into–
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: –it now.
BOBBY: Here comes the Zag.
ALEX: I think most umpires probably are, are not enough of a divisive personality to actually be able to host something like this, right? That’s–
BOBBY: Debate with Joe West.
ALEX: This is part of his charm, right? Is that she is a turnoff to almost everyone he meets, right? I mean, the fear now, right–
BOBBY: Sure!
ALEX: –is if we give him this platform, what’s next?
BOBBY: And it’s good? Even if it’s not.
ALEX: Like does it, if even if it’s feel like–
BOBBY: Oh that, parlay it into like a Senate run–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –in Tennessee or something? I don’t know–
ALEX: Yes. exactly.
BOBBY: –where he is. Uhm, yeah, I have that fear, he’s pretty old though. So he would have to really hit it off quickly. Although we’ve seen you know, podcasting gives people a lot of power. Not us yet, but some people.
ALEX: Wow, Joe West for Senate.
BOBBY: The last five people you’d want to have a podcast in the baseball world, go first. I got three right here. Curt Schilling, just wrote them down just for shits and gigs. Curt Schilling, Rob Manfred, Gerrit Cole. Don’t wanna listen to that voice for an hour.
ALEX: Gerrit Cole. Right. It’s not even about the content. It’s just an aesthetic choice.
BOBBY: No. I don’t think he would say anything interesting. And then you just be listening to Gerrit Cole. And his way through not talking about spider tack for an hour.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah. I mean, there’s you could probably dislike, half of the broadcaster’s in the league right now. I don’t think they need any more of a platform than they already have, right? As soon as they stop talking–
BOBBY: [7:59] call in–
ALEX: –about Baseball. When things are going to get real dicey real quick.
BOBBY: We opened this week talking about canceled culture. And we’re gonna close this week. Talking about cancel [8:10]–
ALEX: How, how soon does do you think that comes up on his–
BOBBY: On Joe West pod?
ALEX: –on Joe West Podcast? Is that like an E three?
BOBBY: That’s a phenomenal question. I think he’s going to stick to sports. Although he has a song on his spoken word album called Boys in Blue. So yeah, actually, you’re right. I think within the first 10, in the first, in the first 10 that I’ve binge, it’ll be in there.
ALEX: Right. He has–
BOBBY: It’ll be about how Baseball has changed too much.
ALEX –he’s been mired in enough controversy that I think he will bring up how he was silenced. Or, or how the left attempted to silence him, following, I don’t know, support for Trump almost feels too easy, right?
BOBBY: It’ll, he’ll use like rule changes as a way in and then he’ll start talking about how the times are changing too quickly. And then he’ll weirdly start talking about like, Alyssa Nakken and be like, I just don’t agree with it.
ALEX: Right. I just–
BOBBY: I manage to jump to like Trump.
ALEX: I just think it you know, look, I, I like Alyssa. Alyssa seems great. I have no problem with women in sports. I just think they should be giving the job to the most qualified person. That’s it right there. That’s, There you go. Joe, we’re giving away segments.
BOBBY: Shadow producers, Bobby and Alex, on the Joe West Podcast.
ALEX: Would you, would you have them on? On–
BOBBY: On our podcast?
ALEX: –on here? Yes.
BOBBY: Do you mean like in his promotional cycle, when he’s going around be like launching this new podcasts?
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: What I have him on. Yeah, I think I would. Yeah. But I wouldn’t tell him who we are.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And presumably whoever is producing this podcast based on the press release.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Would not do the, the hard work of listening to our podcast to determine whether or not we’re a good outlet for him.
ALEX: Right. Exactly. It’s the, it’s kind of the Eric Andre style, right? Like book, book your celebrities knowing–
BOBBY: Don’t tell him to bid.
ALEX: –that they have no clue what’s going. Hey, we’re a Baseball Podcast, we talk about–
BOBBY: Just two guys. We love the game–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –you know.
ALEX: Grew up on the game–
BOBBY: Just like you we love the game. I wouldn’t even not, like first question, what would you ask? Hey, Joe, congrats on 5460. Did you retire early because you felt the pressure of Cancel Culture closing in on you?
ALEX: Actually, my first question would be where to find that, his last album?
BOBBY: Because there’s so true.
ALEX: because there’s, because there’s one on Spotify.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: But there is one that was released.
BOBBY: On his, ins- unsecure website.
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: Http–
ALEX: Like two, Like two decades ago.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: This is, This is Joe West Lake peak MLB, peak of his umpiring career.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And he said, I have something else to say.
BOBBY: This is like Joe West’s Wu Tang album that got brought by Shkreli.
ALEX: Exactly, exactly!
BOBBY: Some huge baseball fan is out there just owning the Joe West album. And none of us, none of us can hear it.
ALEX: Yeah. If, if you the listener, own the Joe West album, or know someone who does, please, please upload that shit to mediafire. Zip file, send it our way.
BOBBY: We just get like a really shady attachment, you know, like alarm bells go off on her laptop trying to download it.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I think that Joe West is more of an analog guy. Probably has physical copies of that bad boy.
ALEX: I, well, I actually, I, I came so close. Because if you go to discogs.com, which they are, are purveyors of, of new and used vinyls. I believe there is maybe–
BOBBY: [11:37]
ALEX: –one.
BOBBY: [11:38]
ALEX: There’s one or two for sale. But they were like for 70 bucks. And I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.
BOBBY: What? You didn’t tell me about this.
ALEX: Well, this was a while ago, this was a while ago.
BOBBY: What kind of- this was before we were raking in that sweet cash.
ALEX: So at this, we might–
BOBBY: Sign off, I sign off on [11:57] that.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: This is how Alex and I do, do business. You know, before we send a tweet with a photo of us. Before we make a purchase, it’s just we do a little hand signal of making a check sign off.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I sign off on purchasing the Joe West album for any sum of money.
ALEX: I, see, you’re saying this to me right now. And I’m taking it seriously.
BOBBY: Because why, why wouldn’t you be taking it seriously?
ALEX: Alright, he’re we go!
BOBBY: We’re buying the Joe West album. We’re talking about it next week on the podcast. But good luck to Joe West. It’s, it’s tough out here launching–
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: –a new pod.
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: Lot of competition. A lot of fish in the sea. We’ll see if he can cut through it.
ALEX: Yeah, scooped up by The Athletic in six months–
BOBBY: How quickly–
ALEX: –booking it!
BOBBY: –for he has more subscribers than us? First day? Second day? Never?
ALEX: But what’s his retention rate, really?
BOBBY: Exactly, exactly. Third quartile, Joe West, talk to me then. Didn’t expect this Joe West segment to go so long. But here we are, 15 minutes in. We have a bunch of stuff to talk about. It just a gift dropped on our doorstep, from the lovely son of the Reds owner, as well as some some gift wrapped quotes from Dave Cavill, our favorite men. And, and a few other small items. But before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[13:09]
[Music Theme]
BOBBY: Alex, it feels like now that the baseball season is back. We have one segment per week, where it’s just kind of a little bit of a speed round, a round up of all of the dumb stuff that management has done in the past week. Because throughout the lockout, that was kind of the whole pod, the entire thing was, how are negotiations going? How stupid is management being this week? How much do they really not want to play a baseball season? But we’re trying to contain that into a smaller segment. Maybe at the beginning, maybe at the middle of an episode. Today, after 20 minutes of Joe West podcast talk.
ALEX: Only could do it one way.
BOBBY: Uhm, my question to you before we even start doing that this week is, do you think we should name this segment? Do we, should we just, should we just tie it up into one nice, neat little package and give it a name every week? And just, just do this, whenever it needs to be done?
ALEX: Right. I mean, my only fear there is, is what if the content isn’t there, right? But–
BOBBY: We don’t have to commit to it every week. We just you know we do it here and there.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But we call it something so [14:22]–
ALEX: Thus, thus far it has been a weekly occurrence that some owner shows that are asked.
BOBBY: Exactly right. Here’s what I would pitch the name of this segment to be. We call it, Where Ya Gonna Go? Because you’re already listening to the podcast, Where Ya Gonna Go?
ALEX: Where are you going today?
BOBBY: You’re gonna listen to us talk about Phil Castellini.
ALEX: Who else is going to do it? Who else is going to give it to you?
BOBBY: Who else is going to talk for 20 minutes about the son of Bob Castellini? The carrot God, play the music!
SONG: He’s got carrots, and lettuce, and mushrooms porcini, vegetable King Bob Castellini.
BOBBY: Phil Castellini, you know, really getting Reds fans in the mood for baseball this season.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know Greater Cincinnati area coming off, coming off the Bengals losing in the Super Bowl heartbreaking loss. Bright future for Joe Burrow and those guys. And now we head into baseball season. So happy to have baseball back and it’s so great. Great American ballpark lovely place to see a game. Heading into the season. This is what Phil Castellini has to ask Reds fans.
PHIL: People who say, look, faith is earned 15 years of ownership. They haven’t won to the extent that we would like and so you had my faith, but you’ve lost it. Why should that fan maintain trusted me?
REDS FAN: Well, where are you going to go? Let’s start there. I mean, sell–
PHIL: So that’s–
REDS FAN: –the team to who? I mean–
PHIL: Well–
REDS FAN: –that’s the other thing. I mean, if you want to have this debate, you know. If, if, if you want to look at what would you do with this team to have it be more profitable? Make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else.
PHIL: And so be careful what you ask for, you know, I think we’re doing the best we can do with the resources. We’re no more pleased with the results in the fans. I’m not sitting here saying anybody should be, I’m not polishing any trophies in the office right now. And that’s what we’re here to do. But you know, the bottom line is, and I do think we’ve had to shift the discipline. We’ve tried a lot of things that didn’t work. And they came this close to working and did not nobody’s gonna tell me if–
REDS FAN: You try it. Yeah, yeah, I get it.
PHIL: So I think we’ve learned from those things. And trust me, Nick is, is a, is a, he is a guy on a mission. And he is a bull in a china shop that has his way to do it. And that ways to grow your own.
ALEX: This is on Cincinnati Reds, Home Opening Day.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: Home opener for them. Where are you going to go?
BOBBY: I would characterize that as just a bonafide threat.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: He just got up there.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: And he threatened the fans.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: I mean, he was laughing his way through it. But, but that’s a legitimate threat. I’ll move the team if you don’t stop complaining. Talk about take your ball and go home.
ALEX: Seriously, owners are–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –there.
BOBBY: It’s not- there it goes, there it goes. We’re less than two weeks into the baseball season, everybody. It’s not often that I sympathize with the job that Rob Manfred has to do. Because he is, I would have to imagine compensated very well. He chose this. He had to make many choices along the way to become the Baseball Commissioner. As he is pretty often reminded us that he left a very lucrative job in law to be the Baseball Commissioner. Nobody fucking cares. So it’s not often that I sympathize with Rob. But when an owner goes out, and does this at home on Opening Day for their organization, I’m like, what is Rob even supposed to do? Like these guys are his bosses. Why would you say that? Why would you say that on a radio broadcast?
ALEX: Because here’s the thing is, he’s right, right? Like, what are, what are fans going to do? He, Phil Castellini understands the power dynamics at play here. And really sucks to hear them say the quiet part out loud. But at the end of the day, the, the choices are watch Cincinnati Reds baseball, or don’t watch Cincinnati Reds baseball, right? And he is sitting there saying you can support us or not. But we’re going to run the team the way that we would like to run the team. We’re doing it in the way that we think is the best. Now whether or not that is true or whether or not that’s actually good for the organization as a whole is another thing. Whether or not that actually puts a good product on the field. But like, again, he’s not, he’s not wrong.
BOBBY: No, he’s not wrong. But I think the thing is that, well, first of all, what this reveals to me is that Phil Castellini, is, is very online, because this man is worth hundreds of millions of dollars by inheriting a produce empire.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Vegetables, fruits, that sort of thing. As we all know, I mean, as many Tipping Pitches listeners have contributed to the proliferation of the knowledge of and he is still somehow mad enough that he’s like, we could sit here and have this debate all day long. I’m getting it left and right. It’s just like whining about people complaining about the team being bad. My dude, you just traded everybody, the second you had the chance.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like he’s even hang on to anyone other than Joey Votto just for sentiment. Your mileage may vary. I think it’s pretty funny, but it could also be pretty existential. How little of a difference there really is between this attitude and any other tanking attitude. Because what are the Reds doing they’re just trying to be bad right now. Lower payroll, and pocket some extra cash and hope that the prospects turn the franchise around in a few years. How different is that then? Name a team. The Orioles, how different is that than what the Cubs and the Astros did? It just might not work out. How different is it than the Diamondbacks? But not every, you know, VP of the team or whatever Phil Castellini’s inherited title is because his dad built a carrot empire. Not every VP of the team goes out and actually says this. At the first, literally the first chance that they get.
ALEX: Right. Asked, asked about what fans were losing their faith in the team should think about ownership. This was his response, this was the top of mind was, “Fuck you! Pay me!”
BOBBY: Yeah, man. I mean, we haven’t even gotten to the fact that he had a chance. They gave this man a shot to absolve himself. Say, sorry–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –Scott caught up in the heated moment, you know.
ALEX: Walking back a little bit.
BOBBY: Yeah, we’re working really hard on the inside here. And we hear a lot of criticism. And that criticism is fair. But here’s my perspective. That’s what he could have said, here’s what he did say, whi- while by the way, for context, he’s standing on the field, the team is taking batting practice behind him. We are mere hours before the home opener. And he is being interviewed, and this is what he says:
SPEAKER 1: I don’t want to put you in a tough spot here. But some comments from earlier this morning on the radio or making their rounds on social media. I was just going to try to give you a platform to respond to kind of what you said earlier today. Because I think some fans are taking it the wrong way possibly or feeling like they’re rubbed the wrong way.
SPEAKER 2: Okay, which, you have to be more specific.
SPEAKER 1: Just saying that, you know, what else are they going to do?
SPEAKER 2: Well, the, the answer is, are you going to abandon being a Reds fan? Are you going to abandon following this team? We haven’t abandoned it. We haven’t abandoned investing in the team and in the community. So the, the, the point is, how about everybody just settle down and celebrate and cheer for the team? You can, you can hate on us all you want. We’re not going anywhere. We haven’t abandoned our commitment to winning and investing in this franchise and in this community. So the point is, stay tuned and be a fan, celebrate these guys and look what they did [22:05] and come out here and celebrate that today. So whenever the message was heard, that, that what I mean is, stay loyal to your team and the players that give you 110%
BOBBY: Stay loyal Alex, you’re feeling that a little bit. You feel a loyal to the A’s these days.
ALEX: Not these days, frankly. But maybe I should, right? Because if they abandon the team–
BOBBY: We’re gonna–
ALEX: –don’t answer that, don’t answer that question.
BOBBY: Please. We’re gonna get to that later.
ALEX: Just an incredible double down.
BOBBY: Oh, I mean, he hit the bingo card, dawg.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: In one fell swoop, he hit every single ownership talking point.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It was kind of a masterclass–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –for being honest.
ALEX: Kind of, kind of respect the fact that he said, whatever message you guys heard, I want to clarify, it’s exactly that!
BOBBY: It’s so good. I love that the state of baseball ownership is such that you can just, you can vaguely wave at these things that the public know about. And then just be done with your comment. You don’t have to expound upon it at all. In the first quote that we played, he’s talking about, it would be more profitable to move the team. Like so many people have made that threat that we just have a general societal understanding of what that even means. The Reds don’t have a city that they’re going to move to, they not gonna move the team!
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And if they do, where are they moving it to that’s so much more profitable than Cincinnati? How smaller market are we really talking here? Like, we’re all right in Cincinnati.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Okay, you’re doing okay with your TV deals. They like sports in Ohio. You’re doing all right with your national cable deals. Like it’s gonna be okay. Just build a casino in the river, outside [23:44]–
ALEX: [23:44]
BOBBY: –park, riverboat Casino. And then in the second quote, just using those buds- buzzwords of we’re not going anywhere. We’re investing in the team and the community. Sure!
ALEX: Yeah. Where?
BOBBY: Yeah. Where are the receipts? How are you invested of the community? Say more? Keep going. If I’m the reporter there, just like–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –say more about that, sir.
ALEX: Right. I’m keeping the mic right there.
BOBBY: Just leave it an awkward amount of silence. Do you think Phil, Phil Castillini will be invited on the Joe West podcast?
ALEX: I hope, can you imagine that conversation?
BOBBY: That’d be really good. Be really good.
ALEX: Can you imagine Joe West, joining Reds ownership?
BOBBY: I mean, I feel like he was probably, he was probably cashing in by the end there. That’s tenure, you know?
ALEX: Yes!
BOBBY: 44 years of raises.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Cost of Living raises. He’s doing alright.
ALEX: Joe West is doing quite well for himself.
BOBBY: We can’t go back to–
ALEX: I know, I know.
BOBBY: –Joe West, too much Joe West talk. Anything else to say about the Phil Castellino? Before we move on to another bumbling NL central ownership group?
ALEX: I, I want to read you a counterpoint, Bobby.
BOBBY: Oh!
ALEX: Real quick. Because I know we’ve spent, we spent a lot of time bashing.
BOBBY: Please bring me into the marketplace of ideas with you.
ALEX: But, have you thought about this that what If it’s time to call a truce? This–
BOBBY: I’m open to the idea.
ALEX: –this is the idea put forth by, by, by Phil Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Castellini’s V fans needs to stop. This is a day after this books.
BOBBY: Wow. Going for an armistice.
ALEX: Each side knows the other side fields.
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: Each has expressed itself clearly. We spent the offseason firing spitballs at each other, time to turn the page.
BOBBY: Firing spit balls is an interesting way of saying trading away all of the best players and the people who make and the players who make people fans.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I love how you snuck a little bad take dramatic greeting out me.
ALEX: Oh, oh, of course!
BOBBY: You know, back door here.
ALEX: He goes on and says the rhetoric flamed a new Tuesday doesn’t actually, I, please would you like to quote? Would you like to quote Phil? Paul? What did he say?
BOBBY: I thought he’s name is Phil?
ALEX: Did I call him Phil?
BOBBY: You did call him Phil the first time.
ALEX: Oh my goodness.
BOBBY: Whatever we’re leaving it in, keep it on!
ALEX: It’s fine!
BOBBY: Keep it rollin’.
ALEX: It’s fine. It’s fine. He says you can debate the quality of the sorry. Phil Castillini did ultimately through Cincinnati Reds PR. Come out and apologize [26:10]–
BOBBY: If you call it a charm.
ALEX: –for, for his comments. He says you can debate the quality of the sorry, but what’s the point? The whole move the team narrative was created by the heathen media.
BOBBY: Oooh!
ALEX: That’s–
BOBBY: Wow. Are we the heathen media? I’d like to be the heathen media. That’s kind of like what we’re striving for if we’re being honest.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s what Joe West will be calling us by the end of the interview that we did. That joke was too good to take the Stevie Berkhout we’re just leave it in.
ALEX: I, again, there’s no real point in here. This is, this is the start of his column in which he kind of goes on to talk about the Reds and others, other pieces of news in Cincinnati sports media. He says it’s not your responsibility to change the current sell the team sentiments. I’m just suggesting you cool it. Point made, yeah? Point made.
BOBBY: Everybody, everybody’s just been nicer to each other. This guy has it all wrong. If you’re a local sports columnist, you do not want things to simmer down. This is content.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Phil or Paul. whatever your name is. Paul, Mr. Dona- Donahue, Donaghy, Daugherty, Daugherty. We’re doing good. We are doing good, long weekend. You want the controversy! You want the arguing! This just tells me that Paul Daugherty? Got it!
ALEX: Yep, yep!
BOBBY: This tells me that he doesn’t do radio.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Because the radio people are probably eating–
ALEX: Eating it up!
BOBBY: –they’re like Phil, come on my show. Phil, come on Tipping Pitches.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: We’ll play him the jingle when he comes in. We’ll play him the whole song when he goes out. Alright, can we talk about the the Nutting family?
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Let’s talk about the Nutting family, Alex. You, you sent me an article, claims that the Pirates paid for their entire payroll just by selling hotdogs. Can you expound upon that? Can you share your research?
ALEX: Yeah, so this comes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The reporter is Mark Belko. Although it seems that this was the product of a years long attempts to get these records. So a part of the–
BOBBY: Let’s go!
ALEX: –a part of the–
BOBBY: The Voya.
ALEX: –a part of the Pirates–
BOBBY: Democracy dies in darkness.
ALEX: –rental agreement for PNC Park, is that they, they have to, I guess collect these records and give them to the city? Question mark.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Make sense?
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: If you’re going to–
BOBBY: If you’re going to do a little racketeering you got to keep a paper trail.
ALEX: Right. The Pirates for their part it seems did not want these documents to be released. And I won- won- wonder why?
BOBBY: One doesn’t need to read that far into the article to find out why, though.
ALEX: Nope, you don’t even need to read past the, past the fold past–
BOBBY: Good–
ALEX: –the jump.
BOBBY: –good lead on this, this article by the way.
ALEX: If you think the Pirates are paying their players in peanuts, you’re right. And in hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, and beer too.
BOBBY: Bars.
ALEX: Yeah, the kind of lead you can only dream to–
BOBBY: Oh, I love that.
ALEX: –to write.
BOBBY: Walked right into it.
ALEX: So the, the gist of it is that Pirates payroll for effectively for the last 15 years has more or less been, been covered by the revenues from tickets, selling tickets, and concessions.
BOBBY: Basically yeah, what we colloquially referred to as gate receipts.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: In the baseball world.
ALEX: Right. Exactly. That’s where they collect a single dollar from local TV deals from national TV deals.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: From Revenue Sharing.
BOBBY: I–
ALEX: Before they get $1 from Major League Baseball, the corporation. And I’d like to point out that money likely runs into the, not likely, absolutely runs into the 10s of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
BOBBY: According to FanGraphs keeps a running updated chart on their website of local TV deals. Because the national TV deals are split evenly, among the 30 teams. That is currently around $65 million of national TV money that each team receives. The Pirates are one of the lowest TV deals, local TV deals. Do you know how much money they make Alex? They make $44 million dollars a year from local TV contracts, about.
ALEX: Interesting, where’s the money going do you think?
BOBBY: But wait, hold on. I’m adding it.
ALEX: Do the math. I can see the wheels turning.
BOBBY: Adding it 44, $109 million, Alex, $109 million. That’s how much money they’re clearing. Now, obviously, there are other expenses, but there are also other revenue streams.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like marketing, ads, sponsorships around the stadium, you know, merchandise.
ALEX: Well, and their and their claim is that, yes, there are other expenses, right? That is scouting, player development staffs, paying for the facilities, the upkeep of facilities.
BOBBY: I’m just really resisting the urge to make a joke about all of these things.
ALEX: Scouting!
BOBBY: Uhh, not good with the Pirates.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Player Development, even worse. The [31:29] on the other hand, though, PNC Park right here, it’s beautiful, haven’t been king firm.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: We’ll go this year.
ALEX: Minor league salaries as well, on the payroll. I don’t know if you’ve heard anything about minor league salaries lately?
BOBBY: What is the total expenditure for the Pirates’ Minor League salaries? Less than 10, right?
ALEX: Absolutely.
BOBBY: Less than five. Less than $1 million. In those really a couple 100. And they only make like 20,000 a year.
ALEX: Right, exactly. The, the most generous guess is a couple million, maybe? If you include the staff that–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –runs the ballparks that run the, the teams. But again, we’re talking like single digit millions of dollars here. The team would like you to believe that, that, that figure you said earlier.
BOBBY: $109 million.
ALEX: $190 million.
BOBBY: 9, 109.
ALEX: $109 million.
BOBBY: No fake news here.
ALEX: Is–
BOBBY: No hidden media.
ALEX: –is simply being reinvested back into the team, right?
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Absolutely, Bob Nutting is not pocketing that cash.
BOBBY: I mean, they’re putting together a war chest for the next big free agent. Juan Soto to Pittsburgh?
ALEX: Lookout. If you take into account Ke’Bryan Hayes’ extension.
BOBBY: Which is so under market, by the way.
ALEX: Which is so under market, the Pirates opening day payroll this year was $53 million. So the checks that they are clearing outside of gate receipts are quite literally double their payroll at the moment.
BOBBY: Yeah. Turns out, baseball is profitable. This just in, baseball is profitable.
ALEX: And, well, and the thing is like this seems to undercut the argument that it’s actually incredibly expensive to run a baseball team. Or it’s expensive to, to pay players, right? Because it’s your argument then that the payroll is actually the least of your worries that it costs $100 million to do everything else.
BOBBY: I’m so surprised that in their justification for how much money they need to spend outside of just this, the pure salaries from the players on the major league roster. They didn’t bring up health insurance for the players. Ownership groups fucking love to talk about how much money it takes to insure baseball players..
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m like so, then you, do you support universal health care then?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Medicare for all? Bob Nutting? What’s up, dawg. Where your political donations at? Were you at the Bernie rallies my guy? So your point and not only undercuts the, the argument that they make year in and year out. But it also clashes strangely with the arguments that we heard during the pandemic season. Because they made it seem like there were such slim margins throughout the rest of the seasons. Like that the financial reality of baseball is that they need to bring fans in and they need these gate receipts every year. But if the Pirates are covering their payroll, just on gate receipts in every other year, then missing gate receipts for one year doesn’t actually hurt that much.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s not the only money that they were making, as we just laid out. So it’s like every kicker to all of these conversations that we have, just like so they’re lying to us. I don’t really know what–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –what to do about that.
ALEX: There isn’t much of a takeaway. Or the #smartanalysis that you can really do beyond, why do we keep taking these guys seriously? Why do we keep taking them at their word?
BOBBY: Well, that brings us directly to the last thing in, Where Ya Gonna Go? The hot new Tipping Pitches segment of 2022. Which is a quote from A’s President, Dave Kaval. This guy is just getting quotes out there for us. He’s like, Tipping Pitches need something to talk about this week, hold my beer.
ALEX: It is the only thing he does. He exists solely to provide fodder for us and to cover John Fisher’s asks, in one breath.
BOBBY: Have we ever told the story of how we tried to get Dave Kaval on the podcast a few years back?
ALEX: Just by incessantly tweeting at him and, and shooting–
BOBBY: Emailing him.
ALEX: –shooting cold emails.
BOBBY: The asbr There was a time where we were getting give this guy a platform.
ALEX: Well, there was a time when I, when I ran into now former A’s owner, Lew Wolff’s grandson.
BOBBY: I was there for this.
ALEX: Yes. Outs–
BOBBY: Iconic Alex Bazeley moment, by the way.
ALEX: Right. You rockin’ A’s hat, were coming home. Were we coming home from the newspaper they point?
BOBBY: Yeah, from work. Yeah. This is when you really pushed to your farthest. Like if I could have sat down and recorded the Tipping Pitches with you in one of those moments. Some hot shit would have flown out, that’s–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –for sure.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: This will be a different kind of podcast.
ALEX: Young man, young NYU student approaches me and says my, my grandfather is Lew Wolff. And I say, I have–
BOBBY: Wait, wait, wait, wait. For even say, for even say this. It’s like two in the morning, on like a Thursday.
ALEX: Right. He is, this man is receiving no filter.
BOBBY: He is, I don’t want to slander him, but I think had a better night than us. Probably like maybe he was going out drinking something. He looked like he was having fun. He was hanging out with a little gaggle of NYU students. Outside of the freshman dorm. We were not freshmen, we were juniors who just worked eight hours after going to class all day. So it’s not like we were in the best mood.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You’re wearing your A’s hat as you did basically every day. And then this, this, this 18, 19 year old young man approaches you.
ALEX: Yeah. And, and I’m like, can, can I, can I talk with him, please? I have, I have some–
BOBBY: Can I have his phone number?
ALEX: I have some questions for Mr. Wolff. Now, now, Lew Wolff got out clearly, because the business baseball was, was not quite profitable. He–
BOBBY: I–
ALEX: –shortly thereafter sold his stake in the team. Perhaps because he heard that there were some, some heavy hitters who were coming with some, with some big questions for him.
BOBBY: We’ve been friends for a long time. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t still have the capacity to surprise me. You surprised me on that night. Like, if I met the grandson of Fred Wilpon, I’d probably just walk the other way.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t think I would have been like, I hate your granddad.
ALEX: Which to be clear, I, I–
BOBBY: [37:51] once you did. You weren’t like fuck that guy.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I would slap him in the face right now. No, that wasn’t like that. But you were kind of just like, that sucks.
ALEX: Yeah. It’s like really?
BOBBY: It’s like that.
ALEX: Are you okay?
BOBBY: Like, Thanks for nothing. Tell your grandpa, don’t come around these parts.
ALEX: Oh, my goodness. All this brings us back to Dave Kaval.
BOBBY: Oh, I forgot. Yeah. Okay, the last, the last of the, the trio in Where Ya Gonna Go this week comes from Dave Kaval. He, this is from an article written by Bill Shaikin, who’s a MLB reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Apparently Dave Kaval, was asked about if the A’s get their new ballpark, which they’ve been angling for, as has been covered ad nauseam on Tipping Pitches. You would think that with this beautiful new ballpark, that means more fans will come out, increase revenue. As we just saw from the Pittsburgh Pirates, you can make a lot of money, year over year at just some hotdogs at ballparks. Turns out when you get charged 18.50 for a beer and 9.50 for a hot dog. That extra profit actually goes somewhere. So Dave Kaval was asked about what the A’s payroll will look like, if they get their new ballpark. Or when they get their new ballpark. I guess it will get it somewhere whether it’s Las Vegas, or Oakland. Will the A’s be in the top 10 of payroll? Dave Kaval says 100%, 100% the A’s will be in MLBs top 10 payrolls. So it’s just gonna happen then, right?
ALEX: So just, that’s it!
BOBBY: Congratulations!
ALEX: So good. Wow!
BOBBY: How does it feel?
ALEX: The A’s–
BOBBY: We go live to Alex Bazeley, lifelong A’s fan [39:35]–
ALEX: [39:35]
BOBBY: I mean, I really went back and forth, debating whether I wanted to talk about this or talk about any of these things–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –honestly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Because it’s like, on one hand, should we focus so much on this? Should we waste so much brain space, making jokes about this every week? And on the other hand, it’s inescapable. How am I supposed to be a baseball fan without engaging with this?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Honestly, I had a great time watching baseball all week. We went to, you and I have now been to three baseball games this year in person, already. Just a week and a half into the season. That’s so much money a baseball game [40:41].
ALEX: Getting ridiculous. We need to slow down.
BOBBY: Pace ourselves, pace ourselves.
ALEX: Always, always good when we’re like we need to stop going to so many baseball games. My wallet cannot afford it.
BOBBY: Yep. That’s good for the sport.
ALEX: It is good for the sport.
BOBBY: Thanks, Rob. But then, as I was sitting down to take notes for this, number one, it’s like this is what Tipping Pitches does. But number two, it’s like, this is the stuff that is being foregrounded by the quote unquote, “stewards of the game”. Phil Castellini owns the team. Dave Kaval, is President of the team. Now the Pirates didn’t want us to get out, but it fit into the segment. I mean, I think it’s kind of incumbent on us to continue to mock these guys out of sport to continue to be the heathen media presence that we strive to be.
ALEX: Yeah. If we believe that all of these assertions are true, from Kaval.
BOBBY: Yes, yes. I love this hypothetical. I was going to ask you something very similar.
ALEX: Howard Terminal gets done. It opens in say, I, I think their target is roughly 2027 will say 2028.
BOBBY: Yup!
ALEX: A top 10 payroll is going to be more than $200 million.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: That is–
BOBBY: Run another CBA by then by the way, right?
ALEX: We’re on another CBA by then. I, the A’s are cashing revenue checks at that point. So more, more streams of income. But that’s, that’s obviously, we’re talking of them quadrupling their payroll, right.? Doing nothing, nothing in the middle, mind you, right? Running $50, $60 million payrolls up until then. And then what an Opening Day 2028? Opening Day 2029?
BOBBY: Not even going to be enough players to spend that money on.
ALEX: Right. Is the assumption that this is going to bring in $150 million overnight?
BOBBY: I just think that, well, number one, I think that they think that we’re stupid, we should just say that.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: That’s just like the foundation of these conversations. And I think that the vision that they would like to sell you and it trickles into the whole ballpark conversation with the A’s. The vision that they would like to sell you is [42:29] exactly like the Giants. We’re gonna have a ballpark right on the water, it’s going to be state of the art. Everybody’s gonna love it. Everybody’s gonna want to play here, everybody’s gonna want to come see a game. Oakland is the new hot shit. We could do 45 minutes right now the gentrification of Oakland.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And how that will impact The Athletics and what they’re plan, what their plan is with this ballpark. But it clearly is what they’re factoring in. They’re like, yeah, look, all this tech money is going to trickle over to Oakland, eventually. Why not spend it at the ballpark? I just think it’s so craven to insinuate that you can’t spend any of this money now. You can only spend it once you’ve received your blood money, I guess? Like once you’ve, once you’ve dangle that carrot in front of the city of Oakland long enough that they just do anything in their power to, to jump out and grab it? I don’t know. It’s, when you start to think about how much else has to, how much space the A’s have to take up for all of this to happen? It starts to just become really distasteful to be like, well start spending when you do this for us.
ALEX: Yeah, the argument seems to be that the thing that will get fans into the ballpark are, are shiny new toys like a new stadium. Redeveloped surrounding area, maybe a highly inefficient gondola that takes you from downtown Oakland to the ballpark. And, again, this just, I mean–
BOBBY: People will come ray from far and wide. They’ll come to ride this highly inefficient gondola fell down from the [44:07]–
ALEX: [44:07] lake shore. They’ll come from the diamond district.
BOBBY: Yes they will, yes they will.
ALEX: They will come from Redwood heights.
BOBBY: Yes, they will. Oh, people will come rey.
ALEX: Here’s the thing, let’s go back to 1988. The year the A’s lose the World Series. Their attendance, it ranks 7th out of 14. This is playing, I don’t know if you heard the stadium they were in was the, the Oakland Coliseum.
BOBBY: Heard of it.
ALEX: The following year, they win the World Series. Their attendance ranks 2nd out of 14. This is, at the time they were playing at the Oakland Coliseum.
BOBBY: The same, Oakland?
ALEX: Same one.
BOBBY: Coliseum from the year before, but not the same from now, right?
ALEX: The, the year after that and it really it pains me to say these words, they lose the World Series. This is a 1990, their attendance ranks 2nd out of 14. This is at the time they are playing at the Oakland Coliseum. The year after that they don’t make the playoffs. Their attendance ranks 3rd out of 14 at the time they are playing at the Oakland Coliseum.
BOBBY: It’s come all the way back around, it’s funny again.
ALEX: I have a feeling that it was not the shiny new amenities that were drawing people to the ballpark at that point. You know who was on that team? Rickey Henderson.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Mark McGwire.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: Dennis Eckersley, heard of him?
BOBBY: Heard of him.
ALEX: Many of them known to have some of their best years with the A’s.
BOBBY: Yeah, I mean, the notion that a new expensive ballpark that is partially paid for by public funds or whatever, anybody but John Fisher, basically. The notion that that is the only way to bring in fans, it’s just it’s incredibly convenient. Like–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –that’s really nice. Yeah, give me this big, huge asset. It’s the only way I can keep the team going. It would never help to put a good product on the field.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: It would never help to lower ticket prices. It would never help to lower concessions. None of these things would help. The only thing that can help. The only solution that is possible, is giving me this huge big asset that’s worth billions of dollars.
ALEX: Yeah, you can even fast forward to the early 2000s, right? The Moneyball A’s, in which I, I don’t know if you watch the movie. But their whole shit was not getting stars, right? But they feel that successful baseball teams and you know what? Their attendance numbers were right in the middle of the pack of the American League. They weren’t at the top, maybe because they didn’t have the Rickey Henderson’s of the world. But it didn’t matter, because they made the, the playoffs four straight years. And they were interested in fielding competitive baseball teams. Quite a low that next decade.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: When they weren’t really interested in doing that, I don’t know. It makes me think there’s something other than the ballpark itself, that is keeping fans away.
BOBBY: I just think it is, it’s, you know, it’s just, it’s really, unfortunately, I hate to admit it, it’s kind of clever, you know. The way that these, these management faces go about these things. Because I think it would be cool to have a beautiful new ballpark. I don’t have anything against the Colosseum, I’ve never been there. But you know, it’s probably not the nicest ballpark in baseball.
ALEX: Watch yourself.
BOBBY: They could obviously do, they can update it, and they can make it better.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But I’ve heard enough people have legitimate gripes about the Coliseum.
ALEX: Right. Heard of, heard of sewage, anyone?
BOBBY: Fans, media, players, I’ve heard it. It’s real. I’ll give Dave Kaval that. But the funds for addressing that problem, the revenue for addressing that problem, the buck for addressing that problem, does not need to be passed along to anyone else except the people who purportedly run the team. But it’s a sexy idea to sell people, though. Like, we’re going to get this beautiful new ballpark, it’s going to be state of the art, and we’re going to fill it and it’s going to rock and it’s going to be a great place to see, to see a ballgame. It’s like what all businesses do in America. They’re like, yes, we have to raise the prices on this item a little bit. But you know what you’re getting in exchange? Luxury. It’s like what airlines do, they like, give you some pretzels. And they’re like, now this, now this flight cost $568. And you’re just like, sure. And then when you look at the ticket price, they break it down. And they’re like, so much of this is fuel. Some of this is like air, you know, airline maintenance. And I’m like, how much of this is the, the, the profit that buys back the stocks for the CEO–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –of this airline?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, I don’t see that line item, you know what I mean? Like, and that’s, it’s no different than what Dave Kaval is doing. It’s no different than what John Fisher is doing.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Just being like, if you want it to be better, you have to pay for it to be better. And I’m like, No, actually, you have to pay for anybody. You’re the person that owns it at the end of the day. But I’ll happily pay for it to be better. If you, if the city expropriated. Like otherwise it’s not my fucking problem.
ALEX: Yeah. Well, and as Bob Nutting and co seemed to have shown us, you actually don’t need to still be bringing people in the front door to be making a pretty penny, right? It’s not like the Pirates have done great as far as attendance goes as of late. They’ve topped out at 9th out of 15 in the last three decades. Three decades, they’ve mostly been sitting around 13, 14, 15 in the league. As we heard earlier, that money is covering their payroll and they are pocketing 10s of million dollars after that. So the notion that it, there are no fans coming to the games. The ballpark is not an enticing place to play. Therefore, it is financially impossible for us to feel the competitive baseball team. Until we have a new stadium, until we have people coming in that door. It just, it just doesn’t track. It doesn’t make sense.
BOBBY: No. Thank you, Dave Kaval, for your participation in this week’s episode of Tipping Pitches. What do you think of, what do you think of the title for the segment, Where Ya Gonna Go? Still hold up?
ALEX: I love it.
BOBBY: Great. You love it.
ALEX: Yes. I’m on board.
BOBBY: Wow! Okay, we’ll see how the fans like it. Let’s take a quick break. And then when we come back, a couple, couple housekeeping up here.
[50:41]
[Transition Music]
ALEX: Bobby, this past week was Jackie Robinson Day. There’s really not much for us to say, on the league’s dereliction of their duty in honoring Jackie Robinson’s legacy. We’ve talked about it here in the past. We’ve talked about it on our own. We’ve talked about it with one Shakeia Taylor, who wrote a, a wonderful piece over baseball prospectus, talking about the, the myriad ways that the league could actually honor his legacy. It’s linked in the show notes. I highly encourage everyone to read it. Here’s the league did do.
BOBBY: The only thing they know how, apparently.
ALEX: They dropped, they dropped an NF T. I know we said we weren’t going to talk about individual player NFTs, on this podcast. I know it’s a banned topic.
BOBBY: Not exactly what I was imagining when I banned to that topic.
ALEX: Really I think not what anyone was imagining. So instead of retreading over this ground, I’d like to pose a question to you. What do you think the most offensive NFT is that the lead could drop in trying to honor their history?
BOBBY: Oh, oh, so we’re going for most offensive?
ALEX: Well, okay. It doesn’t have to be most offensive, I guess. What’s the one that might catch you off guard the least, right? That, that says I didn’t think they’d go down that road. Because, because I have, I have a couple in my head. But I want to, I want to open the floor to you.
BOBBY: Well, I thought you were going to ask what would be worst for the, what would be the worst NFT that they could possibly concoct for the timeline. And I was gonna be like, probably like an Alex Bregman NFT. Because he’s so boring–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –but also so corny. And he would just be, you know, hacking it all the time.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like every opportunity he would get like, he has his hot sauce.
ALEX: I’m saying perfect world. What is the most outlandish NFT they could drop? That would just give us the, the pod for the week?
BOBBY: Oh, it, it probably have to be Marvin Miller and Curt Flood.
ALEX: Hey, yeah.
BOBBY: Right? Like–
ALEX: Yeah!
BOBBY: –they neither of the Miller or Flood family profits from it. I think like that, like the, the iconic photo of Miller and Flood, they drop it as an NFT.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But it’s like been, been, been redesigned, maybe? Yeah, I don’t even know.
ALEX: Yeah, they–
BOBBY: They, they just, they take that photo and make, it which is like I think public domain [53:27]
ALEX: They, the thought of a, they thought they have a Marvin Miller NFTs is kind of making me sick to my stomach [53:34] on us.
BOBBY: What else did you have?
ALEX: Here, here’s some, here’s some ideas. These are, these are free to the league if they want to take them, okay?
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: And NFT–
BOBBY: Giving away intellectual property live–
ALEX: We are giving away–
BOBBY: –on Tipping Pitches.
ALEX: –intellectual property. Yes. And NFT of the Mitchell Report.
BOBBY: That’s good. Okay.
ALEX: And NFT, so this one might exist. I don’t know, I haven’t, there, there is like an NFT like, archive, right? There’s a, there’s a site on which you can buy MLB NFTs. Rick Monday saving the American flag at Dodger Stadium. They’re actually like, that’s, I feel like that’s mainstream enough that people would probably buy that.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like there’s a portion of the league for whom, that is perfect. That is what they want to own.
BOBBY: Yeah. The Bartman highlight?
ALEX: The Bartman highlight. Wow!
BOBBY: Like you own the official video of Bartman preventing the catch.
ALEX: Yes, immortalized him on the blockchain, the worst moment of this man’s life.
BOBBY: They would do it. And they would be like, surprised they never sa- sold like Bartman starter pack merch.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You know, you get the headphones.
ALEX: Like buy Bartman headphones
BOBBY: Yeah. Okay, what else? Was that it? You have anymore?
ALEX: Lou Gehrig’s luckiest man on earth speech. NFT it, book it. Again, this was one that I thought maybe they’d already done.
BOBBY: I love how little credit you’re giving them. It’s good, it’s, it’s right you’re right to do it.
ALEX: Once again, really didn’t think we’d get a Jackie Robinson NFT out here. But, folks, Rob Manfred is the gift that keeps on giving.
BOBBY: And NFT of all of the scabs, who came in during the lockout.
ALEX: Ohhh.
BOBBY: Individual NFT is for each scabs.
ALEX: Yes. Yes.
BOBBY: That would give us a lot of content.
ALEX: That would give us so much content.
BOBBY: We could buy them. We bought the scabs, we own the scabs!
ALEX: We owned all the scabs and Joe West’s last album. That’s all I need in [55:40]
BOBBY: Wow! Were, this is a portfolio at this point. That’s a lot of stuff.
ALEX: This is, this is an investment.
BOBBY: Okay. Can we move on? Please.
ALEX: So we talked about our NFTs?
BOBBY: Yes. We’re launching an NFT. It’s, it’s an NF T of real life t shirt that you can buy. We call it an NFT maybe more people will buy it and pay more money for it. $10,000 NFT of a T-shirt. We are finally launching some more new T-shirts. It’s been a little while you know the lockout put us on pause for a while. Me moving out across the country on, on pause for a little while. And we’ve heard your please. Repeated please, for us to make your teens Unionize the Minors shirt. I’m not going to give it away as to which team we are launching.
ALEX: Well because none of them are inspired by teams, right? They are all proprietary designs.
BOBBY: Right. This is parody. I don’t think that really extends that far. I’m not going to say which, which Unionize the Minors design is coming next. We will also be launching one potentially two new designs that are not Unionize the Minors, they’ll have an anti owner sentiment. I mean, you know what it is?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You, you probably think it’s, you probably chuckle, maybe. Help you buy it, please buy it. We’ll be getting these T-shirts up within the next couple of weeks. But this will be the last time that we’ll be specifically teasing merch on the podcast. Because of the next news that we have, which is that we’re going to start at Tipping Pitches Patreon. We’re doing it–
ALEX: It was, it was only a matter, y’all.
BOBBY: I mean, you sit in the same broker department recording a podcast long enough. The Patreon just kind of spawns itself out of–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –thin air.
ALEX: It comes to you.
BOBBY: The details are not released of that. It’ll probably be three tiers. We will make it eminently available, where you can find the link to that in the podcast description, in our Twitter bio, once we have it actually launched. But you know for the folks that listen to the very end of the podcast, we thought we would give people a quick heads up. Do you want to, you want to kind of give people a preview of what might be available on the Patreon? Or do you want to keep that as, as you said proprietary top secret clearance only information?
ALEX: I think we can give the folks a little, a little taste. I mean, as you mentioned, Patreon subscribers will be the first to know about any new merch that is dropping the have the first shot at that they will have access to extended conversations, ones that perhaps didn’t make the cut into the podcast. They will have access to a private Tipping Pitches slack where you can just shoot the shit with us, you know. Get out the DMs into the slack, right?
BOBBY: That’s what I’m always saying.
ALEX: That’s what I’m always saying as well. An opportunity for more, more intimate conversations with you and I,–
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: –Bobby,
BOBBY: So open ended right there, the way that you introduce, I love the salesman, Alex that’s happening right here!
ALEX: Right, of course.
BOBBY: Love seeing Alex need to be a, a capitalist?
ALEX: We live in a society, dude.
BOBBY: you get a private slack, you get a private slack! You get an intimate conversation, you get an exclu- you’ll probably get like, you know exclusive promo codes for merch–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –to, you know–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –like one time free T-shirts, that kind of thing as well.
ALEX: And maybe even, you know, I don’t, some of you may have heard that in the past life we, we used to write. We may once again–
BOBBY: Dust off those keyboards. There’ll be a bunch of other stuff–
ALEX: [59:26], goes yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: We don’t need to give the full list down right now. Because the Patreon as I, I said earlier is not yet created, not yet publicly available. We are still working on getting everything in order before we fully launched it out into the world so that we’re not like launching it and changing it and confusing a bunch of people. But just know that it’s in the works. We’re doing it. It’s real. And a pre emptive thank you to anybody who is interested in subscribing. For any of that extra stuff or even just at, you know at the lowest level, thank you tier, that will be available to people too. You know we make this podcast in our free time. This is not a full time job. It, it’s still a lot of work, despite it not being our full time job. It’s fun for us, obviously. But it takes up a lot of harder, real life time in the world. And we’re, were so incredibly thankful for people who listen to it because of that. And we’ll not lament anybody who can’t or isn’t interested in paying for a Patreon. But for those of you who are comfortable doing that are able doing that, it would, it would really mean a lot to us to, you know, get on the path of being compensated for our work here. So that’s very important to us. And, and, you know, in the long run, commit more to the Tipping Pitches podcast.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And the greater Tipping Pitches experience.
ALEX: Right, exactly. This weekly episode, going to remain free, right? We want to, we will always be back on our bullshit in your feeds, every monday or tuesday if we’re at Bobby’s families for Easter, you know.
BOBBY: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that’s why this podcast isn’t delayed.
ALEX: So rest assured, you’ll, you’ll still be able to see us here on a weekly basis. But if you want access to any of those extra goodies, keep your eyes peeled. We’ll, we’ll be dropping more news about that soon.
BOBBY: I don’t know why you lied and, and didn’t tell the people that if you live in New York City, this podcast we blacked out. You have to pay an exclusive Patreon level to get in Marquette podcast.
ALEX: Yeah, we’re actually, well that’s the third piece of news is that we’re joining forces with Valley Sports.
BOBBY: That’s parody. That’s actually parody.
ALEX: That is actually parody.
BOBBY: We are not joining forces with Valley Sports. What we are doing is ending this podcast and coming back into your feeds for free still, next week. Thanks everybody, for listening.
[1:01:56]
[Music]
[1:02:13]
[Outro]
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 
Leave a comment