Bobby and Alex discuss the despair among Oakland A’s fans and the torture architect making a bid for Nashville baseball, then speed through some topics from around the league, including Miguel Cabrera’s milestone, a surprise parachuting in Washington D.C., just the literally size of sponsored jersey patches, Charlie Blackmon’s gambling deal, and more.
Links:
Reds fans with bags on their heads
Songs featured in this episode:
The Coup, Lakeith Stanfield — “OYAHYTT” • PUP — “Waiting” • 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, I need a rule on something.
ALEX: I’m ready. I have my umpiring cap on.
BOBBY: I was hoping that you could maybe get in like a judge robe. Get a little gavel?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Could be a good bit for audio medium. [0:46]–
ALEX: [0:47] great, great coming up at, yeah.
BOBBY: Yes, exactly. I need a ruling on whether or not I’m allowed to make this joke for the cold open?
ALEX: Oh, is this a ban topic?
BOBBY: It is a potentially banned topic. As you and our listeners know, we did an episode a few weeks ago at the beginning of the season where we banned topics for 2022. We said stuff that we did not want to talk about. One of those things that I banned was individual player NFT deals.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: However, does the presence of Alex Rodriguez in this NFT override the ban in 2022?
ALEX: Does this–
BOBBY: Because A. Rod. is like a core tenet of who we are. We are A. Rod., A. Rod. is us.
ALEX: Right. Well, does this involve a current player as well? Because I had, I had assumed that, you know, the moratorium on NFT endorsement deals largely applies to current players. I’m not interested in talking about Alex Bregman’s NFT.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: But–
BOBBY: Yes. So this is your ruling? You say, yes.
ALEX: I say, I say yes. It’s fair game.
BOBBY: Amazing. Well, I don’t even remember what the joke was gonna be. It was just going to be that A. Rod. changed his profile photo to it, NFT that looks like total shit.
ALEX: I, I don’t really understand what it’s supposed to be of. Is it him? Wear, like wearing a, wearing a silly hat?
BOBBY: Maybe it’s like a younger him, you know. When he was like loosey goosey wearing his hat backwards on the field, that sort of thing. Maybe it’s the backyard baseball NFT of him.
ALEX: Right. So I can do my best to just describe it. For the listeners it appears to be what I can only assume is Alex Rodriguez.
BOBBY: You can just name every pixel or so [2:32]–
ALEX: [2:32]
BOBBY: –art.
ALEX: Okay, top left.
BOBBY: Give it the color code, 110.
ALEX: EEF00. Right. It’s like him in sunglasses. And it, I feel like it is maybe supposed to be a backward cat but it comes off looking more like a do rag or something like that.
BOBBY: Think like a do rag, yes.
ALEX: It’s also I’d like to clarify it is not the official NFT profile photo, right? It is, he has just gone in and uploaded a–
BOBBY: A JPEG.
ALEX: –JPEG–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –of the NFT.
BOBBY: Do you spell JPEG with the E or without the E? Important question. Are those two different things with E, without E?
ALEX: I should know this, I don’t know the answer to it. I usually–
BOBBY: Why should we know this?
ALEX: –I use–
BOBBY: Based on what? Your journalism degree. The fact that we use HTML at our student newspaper.
ALEX: When I’m, when I’m talking about JPEG, the format, I spell it out JPEG when I am appending it to the end of a file name I do JPG. How’s that?
BOBBY: I just don’t understand what the difference is. It’s like how there’s two different spellings of gray.
ALEX: Right. Do you think this is also like some bullshit like English language stuff? Like they were like, we need an E in there.
BOBBY: Probably. Or maybe it’s like a GIF, GIF thing. It’s just an aesthetic choice.
ALEX: So far off the rails already talking about the nuances between JPEG and JPG.
BOBBY: I’d like to correct the record on another NFT matter.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: We’re five minutes into the podcast we haven’t–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –talked about two different NFT matters. This is number two, I would, I would like to say a quick thank you to Justin Cusan, longtime listener, for pointing out that the joke that you made last week about how, what’s the worst NFT MLB. could come up with. You made a very good joke that I laughed pretty hard at that they could come up with an NFT of the Lou, the Lou Gehrig luckiest man on earth speech. It turns out that already happened. It literally already happened, verbatim. And there’s an mlb.com article about it. So we will link to that in the description. I apologize to all of the people who come to us for just hard facts.
ALEX: There’s a decent chance that maybe I that flashed across my timeline when that happened. And I immediately–
BOBBY: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: –memory hold it. And, and, and when I was you know trying to come up with ideas for NFT’s, I thought there’s no way this, this could actually be real, right? You know?
BOBBY: Yeah, this has to be from my subconscious.
ALEX: Right, exactly. This has–
BOBBY: Not to be my memory.
ALEX: –to be something in my mind mocked up.
BOBBY: This just goes, this just proves that in the multiverses, there’s an NFT of every single MLB event out there somewhere.
ALEX: Well, it also, I think, proves that if we’re ever going to dunk on things that MLB might do, we should probably Google whether or not they’ve already done them.
BOBBY: I mean, you could argue that we’re just giving them free ideas.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Sometimes with this podcast. They certainly act like that.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Like we talk, we talk a lot of shit and then sometimes they just do that stuff. I think we should get paid for it. Okay, we are going to mine Alex’s baseball fan trauma. We are going to talk about the new ownership group in Nashville, trying to bring baseball over to Nashville. And then we’re going to do a speed round of a bunch of other topics. This one’s going to be a fun one. Before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[5:59]
[Music Theme]
BOBBY: Alex, it’s so nice to see you. Ready for this week’s session? Where we sit down and we talk about your your baseball trauma. Are you ready to do that on the podcast this week? How was your week?
ALEX: My week was fine. I’m doing well.
BOBBY: That’s great. You look, you look like you slept well, the last couple days.
ALEX: Thank you. I, I appreciate that. I did, I’ve been I’ve been trying to sleep in.
BOBBY: There’s a box of tissues off to the side. So if this gets emotional, feel free to reach over.
ALEX: Thank you. I’m gonna, I’m gonna pour myself a glass of, of lemon infused water real quick. And then we can–
BOBBY: Cucumbers in that [6:44].
ALEX: Right, exactly. And then we can talk about, and then we can talk about how my love for the A’s, I don’t know, goes back to my parents or something like that. And, I don’t know, man.
BOBBY: Okay, bit over, we’re not going to do therapist voice the entire time. I want to talk to you about your A’s fandom. It’s something that I’ve wanted to talk to you about since the offseason. Basically since the lockout ended, and they started trading away all of their players, although we kind of had word of this before the lockout when they let the Mets sign many of their good players. But I wanted to give you time to process what’s going on with the A’s. And then I wanted to kind of like see the first couple weeks of the season and see how it plays out with the team. How it feels to watch them with a, with a good chunk of the players from last years, the last couple years core of the A’s not there anymore. We finally reached that point. Are you ready to talk about the, the Oakland Athletics?
ALEX: I think so. I’m gonna do my very best not to break down in the middle of it. I, what’s, what, what questions you got for me, you know?
BOBBY: So it feels serendipitous, because I asked you while we were prepping for the podcast while you were walking over here. And we were just texting about topics. I said that are you ready to finally excavate your pain as it relates to the A’s? And you sent me a screenshot that you had written down that you were ready to talk about the A’s this week. So I’ll let you, I’ll let you guide the conversation. Obviously, for listeners who don’t follow the Athletics that closely. There’s myriad, a myriad of reasons why A’s fans, really down in the dumps these days. They’re trying to move the A’s out of Oakland, they refuse to spend money on players they’ve traded away most of their good players from the last few years. And all the while, I think I’ve just struck this incredibly disrespectful tone to the fan base. Underlined probably most often by the, the jokes that are ma- made or the comments that are made about how not a lot of as fans are showing up to the Coliseum right now. So all that being said are you feeling more or less or equally connected to the Oakland Athletics franchise as you have been in the past?
ALEX: I think it’s easy for me to say I’m feeling far less connected to it on like an emotional level. I mean, hey, I’ve, I have the game up on the corner of my screen as we speak. So like, you know, it’s, it’s impossible to entirely emotionally divest from from a baseball team. I’m sure many listeners are familiar with that feeling, right? It’s almost like a–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –sort of Stockholm syndrome that you feel when your team kind of repeatedly spurns you.
BOBBY: Normal sport.
ALEX: Yep. But yeah, there’s you know, there’s been lots of stories, tweets, jokes, even about A’s attendance, which has been pretty abysmal to say the least.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Lots of, lots of four digit attendance numbers in the 2000s in the 3000s. And I mean, frankly, I don’t know why more fans wouldn’t want to show up to the, to the Chris Ellis, Cole Irvin Cy Young contender showdown against the Baltimore Orioles.
BOBBY: I don’t know which player is on which team–
ALEX: It’s fair. I–
BOBBY: No, I think Cole Irvin’s on the A’s–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Is that right?
ALEX: Yes. [10:21]–
BOBBY: Oh my God, look at me. Look at me.
ALEX: He’s probably going to be our, maybe our number one guy? Once, once Frankie Montas is shipped out of town. I guess, you know, my rhetorical question for the jokesters out there for the A’s ownership. Whoever is wondering what’s going on is why would, why would fans show up right now? I certainly wouldn’t. And, and I don’t begrudge anyone who does? Because again, I get that it’s that baseball can also be such a source of pure joy for some people. That, you know, if it feels like it’s all you’ve got, then it’s, it’s hard to completely remove yourself from that equation. But I think it’s hard to read this as anything other than a implicit boycott by fans, who are just fed up with how they’re being treated by ownership. Both in on field issues with fielding a competitive team full of players that have names you might have heard of before. And, and the, the, the collection of off field disgraces, I guess.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I don’t know, I fe- like I feel, I feel less attached to them as a team than I have in, in years before. And I’m getting a lot more joy, frankly, just watching other baseball teams. It’s kind of nice to be a bit of a, you know, it’s like–
BOBBY: Free agent.
ALEX: –a free agent fan.
BOBBY: Let’s go!
ALEX: And just enjoy, enjoy baseball, it was meant to be enjoyed.
BOBBY: Well, obviously, so often, we talked about how ownership groups behave. Generally speaking, every once in a while we’ll hone in on a team that’s behaving particularly bad. One of the interesting things about the A’s specifically, is that for all the criticism that we’ve had for them, for how they don’t spend, how they won’t push it over the top. For all of the Moneyball conversations that we’ve had the retrospectives that we’ve done, on the way that Moneyball has changed how front offices work, and how front offices serve ownership groups. I think that we’ve always kind of reserved a little bit of space, both in our brains, but also on the podcast in our discourse. For the fact that the A’s are still good, oftentimes?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And I don’t know, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but never since I’ve been following baseball this closely. Have I seen them in be this intentionally bad. And I think that speaks to a little bit of your, you know, your distachment from the team on the field and the general fan. Distachment from attending games, why there’s only 3000 people going to games. And I think that it’s in large part, because, you know, when you’re at a crossroads as a franchise, and you want a new stadium, or you need a new stadium, because your lease is going to be up. You can kind of go one of two ways, right? Like you can try to win, you can make the team exciting. And you can point to the team. And you can say, this is why we should have a new stadium. Look how good the team is, if we just had a new stadium, then everything would be great. And, you know, maybe if I said that to Dave Kaval, or said that to John Fisher, they’ll say we won 90+ games for the last five years. Why, why weren’t you saying that, during that time? And before I address that, I’ll say the other way that they could go is what they’ve done. Which is just completely punt, take a step back, and say, the reason we need a new stadium is because we don’t have the resources to keep these guys around. This is just what’s going to keep happening. Unless we get XYZ sweetheart deal, or we leave Oakland, or things change significantly for the fortunes of our franchise. I just what, what I can’t square is the way that the ownership group, the way that management has so explicitly tied the functionality of the franchise to getting a new stadium. Because it doesn’t need to be this way. Those two things are not directly linked. You didn’t need to make the team this bad, just to get your way. And I don’t really see whatever like three dimensional chess board that they are seeing in terms of how this is helping them in the future. And I think that in the interim, just a lot of fans are being dumped on because of it, yourself included. And I, I just, the sport is not in a good place when a team that clearly has the player development, and the know how to be good. Repeatedly makes the choice not to do that. Repeatedly makes the choice to trade away all of their best players, anytime they get even more than pre arbitration expensive.
ALEX: It definitely reads to me, like an a, you know, I’m sure I’ve said this before here. But it reads to me, like an attempt to basically manufacture proof that Oakland is not a viable market for Major League Baseball, right? Because if you can say, we only have a few 1000 fans coming out to games, and we still won 80 games, 85, 90 games this year, right? We still put a competitive product on the field, no one came out to watch it. There’s your proof, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: That is, you, you go to Rob Manfred and say, look, fans still aren’t coming. Therefore, help us with our move to Las Vegas, right? That is a, a cynical reading of this and feels to me, like the only reasonable reading of this, you know what I mean? And, and it’s bullshit, because, as we’ve said, time and time again, there has never been a point in this sport. Where revenues have been divested from fan attendance, more so than right now, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Back when Charlie Finley was the owner of the A’s, right? He fancied himself as kind of the, the face of the team, right? And they were good for a period of time. And then he started making kind of similar moves, right? Because he was just as cheap as an owner can be, and started trading way players. And gutting the team, essentially and attendance plummeted, right? To the point where he was forced to sell because he needed fans in the seats, right? And while I’d love to say, maybe that’s what happens here. I think fans just simply don’t have the influence over owners that they may have 40, 50 years ago.
BOBBY: It’s just such an a historical case that they’re trying to make, that Oakland is not a viable baseball city. Like what are we doing here, guys?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Oakland has the hugely rich baseball history. It’s like when Phil Castellini last week, was threatening to move the team and saying that would be the most financially beneficial. I guess the part that he wasn’t saying was that some city somewhere in the United States would say, we’ll give you such a sweetheart deal to come here that it will carry, carry over for years, potentially decades, the financial benefit of getting a new stadium and all of these tax breaks, and whatever you’re going to get for bringing your team here. That’s what kind of what he was alluding to. And maybe that market would be slightly bigger. So then your revenues would also be slightly better, whatever. I wonder who can look these people like these owners and management in the face and say you’re just lying. You’re just lying to these people. It’s Oakland is a perfectly viable baseball market. You know, I know how because it has been for decades and decades and decades. And every time I go to a baseball stadium, I see someone wearing an A’s jersey. No matter if it’s Mets-Marlins or Yankees-Blue Jays. There is someone, some guy wearing an A’s jersey, which means there’s something real there. I wanted to ask you this, though. Do you think this is obviously anecdotal? We don’t have like some large data set or survey to prove this. But do you think that the attendance numbers and your estimation as a lifelong A’s fan, Oakland resident. Do you think the, the attendance numbers are so low? Like how would you, how would you divvy that pie chart of why they’re so low? Between trading away players, threatening to leave the Coliseum. Maybe not being the most functional place to see a ballpark these days. Whatever else you think is the reason, I guess put those things in order of what is causing so few fans to come. Because it is, it is kind of ridiculously low attendance numbers like almost unfathomably low.
ALEX: Yeah, they’re they’re averaging around 7,400 fans a game. Which is and that’s roughly half of what the next highest team is.
BOBBY: Yeah. It’s really bad.
ALEX: Miami at around 14,000. I will say that I think state of the Coliseum itself is probably the lowest thing on that list. That is probably the smallest piece of the pie chart, right? The Coliseum has been in not great shape for, for years now, but fans have been still showing out.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: Despite, you know, urinal troughs in, in, in the men’s bathroom, right? Like, like shits not great.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But if you’re there to see a baseball game, it’s a, it’s a fun experience. And I would dare to say it’s a very fun experience. I think there’s, there are very few experiences like it to see a, a baseball game there. I think that the fact that they raised season ticket prices.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And–
BOBBY: That’s the one thing I forgot to mention.
ALEX: –and, and have played around with and gotten rid of these kind of flexible ticket packages that brought a lot of people to stadiums, effectively, they got rid of that sort of thing. And doubled season ticket prices really just, really does not help. That’s a way to alienate, not only like the casual baseball fan, but the, the diehard baseball fan, right?
BOBBY: Yeah, it’s a bit of a perfect storm.
ALEX: It, it, it really is.
BOBBY: Or an imperfect storm.
ALEX: So I think that’s a huge chunk of it as well. I, I, I almost feel like the, the discussion on the threats about relocation is probably not having as big of an impact as maybe one would think. Like I think it has more to do with the intentional dismantling of the team of its stars. That feels like the biggest factor to me. Because if you’re a casual fan, you may not be following the a search for new stadium too closely, anyway. And, and I know that I’ll say like if I was living in Oakland right now. And there were rumors about the A’s moving swirling around, I would actually probably make it my mission to go and see as many A’s games as I can while I still could, right?
BOBBY: Yeah. Don’t let John Fisher here you said that.
ALEX: Geesh! I know. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I’m gonna be in the Bay Area this summer. And am I gonna go to an A’s game? I haven’t made up my mind yet. There’s a good–
BOBBY: Oh, come on, you have to go! What if they leave? Then you will have seen your last A’s game in Oakland?
ALEX: Damn. You know what?
BOBBY: This really is an excavation now.
ALEX: I really am, I’m kind of like the, the note that you alluded to. I was watching the, the A’s-Rangers game on–
BOBBY: Already dark.
ALEX: –on Apple TV+ the other night.
BOBBY: It’s getting darker.
ALEX: I know. Right. And, and again, attendance was abysmal and the team was not doing well. And I, and I wrote down something akin to watching the A’s fucking sucks right now and I really hope fans fucking boycott lol. That was just kind of my, my–
BOBBY: Wow!
ALEX: –my thoughts on the whole situation. So like, yes would it pained me to not go to an Oakland A’s baseball game again? Of course! Would it pained me to see them leave to Las Vegas? Yeah, that would, it would really hurt to see so many loyal fans done dirty like that. But like, I don’t know, what else, what else you’re gonna do? Just, just keep showing up, just keep lining John Fisher’s pockets?
BOBBY: Yeah, really stuck between a rock and a hard place. Getting the A’s leaving feels like, you know, getting, getting left by your fiance at the altar kind of. Well like it’s definitely going to hurt in the moment but then it’s also just going to hurt every year after that on the day that you remember that you got left at the altar? Yeah. Every time like you see a picture of yourself at the coliseum or you see a picture of yourself with your fiance. Like it’s just gonna be one of those things that has a really long tail.
ALEX: Yeah, even, even when I have, have found my, my new fiance, right? I’ll be going through that, that old–
BOBBY: Nice!
ALEX: –that old, right, exactly.
BOBBY: Exactly, right.
ALEX: I’ll be going through that–
BOBBY: On heavy new marriage.
ALEX: –boxers photos in my closet. And I’ll see the one of me standing against the wall at FanFest in like 2005–
BOBBY: [24:31]
ALEX: –in my wonders jersey.
BOBBY: Is that marriage going to be better than my new one? You’ll always have to wonder that.
ALEX: Yeah, I know.
BOBBY: All right, we’ve ver- we’ve strained that metaphor very far, very far, that one’s on me. Anything else to say about the A’s? Because we got to talk about Nashville. You have done some, some oppo research into the Nashville ownership group that I want to hear about. But I want to give you one last chance. You know, Alex as we come to the end of our hour here. You’ve used all of my tissues, drink all the lemon water. It’s getting a little stuffy in here. Anything else you’d like to get off your chest before a session next week?
ALEX: Are there any medications you can prescribe me that would help with this?
BOBBY: I’m just a therapist. I’m not having the ability to prescribe medications.
ALEX: Oh, right. You’re the person that actually helps you don’t just charge me 175 a half hour to say, yep, still need them.
BOBBY: There you go! Rip it off and hand it over. I can prescribe you something, it’s called Steve Cohen. Baby.
ALEX: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Let’s go Mets! I’ll give you the Mets-pilled prescription.
ALEX: I’m a, I’m Mets-pilled.
BOBBY: Let’s go!
ALEX: I’m, I’m all in, baby.
BOBBY: Okay, let’s talk about Nashville.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: You asked me if I had seen anything about the ownership group that has been put together for the potential Nashville expansion team. And I told you no. And you said, you really wanted to talk about it, because it’s an interesting collection of characters. Would you like to elucidate on that some more?
ALEX: I do. So I, you know, I want to give a little bit of context first. Because I think it’s an interesting–
BOBBY: Because you’re a good journalist.
ALEX: –adventure, because I’m a good journalist as well. Yeah.
BOBBY: Letting both sides have their moment.
ALEX: There was, there was news that broke this past week that Dave Stewart would be joining the venture to expand baseball to Nashville, right? It’s, it is called the, the Music City baseball group. And you may have, you may have heard that one Justin Timberlake is involved with it.
BOBBY: I have heard that, right here on this podcast.
ALEX: Yep. one Dave Dombrowski, one Tony La Russa even.
BOBBY: I still don’t understand how Dave Dombrowski is still allowed to be involved in it while being the Phillies GM.
ALEX: I–
BOBBY: He’s a man who is the Phillies, sorry President of baseball operations. Let me show him some respect.
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t know if he’s still, still on board there that may have been in a past life of his. Although, although maybe not, you know, we’ve baseball is no stranger to conflicts of interest.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: All that to say they announced that Dave Stewart will be joining the venture as they seek to basically diversify their ownership initiative. He, he said in a, in a statement, the time has come for black ownership in Major League Baseball. Now more than ever, we need to change the dynamics and unlock access to ownership for minorities. The, the team that they are advocating to create would be called the national stars. Which is, which is a nod to the, the Negro League teams that played Nashville in the 40s and 50s. And I think Nashville would be a great place for baseball.
BOBBY: I agree.
ALEX: I’m, I’m excited about this, Manfred has said that it’s not going to happen until the A’s and Rays stadium situations are settled.
BOBBY: Still waiting on that Rays 2 city plan–
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: –to come through. Haven’t given up hope.
ALEX: But I think it’s cool. I think Nashville would be a great place for baseball. And I–
BOBBY: I think there’s not enough baseball in the south. None a profesional baseball–
ALEX: Yes!
BOBBY: –teams in the south.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: There’s an open, huge over representation on the West Coast and the Northeast.
ALEX: Absolutely.
BOBBY: ‘m not counting Florida because Florida is different than the South Florida’s Florida.
ALEX: Yeah. However, Dave Stewart is, is not the chairman of this initiative. Would you like to know who that, who that title belongs to?
BOBBY: I would love to know. And I think that the listeners would like to know as well.
ALEX: That is one former US Attorney General.
BOBBY: Oh, what a resume.
ALEX: Alberto Gonzales.
BOBBY: Tell me more about Mr. Gonzales, Alex.
ALEX: Of course. He has a, he has a storied legacy, in a, in America, in American politics. How does Architect of President Bush’s policies on torture and surveillance of the American people sound to you?
BOBBY: It sounds like Rob Manfred is rushing that one straight through. Let’s get it done.
ALEX: Yes. Yeah, he’s no A. Rod. But you know, he’ll do.
BOBBY: Yeah, he was worried about Steve Cohen’s tweets. I mean, come on.
ALEX: I know. Alberto Gonzales is beyond canceling, you know. He’s, he’s–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –uncancellable.
BOBBY: He’s like Dick Cheney.
ALEX: Right, exactly. Real quick, I want to do a rundown of some of Gonzales’ resume highlights, shall we?
BOBBY: Okay. Okay. Well, before you do that–
ALEX: Oh, okay.
BOBBY: –can I just quickly say that maybe this is because, you know, Jerry Reinsdorf always wanted to share a room with, with Henry Kissinger like in the 80s. This is sort of like a Tony La Russa thing like, you want to get him back because he made the mistake way back when?
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: So now we’re gonna get like the modern Henry Kissinger, in the ownership room.
ALEX: Oh my goodness. This is the content that this would create for us. I’m sorry for my sport in American democracy, but–
BOBBY: Alex is the Darren Rovell of this podcast. I’m always saying this.
ALEX: Let’s see, in 2001, he was, he was White House Counsel? One of Bush’s most trusted advisors. Helped, helped write a little thing, he, he wrote a thing–
BOBBY: The old Patriot Act?
ALEX: –called the old Patriot Act.
BOBBY: Wow. Straight from the pen of Mr. Gonzales.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Well, imagine this guy with a CBA. Tends to negotiate the CBA.
ALEX: Jesus.
BOBBY: Come on!
ALEX: Let’s see in 2003, there was a, there was a scandal involving US military personnel at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. And, and he was, he, he came out under some criticism for calling the, the Geneva Conventions. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them?
BOBBY: Yeah, I’m aware of they’re.
ALEX: Obsolete?
BOBBY: Obsolete.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. They don’t, they just don’t matter here.
BOBBY: On the one hand, very heinous. On the other hand, kind of a take, you know. Like, that’s very tacky way to say that.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: The Geneve Conventions had their time?
ALEX: Yeah, we’re in a new era–
BOBBY: They passed their prime.
ALEX: -now, baby.
BOBBY: That’s the old guard. Okay, we’re backflip on our way past the Geneva Convention
ALEX: Yeah, he was like, get ready for 2 Geneva 2 Conventions.
BOBBY: Okay, anything else?
ALEX: Let’s see, he, he did sign off on a legal memo that, that narrowed the definition of torture. Which was bad enough that the Bush administration actually later rescinded it. Can you imagine if George Bush’s like, bro you got to you got to tone down the torture a little bit.
BOBBY: This just plays into George Bush’s like lovable idiot—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: — like persona? Where he was just like, oh, I wasn’t doing anything. I was just the guy that you wanted to get the beer with. It was all Dick Cheney.
ALEX: And Alberto Gonzales–
BOBBY: Alberto Gonzales.
ALEX: –Karl Rove. Funnily enough, these when, none of these were really the reasons that he had to step down from US Attorney General. He only held the title for a couple years. And–
BOBBY: Wow! Prolific, he was–
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: –prolific.
ALEX: He was, yeah. Well, some of the, some of the stuff actually came when he was just a quote, “advisor”.
BOBBY: Oh, yeah!
ALEX: Just counsel.
BOBBY: That’s when you can get the, get the most done.
ALEX: You really, you really can’t know over said that–
BOBBY: It’s like a roving hitting instructor. You’re not just like at the big league level–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –can make the most change across the organization.
ALEX: Yeah. He, it was alleged that he dismissed seven federal prosecutors for political motivations. And a, and a year later after coming under scrutiny from–
BOBBY: I thought you could just do that.
ALEX: I know, right? That’s like–
BOBBY: That’s the thing that took him down?
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Man.
ALEX: This is like, they just do that today.
BOBBY: Yeah, and they say it. Trump looks like tweets about it.
ALEX: Exactly. We need more people on our side in the courts.
BOBBY: Wild times that we live in. This is the guy? So wait, so he would be the control person? He would be the main financial element, what would he bring to the table?
ALEX: I mean, it’s unclear. I didn’t think torture, was that profitable, that you could become a billionaire. I mean, I maybe.
BOBBY: I think that once you’re out of the government, it becomes really profitable.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like, you’re like a private black site contract adviser? That seems to be where the real money is.
ALEX: Right. Right, so I don’t think he’s the, the money man. My guess that probably goes to, I believe his name is John Laur? Who was part of act–
BOBBY: [33:43] like build nuclear weapons or something?
ALEX: Real Estate Development, so, almost. I guess he was–
BOBBY: More than the other.
ALEX: –he was involved in investment groups. For a couple other MLB franchises, and the sa- and the sale of the Seattle Seahawks. So he’s, so he’s, he’s not new to this, right? But–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –but Gonzales brings the, the legal expertise–
BOBBY: And no [34:08]
ALEX: –right? Right. The, the gravitas that it takes to–
BOBBY: He’s gonna make the tough decisions.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: I think this is the most Tipping Pitches segment of all time.
ALEX: It, it really is. I–
BOBBY: Reading a list of war crimes and relating it back to baseball somehow. Like this is just to, they’re making it kind of to easy.
ALEX: They forced our hand.
BOBBY: Yeah, they did, they did. This is despicable. I can’t believe that there’s nobody shepherding the sport away from literal war criminals. Or like, oil barons, or whatever.
ALEX: Well–
BOBBY: Financial criminals.
ALEX: Okay, who’s gonna run the teams then at this point? You’re running out of people.
BOBBY: That’s actually true.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Like, landlords and oil barons and war criminals and what’s next? What’s next?
ALEX: I mean, the next person to, to buy a team is going to be some, like dipshit who made money off Dogecoin.
BOBBY: Yeah. Okay, but before that maybe like a sitting US senator.
ALEX: There you go.
BOBBY: It’s just like writing the bills on one hand and on the other hand, he’s like signing player contracts. We’ve weirdly passed a law that says baseball players have to donate all of their money back to one of the two political parties. All of it, they play for free.
ALEX: They do. Well–
BOBBY: We provide the military barrack housing, three square meals a day.
ALEX: We’re bringing it back to company town, baby! You know, in, in some minor league organizations, we’re inching towards that, right? With company provided housing, which again, I’m in favor of, but to a point to a point I’m mostly in favor of just paying the players enough to be able to get their own housing.
BOBBY: I mean, choosing where to live, having free will in society, you’re in favor of that.
ALEX: Yeah, well, again to a point.
BOBBY: I, I would like somebody to write the, the Boots Riley sorry to bother you. alternate future version of MLB. Where we just satirize owners and baseball players get turned into horses? I don’t, I don’t really know. Sorry for the spoiler. If you haven’t seen, sorry to bother you.
ALEX: Who do we get to play Bizarro World, Rob Manfred. Who? But like Bob Odenkirk?
BOBBY: That’s good. Sign me up.
ALEX: Yeah?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: On board?
BOBBY: He’s got the right tone. We can cast this out later.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’d be for the Patreon content. We cast fake movies on the Patreon, sign up now. Okay, let’s take a quick break. And then when we come back, we’re going to do a speed round of a bunch of topics.
[36:52]
[Transition]
BOBBY: Okay, speed round, pass or play? Take or Swing. That’s what I’m calling this. You decide whether we talk about this, Alex, okay? Are you alright with that?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I have a list of topics here. And you’re either gonna take it, you’re just gonna let it go by or you’re gonna you’re gonna rip swing it at it. Sounds good.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Miguel Cabrera 3000 hits. Would you like to take a swing at that one?
ALEX: Yeah. He’s one of the best baseball players I’ve ever seen. That’s, that’s the swing right there. I took that the other way of just like he did is, is 3000 hit.
BOBBY: G.O.A.T.
ALEX: I, is, is somewhat unceremonious decline, largely due to injury. I think has maybe overshadowed in my mind just how good of a pure hitter he was. Like one of the best pure hitters of this generation, right? First ballot Hall of Famer, no doubt.
BOBBY: Yeah, one of seven players to ever have 3000 hits and 500 homeruns.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s seven, seven. Like one more than six, one less than eight, seven in the history of–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –baseball.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah, well, I don’t even know, what more can you say? He’s also I think one of the most beloved players in the game right now. And that really is what matters the most to me.
BOBBY: He’s had, he’s had a weird career. Obviously, he was like, exceptional when he was young right away. He’s been part of like a, a lot of like, kind of iconic teams in our lifetime. Like–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –’03 Marlins, but then all of those Tigers teams around the turn of the 2010, 2010s. And I feel like he’s done the opposite of what Adrian Beltre did, where Adrian Beltre is back half of his career made him Hall of Famer.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And Miggy, you know, like a lot of other guys like Pujols , like, basically anybody that people complain about their big contracts. Had just one of the most exceptional first 10 years of his career and the second 10 years have been. Been a little bit tougher to watch, but, but he’s unbelievably beloved by Detroit fans.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Rightfully so, I was at a, a gathering, a birthday party in the park yesterday. And I met someone who was a Tigers fan. And she was like, almost in tears talking about Miggy get his 3000 hit. I’m like, where, it’s a good thing like–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –you know, congratulations. Like she did it. I was like, this is amazing. All right. Next topic, Take or Swing, Aaron Boone intentionally walks [39:50] around 2999 hits.
ALEX: Yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna take that pitch. I’m gonna let that one go, go right by.
BOBBY: Good waste, good waste. Okay, next topic, the United States Capitol evacuated because the army was skydiving into Nats park–
ALEX: That’s right.
BOBBY: –before a game. Someone missed an email.
ALEX: Can you imagine if they like shot down one of those parachuters?
BOBBY: I can’t, I can’t imagine that. No.
ALEX: Like–
BOBBY: It literally does not compute in my brain. First of all, okay, here’s my swing at this topic. Why are we doing it? Why? Why before a baseball game, where we have one guy holding a stick, and one guy throwing a ball and everyone wearing pajamas. Why do we need Army Rangers jumping out of planes onto the field before the game starts?
ALEX: Because the small man fall from sky and everybody applaud and fun. That’s, I don’t know, a lot of these pregame rituals are, like they, they feel of a different era, almost, right? Like it the–
BOBBY: Yeah, it’s like, it’s like, World War II happened and we never got over it. Like, what, we don’t need more pride. We need less pride, maybe?
ALEX: Yeah, again, I, I mean, I’m also, I’d also love to see the, the invoice for this, you know. Like, how much did this cost of the American taxpayers, right? Like military flyovers a games, or like, like cost so much money–
BOBBY: Millions of dollars.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Which again, I don’t that seems like a racket, but I don’t decide these things. All right, next topic. Charlie Blackmon signs with MaximBet. Would you like to swing at this topic? Or would you like to take this topic?
ALEX: I’m going to, I’m going to do a check swing and say I’m sure nothing bad will come of this.
BOBBY: I’ll take a swing at this topic. I don’t know what MaximBet is, never heard of it. I feel like we’ve talked a lot about betting. And I’ve gotten a lot of targeted ads about sports betting on account of the fact that I like sports and tweet about sports and go to sports events, often. I know about FanDuel, I know about DraftKings. MaximBet was a new one.
ALEX: Well, you know what now, right? You’ve just said his name like three times in the past minute.
BOBBY: No free ads. I’m gonna go back and bleep all of them. All right, I can see the headline right now. Blackmon, the new Black Sox.
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: Write itself, huh?
ALEX: Yes. It really does. New York Post, where you at?
BOBBY: I’m available for freelance headline wrting. Next topic, Yankees fans throwing trash onto the field after Gleyber Torres’ walk off.
ALEX: Nope. Hard take. That’s a, that’s a curveball in the dirt. I’m not touching that one.
BOBBY: Absolutely. Hit the take sign on that one for me. Michael Conforto just, just taking the pass on 2022 just not gonna be playing baseball this year. Would you like to, you like to hack it that one, Alex?
ALEX: That one feels like it’s on the edge of the zone. So I think I might take it but I know that you have a little bit more plate coverage than I. So I might–
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: –I might throw it over to you.
BOBBY: I have no plate coverage at all, real baseball, but it’s this one is in my wheelhouse. It’s kind of fishy, it’s weird. I’m not trying to be conspiracy Bob or anything. But uhm, he’s been a good baseball player for most of his career. Much worse baseball players are signed for more money than I think he would accept over the next two years to–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –do a prove it deal. I don’t know that for certain. I’m not Scott Boras. I’m not Michael Conforto. But I think it’s weird that a guy who had one bad year and has also been prominently involved in the Major League Baseball Players Association and is represented by a prominent sports agent is not being signed for an entire season. Just because he has a bad shoulder. That is what I think is weird.
ALEX: Speak on it.
BOBBY: Next topic, the Padres Jersey patches are so fucking big, Alex!
ALEX: Oh, God! Oh–
BOBBY: Would you like to swing at this one?
ALEX: –my God, Jesus! Hanging slider right there. They are monstrously big. And, and here’s my actual feelings about this. I largely don’t care.
BOBBY: Thank you for sharing your actual feelings. Are you sometimes sharing your fake feelings?
ALEX: Well, you know, I think you, sometimes you get swept up in the, in the conversation that takes place on, on Twitter.
BOBBY: Right, Twitter is not real life.
ALEX: Twitter is not real life.
BOBBY: Oh, so these are you’re off Twitter feel- your offline feelings?
ALEX: Right, exactly. The, the things that maybe I didn’t feel confident enough to, to throw on the timeline, right? It’s that, that I mostly–
BOBBY: Thank you based Motorola.
ALEX: Like the jersey patches are here, and they’re fine. And I’ve accepted them. And I don’t even think that this looks particularly atrocious. They managed to make a, a patch that fits with the Padres color scheme. They’re just like 30% too big, 50% too big. That’s the worst thing about it for me. And Motorola isn’t even the most egregious jersey sponsor that we’re going to get this season.
BOBBY: Oh my God.
ALEX: So I’m–
BOBBY: So I’ll say–
ALEX: –I’m waiting for the, alright sorry.
BOBBY: –they rolled them out–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –ahead of time, so people can get used to them.
ALEX: I’m, I’m reserving my anger for the–
BOBBY: I like it.
ALEX: –much more atrocious one [45:55].
BOBBY: Keep your powder dry. That’s a good, a good strat.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m gonna, I’m gonna not keep my powder dry here. I was not offended by this concept. I was like, you know what jersey patches? Whatever. I’ve been watching the NBA a long time. They’ve had jersey patches since like 2016. And it doesn’t, it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me that when Steph Curry is hitting amazing shots, it says, Rakuten right above his heart. I don’t really care.
ALEX: Yeah. They’re pretty tastefully sized in the NBA, you could say.
BOBBY: Exactly, right. They are distastefully sized on this Padres jersey. I can only hope that the ridicule online makes them shrink it just a little bit. You know what? I think shouldn’t be an option making your jersey sponsor bigger than like a memorial patch for someone who is important to your organization who died. It should at least be the same size as that and probably smaller.
ALEX: Yeah, but what are you going to sell off those memorial patches, dude.
BOBBY: I don’t know, like, funeral services? Listen, we’re rolling out war criminals to own teams. Like it’s not beyond the pale.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Okay, next topic. This next topic is whether or not Yankees players are actually [47:08] if they’re just saying they are. Don’t even answer that. Just take that pitch, just take–
ALEX: Yeah, this, no, no, no.
BOBBY: Give me the takes on that one. All right, final topic. There were some Reds fans who attended the game this past week, with some bags on their head. You know, as a shame sports fans have been doing time immemorial. On those bags, it said sell the team, Bob. They’re being interviewed by a local TV station. Because you know, they’re doing a little while protest in the stands there. Here’s how that interview went.
REDS FAN: You know, I’ve always been a huge Reds fan. I love baseball and you know, I just want the team to want to win. So you know, we figured we come out support the players, but do anything in our power to not support the ownership group.
ATTENDANT: We never bagged on your head. You got to take them off.
BOBBY: That voice at the end saying, you can’t have the bags on your head, you got to take them off. That was a Red stadium attendant coming over and forcing the fans to take the bags off of their head. Presumably because you’re not allowed to wear like masks or costumes at baseball games. That’s like–
ALEX: Is that true?
BOBBY: I think so. I think that’s true.
ALEX: Unless you’re employed by the team.
BOBBY: Right. Unless you’re Mr. Red, don’t want to distract from Mr. Red. But probably just because they didn’t want the bad look. Which this obviously it looks worse.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Would you like to swing it this topic that I’ve already swung at, basically?
ALEX: I you kind of set it all, right? These fans open invite to come on this podcast.
BOBBY: That’s exactly right.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s exactly right.
ALEX: This is, we need more direct action like this from fans. So you know, maybe I do go to the Oakland Coliseum when I’m back home.
BOBBY: With a bag over your head?
ALEX: But–
BOBBY: I would do that with you.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: I would show up to the Coliseum with a bag over my head.
ALEX: Hell yeah.
BOBBY: Sell the team John, sell the team.
ALEX: Delete your account Dave.
BOBBY: Actually, though, that feels like something that John Fisher should be telling Dave.
ALEX: Yes, seriously–
BOBBY: Atleast [49:13] know.
ALEX: –stop eating dude.
BOBBY: Although I think that they’re just treating Dave Kaval the way that the owners treat Rob Manfred. Which is like let this guy make an idiot out of himself and we’ll pay him to do so. And then we’ll just discard him–
ALEX: We’ll dispose of him once his job–
BOBBY: –when curating is so low, that he’s not actually helping us anymore. That’s all for my, for my speed round topics. How do you think that segment went? Real time, evaluation.
ALEX: I think it went well. I think we should, I think we should take every Yankees topic that comes up on this podcast. I’m gonna, I’m gonna–
BOBBY: Why are you spoiling the bid? Like we’re just gonna do it and see who noticed. Come on! You’re ruining the bid, Alex.
ALEX: You’re right. I’m sorry. There was no bias in that discussion.
BOBBY: Very fair. Very honest.
ALEX: We just talked the, the issues that matter to the American people.
BOBBY: And to the Tipping Pitches listeners. Who are, as you know, very representative of the American people. It’s very wide array of people that we attract with this niche leftist Baseball Podcast. I think that does it for this week.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Tight one.
ALEX: It was a tight one.
BOBBY: In and out with it. I will use this, this time that we have here left at the end of the podcast to remind people, the Tipping Pitches is launching a Patreon. It is really happening. The Patreon is created, yet not launched. Because we are waiting for the beginning of May. Not just because of Mayday, Alex, but because the way that Patreon billing works that you just get billed right when you sign up. And we don’t want people to have to pay for a whole month and then have to re up on the first of the month. Just mere days later. So–
ALEX: We, we also couldn’t let Joe West have all that shine on his own. So May 2nd, you’re gonna have two choices on what to sign up for.
BOBBY: Is that the day that his podcast launches–
ALEX: I think so.
BOBBY: –May 2nd?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t even remember I, I said on the podcast last week. But, wow, we’re trying to cut Joe West’s podcast operation off right at the head.
ALEX: This is, this is where y’all gotta pick sides, man. Where your loyalties lie.
BOBBY: I feel like his podcast is free, though.
ALEX: Yeah, fair.
BOBBY: It’s just a matter of how you spend your time, you know? Would you like to share more details on the Patreon with people Alex?
ALEX: Of course, there will be three tiers that you can sign up for each with varying levels of rewards. The first tier is, is more Thank You Tier, that’s if you like what we’ve been doing. And want to, and just feel like supporting us. It will also get you access to a, a private Slack channel that we’ve affectionately called Slacking Pitches?
BOBBY: It’s pretty good. No notes.
ALEX: Yeah, that was all you buddy.
BOBBY: Did I come up with that?
ALEX: I think so.
BOBBY: I believe it. Okay, sounds like something I would say.
ALEX: Anyway, if you want to join that community of Tipping Pitches fans, will be in there. Other listeners will be in there, you can talk all your Joe West shit you want right there with us. The tier above that will get you access to more Tipping Pitches content. Things like extended interviews, and the, the opportunity to maybe even have a say in some upcoming T-shirts, of which there are a few.
BOBBY: That’s a big perk because that’s basically all anybody DMs us these days.
ALEX: Pretty much.
BOBBY: Lik,e hey, when’s the Rays Unionize the Minor shirt coming down? Hey, make the Yankees Unionize the Minor shirt.
ALEX: Right. Of course, we will never make any of these because they bear no resemblance to actual major league teams.
BOBBY: That’s exactly–
ALEX: Want to clarify that.
BOBBY: –that’s exactly right. But if you would like a Rays or a Yankees or name a team inspired Unionize the Minors shirt. You’re just gonna have to sign up for at least that middle tier and vote. I just don’t know what else to tell you. Because I’ll tell you one thing, we’re not just making the Yankees one for free.
ALEX: So true.
BOBBY: Especially based on that last segment that we did.
ALEX: Yeah. I’m gonna–
BOBBY: [53:08]–
ALEX: [53:09] all the way on that one.
BOBBY: Take, take, take.
ALEX: The top tier will actually feature writing of ours. Maybe a little while Tipping Pitches newsletter. We used to do that, every once in a while.
BOBBY: So much time in MailChimp. Makes me shudder to think about MailChimp.
ALEX: We’re, we’re bringing back our writing chops. That will also be a chance to, to maybe chat with us live. We’ll even maybe send you a little handwritten written something. All of this–
BOBBY: It’ll be a love letter.
ALEX: And it will be a, a love letter.
BOBBY: We’ll write your custom love met- letter.
ALEX: Honestly, if you want it, I’ll fucking do it, seriously. No joke. All of this and more, you’ll be able to find the full details when we officially launch a week from today. So keep your eyes peeled.
BOBBY: I think that does it, Alex. It’s time to go watch the Mets probably blow another lead to the Diamondbacks. Thanks for listening everyone.
[54:04]
[Music]
[54:19]
[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 
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