It’s the start of the baseball season, so what better time to answer all your burning questions? Bobby and Alex dig into the mailbag for this episode, answering listener questions about dynamic duos Barbie-style, whether the Mets scoreboard is too big, which players pour the milk before the cereal, favorite baseball books, Muppet Mets fans, and more.
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Songs featured in this episode:
Billy Joel — “Piano Man” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
[theme]
[intro]
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and being able to relay that message to Cora, when you watch Kimbrel pitch and it kind of helped 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 all about. That’s amazing and that’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, instead of starting the podcast with the open question for you this week, I want to start with the story for you. Letting you off the hook a little bit.
ALEX: I love this. I love storyteller Bob.
BOBBY: The other night, like three nights ago, at this point, Friday night, I was walking to a bar in Brooklyn, and we were walking ahead of a group of older folks, two older women, two or three older men, and then what appeared to be maybe like their children were also with them too, who were also adults. And they were talking about none other than the sport of baseball, which got me excited. So you know what I did, I slowed my pace down a little bit, so I could eaves drop and hear what they were talking about and potentially use it for the cold open of this podcast. And it was successful because you know what they were talking about, one of the women was explaining to the group that Major League Baseball umpires are scored based on an automated strike zone that has an AI program that tells the league whether or not the pitch was a ball or a strike. And she was just explaining it to them, And they were so curious about this. They were like, so there’s a computer, and it tells them whether it’s a strike, and—but it doesn’t actually affect what happens in the game, it’s just after the fact like a report card. I’m sitting, I’m some—I’m walking in front of them and I’m listening to this. And I’m like, wow, these people have such a deep rabbit hole to go down. If they’re just learning about how umpires are scored based on their accuracy, they have so many takes cycles to go through. I’m jealous of them.
ALEX: I know how young and naive, you know?
BOBBY: They learned about ABS.
ALEX: We— could you get a vibe on like, what the response was to it? Was she saying it? like, oh the game has gone the way of the nerds?
BOBBY: No, they were just like genuinely curious. Like they weren’t— they weren’t dumping on it. They weren’t like this is good, this is bad, this is nothing. They were just like, can you believe it, technology.
ALEX: Oh, my God, they’re never gonna make it online. Are you kidding me, you got to have a take.
BOBBY: Yeah, you do have to have a take. So should I have turned around and said something to them? Should I have been like, this is actually a huge labor rights issue for the MLB umpires union.
ALEX: I’m sure that would have pulled them in more.
BOBBY: So I’ve turned around and said, no, actually cowboy Joe West recently retired umpire, longest tenured umpire of all time, who moonlights as the blue cowboy, cowboy—cowboy Joe. He actually didn’t like the automated balls and strike system, so you should reconsider whether you think that this is good for the game or not.
ALEX: You need to be spre—out there, spreading the good word, Bobby.
BOBBY: Look, we may not be all the way talk about—
ALEX: Cowboy Joe. Of you know, the—
BOBBY: Oh, the anti technology movement in baseball?
ALEX: Right. Look, the— the topics might be banned here, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: You can’t talk Analytics, you can’t tell the real changes. But out on the street with—with the common man and woman, I mean, that’s— that’s your bread and butter. That’s your time to shine.
BOBBY: My favorite part of the story is that it’s like opening weekend, so ostensibly more people are talking about baseball than ever. And this was the topic. This isn’t even a new thing. Like this is not—it’s not one of the roll changes. it’s not the bridge—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —clog. Maybe I just came into the conversation late and they had already gotten through that bullet-point list of topics. And they— were moving on to older news for the group of people who did not know much about baseball. But I just thought it was so interesting, that’s not like, that’s not your typical street corner conversation point.
ALEX: I know about— about the game of baseball. Well, it is interesting. They didn’t go to— again, we’re going so deep on what was maybe a 90-second snippet that you heard, right? But it’s interesting what they—
BOBBY: No, they we’re having like a Socratic seminar like they were going back and forth.
ALEX: This is amazing, you should’ve have invited them on.
BOBBY: Turn around it. Honestly, they probably—
ALEX: [4:22]
BOBBY: The flyover states. They could probably tell that I had a baseball podcast.
ALEX: I—I think it’s telling that they— they didn’t touch on the new real changes whatsoever, and went straight to like umpiring, right? The automated balls and strikes. That– that was the most interesting thread to pull out in baseball right now.
BOBBY: Right, it was not, wow, did you hear the games are 15 minutes shorter? It was— it was not. I hear stolen bases are up. Are you telling that—
ALEX: 40% this year.
BOBBY: —the— the game is being 15 minutes shorter, doesn’t really matter to anybody except a select few people of online baseball fans?
ALEX: Yeah, I am telling you that. Yeah.
BOBBY: Yesterday was Easter and my family was over for Easter, and my aunt was asking me about all the new rule changes, and she was like, and also this instant replay. She’s like, I can’t believe that either. I’m like, you mean the thing that’s been around for like, 15 years? I think she thought that instant replay was new too, because they were instituting all these new rule changes, and she just didn’t notice it before.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So I was like, oh, I was like, yes, I have many thoughts on instant replay. Many of which are available in public forums. But I don’t really think Easter dinner is the right place for me to resurface those.
ALEX: Right. That’s—you know how they say don’t bring politics up at— at the dinner table with your family. Like this is our— this is our can of worms that— that you don’t want anyone at the Easter table to open up. Like don’t get him started, don’t wind him up, because he’ll just go.
BOBBY: Well, that’s kind of like what the—that’s like the band topics. That’s like the whole concept. We took that—
ALEX: Exa—
BOBBY: —whole like no politics—
ALEX: —exactly.
BOBBY: —religion and sex at the dinner table, and we applied that to the podcast.
ALEX: Yeah, your family doesn’t know that though.
BOBBY: Well, they should listen to the pod then. In retrospect, do you think we should have band at the topic of Jazz Chisholm? Maybe not on the podcast, but with each other?
ALEX: Yeah, probably, given our lengthy discussions at this weekend domesticated.
BOBBY: It lasted like six innings. Like it would be with stop down for like a couple of hours, and then Jazz would be involved in a play, of which he was involved in many.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: On the game— in the game on Saturday. Diving catch, home run, bad route to a ball. And it would just—it would—would come back up. This is our new DH and now we have to have something to like redirect our energy too. We agree on so—
ALEX: Right, we had—
BOBBY: —many things that we have to just find any one of these things—
ALEX: —one exactly.
BOBBY: —so that we can just like focus all of our negative energy into that and keep our health—our relationship healthy otherwise.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Okay, Alex, we Have a fun episode today, an early baseball season mailbag. To answer all of your questions related and unrelated to baseball. You know, we’re gonna go through them all no matter what they are, as many as we can get through in a normal-length podcast. The normal length podcast, which is under two hours, just so everybody knows, under two hours, this will be under two hours. This is not the elusive two-hour podcast yet. We’re just going to keep that— keep that one dangling out in front.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Before we do that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley, and you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
BOBBY: Okay, thank you to this week’s new patrons. Jacob, Will, Clive, Bryan Lang and Darfur, and Dock. Anything that you want to get off your chest before we dive into the mailbag? Because once we do, there’s no looking back.
ALEX: Not real—you know, the only thing I’ll—I’ll note and you alluded to this already, but Bobby we— we saw a real live baseball game this weekend. We saw the New York Mets play the Miami Marlins. And can I just say, really happy baseball’s back?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Really, really like being back out there. It’s a good sport. You’re not—I didn’t think about when I was out there. Pace of play, solid bases.
BOBBY: Not any of these things came into my mind. I was just really happy to be back in a baseball stadium with my friends.
ALEX: I don’t know. it’s a vibe, man, always is.
BOBBY: Yeah, you didn’t have time to focus on any of those things, because you were too busy trying to get yourself on the Jumbotron during [8:55]
ALEX: Clearly. I know.
BOBBY: Did you not—
ALEX: Famously my favorite song. Did you know I didn’t know that happened?
BOBBY: I don’t really know where I was or what I was doing, or what I was paying attention to while you were doing that. But Alex went into the aisle to get the attention of the cameraman who was up in our section a lot, for some reason.
ALEX: A lot.
BOBBY: Like all the way up in 525, and the cameraman, he just wanted to be a man of the people I guess.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: And you—you were the star. You were the guy who caught his attention.
ALEX: Yeah, if we’re being honest, I don’t really remember where I was during that. Also—
BOBBY: There’s photo [9:32]
ALEX: —[9:33] it’s a bit of an out-of-body experience for me.
BOBBY: Your face— you’re just like, straight facing the end the photo that we got of you on the Jumbotron. This just takes us to our first question, Alex. We were asked by Zayn on Twitter, the Mets’ new scoreboard, is it too big. I mean, with firts —with—with firsthand experience of being on it—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —Of filling up some of those pixels, what do you think?
ALEX: Yeah, I did not think it was too big until I saw my big ass face on there.
BOBBY: I’m actually really —
ALEX: At this point I was like dear God,
BOBBY: I’m actually really upset that I didn’t see it in real-time, that you were on the scoreboard. Because that might be the only time ever.
ALEX: Yeah, I’m not letting it happen again, all of Citi Field got to see my pores. Like it was—
BOBBY: Yeah, thanks, Steve Cohen.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t think it’s too big.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: It doesn’t feel that much. It does feel bigger if you think about it. But mostly because they just expanded the screen to where all of the weird crypto ads and stuff and like the hospital ads used to be all around that screen. So now it’s just like—
BOBBY: —it’s the same size structure more or less. It’s just all screen, and it’s on the opposite [10:52] I—I got to hand it to him.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: I gotta hand it to him. Getting— getting rid of the ads.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: For more space for baseball content.
ALEX: That’s a man of the people right there.
BOBBY: It’s Steve Cohen socialist, my column. Maybe that should be your newsletter. You know, the newsletter that you didn’t actually send out last week, even though you bragged about prepping for it? We can advance.
ALEX: I’m sorry, it’s a lot of work, guys.
BOBBY: Okay, no, the screen is not too big. Next question.
MADDIE: Hi Tipping Pitches, it’s Maddie fan from New Hampshire Colonists. Excuse the background noise this is going to be one of your weirder fan calls because I’m calling from a horse barn where I’m currently mucking stalls. But I was listening to your latest episode about Bryce Harper and the horny books, and I had some thought as a self-proclaimed expert on horny books because there wasn’t a lot of them or read a lot of them. It was really bad one, which kind of makes this whole thing terrible because you want people to like appreciate romance books as funny books for what they are. And really get into them, and I’m all down for Bryce Harper’s book club. But he picked like two of the worst books out there. Like I read a lot of those weird genre of books and couldn’t get through all Kennedy. So good luck with the book club. And if you need other baseball themed [12:13] books, so to speak for the first book club, let me know. I got plenty [12:17] and they’re much better than the deal. Thanks. Bye.
BOBBY: So obviously, lastly, when we talked about Bryce Harper and his romance novels in gentleman’s quarterly, neither of us had read either of his books, or we’re familiar with them, and so we couldn’t comment on the quality of them. But is it surprising at all to you that these books are not good?
ALEX: It’s not surprising. I mean, the sense that they get is that these are very Zeitgeisty books right now, the good reads summary, right for the deal by L. Kennedy, reads the New York Times bestseller and Tiktok sensation, L. Kennedy brings you the first and the sexy off-campus series that everyone’s talking about. She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy. And a Wells has finally found someone who turns her on.
BOBBY: I still have not fully processed that he decided—
ALEX: [13:05] Bryce Harper is—
BOBBY: Safe to interview.
ALEX: [13:09]
BOBBY: That’s sick.
ALEX: So this begs the question, does Bryce Harper have Tiktok? Like is this what— is he on romance-tok?
BOBBY: I mean, there’s probably an easy answer to this question. He probably does have a Tiktok and it’s probably like publicly available. I’m just nervous, like know about it.
ALEX: It’s not a very fun answer, though.
BOBBY: So you think he has a burner Tiktok account, where he’s just like inhaling romance novel content?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Well, so we got a question later in here asking us to make baseball book recommendations. So maybe Maddie should just write back in and share all of her thoughts on what would be a better replacement to the deal by L. Kennedy.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Should we read the deal so that we can confidently dump on it a little bit? Like I feel bad like L Kennedy is getting the— getting—
ALEX: The short end of the stick here?
BOBBY: —yeah.
ALEX: Can’t defend their self? Once again, we’ve reached the territory where I have to ponder the question, how far will I go for the bit?
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Will I buy Bryce Harper’s $40 pomade?
BOBBY: Oh, I thought you’re gonna say $40 book recommendation—
ALEX: —like geez, he’s pulling 40 bucks for this, it must be a real big Tiktok sensation.
BOBBY: Oh, like no.
ALEX: [14:20] $5 on Kindle.
BOBBY: Yeah, I know. The $40 pomade you did buy, right?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: No?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: No, come on?
ALEX: I thought that you—I thought you did. I thought you said you tried some of the products.
BOBBY: I had the shampoo, but it was a gift.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: A guy gift. So my mom was willing to go further for the bid than you. Once again, our mom’s going further for the pod than we ever will.
ALEX: And your mom doesn’t even listen.
BOBBY: Well, she listens occasionally. She’ll be like—she’ll be like, I listened to the last six episodes yesterday. It’s like wow, that’s too much me— even for me.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know, like I have to be in this head 24 hours a day like you know that.
ALEX: Right. I’m like, why— why do you choose to do that?
BOBBY: She’s like I had—you know I— I was— I was doing some gardening and I just needed something to listen to and it was just up there and I was like, I’m catching up. She’s like hearing about what happened in the World Series.
ALEX: [15:15]
BOBBY: Already decided. Maddie, thank you for calling in and confirming that Bryce Harper doesn’t— doesn’t have good taste in books. Although I’m not totally surprised by that. So we just do our—the baseball books question now Alex? Jake in the Slack asked about you know, we’ve discussed this before, but not sure if it ever came up on an episode. What are your favorite books that you’d recommend to people? Your favorite baseball books that you’d recommend to people? I don’t know, ha—have we talked about this sounds like—we’ve talked about this in so many different places that you joke that it should be on our FAQ—
ALEX: —page, on our website, I guess? Thought that would actually goes to frequently asked questions that no one will see by Alex and Bobby. Baseball books, I wrote down three. Only two of which I have read, one of which is like at the top of my want-to-read list, which I feel like people under in— in recommendations. Like just because I haven’t read it doesn’t mean that it’s not a better book than the books that I am going to recommend, I want to read it really badly. Just haven’t been able to get around to it. The first one is Lords of the Realm. I mean, like would this even be—
BOBBY: I know.
ALEX: Banger.
BOBBY:
—on the Tipping Pitches FAQ—
ALEX: Banger.
BOBBY: —without—
ALEX: Banger.
BOBBY: —The Lords of—the Lords of Realm recommendation. Which is like the po—the pocket history, the— the whole story of the formation of the MLB Players Association and how the owners created the financial situation of the game. It’s like one of the—
ALEX: It’s like a People’s History of baseball.
BOBBY: —Yeah, it’s like one of the best sports books ever written, not just specific to baseball. My second recommendation is the only rule that has to work, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller’s book where they literally took over a, an independent league baseball team. The Sonoma stampers for a year, and ran it like a saber had dreams about running a baseball team and saw—and saw how it went.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Hence the title, the Only Rule That Has to Work. It doesn’t matter if it looks good. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. It doesn’t matter if it tracks with baseball history, it just has to work, and they have to win. And the writing style you and I both read this in college, it was like a I read it and then passed it to you, or you read it and then pass it to me like across the common room of our [17;30]. And the writing style is similar—similarly, tag teamed, it’s a— Ben, writing a chapter and Sam writing a chapter. And so you see from their different perspectives, how some of these strategies played out, what they were thinking during some of these strategies. And it’s just a —it’s kind of like an irreplaceable look into the— into front office philosophy, into sabermetric philosophy, and how it clashes with clubhouse culture. And it was written— it was written a while ago at this point like, I don’t know, like 8 or 10 years ago at this point. And so obviously, some things have progressed to be part of the mainstream, but at the time that they were doing them, it seemed ridiculous to ask especially indie ballplayers who are like fighting and scrapping for their chance and affiliated ball to try something that seems reckless or weird. So tha— that would be my recommendation for people who haven’t read it. Of course, we’ve recommended that before. And then my third recommendation is Stealing Home. The book about the formation of Dodger Stadium, and the displacement of the indigenous people of Chavez Ravine to make that happen, which I have not read, which is written by Eric Nussbaum. Which— it’s kind of like dereliction of duty that neither of us have read this book at this point because it just has so many crossover themes with what we talked about in the present. It’s an historical telling of what actually happened and the ways that you know, the big business of capitalism and baseball come in and steamroll everything in their path to create this— this mythos, this baseball Nirvana, that is Dodger Stadium and Chavez Ravine, it’s like, well, how did they actually get that done? And it’s— for a lot of the people that I’ve talked to who have read it, it’s like, a deeply upsetting story, and so it’s maybe not like a quick beach read or like a fun propulsive read in the way that, like Evans book was when we did that, and it’s sort of like a de facto Tipping Pitches book club last month. But nonetheless an—an unbelievable story that I really love to get around to read.
ALEX: Yeah, all great recommendations, the only rule is it has to work. It was on my list as well. I think I read that in like a literal weekend. Like it’s so easy to devour. And as you mentioned, just a really great sort of look at different strains of baseball philosophy and kind of how they clash with each other. Um, a couple other ones that I’d recommend, the first is a fictional book The Art of fielding by Chad Harbach. It follows a young man playing baseball in college, and it’s kind of a coming-of-age story about love and loss. And baseball is more the backdrop you know than it is kind of the focal point.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And I think the book does a good job of—of showing how baseball can be that sort of setting, right how it is such a good habit cadence of it lends itself well to being a setting, right? Being a scene for a grander story. I read it years ago, and I’d love to revisit it just because I don’t know. It’s a really— it’s really unique book, and—and would wreck.
BOBBY: Do you reread books a lot?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Me either. Because there’s like so many books, there’s unlimited amounts of books. And even though I know that I would get a lot out of reading books, I can never just get over that hurdle in my brain that’s like, you need to read the next thing, you need to learn [21:09]—
ALEX: Or you could just be reading something you haven’t read before.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. But like, well, I guess because it’s so much more of a time commitment, but I’ll rewatch—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —my favorite movies all the time.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: Even when those movies are three-plus hours.
ALEX: I’ll also recommend The Arm by One, Jeffrey Passan.
BOBBY: Wow. Heard of them. We’re doing Jeff Passan Schilling on the pod.
ALEX: We’re doing Jeff Passan shilling on the pod right now. It’s a good book, I learned a lot. There’s a— there’s a lot in there that I still think about today that goes into sort of the science of the pitcher’s arm, right? And—and there were some really interesting threads in there as well, about sort of the different approaches that different baseball leagues take to taking care of their players’ arms, seeing the sort of culture clashes, seeing the— the different approaches that leagues and sort of cultures take to taking care of their players is a really—is a really fascinating look, especially as the sport continues to grow more and more international, and there’s more and more visibility there. I think provides some really interesting context. So those are the two that I’ll throw on the pile.
BOBBY: I think the interesting thing about The Arm is that like, in a game that’s so empirical, like baseball, how unscientific taking care of your body is and how important it is to actually being able to do the thing that you’ve trained for, for your whole life. So the delicate balance between like, how much stress do I put on the tendons in my elbow to make my pitches better, if it also might end my career?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And how much can we even learn about that? I feel like that has become you know, as like Tommy John has gone through the roof, partially because the surgery is better, and we’re better at diagnosing it. And because everybody knows that it’s not like a career-ending thing, so they don’t put it off as long as people used to in past years. But like, in large part because of the increased velocities and increased velocity on breaking pitches, which— which add more stress to your elbow. But like, is that even true? Do we even know that that’s true? Like a lot of this stuff is sort of pseudo-science like it’s passed down wisdom about, you should never throw a curveball when you’re in literally because that will mean that you’ll tear your elbow by the time you’re 18. And It’s like—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —I don’t know if any of that is true. Like the literally coach who told me that, I wouldn’t trust him to tell me anything else.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: At this point. But I just believe it you know, and like these—these different like baseball—pieces of baseball received knowledge that we just accept as true versus like, is there a—is there a better way to learn more about this and like his book is kind of the seminal text on this specific thing.
ALEX: Yeah, hates me to have to hand it to him, you know.
BOBBY: Okay, next question. Our good friend Tom in the Slack. Is grumpy old man Mike Smith, correct? Where the Phillies NL championship rings far too ostentatious for something that isn’t the world serious. So Tom is alluding to the fact that yesterday during the Phillies du—yesterday before the Phillies Reds game, or two days ago, I don’t really remember which day they actually gave them the rings. But they had an unfilled ceremony for the Phillies winning the National Pennant and they passed out rings, Pennant—Pennant winning rings.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And you know what, they look a lot like World Series rings.
ALEX: Yeah, they do.
BOBBY: Like if you were going to make a World Series ring, I’m not sure what you would change about this ring to make it. Other than the fact that it would say World Series Champions instead of National League champions.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So Tom wants to know, we’ll Mike Schmidt had a whole thing about how this is like loser behavior more or less like—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Millennials these, they just all get trophies and—
ALEX: Participitation— participation for people culture, yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. And that’s—that’s Tom’s question is, is that line of thinking correct? Do we agree with Mike Schmidt about this? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Because I feel very strongly one way, and I don’t want to poi— I don’t want to muddy the waters with my opinion—
ALEX: Oh, right. Of course, of course.
BOBBY: —and make you feel pressure to agree with me.
ALEX: It— It pains me to be a hater. It really does. I just want that to be known. But why are we doing?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: Why are we doing a NL championship ring?
BOBBY: I agree. I—just does anyone else ever do this?
ALEX: I know. Like, was there just a designer who was working on this in October? Who then when the Phillies last was like, well, these can’t go to waste? I worked I– even put dancing on my own on the inside of it. Like how are we not going to have the players were these?
BOBBY: If they had won the World Series, do you think that they would have given them two rings? Because the fact that the NL Championship ring exists, makes it seem like it was going to exist no matter like it has to exist.
ALEX: Right, like so. Is there an AL championship ring? I don’t know. Do the Astros have won? I don’t know.
BOBBY: Honestly, this is probably one of those things where like there is and like no, but they just don’t make a ceremony out of it.
ALEX: But like the all the previous World Series winners, like they have two separate rings. and the one ring like goes in a drawer somewhere in the World Series ring goes in like a case, and it’s the only one that gets attention. Because it’s just not- it’s not necessary. Be like Michael Phelps, sharing that he won a silver medal–silver medal one day. it’s like, Hey, you got like 28 golds to you don’t need to talk about the silver and bronze medals. but I think I agree With Mike Schmidt. Wow, that really I almost threw up. We only Have so many fingers. You know, like these rings there. If you win the World Series, you won like three rounds. because they’re an NLDS ring to how far better wildcard ring a wildcard spot number two ring
BOBBY: Are you- are you okay?
ALEX: This once again expand the playoffs, and they- and then they expand the ring recipients, what’s next?
BOBBY: Do the A’s get to hang a 2015 AL West Division winner banner and say flags fly forever, like come on? Let’s be serious. Can we be fucking for real? Rings are for the winners. I don’t know what to tell you, they lost.
ALEX: Yeah, they get the hats. You get a hat that says-
BOBBY: Yeah, like a T-shirt, you know.
ALEX: —National League champion like you’re fine.
BOBBY: You probably also get a trophy, if we’re being honest. Like the Phillies probably have like a smaller NL Troph-it’s not the commissioner’s trophy. It’s not that hunk a hunk of ro- hunk of metal that Rob loves so much, but it is a trophy somewhere. So the ring ceremony was just a lot—a lot for me personally. And it’s also for what it’s worth, it’s the type of thing that if the Phillies had won, and the Astros were given out AL championship rings Phillies fans would be going ballistic. So alright, that’s enough on that, next question.
BECCA: Hey, guys, who are some players that you think pour the milk before the cereal?
BOBBY: This has recently Tipping Pitches guest. Longtime Tipping Pitches caller, [28;13] ends, bro on the mic. Thank you, Becca.
ALEX: Yeah. I love that she—no need to introduce herself anymore. She’s like, you know the number. You got caller ID.
BOBBY: It’s like, it’s as recognizable as like a Picasso. You know, like you just—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —you know— you know it when you hear it. Who are some players who pour the milk before the cereal? Honestly, we’ve already been talking about one of them this episode and I think that’s Bryce Harper. I don’t know why but there is something that feels a little bit like which dimension did you grow up into that guy? Like he grew up in Vegas, which is not like a real place. You know, he’s like a huge Las Vegas Knights fan. He’s like their—their like number one supporter, but also, he exists in this like weird superstardom dimension that I don’t really know what exists. I think that you know what I’m saying. And his good friend JT Realmuto are definitely, they’re pouring the milk in before the cereal.
ALEX: I love that pot, it’s a really good point. There were a couple players who popped into my head when I heard this question. And I want to note.
BOBBY: Don’t tell me that you’re going to come out as pour milk before cereal right here.
ALEX: Look, I–I’ve never done it myself.
BOBBY: But I don’t judge [29:29]
ALEX: So I can’t speak to the— I can’t speak to the merits of it. However, there might be something to be said for instead of just pouring the cereal and then dousing it with milk and letting the bottom get all soggy.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Doing a little bit of like a as you go, you know little like [29:45]
BOBBY: Oh, right.
ALEX: Like lit— little milk and milk in the bottom and then like a little splash kind of you know every few bites.
BOBBY: More like chips and salsa you know. You have the [29:52]
ALEX: You’re right, [29:53]
BOBBY: Put the solid in as needed, you know as you would like to consume and desire.
ALEX: Look, I’m just trying to get into the headspace right now. Okay, you know—
BOBBY: Can I ask you a question before you say th—the names?
ALEX: Sure.
BOBBY: Because I feel like I said Bryce, and I said JT and I feel like people will understand what I meant by that. But—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: When Becca asks this question like, how are you flipping through the files in your brain to determine what baseball players, like Is it like himbos like, Is it—is it guys who are like off a little bit? You know, here’s another guy, we just name in Phillies. Nick Kassianos might be the milk before the cereal guy. Because he’s just like, why do you do it this way? [30:29]
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And that’s a good point.
ALEX: Actually, yeah.
BOBBY: [30:30] with his whole like, why isn’t today opening day?
ALEX: Yeah, every day is opening day.
BOBBY: He’s like—
ALEX: I—I
BOBBY: —who taught you to put the cereal in before the milk, and why do you need to listen to that person?
ALEX: I really liked that take. I mean, the—the way I was thinking about it is like who are the guys who are going to take more than two seconds to think about this? You know, who are going to be pouring themselves a bowl of cereal and say, is there a better way? Right, and so Kassianos [30:54] thing is a great example of like, why did the man tell us we had to pour the cereal first, you know?
BOBBY: Or also like, even if you didn’t intend to pour the milk before the cereal, he just forgot to put the cereal in first and then start pouring the milk, and it’s like, oh, there’s no cereal. I just put the cereal in now.
ALEX: And it’s like This is serendipitous, This is what the Lord asked me to do.
BOBBY: [31:12] see from religious I feel like [31:15]
ALEX: [31:16]
BOBBY: He doesn’t strike me as religious.
ALEX: I immediately thought of Zack Ranky, because he seems like the kind of guy who would say to himself, like, how do I optimize this process, you know?
BOBBY: Like again, though, like the milk first is not optimal. You’re just saying because like the cereal gets soggy?
ALEX: Yeah. I—
BOBBY: Pick—pick a better cereal like, like Raisin Bran not gonna get soggy unless you’re eating it over the course of like, two hours.
ALEX: Oh, yeah dude. I mean, I love Raisin Bran, but that—that gets soggy so fast.
BOBBY: Honey, Bunch of Oats, come on, those are crisp.
ALEX: Oh, yeah. Hey, man, I’m not going to defend them, you know. I just for the sake of a robust debate here, I wanted to kind of, you know, get inside the head a little bit. See how the other side lives? You know what I mean?
BOBBY: Yeah. I see to me, I feel like Ranky would just eat the cereal with no milk. He’d be like, why do I need the milk?
ALEX: [32:15]
BOBBY: I’ll drink a glass of milk separately while eating the cereal.
ALEX: You’re right. Ranky would probably think far too hard.
BOBBY: Exactly. He’s like inventing a new thing, it’s like cereal with milk inside like a Gusher you know?
ALEX: Right, like individual packets of cereal with the milk. Yeah.
BOBBY: There’s like milk, dehydrated milk at the bottom of the packet and you pour in water and then it’s all just made at the same time.
ALEX: Ew. That probably exists. [32:45]
BOBBY: It probably does. That’s probably what the fucking owners are feeding minor leaguers now with their updated CBA. It’s like here is a part of a healthy breakfast, you can Have a banana also.
ALEX: Right. Let it sit in the sun for an hour and it’ll— it’ll decompress.
BOBBY: The way that you— yeah, the way that you cook this meal is you take a magnifying glass to the window of the bus that you’re on.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And you let the sun passed through it and he did a [33:11]. No hot plates on the bus, it’s a safety hazard.
ALEX: Chris Sale was the other guy I thought about.
BOBBY: Is it weird that I’ve just never pictured Chris Sale—I can never picture Chris Sale like eating anything.
ALEX: Like eating—yeah.
BOBBY: He just seems to [33:24]
ALEX: No, it’s not.
BOBBY: Like cereal, the whole like getting in and out of the box.
ALEX: Like eating is a bit of a waste of time.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly.
ALEX: For him.
BOBBY: He’s throwing the box against the wall. Um, you know, I feel like I was really dishing it out to the Phillies players, and so I want to prove that I can take it as well, Pete Alonzo.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And he would like go down fighting, being like, this is better.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What are you talking about? He would probably have a whole thing about how he wants the milk to come down to room temperature first. This is—that’s the way he remembers it in Florida. I feel like that’s a sufficient answer.
ALEX: I think so too.
BOBBY: Okay, Alex, next question comes from Dante in the Slack. Dante wants to know, with regards to the podcast, when did we decide that we were good at it? Dante himself has made some appearances on podcasts and can never really tell how he feels. It went afterwards, which is a feeling that I can relate to. So the short answer to this question is we’re still deciding.
ALEX: Jury’s still out.
BOBBY: It’s something that always happens. Let me just tell— let me just pull the listeners behind the curtain a little bit. Something that happens for every single episode of this podcast is heading in we’re like not sure about this one. I don’t know, this one might be tough. And then during the recording, we feel that same way. And then at the end of it, one of the two of us will look at each other and go I think that one was pretty good.
ALEX: Yeah. And the other usually shrugs their shoulders and says, well see.
BOBBY: In the business we say we’ll see in the edit, you know. We’ll see in the edit, it’ll come together in the edit.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Do you want to answer this question in earnest for Dante?
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, I don’t have to necessarily go into the crippling self-doubt or anything like that.
BOBBY: I don’t know man.
ALEX: Because that’s always, that’s always there.
BOBBY: Making this podcast is way cheaper than therapy, so.
ALEX: I didn’t know that. I sho—should I cancel my session this week?
BOBBY: Just—just got pen all over my hand while I was trying to answer this, was trying to write down my notes on this question.
ALEX: Because things are going so well.
BOBBY: Everything’s going good. My pen just like exploded, I don’t really know what happened. Doing our best to prove to Dante that he asked the wrong people,
ALEX: Right. Bobby’s got ink, like around his mouth right now, I don’t really know how. Yeah, man, it really was just getting on here every week.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Till it kind of felt like a habit, honestly. And I think it really helped bringing on people who I saw and see as being smarter than us and using that as an opportunity to learn from them. Because I think that’s how I try to approach the podcast is, trying to soak up everything from the people around me.
BOBBY: Right. That’s why you become such a great Mets fan.
ALEX: Yeah. Some say. It’s also, you might have to do a little work to get me on your— on your jazz take, I guess? [36:25]
BOBBY: We’ll keep alluding to this and the jazz take has never been shared on the pod.
ALEX: Right, I know.
BOBBY: It’s gonna keep trickling that out. I think that my earnest answer is, ironically enough, when I left New York and moved to California, and we started doing it remotely, full- time. And at that point, it’s kind of what you’re talking about, it became more of a routine. And we would do it every weekend, and it’s how it got to be the way that it is now, where we would record on Sundays and release the podcast every Monday. Before that it was a little bit more sporadic, we were still doing it more or less every week. But we got into the routine of okay, here’s everything that happened in the last six days. Here’s what we know we are going to be interested in talking about and that is going to translate itself to the best podcast episode. Because if we don’t sound excited if we sound like we’re forcing ourselves to talk about something because we think that this is what a baseball podcast should be talking about, then what’s the point of even doing all of this? We could just be listening to another baseball podcast talk about this thing. And, you know, those are hard earned lessons. Like in the first year of doing the show, and the first 18 months of doing the show, I don’t think we really knew that we were—we could just opt out of talking about a thing. If it seemed like it was big, we would just talk about it, and maybe not even really have anything to say. And I do think that that is the kind of lesson that you have to just like, learn via doing it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Because you don’t really know what you’re going to respond to and what you’re going to enjoy talking about. Like there are some things that are regular mainstays of the show that five years ago, I would have never thought that I would want to talk to you about week in and week out. But it—and I would have never thought that anybody would want to listen to that, frankly. But we’ve trained ourselves to be more interested invested in talking about those things. And listeners have given us a lot of pos— a lot of positive feedback on that sort of thing. So honestly, like 2019 is when I started feeling like we were making the show that we wanted to make. And it was basically like almost two full years of doing the show before that. And now, that’s not to say like if you’re thinking of starting a podcast that it’s going to take two years before you know what that podcast is about. But we started this podcast, and we were like 21, and 22, and we didn’t have a defined idea, we basically were just like, we want to learn how to talk to each other in recorded format. You know, it wasn’t like we have this specific idea for a podcast. We were like, we want to talk about baseball, and we want to let it take shape. And so if you were listening to this podcast in 2017, in 2018, you know that it’s just— it’s— it was very different than it is now. And that’s, you know, the beauty of doing it with someone that you know, so personally, and also the beauty of doing it over an extended period of time and allowing your— your views on the game to change but also your views on what you find interesting about talking about to change. So my—my number one advice would be, don’t be discouraged by how not confident you feel at the beginning of doing it. Because that is like, unless you’re just like, you know, a one in a million type of person who has no self-doubt about, like the content that they create, and like you’re going to experience that for what feels like a really long time.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, you know how they say the best way to get better at writing is to write? Right, and the same goes here. I mean, this is why I have in my voice memos, actually hour-long recordings that I do throughout the week. Just kind of practicing, going over what I’m going to say literally it’s hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes.
BOBBY: Well, that’s why they call you the Rivers Cuomo of podcasting.
ALEX: They do call me that, yeah.
BOBBY: On Alex’s personal Patreon, you can get access to the Google Drive’s of his voice memos where he practices the pod. And that—
ALEX: And that and Taking Back Sunday covers.
BOBBY: Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don’t have the authority to give that away for free, bro.
ALEX: That’s rude.
BOBBY: You don’t.
ALEX: Already entered into a contract with you.
BOBBY: That’s binding. That was recorded and published to the internet. That’s not looking so good by the way. Mets are not off to a bad start, but they’re not off to like a– we’re going to win 110 games start.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: So I think you’re pretty—pretty clear on that front. I’ll have to find another way to bet— to bet that out into the world.
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t— give me four beers and put me on the City field Jumbotron apparently that’s all it takes.
BOBBY: Another thing that you also do is that you listen to the podcast and you retake everything that you said, right? That’s like your Wednesday activity. You listen, you recreate it and you try to say, how could I have gotten better here? Like you watch tape basically, of all of your [41:06]
ALEX: Right. Okay, thanks. That’s very hel—helpful advice, I’m sure.
JESSY: Hi, Alex. Hi, Bobby, it’s Jessy. I’m wanting to ask about dynamic duos of baseball past and present, and dynamic duos, which fit into the she’s everything, he’s just Ken, Barbie movie marketing. So like, I’m thinking Vladdy, she’s everything. So Bichette, he’s just Ken. You see the vision? Okay, thanks.
BOBBY: This is such a good question. So—such a funny question. And also, I’m glad that Jessy gave an example because it’s not just that like like Bo Bichette is not bad, he’s just plain, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: He’s not the— attraction of the Toronto Blue Jays.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: And so I don’t—I’m not going to choose someone who sucks as the Ken. So that—that narrows down. I went—like when I first heard this question, I was like, she’s everything, Joe Davis. He’s just Ken [42:26]
ALEX: That’s pretty good.
BOBBY: Yeah. She’s everything, Alex Rodriguez. He’s just Ken, Michael Kay.
ALEX: I feel like they’re both just Ken.
BOBBY: Okay, okay. She’s everything, Derek Jeter. He’s just Ken, Alex Rodriguez.
ALEX: Okay, get his ass good.
BOBBY: See, now we’re getting— now we’re getting somewhere. Du—wha—what do you got? What do you got?
ALEX: It pains me to say that I initially thought of Shohei Otani because she is everything.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And Michael Trout.
BOBBY: Mi—Michael Trout.
ALEX: He’s just Ken, I love him.
BOBBY: Yeah. She’s everything, Bryce Harper. He’s just Ken, JT Realmuto.
ALEX: Yep. She’s everything, Dansby Swanson. He’s just Ken, Austin Riley.
BOBBY: He’s not even on the Braves anymore, but I like it. Danbsy Swanson, not on the Braves. Oh, oh
ALEX: Oh, Danbsy Swanson.
BOBBY: She’s everything [43:22], he’s just Ken, Dansby Swanson.
ALEX: She’s everything Rafael Devers. He’s just Ken, Trevor Story.
BOBBY: Yeah, he’s hav— he had to get the arm detached and replace this year too. He’s just Ken.
ALEX: [43:34]
BOBBY: She’s everything, Francisco Lindor, He’s just Ken, Pete Alonso.
ALEX: The second name [43:44]
BOBBY: He’s just Ken, Jeff McNeil. He’s just Ken, Brandon Nimmo.
ALEX: Brandon Nimmo.
BOBBY: He’s just Ken, Luis [43:52]. He’s just Ken, no Mark Hanna is not just Ken. Mark Hanna could be she’s everything.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: She’s everything, Starling Marte.
ALEX: That really is a team of mostly Ken’s though. [44:04]
BOBBY: It’s all Ken’s with a couple— with a couple Barbies. This is a great question.
ALEX: Yeah, I—we could keep going.
BOBBY: She’s everything, Theo Epstein.
ALEX: [44:15]
BOBBY: He’s just Ken, Rob Manfred. Yes, Theo, you’re everything. I mean, with a whole—the whole rule changes, they’re sending him out. He’s like the face of the rule changes, you know, so he’s on the market.
ALEX: That’s true. He is doing—
BOBBY: On the posters.
ALEX: —he’s carrying that emotional labor.
BOBBY: Dude, he is. I think that they’ve cloned him. He’s been on every po— I’m insulted that they haven’t offered him to us at this point.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: They’ve offered him to every other podcast around us. Like I’m waiting for the Theo Epstein effectively wild hit at this point.
ALEX: Yeah [44:47]
BOBBY: I know. Like, just fucking talk to someone who’s actually going to ask you questions that I want to know the answer to for once.
ALEX: I know. What—you don’t think our demographic is not your market?
BOBBY: Rob, I—
ALEX: We got some— we got some minds you—you might be interested in changing here.
BOBBY: I would argue that our demographic is sort of like would be the coup de gras. It’d be like the cherry on top. Like if he can send Theo to us and win our hearts and minds. he’s won, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s like sending Darth Vader to the rebellion headquarters, and he’s like, actually, the Empire is good.
ALEX: It is what its like.
BOBBY: Thank you. I’m here all week.
ALEX: She’s everything [45:29] Stan.
BOBBY: Do it to him.
ALEX: He’s just Ken.
BOBBY: Aaron judge.
ALEX: Alright. What have you done for me lately Aaron?
BOBBY: Has he —has he hit another home run since opening day? Aaron Judge washed alert? He has hit four home runs and he’s hitting 364 last year so—
ALEX: Alright, not washed alert.
BOBBY: Aaron Judge, not washed alert. We’re definitely going to hear from Mike Schubert about that one, about that [45:57] right there. You know, who has more home runs in that, Pete Alonso?
ALEX: Jazz Chisholm?
BOBBY: No, no, no.
ALEX: No, it’s not.
BOBBY: No, no, no. Although I’ll give you this one. She’s everything, Jazz Chisholm. He is just Ken, all of the Miami Marlins.
ALEX: Absolutely. Every single player.
BOBBY: Especially with Pablo not there anymore.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Well, Sandy is everything.
ALEX: He is everything, that’s true.
BOBBY: Jesse, thank you so much. What a great question. I probably could have got a whole pod [46:23]
ALEX: We’ll be thinking about this all day.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: This was the two-hour pod right there.
BOBBY: Well—
ALEX: We had to cut about an hour and a half of content.
BOBBY: Yeah. and Alex, you can go to Alex’s Patreon and sign up for his voice memos. The Alex the extended cut. If you want to hear the whole.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Next question. This comes from Alex in the Slack, which is not you. That’s not you. You are Alex in the Slack, but you are not this Alex in the Slack. This is another one of our FAQs, best teams to watch for newly converted baseball fans. Feel like we get asked this around the beginning of every baseball season, and it changes but for the most part, there’s a handful of teams that are largely very fun to watch just as—has that list materialized for you yet this season?
ALEX: Heard of the Oakland Athletics.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: He has to get in on the ground floor.
BOBBY: Yeah. Dude.
ALEX: Hey man?
BOBBY: No, no emotional baggage.
ALEX: You get to start playing.
BOBBY: I have a question for you.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: Is this the worst baseball team you’ve ever seen in your life?
ALEX: It’s actually really worst.
BOBBY: It’s—
ALEX: They’re really, really, really—
BOBBY: They’re going to lose like 115 games.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: I know that the Rays haven’t— haven’t lost yet, but that didn’t look like they were in the same league. Like that— that looked like the gap in quality between some of the World Baseball Classic teams. It was not pretty. I have watched more is baseball than I really thought I would have at this point because I am— I’m fascinated and—
ALEX: Morbidly curious.
BOBBY: The car crash that is the Oakland A’s in 2023.
ALEX: It’s not—it’s not a fun car crash. I’ll tell you that much. It’s not when you can watch with ah, it’s just happening, and there’s nothing you can do.
BOBBY: Alright, what’s your real answer?
ALEX: Ahh, Twins, Twins are fun this year.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I feel like in past years we’ve said the Orioles because they are sort of on the come up, they’ve got the young you know if you want to get in actually on the ground floor with a team, here’s a team who in theory is building for the future, right? And I just— as every day goes by, I just feel less and less good about ever encouraging someone to root for John Angelo’s.
BOBBY: Yeah, I—it must have been you that said that in years past, because I have never really enjoyed. I don’t enjoy watching teams who are at like the turnaround stage of their rebuild because there’s usually—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —such obvious glaring holes and it makes me furious that they weren’t filled with better players that could have made this team actually fun to watch. Instead of just like a fun thing for like baseball content creators to tweet on like April 1 to be like, eyes emoji Baltimore’s coming this year and it’s like, no, they’re not, they’re not coming. And they’re not going to make the playoffs and like, you know why they’re not coming, because they have no pitchers.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like they call them Grayson Rodriguez because it became—on a— it became impossible for them to manipulate his service time anymore because they actually needed somebody to fill the fifth rotation spot. It’s not like they were like slamming the door shut on him, articularly so. I don’t know. I mean, Adly is–is great to watch, of course. If you could put a camera on him the whole time then great. Yeah. And I did I tuned into Grayson Rodriguez’z first turn?
ALEX: Yes. Yes, I did.
BOBBY: But— would I rather watch the Blue Jays versus anyone?
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Yes, I would.
ALEX: So—they—is that your team? Is that your pick?
BOBBY: Blue Jays, the obvious ones? I feel like are Blue Jays and Padres.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: The Angels because of Watani and Trout. I’ll take this moment to plug really quickly the Effectively Wild, this is great podcasting is you when to tell someone who’s listening to your podcast to go listen to another podcast halfway through your podcasts. They say that that’s how you become the biggest podcast in the world as you do that a lot. Effectively Wild did a team fun draft, they’ve done in the last few years where they draft the teams that are the most fun all the way down to the very least fun, which is arguably more fun to listen to them talk about which teams they don’t want to watch, than the ones that they do. But that’s a really great episode if you’re looking for like a more fleshed out robust version of this conversation. But yeah, Padres Blue Jays, Angels. I think the Phillies are really fun to watch. I said this last year too, because like a great lineup, terrible defense, shaky bullpen pitching makes for entertaining back-and-forth in baseball games. And if you’re not invested in whether or not the Phillies win, although you could argue that I’m too invested in whether or not the Phillies win. I’m just invested in the fact that they lose. But it makes for a fun back and forth. And then you know what, I think the Rays are kind of fun to watch this year.
ALEX: What?
BOBBY: Because, okay, Wander is—is—he is the one. He’s— he might be the prince who was promised, and he was hurt for a lot of last year, which sort of cut short the arrival party that should have been happening with he—he came up and he was great two years ago, and he’s on the extension. And then last year was supposed to be kind of his coming out party and it just didn’t happen. But in terms of like, technical execution of the game of baseball, if you’re nerdy in that way, and you can put aside all the other stuff that we’ve banned from talking about the Tampa Bay Rays like that is a fun exhibition of the sport of baseball. Though maybe not exactly for a new fan. I think the Padres are still far and away for a new fan of baseball.
ALEX: Yeah, who wants to have fun this year, like Padres is the one.
BOBBY: Okay, next question. This is—this is a two-part question comes from Kate, in the Slack. Who will play the All-Star Game weekend concert in Seattle? And who would be the funniest choice to play that concert? So presumably, This is like a thing that they do every year where they like, put on a concert for All-Star Weekend, I guess.
ALEX: Sure. I’ll take your word it.
BOBBY: Good tracks. I trust I trust Kate with this question. And if not, it doesn’t—doesn’t really matter like. The question is who do you want to see play a concert in Seattle to celebrate Major League Baseball’s All-Star Weekend?
ALEX: I mean, I feel like they’re gonna pick an artist with ties to Seattle, I would assume, right? A guy like Macklemore feels like, like exactly what Major League Baseball would be looking for in terms of like, All-Star Game entertainment, you know, like, palatable to the middle of the country. But also like young and hip, [52:47]
BOBBY: Your saying that Macklemore is young and hip.
ALEX: I—not in my eyes, but to someone like Rob Manfred, absolutely.
BOBBY: I feel like they’re platonic ideal is the Foo Fighters.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: They’re formed in Seattle. Ties to Seattle grunge scene with Dave Grohl, obviously. Stadium rock, that kind of unoffensive style of music that can be marketed very easily.
ALEX: Right. It hypes you up, you know it’s very—
BOBBY: I’m not gonna yuck anyone’s yam, I don’t mind Foo Fighters. they’re—they’re cool, known.
ALEX: Oh, no, no, no, no.
BOBBY: They’re doing good stuff. I’m not firing, I’m not streaming, but it’s okay. I didn’t know Macklemore was—and that he was from Seattle.
ALEX: Yeah, he’s like a big Mariners fan. He did like a whole like Mariners, song and music video. Like that’s part of the reason why I think my mind went to him is because like—
BOBBY: Macklemore is a wild public figure. It’s like you want to say so much more.
ALEX: I’m like—I don’t even know man.
BOBBY: Oh, wow. A lot of stolen LGBTQ plus valor from that guy. Over the years.
ALEX: Lot of stolen, a lot of things over the years.
BOBBY: Did you know the Postal Service are from—from Seattle, Washington?
ALEX: I probably could have guessed that.
BOBBY: We will be firing up such great heights at All-Star Weekend this year. Ben Gifford, who is the singer for the Postal Service, and a few other bands as well, is a huge baseball fan. So that— that feels like a good option. Although, I don’t know, as the Postal Service still polling well enough to be able to play MLB All-Star Weekend.
ALEX: Right. I mean, do you need—
BOBBY: Like more than like, you need a song?
ALEX: Damn right. Exactly, that’s not just a one-hit wonder, right like—
BOBBY: Kind of the funniest option is Pearl Jam to me personally.
ALEX: Uh huh.
BOBBY: Because that would be so many dudes would just be like Pearl Jam, yeah, you know?
ALEX: I know. I was like—I was like, oh, wow, Chris Cornell’s from Seattle will Soundgarden.
BOBBY: Let’s get a little Fleet Foxes in their dawg.
ALEX: Okay, are we both just on the Wikipedia for list of musicians from Seattle?
BOBBY: Yeah, yeah. Oh, I just got to Macklemore. How about that Band of Horses, let’s get Lawly, let’s get emo, emo at T-Mobile parks. I think that like the most likely option here like regardless of what city it is, so I’m like not picking the pandering Seattle option. But the most likely option platonic ideal for Major League Baseball every single year is Bad Bunny. Like if bad bunny will do it, he’s got it. He’s got it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Both because he—
ALEX: I mean—yeah.
BOBBY: —and he’s like the most popular artists in the world. And he— he’s like very popular among young people. But also because he’s like, just unbelievably dominant in Spanish-speaking countries, and many of those countries, baseball is their number one sport, so.
ALEX: Yeah, I mean, that would be the obvious right choice, which is why it probably won’t be him.
BOBBY: He’s probably busy that time. Playing like a stadium tour in front of 3 million people and, or like a impromptu street show. Everything he does is cool. I just—he’s—
ALEX: Kenny G is from Seattle.
BOBBY: Wow. What’s to have the sax dude?
ALEX: I don—I mean, he’s got baseball tie—
BOBBY: That would be such a vibe.
ALEX: —you know. That would be a vibe.
BOBBY: He should score the game like no organ, just Kenny G with the sax during the game.
ALEX: That’s a really good—
BOBBY: Thank you. Thank you, I’m here all week.
ALEX: We know that Rob listens. So Rob, here you go, this one is for you.
BOBBY: I’m a producer, I’m an ideas guy, you know? I can’t play the saxophone, but I know when I should hear it. Kate also asked another—asked another question unrelated to music or the MLB All-Star Weekend. Kate said could Stevie Hackett as a bat dog? What do you think?
ALEX: No. I love her. I love her.
BOBBY: It’s really important to know our own strengths and weaknesses. It’s really important to be able to clearly communicate the strengths and weaknesses of our loved ones. Stevie doesn’t listen well enough to be a bad dog, doesn’t do well in crowds, doesn’t like loud noises, gets stressed in situations that she’s not familiar with. She is arguably the worst option on planet Earth to be a bad dog. She would hear the sound of the ball off the bat, and she would be in the clubhouse cowering.
ALEX: Yeah, fear.
BOBBY: She’s a little anxiety girly.
ALEX: Yes, yes.
BOBBY: And look, we love her for it, but no, she cannot hack it as a bad dog. She’s more of a small-settings kind of gal.
ALEX: Yeah, she is—she’s the emotional support dog in the clubhouse.
BOBBY: She’s just like me for real.
ALEX: That’s [57:34]
BOBBY: Actually in the clubhouse, she wouldn’t even be good either, that’s still too many people for her.
ALEX: That’s a lot of—
BOBBY: The clubhouse being—
ALEX: It can’t be like more than five—
BOBBY: You and I recording, that’s the clubhouse that she thrives.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Okay, Alex, our final two questions come from Twitter. They are both a Muppets related, so strap in. First question comes from Philly Pitcher’s union local number 27. This is our good friend Joe from Twitter. Joe says my pet fantasy is to win the lottery and buy the rights to the Muppets. It’s great to have goals. I’d make more Muppets movies based on classic literature like they did with the Christmas Carol and Treasure Island. If you were in this situation, what is the first book you’re adapting into a feature film? This is an inspired question. I’d like to—
ALEX: Lord of the Flies.
BOBBY: Lord of the Fli— no hesitation. I just want to know that—
ALEX: But not there. I want to see you get to the top of the [58:30].
BOBBY: There wasn’t an edit in there. Sometimes we gather, sometimes. Most of the time we gather our thoughts and there’s some silence that I cut out, but Alex just cut straight to the chase right there. No cut, no cut.
BOBBY: Okay. I was gonna—
ALEX: I wanna know who Piggy is gonna be, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I was gonna sa—who’s gonna get the conch?
BOBBY: I was gonna say King Lear.
ALEX: Ooh.
BOBBY: Which is basically like succession.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: The original succession, Shakespeare did it first. Although I will say and this takes us to our next question, which comes from Abigail at bring the noise on Twitter. Which Muppet has the biggest Mets fan energy? And I’ll say I’m not super familiar with the Muppets. Like I know—I know, I know who they all are, but I don’t know them all well enough to—
ALEX: The personalities.
BOBBY: —speak confidently about that. I wasn’t a huge Muppets person growing up. Which is not an indictment of the Muppets by any means. I know that they’re like—
ALEX: No, that’s an indictment of you.
BOBBY: Yes, exactly. I know that—this is just like a total gap in my cultural consumption.
ALEX: Right. My mind went to Oscar the Grouch.
BOBBY: Okay, why is that? If it’s not obvious.
ALEX: [59:42] he complains all the time. Because he’s just always mad. No. Again, wears his heart, his emotions on his sleeve, you know. I think tends to wallow in self-pity a lot. Um, and I will even say, after doing a bit of research for this question. According to Muppet Wiki, in Episode 0020, Oscar does clean his trash can and dumps things out, including a Mets banner, which he tells his friend Gordon that he doesn’t want to lose. So there’s actually a little bit of textual evidence—
BOBBY: Cannon.
ALEX: —hidden behind this one.
BOBBY: That’s a great answer, I don’t think I can beat that. I think um, aesthetically speaking Animal kind of fits the— fits the bill. But also Animal kind of looks like gritty so maybe we can— we can say Animals a Phillies fan.
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: But I like your answer, Oscar the Grouch. Is that, is that the energy that I put out into the world? You can be honest to me.
ALEX: I—no. It’s— I think it’s a little more, Mr. Snuffleupagus.
BOBBY: Because like sad? I’m not trying to— I’m writing hard for the—the ER contingent of Mets fans.
ALEX: That’s— I mean, that’s it. Yeah.
BOBBY: Like just moping around being like, it’s never going to be our time, what’s the point of even playing today?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I can be moved.
ALEX: Oh, brother.
BOBBY: Yeah, I can— can be moved to be interested from time to time, but I default to sad.
ALEX: [1:01:26]
BOBBY: —protect myself.
ALEX: Generally speaking, what’s the exact rate?
BOBBY: Okay, Alex, that it for this week. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you to Ray for calling in. As a reminder, if you want to call in for future mailbag episodes, or even if it’s not a full episode, just to get your question in, at the end of ver—at the end of occasional episodes, which we do sometimes, the voicemail number is 785-422-5881. You can sign up for the Tipping Pitches Slack, where many of these questions came from at patreon.com/tippingpitches, any of those tiers will get you access to the Slack. And the higher tiers will get you access to more things, including a newsletter, which Alex is definitely going to get done at some point. I just know it. I know I see the look in his eyes he’s a gamer. he’s been reviewing his tape recently, and he’s just trying to identify his weaknesses. He’s— he’s trying to— he’s made some mechanical changes, and so he’s going to iron out these kinks. Other than that, is there anything else that you would like show this week? Maybe the secret sauce to getting on the giant Jumbotron and Mets games?
ALEX: I don’t know. Apparently, it’s to dislike Billy Joel, because they’ll find you if that’s the case.
BOBBY: I think that you secretly like Piano Man.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. Why else would you try so hard? To have your face—
ALEX: That’s true.
BOBBY: —associated with it in front of 40,000 people.
ALEX: Right, I mean [1:02:46] —
BOBBY: I think it’s dark down. You’re just putting up a facade, like you don’t— you just don’t think it’s cool to like Billy Joel.
ALEX: I think it’s my—my filthy to the Mets you know, and, and Mets fandom and wanting to—you know I—
BOBBY: That’s powerful.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Feudal lords.
ALEX: That’s right. You know, — I submit myself for the New York Mets.
BOBBY: What our relationship to New York Mets and Major League Baseball is the exact opposite of feudalism. Like we don’t get anything in exchange, we just give them money. That’s not how feudalism worked. Like the feudal lord was supposed to be there to protect us. We’re like venture capital to the Mets. Just providing them seed funding.
ALEX: [1:03:30] funding them.
BOBBY: For any real business plan.
ALEX: Yeah, If the cost of my beers was any indication [1:03:38]
BOBBY: About right.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s why Steve didn’t need their advertising on the Jumbotron, because he’s got you and me.
BOBBY: No, I might be done. I might be done the City field. Oh, yeah.
ALEX: Here he is. he’s back baby. Oscar has checked in.
BOBBY: Speaking as an accountant, I might be done with City field. Everybody, please go listen to Piano Man in honor of Alex. Thank you for listening. We will be back next week.
[song]
Alex Rodriguez: Hello everybody, I’m Alex Rodriguez, Tipping Pitches. Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most tripping pitches. So we’ll see you next week. See ya.
Tipping Pitches 
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