Alex and Bobby banter about internet sleuthing in the golden age of sign stealing, then wade through the latest development in the Oakland A’s non-development, the Dodgers’ spineless response to Marco Rubio, and on-the-ground reporting from the Eras tour.
Links:
The Dodgers cave to right-wing concern trolling
Statement from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Nevada lawmakers balk at public funding for A’s stadium
Join the Tipping Pitches Patreon
Tipping Pitches merchandise
Songs featured in this episode:
The Apples in Stereo — “Do You Understand” • Beach Bunny — “Sports” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
Theme
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’d like to set the scene for you and for the listeners as we start this podcast. On my phone, there’s a timer with 20 seconds left. That timer is for my Throat Coat Tea, which is steeping over here to my right. Did you know that that needs to steep for 10 to 15 minutes for it to do its full job? That’s a long time for your tea to steep.
ALEX: That’s a long time. It feels like they probably could have figured out a—a workaround by now, right? Like, high-efficiency tea. You know how they have, like, high-efficiency detergent? BOBBY: There it is. It’s going off.
ALEX: I—I can’t actually hear it, but I will take your word for it.
BOBBY: I think the listeners will be able to hear that. Um, I have that tea steeping next to me, because, um, we had quite a weekend.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: We were out in the rain for—for no less than seven hours.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: We’re in sopping wet clothes for another three hours after that. All because we wanted to see, uh, Taylor Swift in concert. And it just so happens that those events are rain or shine.
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: Listeners who follow us on Twitter or who are active on Twitter will have seen that that is the reason that this podcast is one day late. Uh, you know, we figured that people would understand, uh, if we’re feeling a little under the weather from that event. And we’re gonna do a good podcast for you today to make up for the fact that it is one day late. Um, we’re going to talk about Buster Olney reinventing the name of our podcast. We’re gonna talk about the Oakland A’s still in search for a stadium. We’re going to touch on a little bit about the situation with the Dodgers Pride Night later in this episode. But before we do, I needed to, uh, do a little check in with you about my keep the faith mantra.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: It’s back on.
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: The—the faith is being kept.
ALEX: I saw it in full force this weekend.
BOBBY: Exactly. So I was gonna tell that story. So, do you—do you want to just tell it from your perspective?
ALEX: Yeah. Well, we had—we had just gotten into Providence, Rhode Island, into our Airbnb where we—we would be staying the weekend for our—for our little Taylor trip. And, you know, it was pretty late. We left after work on a—we’d left after work on a Friday, so we were all a little tired, I think. Um, and so we got in and kind of dropped our bags and—
BOBBY: Keep going. You’re doing great. I’m just—I’m making my tea over here. I’m putting some honey in it.
ALEX: I’m just—yeah, I’m seeing you put in work, yes.
BOBBY: You’re vamping, it’s good. It’s giving me some time.
ALEX: Ad there we sat, playing a—playing a game of cards while you, uh, not so surreptitiously watched the New York Metropolitans walk off against the Cleveland Guardians in, uh, in 10-9 fashion, I believe it was. Is that correct?
BOBBY: That’s right. Pete Alonso—
ALEX: Uh—
BOBBY: —game-tying grand slam.
ALEX: There was a wave of emotions, a roller coaster of emotions that—that I am familiar with, but I think maybe some of our—some of our friends don’t get to see as up close—
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: —as—as I do, and so I think it was a very enlightening moment, frankly, for—for a lot of them. A very radicalizing moment of what Mets fandom can look like.
BOBBY: Up close.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: If your team is exhibiting symptoms of Mets fandom—
ALEX: Yeah, with all its—with all its [3:31] with all—
BOBBY: —please call 785-422-5881, the Tipping Pitches hotline and ask for advice. Um, yeah, you know, I just wanted to update people that the fate is being kept.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And I am still watching the New York Mets despite their paltry start to the season, um, despite their underperforming, despite the fact that their 40-year-old pitchers have missed quite a few starts. They’re back on track. You know, Sunday—Sunday was a great day, uh, doubleheaders. First game started by Scherzer. Second game started by Verlander, combined one earned run between the two of them. Look, I’m not saying that it’s—it’s gonna be a World Series guaranteed, but I’m just saying that—
ALEX: My—it’s not a World—World Series guaranteed [4:15]
BOBBY: I’m just saying that they could win the World Series, and Chris Christie could win the presidency with the financial support of Mets owner, Steve Cohen. These things are all still on the table.
ALEX: Right. This is how probability works, right? Do we want to ring up—ring up our guy, Nate Silver?
BOBBY: Oh, my God.
ALEX: Get a little needle in here.
BOBBY: Should we call Matt Yglesias while we’re at it?
ALEX: Jesus Christ.
BOBBY: Is that—could that be the most cursed Tipping pitches guest lineup ever, a podcast with you, me, and Nate Silver, and Matt Yglesias talking about Steve Cohen?
ALEX: I just got, like, chills kind of thinking about that. I don’t know if we should put that energy out into the world.
BOBBY: Well, it’s already recorded onto the podcast, and as we know, nothing gets edited out of this podcast, so it’s [4:59] in.
ALEX: True.
BOBBY: Um, okay. Let’s get into the rest of the show, the actual show. But before we do, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I’m Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
BOBBY: Do you want to make a podcast? Spotify has got a platform that lets you make one super easily and distribute it everywhere and even earn money all in one place for free. It’s called Spotify for Podcasters. And, Alex, how does it work?
ALEX: I’m so glad you asked, Bobby. Um, Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts right from your phone or computer. So no matter what your setup is like, you can start creating today.
BOBBY: And then you can distribute your podcast to Spotify and—
ALEX: Everywhere else podcasts are heard.
BOBBY: With Spotify for Podcasters, you can earn money in a variety of ways, including ads and podcast subscriptions. And best of all, it’s totally free with no catch. Spotify for Podcasters is where we host our podcasts and it is super easy to use. Download the Spotify for Podcasters app or go to http://www.spotify.com/podcasters to get started. All right. Thank you to new patrons, Michael Brandon and Mike. Two Mikes, a Michael and a Mike. The Alex contingent really falling behind. You gotta get your Alexes back in line.
ALEX: Yeah, I feel like we might be reaching like Alex saturation. You know, like—
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: —at a certain—at a certain point like you—you’ve reached all the Alexes you can reach. BOBBY: No, there’s always more Alexes. There’s Alexes being born every moment of every day.
ALEX: That’s how I—I always say they’re always Alexes in the banana stand.
BOBBY: If you would like to be the next Alex to sign up for the Tipping Pitches Patreon, it’s patreon.com/tippingpitches. There are three different tiers, $5, $7, or $12. They get you various things. Um, Alex, I’d like to say for everybody who has been following along in the, Uh, saga of the Tipping Pitches community meet-up at the Brooklyn Cyclones, following along in the links in the podcast description in the Slack various places. Uh, I believe we have officially confirmed that it will be Saturday, July 29th. Everyone indicated that that is either a better day or just as good as Friday. So we have landed on Saturday, July 29th at 6:00 p.m. in Brooklyn, Coney Island. Really looking forward to this. The tickets are not yet available. Um, we will be making a link available to that at some point in the near future. Um, but if you’re interested—or you haven’t heard about that yet. This is the first time you’re hearing about that. Uh, please go to the link in the description underneath to indicate your interest. We’re keeping that survey open. For folks, who’ve already filled it out, please do not fill it out again. Okay. That’s enough housekeeping. Actually, I guess technically this first topic that we have here is a bit of housekeeping. It’s us—it’s us officially changing our name.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: We are no longer Tipping Pitches. We are now betraying the identity of forthcoming pitches.
ALEX: Yeah. I’ve already submitted the doing business as, like, certificate to [8:18]
BOBBY: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: So, it’s interesting to kind of [8:21]
BOBBY: Well, that’s interesting, because we would’ve had to submit the doing business as Tipping Pitches media first to actually do that.
ALEX: That probably is true.
BOBBY: Buster Olney, ESPN baseball insider reports—okay, wait. Let me back up a little bit.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Aaron Judge, captain of the New York Yankees, you might have heard of him, almost—
ALEX: yeah.
BOBBY: —with San Francisco Giants. Maybe not, maybe. It was noticed during—by the Blue Jays broadcast booth, it was noticed during the—their series against the Blue Jays last week that he was, uh, oddly kind of peering to the side towards the first baseline during he’s at bat, before he hit a home run. And so the Blue Jays broadcast booth noted that that was strange. Most players do not look away from the pitcher right before they’re about to deliver that pitch. Of course, this—with the—with the state of baseball fandom, baseball online media, this gets passed around and there’s a lot of people saying, “Oh, Aaron Judge, cheater confirmed. Yankees cheating confirmed.” I’m certain there was a lot of Astros fans probably pushing that agenda, because of all of the vitriol that they have seen, specifically from the New York Yankees fanbase over the years. Um, it turns out that Aaron Judge was looking over to the first baseline at the first base coach who had picked up a tip from Blue Jays reliever Jay Jackson,
and he was relaying that to Judge. There’s a whole different side note of this story about how, uh, you know, Judge had said something about how the—the clubhouse was being too loud and complained to the umpire and he was covering that up. I’m not really interested in talking about the sign-stealing aspect of this, the pitch-tipping aspect of this. I’m—I more so care about Buster Olney coming out and tweeting, “There is an assumption on the Jays’ side that their pitchers/catcher were betraying the identity of the forthcoming pitches last night, and that this was being conveyed to Aaron Judge, and this is why he was glancing to his right, for info.” Betraying the identity of the forthcoming pitches, am I to understand that Buster Olney thinks that people don’t know what Tipping Pitches is? After six years of us doing this show, people don’t know what it is? People don’t know what it’s about?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: People at home, um, don’t understand what Tipping Pitches is all about?
ALEX: I think he’s afraid. I think he’s afraid of our influence.
BOBBY: The anti-Tipping Pitches agenda from ESPN is shameful.
ALEX: That phrase, you know, reads like you put, you know, like an English idiom, like, through Google Translate and then translated—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —it back into English, right? So it is the literal definition I suppose of—of what Tipping Pitches is. But, like, again, I had to do more mental hurdles to actually understand what he was trying to say, rather than the, uh, agreed upon phrase that we all use to describe when, um,
a—a pitcher is tipping his handle. But, like, I can’t even—I can’t even describe what he was doing without using the phrase, you know? Like, it’s a little impressive the lengths that he went to.
BOBBY: So someone responded—
ALEX: But that’s just—that’s just being a writer, right? I mean—
BOBBY: Someone responded underneath—yeah, yeah, as many words as possible. That’s what they tend—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —to do in journalism school. Someone responded underneath and said, “Betraying the identity of forthcoming pitches,” or, “Tipping Pitches. You got a word minimum like a high school essay?” And then Buster Olney forever in his own—in his mentions, forever—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —reading his mentions. “Do you need text shorthand? LOL, OMG? Does that make it easier?” First of all, I don’t even understand what he’s trying to say. He didn’t make it shorter. He made it longer.
ALEX: It really comes out of note—because, again, this is not even like an internet slang that has developed over the last year that people are using. This is like a—a phrase that is years, maybe decades old. It’s well-known, I think. I think it’s relatively well-known, especially if you’ve listened to this podcast, you know, again, what it’s all about, right? You—we have—we have the—the greatest spokesperson on Earth telling us what it’s all about.
BOBBY: I mean, it’s so well-known that A-Rod has ranked his five favorite ways to tip pitches.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Okay Um, now that everybody knows that our name is officially updated, shall we move on to our next favorite topic, besides ourselves? Our next favorite—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —topic, the Oakland A’s looking for a stadium.
ALEX: Sure.
BOBBY: Oakland—the A’s are—um, they’re—they’ve—they’ve really reached full, um, Wimpy from Popeye’s territory with the stadium situation. “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a stadium today.” They’re just running around looking for anybody to give them a stadium without putting actual money forward.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: You informed me before we started this podcast. You said, “Hey, do you want to talk about the A’s new stadium site?” And I said, “What A’s new stadium site?”
ALEX: And yet, here it is, the new A’s stadium site, right? They’ve—uh, there’s a—there’s a—a Tropicana site. Tropicana sites usually do—do very well in baseball, I think, at pulling fans. And at this point, they’re—they’re once again looking to build a—a $1.5 billion stadium. $1.5 billion, uh, 30,000 seats with a retractable roof.
BOBBY: 30,000?
ALEX: 30,000, yes.
BOBBY: That’s modest.
ALEX: That kind of is modest, yeah.
BOBBY: It’s—it’s like definitely the smallest stadium in baseball if they build that stadium.
ALEX: They’re humble, you know?
BOBBY: By, like, 10,000, at least.
ALEX: Uh-huh. I mean, if it makes a difference, none of these numbers are real, right? There is no stadium, there are no designs. None—none of this stuff actually exists in any manner, whatsoever.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: So they—they just needed to put a number in there, right, to make it seem more plausible.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: But effectively, they’re—they’re looking for $395 million in public financing. Again, uh, I know that, like, a few weeks ago, I came on here and said, “I’m so glad I never have to talk about special tax districts again.” And here we are with Nevada saying, “We’ll only give you
$195 million in—in—in transferable tax credits.” And they’ve already had to bump down the amount that—that they’re asking because of the aforementioned, uh, [14:29] bucking on the part of Nevada lawmakers. And they also have to figure this out by, uh, June 5th, which is when the legislative session ends. Um, which again, as someone who set deadlines for himself and then does all the work for it, like, in the two weeks prior, I—I—I sympathize, right? I get the position—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —that they’re—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —that they’re in right now, right? Where you kind of got to burn the candle at both ends.
BOBBY: I got a question for you.
ALEX: Please. Yeah.
BOBBY: Legislative sessions, they’re always ending. So, it’s like, “Oh, the legislative session is about to end.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I didn’t know you ever stopped. That’s not what I voted for you for. I’m just wondering like, are they ever gonna work overtime?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: They ever gonna put in the extra work for the American people? Or in this case, for the billionaire owner of the Oakland Athletics? So—okay. So the second site, it’s in—it’s in—it’s in Las Vegas?
ALEX: It is. It is in Las Vegas. It’s at the south end of the strip.
BOBBY: Okay. Second site, not in Oakland.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: They’re done with Oakland still, according to them.
ALEX: As—as far as we know.
BOBBY: So it’s not the place that they said they will definitely build a stadium in Las Vegas.
ALEX: Correct.
BOBBY: Like, three weeks ago.
ALEX: Right. So this is—I—I’d like to, um, remind everyone, second binding agreement, second binding agreement—
BOBBY: Okay. Okay.
ALEX: —in, like, the last three weeks.
BOBBY: By the end of this, we’re going to be like, “All right. Top five binding agreements the A’s have made in Las Vegas to build a stadium.” I’m just wondering, like—remember when we did the emergency pod when the A’s said that they were gonna leave Oakland?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And you said that you would believe that they were going to leave Oakland when they broke ground on the stadium in Las Vegas. And I said that I would believe it when they played, like, a full inning in a stadium—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —in Las Vegas. I’m just wondering if you’ve come around to my side yet. Because there—I have never seen anybody more fake—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: — than the Oakland A’s.
ALEX: It’s a completely unserious effort that they are putting forward right now. I mean, it’s—it’s very purely a money grab for them and Major League Baseball, right? An attempt to cash in on the sports betting boom, right? You can put your team there right in the middle of all of the action, right? I’m sure there will be a sportsbook on hand if fans are interested in going to bat, right? That—I think it’s very telling that with the search for a site in Oakland, they at least feigned sort of community engagement, right? Dave Kaval had this longtime open door policy, right? Where, like, fans could go in and, like, chat with him. And whether or not that actually—
BOBBY: Why did—why did we not take advantage of that?
ALEX: Why did we not take advantage of this? I know.
BOBBY: California is a one-party recording state. We could have gone in there and surreptitiously—surreptitiously recorded Dave Kaval and legally played it on the podcast.
ALEX: Absolutely. Hey, at that point in time, he would have been down, right? This is—he was in his, like, Elon Musk era where he was just tweeting through everything, responding to everything, you know, lots of, like, canned responses like boom, and, “Yes,” and, “On it.” He was—he was famous for saying, right? And—and again, whether or not any of this was actually, like, leaning—
BOBBY: Looking into it.
ALEX: Right. Yeah, exactly. Concerning. Uh, whether any of it was actually, like, meaningful engagement, it was their way of saying, “Hey, we’re putting forth this campaign that we’re rooted in Oakland, right? This is—this is the priority for us at least publicly, right? We want to be rooted in the community.” And I haven’t seen any of that. Any of that with Las Vegas, right? Which maybe tells you a little something about who the beneficiaries of this project are. I have not seen the groundswell of—of Nevadans who are like, “You know what? Looking at this team’s track record, and the track record of the man in charge, I do trust that they will do right by us. This is—this is the man who—who will lead us to baseball salvation in the desert.” I mean, like, how can you look at this and take any of it seriously, any of it?
BOBBY: From my perspective, the only thing that I’ve seen is nearly unanimous disapproval of the A’s coming to Vegas.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Even people who want a baseball team in Las Vegas don’t think it should be the A’s.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Think—they think they should wait for an expansion team or they think they should wait for a different team move. Like, it’s pretty universally—I think people are universally against this.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Which is borderline impressive, you know?
ALEX: It is borderline impressive.
BOBBY: It’s hard to get people to agree on things these days.
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: John Fisher has figured something out. He’s got the secret sauce.
ALEX: I mean, candidly, I—I think he’s looking to get out. I think John Fisher—the scuttlebutt on A’s Twitter—
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: —is that—is that maybe—
BOBBY: Reporting live from the front line of A’s [19:22]
ALEX: Right. Exactly. Uh, this is not a man who I think is— is known for, like, being smart with investments. He’s a man who is known for being smart to be, like, born to billionaires, right? So, I—
BOBBY: Yeah. I should’ve thought of that.
ALEX: —I think he’s maybe—he’s maybe—right. Exactly. Who among us. He’s reaching the point, I think, where he maybe he realizes, uh, “This is a lot of work. A lot of work to build stadium, a lot of work to run a viable baseball team. Why not set something up for the next generation, right? Here’s your new sports-betting baseball team. I’m out, bitches.” We’re—you’re on the come up, get it on the ground floor.”
BOBBY: I don’t know understand how being in Las Vegas is any more beneficial from a sports-betting perspective than just being a regular Major League Baseball team. Like, they’re building the sportsbook in—at Wrigley Field.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: You don’t need to be in Las Vegas to bet on sports anymore. Clearly, I can’t turn on sports without them trying to get me to bet on it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: No matter what state I’m in. The advertisements are all sports-betting. Even if you’re not in a state where sports-betting is legal, they’re like, “Drive over the fucking border to bet on and then wire [20:28] in New York City.”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: What is happening? Why did—why—why would this be any unique appeal for an owner to have a team in Las Vegas? Do you think people are more likely to bet there? There’s not gonna be anybody at the games.
ALEX: I know. Well, I mean, the people at the games are going to be, like, tourists, right? Which is like—I mean, it’s just a reimagining of who the audience of a baseball team is, right? You don’t have to put a good product on the field if the people are going to be there for the weekend, right? You just need a mildly watchable team, right, where the outcome isn’t like entirely predetermined.
BOBBY: How’s that going?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Would you describe the team as mildly watchable?
ALEX: Bobby, I have said for a while now that we need to get a new stadium first. It simply is not viable to fill a successful baseball team until we could get $500 million from taxpayers.
BOBBY: Um, I’d like to share something with you that I just discovered recently.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know the baseball player who we were talking last week with Steve, about the baseball player who you share a birthday with?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Or the baseball player who is like the last baseball player left who’s older than you? I, uh, recently checked, rechecked mine, because, you know, guys get called up. Sometimes it gets closer to your actual birthday. Sometimes it lands right on your birthday.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Currently, the player who is closest to my age in Major League Baseball, A’s superstar—
ALEX: Who’s—who’s—who’s closest to your age specifically?
BOBBY: My—yeah, my exact age. He was born one day before me. Oakland Athletics superstar, Ryan Noda, Breakout Star of the Year.
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: March 30th, 1996, Ryan Noda, 823 OPS. Holding it down for the recently 27-year-olds.
ALEX: That’s right.
BOBBY: I have to say—
ALEX: And—
BOBBY: —I looked—I looked up a picture of him. He simultaneously looks 10 years older and 10 years younger than me, just depends on the photo.
ALEX: Uh, that—but that’s the A’s bread and butter, right?
BOBBY: Right. Like, guys are—or you’re just like, “What—what universe—”
ALEX: Um—
BOBBY: “—did this guy come from?”
ALEX: Right. What era are you in?
BOBBY: What—um, like what create a player AI generated this? By the way, the last guy who is—you’re not going to believe this. I forgot—I forgot this part of it. The last guy who’s younger than me, so the—the guy who was born the day after me who I am older—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —than, Ryan Castellani, two A’s. I’m sandwiched in between two A’s, two 2023 A’s. I feel so honored.
ALEX: I mean, how’s your right arm feeling?
BOBBY: Pretty bad, honestly. Pretty—I think I have a partially torn UCL. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about that on the podcast. But every time I throw a baseball, my elbow hurts for, like, three weeks.
ALEX: The old Jacob deGrom syndrome?
BOBBY: Wow. Tough. Do you have any interest in talking about that? Not Jacob deGrom, about the increase in injuries this year, very likely caused by something that we’re—we are not able to talk about specifically, because of it being banned?
ALEX: Sure. I mean, it sounds like you maybe have some thoughts you want to share.
BOBBY: I do have some thoughts.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: My thoughts are that—this—who could have seen this coming? Who could have seen one season to the next dramatically changing the way that the game is played for a position that has the highest rate of injuries of basically any sport? Who could have seen that changing a rule and making them pitch more frequently and more tired would have a negative effect on injuries? Who could have ever predicted something like that? I would have never thought to think of something like that. Oh. Oh, wait. I’m hearing word that during negotiation over this, the MLBPA raised to this exact topic, raised to this exact point, and said, “We vote yes on bigger basis for player health and we vote no on the pitch clock because we’re not sure yet if it will have adverse effects on player health.” And look at that, it appears strong, strong evidence that is having adverse effects on player health. Who could have ever foreseen something such as this? Who would have thought? Not Rob Manfred, commissioner of baseball, whose job it is to make these decisions.
ALEX: He’s busy making other decisions that will get him [24:41]
BOBBY: Um, okay. Sorry, that was just a little—
ALEX: No, I want to—I want to give you—give you your platform, give you your space, you know? I, uh, I—I don’t have a rebuttal and I’m—I’m very limited in—in what I can say here anyway. But just know, I hear you.
BOBBY: Thank you.
ALEX: You’re heard. I see you. I hear you.
BOBBY: Thank you.
ALEX: Your concerns are valid.
BOBBY: I appreciate that.
ALEX: And we’ll take them under advisement.
BOBBY: You’re going to refer this—this conversation back to Rob.
ALEX: Right. Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: See what he has to say?
ALEX: Your feedback is very important to us.
BOBBY: Quick disclaimer before we get into this part of the conversation. This episode was recorded before, uh, we saw the news that the Dodgers would be reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their pride night. We wanted to leave this conversation in the episode as it was recorded and not go back and re-record it, because, frankly, I think a lot of our criticisms still stand even though the Dodgers have now reinvited the Sisters to pride night. I think ultimately it’s a positive thing for Dodgers fans, for the organization, for baseball, when you can make a mistake like this and realize it quickly and reinvite a group like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to your pride night. But I think that a lot of our criticisms for that organization still stand as they were recorded in this episode and so—so that’s just something to note before you head into this part of the podcast. Okay. Let’s, uh, let’s move on, Alex. Let’s talk about how the Los Angeles Dodgers are an organization run by absolute cowards. Uh, news came out this past week, uh, that the Dodgers decided to rescind an invitation to an LGBTQ advocacy group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who have been a participant in the Dodgers Pride Nights in the past. And to this year, were set to receive the team’s Community Hero Award for their work in the Los Angeles Community, specifically in the trans community in Los Angeles. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are, um, an advocacy group based in California who, um, hosts a lot of events and do community service, ministry and outreach. I’m quoting now from their mission statement, “To those in the edges and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.” Specifically, they do a lot of events where, um, the members of this group show up dressed like Catholic nuns, uh, in drag. And this was the central point of contention for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Bill Donohue who is, uh, kind of, like, don’t—don’t really know what he does be—besides run like a hate group called the Catholic League—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —which—
ALEX: No—no, that—that’s it. Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. I couldn’t—I think—think that’s the whole thing.
ALEX: That is what he does.
BOBBY: I don’t know what he puts on his, like, W for—whatever. Um, that was the point of contention that they were, I don’t know, I guess, manipulating the Catholic religion and that that was undermining Catholic values. Um, and so in a bad faith manner, you know, Rubio and this guy, Bill Donohue, started calling into question that the Dodgers were going to be giving this Community Hero Award to this group on the grounds that they were warping religious values, and that they shouldn’t be promoting this sort of thing. And this, obviously, you can’t take this out of context with the—the wave of—of hate and the wave of, you know, legislation trying to take rights away from trans people. And there were enough people in the loudly vocal minority, I guess, making noise about this, that the Dodgers caved and decided to rescind their invitation to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and rescind this award that they were going to present to them at Dodgers Pride Night this year on June 16th. And aside from the fact that, like—uh, set—set everything aside about, like, Marco Rubio being a senator in Florida, dictating what a baseball team in California should do for their own pride night, when they had decided to give this group, not just invite them, but to give them an award for community service, which they deserve. Set—set all that aside. I just—I don’t know how you even have a pride night now. Like, I don’t know how you—you should have to print T-shirts that say, “We only want a pride night that is financially beneficial to us.”
ALEX: Right. Partial pride.
BOBBY: You—you should have to wear that around for the rest of the year. Because it’s not—I mean, I know we’ve talked about this before and I know many people have had conversations about the concept of a pride night, and how it is a limited way of expressing support to the more marginalized people in your fanbase. But at the end of the day, at least it was something, and for you to revoke access to pride night to some groups who are deserving of being there, simply because you were afraid of how it would look to bad faith actors, just completely—I mean, it undermines the point of having it in the first place. Because the point of a pride night, I know—which is not this way. But the point of a pride night should be that you are standing in support of people who don’t get your support often enough. And this completely flies in the face of that.
ALEX: It’s so infuriating. I mean, I’m so sick of this shit. Like I—the—the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have, as you mentioned, been around since the—the—basically, like, the—the 1970s and did a lot of work during the AIDS and HIV epidemic, ministering to queer folks who the Catholic Church would not minister to, right? So—so in addition to kind of being this—this protest group, and using sort of religious imagery to, uh, you know, create this sort of subversive message around—around bigotry and acceptance, they have done very real, important service work to marginalized folks. And it’s clear that at some point, somewhere in the Dodgers organization, there was a recognition of that, right? Not—not just, “Hey, you’re in the community, we want to invite you, but we recognize the work that you have done here and we want to specifically call you out for that work and lift you up for it.” Right? So, it’s not like they did not know who the organization was, or what they stood for, or what their sort of message and methods were. They were well aware of all of this, right? Until, as you mentioned, one Marco Rubio writes a letter to one Robert Dean Manfred—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —saying—whining about how, you know, “This is—it’s—it—this has become politicized. and this is not at all in the spirit of unity and inclusion.”
BOBBY: Yeah, they—Rubio’s letter said that they—Rubio’s letter questioned whether the Dodgers and MLB are being “inclusive and welcoming to Christians.”
ALEX: I—I would ask whether Christians are being welcoming and inclusive to the folks at pride night, but that’s just me.
BOBBY: From the Dodgers’ statement, “In the spirit of unity, the Los Angeles Dodgers are proud to host our 10th Annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th. This, uh, this event has become a meaningful tradition, highlighting not only the diversity and resilience within our fanbase, but also the impactful work of extraordinary community groups. This year, as part of a full night of programming, we invited a number of groups to join us. We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, in this year’s pride night has been the source of some controversy. Given the strong feelings that people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening and in an effort—”
ALEX: I think they should—I think they should name which people.
BOBBY: I agree.
ALEX: I just want to put it out there, who.
BOBBY: “And in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we’ve seen over the years of pride night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees.” I hope Marco Rubio enjoys pride night now.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Dodgers Pride Night. I hope—I hope that Marco Rubio and Bill Donohue can have a good time at Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night.
ALEX: Right. Which they famously care about, which they were obviously planning on going to.
BOBBY: And really supporting, you know?
ALEX: And supporting, yeah.
BOBBY: Like, we talked about—so, of course, like rainbow capitalism is a term that we use a lot now and has become—it’s not a new phenomenon. I think it’s just been—been named and—named and identified and is more than norm for these corporations, where they realized that has—that has become politically and financially popular to show support, to signal support for, um, groups of people who have been marginalized, because those people are consumers too, you know? Those people buy tickets to Dodgers games, too. And we can recognize this dynamic, while also talking about the fact that pride night is legitimately important to a lot of people. And Dodgers Pride Night specifically, like, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have participated in—in the past. And their pride nights specifically has been one that I think a lot of people would call a success, when you look at it in comparison to other pride nights across the league. They’ve been one of the organizations that has been kind of on the front of this wave of expanding pride night and making it more accessible to people, and making it a thing that they are more proud of. This is their 10th year of doing it, you know? And I’m just—when I see this, when I think back to last year with the Rays and how there were six players or eight players, or whatever, who didn’t want to wear the pride night hat. I’m just like—so you only get—you only have to make the decisions that are easiest.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You only have to do the things that are absolutely frictionless for you as an organization. You get to pick and choose—when you absolve yourselves, you get to pick and choose when you decide that you’re morally upstanding in the community, when you can sleep easier at night, because you decided that this is your 10th pride night and you’re proud of it. But, like, when you get the slightest amount of pushback from a senator in Florida who has nothing better to do because he’s a failed politician, and he’s run for president, like, six times and has never actually gotten any traction.
ALEX: Marco Rubio and I both Have in common that we have never won a presidential race. Just putting that out there.
BOBBY: It’s some of the most cowardly behavior I’ve seen from—from a Major League Baseball franchise, frankly. Like, full stop, no qualifications. The—to put in the statement, “Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening,” that is, like, some of the most shameless behavior I’ve ever seen from a Major League Baseball team. And I—like, I don’t think—like I know that there are probably many people within the Dodgers organization who are trying to do the right thing and who are the reason that a pride night can even happen or the reason that, you know, a group like The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence can even be included in an event like this. But whoever is making the call to rescind an invitation like this, they have no place in—in baseball, frankly, from my perspective.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, I want to be clear that—that this is a decision that falls with the Dodgers’ top brass and—and Rob Manfred. Like, once again, Rob has the ability to step in and say, “This is a bullshit bad faith attack. We’re not going to cave to it. We don’t really care.” And he didn’t do that. What he did was he forwarded the email to the Dodgers and said, “Hey, guys, just a—just a heads-up, letting you know, in case you, you know, want to play it risk averse.” And it’s just they’re so scared of controversy, right? They’re so worried they’re gonna get caught up in this culture war bullshit. And, you know, they don’t want to become another cautionary tale. They don’t want to dominate the—the headlines for weeks, like they did when they pulled the All-Star game out of Georgia, right? I know that Rob Manfred is looking—like looking around and seeing like, “What’s happening with Bud Light?” And they’re like, “Well, we can’t—MLB can’t be the—you know, let’s—”
BOBBY: But—but, like, they’re—pulling the All-Star game out of Georgia was a, uh, a decision way more consequential than still—continuing to allow The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to participate in a pride night in Los Angeles, that’s not going to affect Marco Rubio or Bill Donahue’s lives.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like—
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: They—they made the decision to pull the All-Star game from—from Atlanta, because of the bills that were being passed in Georgia that were going to limit voter access. And they said, “Well, this is a crisis. This is a crisis for democracy.” So if they can figure out where the line is for something like that, then I don’t understand why they can’t figure out where the line is for something like this.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like they—
ALEX: A far—far easier and less consequential decision instead.
BOBBY: Is—is everything just weighing our options? Like, is everything just damage control to them? What is going to—going to inflict the least negative effect on our Q Score to the average American? And they—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —realize that it’s—that it’s easy to just punch down on a group that stands up for trans people, because not enough people in this country care about trans rights. But I guess people tacitly care about voting rights, even though they don’t, you know? Like, it’s just—God, it’s just—I—I—in my head, I can just see all of the, like, McKinsey consultants that were—that were employed to decide whether or not they should actually rescind the invitation for this, and it just makes me sick. It just makes me sick.
ALEX: Yeah. I—I mean, and couching it all in—in the spirit of unity, uh, is—is just equal bullshit. I mean, I—I suppose—
BOBBY: [38:29]
ALEX: —I should say in the spirit of unity, uh, LA pride, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Southern California, ACLU, uh, all pulled out of pride. So there’s your—there’s your solidarity. There’s your unity, Los Angeles Dodgers.
BOBBY: I mean, the last thing is that I just feel really bad for Dodgers fans who are going to try to enjoy this pride night, like, without—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —feeling morally—morally conflicted about it. Because like I said, like, pride night is—is honestly, you know, for all the reservations that you can have about what these baseball teams, these corporations get from pride night in, you know, the positive societal effect that they—the—the positive consumer effect that they are able to put out into the world by hosting a pride night. Like, all the—all the queer people that I know who are baseball fans are like, “I actually like going to pride night. It’s a night for me to go and actually enjoy a baseball game with a bunch of other queer people, and that is a really rare opportunity.” And, you know, like, our friends at Batting Around, they have to joke all—they joke all the time every year, just pander to us, “It’s okay.” And for Dodgers fans who were looking forward to being able to go to this pride night, the one—one time a year where their baseball team is like, “Hey, you’re welcome here tonight.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: “Explicitly welcome here tonight.” As opposed to just, “Come here, but don’t—you know, don’t wear your identity on your sleeve.” I just think that sucks. I think that sucks for those people. And I feel—I feel very bad for them.
ALEX: Yeah. Major League Baseball team continues to show their ass. Appreciate them letting us know.
BOBBY: All right. Let’s take a quick break.
SPEAKER 3: Hey, man, do you understand me? All the time you’re in my head.
BOBBY: Okay, Alex. You know, we have to take a full—a full break between the rest of the show and talking about this, because we have to let the—the people who don’t want to hear about the Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour content, you have to let them just tune out. If they don’t want to hear—if they don’t want to hear our review of the show or dispatch from Gillette Stadium.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That’s okay. But we know there are some people out there who do, so we did it. We finally fulfilled our lifelong dreams—maybe not lifelong.
ALEX: Did—did the damn thing, yeah.
BOBBY: Decade-long dreams of seeing Taylor Swift in concert.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah.
BOBBY: You’re, um, more recent adopter of the Taylor Swift—of the Swifty fandom than I am. ALEX: Oh, all right.
BOBBY: Uh, isn’t that true? What album did you jump on board?
ALEX: I guess I really started actively engaged around like 1999, which I think was, like, high school.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Um, this is engaging—engaging conversation. I’m sure—the—the show. Oh, my goodness.
BOBBY: Bro, can we first talk about—let’s just get this elephant in the room out of the way.
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: I’ve never seen that much rain in my life.
ALEX: Like, maybe ever.
BOBBY: I understand that the rain shows are a thing for Taylor Swift, and she tries to make them a special event. But I have to say from my perspective in the nosebleeds, I didn’t find the rain to be that fun. It rained so hard for seven straight hours. We were just being pelted by rain all night.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’ve never experienced anything like that.
ALEX: Yeah. It was—it was pretty wild. Uh, I’ve—I’ve had my share of rain shows, but I think few kind of reached that level of, like, sheer, like, waterlogged-ness. Like, I actually felt like I could wring myself out a little bit. Like. it took hours for us to—to dry. I thought the show was great. I mean, I—it was the—the—the spectacle of it, the feat of it, you know, kind of on its own terms is really incredible.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: The fact that she can do this three, four-hour show. And the fact that she did it without really any hesitation in the pouring rain, I think only added to the sort of, I don’t know, just unreal vibe. Like, it did—did—physically did not feel real.
BOBBY: Going to see live music in many ways is the exact opposite of going to see live sports. You know, like you would think, “Okay. Live events, like things that I’m a fan of,” whatever. You lumped them all into the same category. Music and sports could not be more different when you go and see them in person, because in sports, like you’ll see your favorite sports team. You know, they’re probably gonna let you down. They might let you down. If you go enough times, they’re gonna—they’re gonna lose the wildcard game in resounding fashion to the San Diego Padres when you really thought that this was the year. You know, you told every random Mets fan that you saw on the street, “Hey, this is the year.” No, well, it wasn’t the year. But the truth is you go see Taylor Swift, she’s gonna deliver for three and a half straight hours.
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: She’s like the Michael Jordan of music. Inevitable.
ALEX: You can say this is the year and believe it.
BOBBY: Exactly. Um, and I know you and I are going to—like, as we speak, another show 24 hours from right now.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And it’ll, you know, it’ll be similarly low stakes in terms of the fact that we know we’re gonna enjoy it. And I just—it’s—I just think that it’s really important that people have something like that in their lives, whether it’s live music or not. Like, whether you’re a big fan of live music or not. It’s important to take a low-stakes approach to entertainment sometimes, whether you choose it to be movies, music, TV, whatever. You find something that you know you’re gonna like it, it’s not gonna let you down. That—I honestly thought about that as we were—as we were leaving the show or at the show. Like, it’s just nice that 80,000 people can be here and they know what to expect. And sometimes it’s nice to not know what to expect. Sometimes it’s nice to—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —be surprised by live sports, but we need the—that duality of experience, I think.
ALEX: Spoken by someone who has experienced the true trials and tribulations of Mets fandom.
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: Over the course of two and a half decades, it’s nice to know—it’s nice to have something you can expect. I—I agree. I will say maybe a case for A’s fandom. I know what I’m expecting every single time I sit down.
BOBBY: Taylor Swift is the exact opposite of A’s fandom. If Taylor Swift was like A’s fandom, it’d be like every time she came out, she just screwed the song up.
ALEX: I just—uh, my—my brain is just still processing if Taylor Swift was like A’s fandom. Like, I just can’t wrap my head around that idea, frankly.
BOBBY: Okay, wait. Let me reset your brain here and tell—tell the listeners my favorite story from the night.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Aside from all, you know, all of the songs that I had been waiting to see performed live for years and years.
ALEX: Right. Of course.
BOBBY: My favorite thing that happened was, uh, you left to go use the bathroom and get a drink, and then stand in line for the merch at some point in the middle of the show, uh, because the merch line was, like, several hours long before and after the show. And so while you’re waiting in line for merch, you’re missing a couple of songs. And then, you know, The Eras Tour, she went album by album, not in chronological order. But all the songs that she performed were, uh, confined within the albums that they were on in that section of the performance. And, uh, you are a huge fan of the album, Reputation.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And when she started that era, you came running back up the stairs to be in our seats, to be with us when Reputation was playing. And she started with Ready for it? Really exciting, really—just a great song to sing along to with 80,000 people or however many people were actually there. 50,000, I don’t really know. And then she rolled into the next song, this little song called Delicate, which is a shared fave amongst you and I. Perhaps her best song, maybe not. Some days, it is. Some days, it’s not. Just depends on the day. You let out a truly feral scream. Like, a truly primal scream at the top of your lungs. And to kind of brace yourself for that scream, you, like, bent over a little bit. You, like, bent and yelled. You know, it’s like you had just won the World Series, like you were, like, fist-pumping and—and screaming at the same time.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And as you bent over, you got lower, so that you were kind of yelling like in the ear of the person who was in front of us, in the row in front of us. And she turned around and she looked at you with this surprised look like, “How did that sound come out of this man?” And you immediately apologized. You’re like, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scream in your ear.” And she said, “No, it’s okay. You just must really love this song.” And I laughed so hard—
ALEX: Caught.
BOBBY: I laughed so hard at that exchange.
ALEX: Spotted in 4K. Yes, I am, ma’am.
BOBBY: Spotted in 4K, the Delicate enjoyer, Alex Bazeley.
ALEX: Yeah, I have, uh, I—I have no public response to that at—at that time.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: What happens at Gillette, stays at Gillette.
BOBBY: No, it doesn’t.
ALEX: Or so I thought. I mean, I think my favorite part about the story is the fact that, like, the setlist is public. Like, she does the same setlist at every show and I’ve even looked at it prior to the show, which means that I knew exactly where in the set the song was coming.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Like, probably down to the second.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And it still caught me off guard.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I still wasn’t—I still was not ready for it.
BOBBY: See, I didn’t look up the setlist because I wanted to be surprised. That’s how you and I are different.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I like knowing. Hey, man, it’s—it’s how I was able to get back just in time.
BOBBY: You did kind of time it exactly, perfectly.
ALEX: Like—uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Excellent work by you. Um, all right. That’s it. Anything else you want to share from the Taylor Swift show on Saturday? Shout-out to Providence, Rhode Island.
ALEX: Yeah, shout-out.
BOBBY: Very cool. I wish we could spend more time there.
ALEX: Shout-out to the Mystic Diner.
BOBBY: That’s true. Two different meals at the Mystic Diner in Connecticut.
ALEX: Yeah. Uh, I was a little disappointed by the, uh, by the lack of Tipping Pitches merch at the show, I will say.
BOBBY: Hmm. Were you expecting to see some—some Tipping Pitches merch? I mean, like the outfits to the to the Taylor Swift show, that’s like a whole—
ALEX: It’s a whole thing, I know.
BOBBY: It’s a whole thing. Yeah. Unfortunately, um, the rain really put a damper on a lot of people’s outfits. They kind of had to be covered up, including ours. We were wearing the Taylor Swift T-shirts and then it’s just like, “All right. There’s three layers on top of me. You just can’t see it.”
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: It was a good time. Thank you to the fine folks at Ticketmaster for making sure that we could get in there.
ALEX: Jesus Christ.
BOBBY: Thank you to Live Nation. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for us. Everything you’ve done for this country, you know. Thank you. You really nailed it. Live Nation, Ticketmaster—
ALEX: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —you’ve really got it under control. Seamless experience, really loved the whole situation. It was all good. Everything.
ALEX: Real shout-out to, uh, to the, like, parking attendants. Man, did not envy—did not envy the job that they had to do, getting 20,000 cars out of, like, four parking lots. Good God.
BOBBY: When I say that we walked through actual rivers to get out of that stadium—
ALEX: Yes, it was—
BOBBY: —I’m not kidding. There was, like, actual flowing river, like several miles per hour. The water was moving several miles per hour. It was truly, truly a—kind of a nightmarish experience, but the type of thing that, I guess, you just—you have to endure to have that kind of experience.
ALEX: Yeah, only for Taylor.
BOBBY: I would not endure that weather for the New York Mets. Believe you me, I would not.
ALEX: Jesus.
BOBBY: I would be in my house, asleep. I’ll see you next time, Max. Francisco, we got a hundred and sixty-one more of these.
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: Okay. Thank you—thank you, everybody, for listening. We appreciate you waiting an extra day to accommodate the fact that I got sick from the Taylor Swift concert. I am feeling better. I like everybody to know I’m feeling—I’m really improving rapidly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Um, speaking of rapid, my rapid COVID test was negative, so we’re all—we’re all in the clear. Uh—
ALEX: Good things coming up for Bobby today.
BOBBY: Exactly. And the Mets completed the sweep yesterday. We’ll see if they can keep it rolling. Uh, thank you, everybody, for listening. If you would like to call in, 785-422-5881. You can share with us your favorite concert experiences. You can share with us what chants we should get going at the Brooklyn Cyclones game. You can share with us who you think that Alex should root for, should the A’s actually find someone to give them a stadium and leave Oakland. Or you can just share just a thought you have. That’s fine, too.
ALEX: Yeah, is there a Wikipedia page interested you lately?
BOBBY: If you have a Wikipedia page, I’d prefer if you shared it via email, tippingpitchespod@gmail.com. Just the link situation is easier. Links don’t really work that well on the voicemail box. That’s okay. Um, we appreciate you listening and we will be back next week.
SPEAKER 4: I’m tired of waitin’, I was never good at sports. Save the games for the girls on the tennis court.
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello, everybody, uh, 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!
BOBBY: The glass that you’re drinking out of has just, like, a yellow label and so I thought that it was beer.
ALEX: It—no, it is—it was a beer cup. It’s just—
BOBBY: But it’s water. No, I know it was a beer cup, but it looked like it was filled to the fucking—
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: —brim with beer and I was like, “Dang. He’s really throwing that back to start this pod.”
ALEX: That’s—that’s right, bro. I’m doing my own Throat Coat.
BOBBY: Long day. Long day.
[52:28]
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