Bobby and Alex ideate some outside-the-box baseball Halloween costumes, then dig into some surprises from the World Series thus far, including the Dbacks’ apparent non-fraudulence(?), Tommy Pham’s intensity, critical analysis of the Global South, and drone technology. Plus: predictions for Scherzer vs. Pfaadt, the announcement of a Game 5 watchalong, and a lot of hot yoga talk.
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Songs featured in this episode:
Shania Twain — “Any Man Of Mine” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Transcript
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, it’s the Halloween episode of Tipping Pitches, which means that it’s important, for context, for me to tell all of our listeners listening right now, what you’re dressed up as for Halloween. You’ve come to the Tipping Pitches studio today fully dressed up as Jomboy Yankees uniform, and you’re doing a lot of lip reading, you know? Looking out the window, looking at people down on the street, seeing what they’re talking about.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That was a really effective costume. Nicely done this year.
ALEX: So does that make you Talkin’ Jake?
BOBBY: Amazing cell phone by me. [1:05] No, I think that makes me Aaron Boone.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: I’m just gonna get progressively madder at you over the course of doing this podcast for asking me completely fair questions. Who’s the worst person in the baseball world that you could dress up as? What’s the name of the guy who always tries to catch the home runs, the foul ball?
ALEX: Zack Hample.
BOBBY: Yeah. I tried—
ALEX: That’d be— that’d be a good one, I mean, for the real heads.
BOBBY: I— but, like, how would you identify yourself as him? Just like be wearing a baseball glove and, like—
ALEX: Right. I think—
BOBBY: —ask a random child if you can reenact—
ALEX: Actually, I think it’d would be pretty easy—
BOBBY: —stealing a ball from him?
ALEX: Right. You have to wear the, like, the black hat with the MLB logo on it, right? The one that, like, umpires wear?
BOBBY: Is that what he wears?
ALEX: That is what he wears.
BOBBY: Once again, I don’t know anything about this man.
ALEX: I know too much about this man.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: He’s been in my life for too long. Wear like a black T-shirt, yeah. Wear a glove—
BOBBY: Did he hurt you? Like, did he steal a ball from you?
ALEX: You know if he— if he hurts one of us, he hurts all of us, okay?
BOBBY: That’s true. Yeah. And then— yeah. And then the glove, of course.
ALEX: And then the glove, yeah.
BOBBY: And you just have to knock over anybody in your way.
ALEX: And then just start throwing elbows—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —in the— in the bar, or wherever you are. So then, can you dress up as the kid and just be, like—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —in the background of every photo that I take? Like looking absolutely heartbroken?
BOBBY: Unfortunately, I don’t think that would work because I’m taller than you and don’t look much like a kid. With this costume involve—
ALEX: See, the thing is, it’s not like Zack Hampel is a big dude. He’s just got grit, you know? He’s got— you know what he has? He’s got dignity.
BOBBY: Dignity. Determination.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Grit, hustle, elbow grease—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —character.
ALEX: That’s right. Keep going.
BOBBY: I— I don’t know if I can. My best Halloween— my best baseball deep cut Halloween costume that I came up with last night as we were peppering these back and forth at each other, waiting in line to get into a bar that we eventually were not let into and we were shuttled next door to their sister bar, which actually wasn’t their sister bar. It’s just a different bar. My best one that I came up with was we could have been Terry Collins and Tom Hallion.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Which I think is still ripe. I think we could still do that at some point in the future. We could— we could do that this week, you know?
ALEX: We could— I mean, Halloween is—
BOBBY: Halloween hasn’t happened yet.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: When we go see Psycho on Halloween in the theater, we could go dressed as Terry Collins and Tom Hallion. The one person in that theater who gets that, would freak out.
ALEX: Would— would lose it.
BOBBY: They would be really excited. Which one of us is which? Famously, you hate baseball jerseys, so—
ALEX: Famously. I mean, it feels— I’d— I feel like you have to be Terry, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —it’s too fitting.
BOBBY: So then are you gonna put on the full— are you gonna put on, like, the umpire, like the pads and the—
ALEX: Right. Well, I could— at this point, I can be Zack Hample and Tom Hallion.
BOBBY: Multifaceted costumes switching back and forth.
ALEX: Exactly. When— when we’re together— yeah, when we’re together, we can— we can do one bit. When we’re apart, we can do another.
BOBBY: Okay. Do— can you come up with anything better, like a costume for you and I?
ALEX: I— one of us could go as, like, the Phillie Phanatic and one of us could go as Blooper, you know?
BOBBY: Wow. We really have to flip a coin for who gets to be who.
ALEX: Yeah, I know.
BOBBY: I know. Who wants to be Blooper.
ALEX: It’s kind of a no one wins there, if we’re being quite honest.
BOBBY: I think that we could do that. I’d be fine to be Blooper if it was like we were— you were sort of like murdering Blooper, you know? Like I’m Dead Blooper. Halloween-esque costume.
ALEX: I don’t know. I— did you see— I mean, I— I don’t know what—
BOBBY: I’m so afraid that you’re about to do some Blooper defense.
ALEX: No, I’m not about to do some blooper defense, but I just— I— I’m so curious what compelled, like, the Atlanta social media team, the Blooper social media person to, like, piss off all of Philly.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Because they are very good at holding a grudge, right? And so even after the Braves were eliminated, you were seeing, like, Blooper effigies outside of, like, Citizens Bank Park, because they weren’t playing the Diamondbacks.
BOBBY: I still think my idea that the Phillies and Braves should just—sort of just play again, was unexplored and we should—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —maybe consider that.
ALEX: I think so.
BOBBY: Like on the off days, you know, on the off days of the World Series, why don’t we just throw in a couple games here and there?
ALEX: Right. You were mad about not playing enough.
BOBBY: Come back.
ALEX: Come back.
BOBBY: We can even do it at a neutral site, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What’d be a good neutral site for Braves— Braves-Phillies? Like Citi Field? Everybody goes and boos both teams.
ALEX: I think that’d be good. I’d like to see them play on like a— like a Little League field or something like that. Just change the dynamics a little bit.
BOBBY: Even Orlando Arcia could hit a home run on a Little League field.
ALEX: That’s true.
BOBBY: Okay. I guess it’s time for us to talk about the actual World Series.
ALEX: Yeah, let’s [5:59]
BOBBY: You still didn’t come up with any Halloween costume ideas. I guess Blooper and Phanatic.
ALEX: Blooper.
BOBBY: That’s your— that’s your—
ALEX: Yeah. Well—
BOBBY: But I don’t want to dress up as Blooper.
ALEX: Well, I also just can’t imagine— I’d—
BOBBY: You should go as the Philadelphia Phanatic. I don’t know why I used his formal name. You should go as the Phillie Phanatic.
ALEX: That’s—
BOBBY: My friends call me the Phillie Phanatic.
ALEX: That’s the name on his birth certificate?
BOBBY: I think so. Yeah. You know that, like, the Phillies definitely have, like, a birth certificate— like a fake birth—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —certificate out there circulating of him somewhere.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Just to keep the lore consistent.
ALEX: Like, does the Phillie Phanatic have a social security number?
BOBBY: Probably?
ALEX: Is Phillie Phanatic registered to vote?
BOBBY: This is Joe Biden’s America. Phillie Phanatic is swinging Pennsylvania blue.
ALEX: Yeah. Well, Phillie Phanatic is— is too disillusioned by the political process these days, I think.
BOBBY: Interesting. So Phillie Phanatic doesn’t believe in electoralism anymore.
ALEX: Hmm. Phillie Phanatic believes in direct action.
BOBBY: Phillie Phanatic building local power. You heard it here first. Unionize the mascots? Did I just find our newest T-shirt?
ALEX: I think, you— you know?
BOBBY: So when we— when we did the Unionize the Minor shirts, and then the Minors unionized. And people were like, “Oh, you did it. Now— now, you have to predict what’s going to happen next by putting it on the shirt.” And as you’re looking at my shirt right now, I’m wearing a shirt that says, “Nationalize baseball.” We kind of shot our shot that— we maybe, like, pulled up from beyond half court with that one.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Unionizing the Minors was like— that was a solid three-point shot, but they did it. It was reasonable. Now, maybe “Nationalize baseball” is too strong, so we take a step back. We unionize the mascots.
ALEX: So— and bargaining meetings?
BOBBY: Yes, they come in full costume.
ALEX: They come in full costume, okay.
BOBBY: Of course.
ALEX: I’m just making sure.
BOBBY: We’re not unionizing the people who are playing the mascots.
ALEX: Right. Oh, God, no.
BOBBY: No, no, no, no.
ALEX: They’re fine.
BOBBY: They’re still getting minimum wage. We’re unionizing the mascots themselves.
ALEX: Right, okay. So this means the mascots are going to start getting like paid— like, now, we need to start opening bank accounts for the mascots?
BOBBY: Frankly— frankly, the mascots should be part of SAG. They should be on strike right now.
ALEX: Yeah, they— yeah, they should.
BOBBY: They are acting. You know, they’re doing full character—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —literally.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: There’s just been no mascot content really in this World Series.
ALEX: Uh-uh.
BOBBY: Not nearly as much as there would be if the Phillies had made it.
ALEX: Well, because the— the Rangers—
BOBBY: The Rangers mascot is like a cowboy.
ALEX: Like— yeah.
BOBBY: It kind of scares me how much the Texas flag is present at the Rangers Park. I’m like all for— you know, state flags are fine. I’m all for, like, being proud of where you—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —come from, but just the—
ALEX: They’re all for states, right?
BOBBY: —the way— come on. The way that they do it just doesn’t feel right.
ALEX: Uh-uh.
BOBBY: It doesn’t feel like they mean the same thing.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It doesn’t feel like they mean the same thing as when you hung your California state flag in our dorm room. They’re not going for that same energy.
ALEX: Well— and famously, the— the Diamondbacks mascot is not even like a— a snake. It’s a— it’s a bobcat.
BOBBY: Yeah, I don’t really get that still.
ALEX: I don’t really either. I think I’m— I would be curious to see what a snake mascot would look like.
BOBBY: Yeah. You know, like— like a Chinese New Year when they get, like, multiple people to play, like, the dragon?
ALEX: Exactly. Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, I want that.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I want that energy. The mascot is like a whole row long.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah.
BOBBY: Just like slithering its way through the stands. Children are running in fear. The broadcast is randomly cutting to it all the time.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: More— more on the broadcast accidentally cutting things later.
ALEX: More on the broadcast cutting things—
BOBBY: Okay. We’re going to talk about games one and two of the World Series. We’re going to preview the rest of the World Series. And then we’re just gonna see what else comes up in the in the— in the course of that process. But before we do, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I’m Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
BOBBY: Alex, well— first of all, thank you to this week’s new patrons. Those new patrons are Cody and Alec. Alec with a C.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Not part of the Alex hive.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Not in your group.
ALEX: Not in the group chat.
BOBBY: Came here on their own, was not recruited by the Alex group chat [10:29]
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Thank you, Alec. Last week, you might remember— maybe— maybe you don’t remember. It was actually earlier this week that we did that podcast, where we reacted to the Phillies losing.
ALEX: Yeah, if you say so.
BOBBY: And previewed the World Series. At the end of that show, somewhere in the last 20 minutes of it, kind of lost track, I came up with an idea for alternative Tipping Pitches feeds to monetize—
ALEX: You did, yeah.
BOBBY: —using artificial intelligence. One of those was the Alex ASMR feed. One of those was the feed with— without me, where my track is just muted.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And one of those was the Bobby accent work feed, where I do like a heavy Queens or Staten Island accent. I did put up a poll on Spotify, as I’m— want to do. And it’s just a landslide.
ALEX: Yeah, it is.
BOBBY: It’s a— coming in last was no Bobby, but thank you, everyone. That’s— I really appreciate it. That’s nice. 9%. Alex— Alex ASMR feed, 18%.
ALEX: It stings a little bit.
BOBBY: And the accents were 73%. I just have to say, I think that this— this outcome is wrong. We gotta— much like J.T. Realmuto wants us to do, we got to recount the vote. We got to check in again. I heard from some people, they’re like, “I don’t listen on Spotify, so I couldn’t vote.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: But justice for the Alex ASMR feed.
ALEX: Here we go.
BOBBY: So—
ALEX: But—
BOBBY: —it’s an imperfect system of democracy we have here, but—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: —that’s— that’s an overwhelming response.
ALEX: It is an overwhelming response. I don’t know. It feels like the sample size is becoming a little more instructive right now. So all that to say, where are you— where are you taking us first in your— in your journey through accents on this episode?
BOBBY: I— I did not agree to do several different kinds of accents.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Although maybe the poll was misleading in that way.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: Like, if people just voted and didn’t actually listen to us make that— do that bit on the show, which I don’t recommend, because I recommend listening all the way to the end of the show. Which most of you do, you know? Completion rates looking good. I’ve been checking—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —that data, doing the analytic work. But I’m not going to do, like, British accent. You won’t— you will not find me doing like British, Australian, whatever other accents people do and they say that they’re gonna practice accent work.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I could do Delco but—
ALEX: Prove it.
BOBBY: I mean, it’s not hard. It’s not far away at any time. I can’t really do— you know what I’m not good at? I’m not good at, like, Canadian or, like, Midwesterner—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: Like Michigan or— I’m not really good at Pittsburgh, either. The Yinzer accent, can’t do that one. I’m just being honest. I know what my strengths and my weaknesses are. Much like the Arizona Diamondbacks.
ALEX: That was good.
BOBBY: Thank you. They’re— they’re playing to their strengths. I— I have said this every time we’ve talked about the Diamondbacks this postseason. I said this, when they made the playoffs, and I’m just gonna keep saying it, I just don’t think they’re that good.
ALEX: Hilarious thing to say 1-1 in the World Series.
BOBBY: I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to you?
ALEX: I mean—
BOBBY: Like, they are obviously playing really well. And everybody on the team— I can see the outcome that makes them a good player. You know what I mean? But, like, for all of them to be doing it at the same time, for all of the pitchers to be coming in, in the spots that they are, and locking it down, especially against these Rangers lineup. I’m just flabbergasted. I just don’t have an explanation for it. And I think it’s wildly entertaining.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I want to say, I’m not saying that I just don’t think they’re that good from the perspective of, like, “Ah, this is boring. This is a boring matchup.”
ALEX: Right, right.
BOBBY: Which was the storyline heading into this World Series once people processed the fact that they weren’t going to get, you know, the stacked Phillies lineup versus the stacked Rangers lineup and, like, a maximum talent-on-talent matchup of the teams that were remaining in the field. But, like, I— I have been wildly entertained by these first two games. You know, the second game less was so—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It was kind of a blowout. But I still just don’t— it’s still kind of, like, breaking my brain.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Is it doing the same to you?
ALEX: It is in— in a good way. Like, it’s— that, you know, there’s been a lot of clamoring, as there is, I think, almost every year about, “Well, why are we not watching the two best teams?”
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Which doesn’t happen most of the time.
BOBBY: Or ever.
ALEX: Or— or ever. Like, you— you rarely ever see the team with the most wins, the most success in the regular season come out on top in the postseason, which is, like, part of the joy of postseason baseball is that it’s not prescriptive, right? And anything can happen. And if your team is involved, you may be less enthralled by that concept. But as like a neutral observer, it’s fun watching guys who’ve been toiling away in— in second place is behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, right? The—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —powerhouse team of this decade. Like, just going out and have fun. Like, with no pressure necessarily. I don’t know. I think— I think it makes it much more fascinating when— I think it’s much more fascinating when you’re watching guys like Merrill Kelly just get out there and shove— like, is it weird? Yeah. But it’s also the reason that I enjoy watching baseball so much. And so I haven’t been able to look away.
BOBBY: I’m not sure that I agree with the part like it’s more interesting to watch Merrill Kelly than it would be if, like, Zack Wheeler was pitching that exact game. Like— it’s like— it’s just different, you know? Like—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —Kelly was amazing. He’s the first person who’s actually looked legitimately dominant against the Rangers—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —this postseason, which is— if you have that on your bingo card, congratulations, you just hit. But I think that the— the Diamondbacks— the reason that it’s hard to talk about the Diamondbacks— or, like, the reason that it’s hard for the kind of, like, neutral baseball fans opinion of the Diamondbacks to catch up is because they just don’t have a lot of, like, famous players.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And the ways that they made it into the playoffs, the ways that they built a team are not, like, the easiest to understand. Like, they took— they— they developed a lot of players internally, you know? Obviously, Corbin Carroll, chief among them. But even like Alek Thomas has been massive to their run this season. And Christian Walker is a guy who, like, has been bad in the playoffs, but was hugely important to their team from a— just like a run scoring perspective all year. He had a really good season at the plate. But they do— and— and then Ketel Marte who they acquired and he performed really well for them. And then they were able to sign him to, like, a reasonable market value extension, which in— in that place, if you didn’t believe that your team was going to be competing, like, relatively soon, you— a lot of teams would have just let him walk, or traded him to try to get back more prospect value. Well, it looks pretty good that they didn’t do that. It looks pretty good that they got him to be part of, like, the medium to long term future, you know? He’s— he has an 18-game hitting streak in the postseason. He just set the record for that. So, like, it’s all of these sort of, like, smaller factors compounding on each other to make this team competitive, and yet still, you know, when you just look at these two teams up next to each other, I think you expect more things like game one, which the Rangers were sputtering a little bit to start out with. Like, it was finally the first human Nathan Eovaldi performance of this October, and they got to him a little bit. And then Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia, two guys who, it’s very easy to understand the ways in which they are good, just come and save the day. Seager has been a— a star for a long time in— in the league. Garcia has made himself somewhat of— of a superstar this past season, but like he was good all year. You look at him and you understand what his— it’s like— it matches up very nicely, aesthetically with how he looks and what he is good at. And you’re like, “Okay, I get that. I can see that path.” So it’s a fascinating kind of, like, narrative divulgence between these two teams of what makes them good, and what makes them appealing. And I think it’s made for— it’s making for an interesting matchup. I’m— I’ll be curious to see as this series goes later on, what it feels like to have both of these teams’ weaknesses in the spotlight, because neither of these teams has, like, a ton of pitching depth. Neither of these teams has a very good bullpen. These are the 23rd and 24th ranked bullpens by— by FanGraphs were, which is like the lowest— the worst two bullpens to match up in a World Series in, like, quite some time. And— if not ever. I actually don’t remember. I heard that stat somewhere, and I don’t remember if it was like ever or like just in a very long time. But it— long story short, not— teams with bad bullpens do not usually make it to the World Series, for obvious reasons. And so as we head into these later games in the series, does that start to compound that— like which team’s weaknesses will be exposed more? I still believe— like you said, I still believe that the Rangers are going to win out, because even though they got blown out in game two, I just trust them more. I just trust their hitters more.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And that’s, like, the worst way to predict what’s going to happen in the baseball postseason, but it’s really the only thing we have left at this point that I believe in.
ALEX: No, I— I mean, this is a real, like, sort of, like, head versus heart series, you know? Like my head says, “Yeah, the Rangers are the better team on paper, have a more holistic lineup, have more sort of name brand, guys, right?” Actual recognizable stars, even if they’re not kind of the marquee players. And my heart says, “You have a Tommy Pham, right? But Gaby Moreno—”
BOBBY: “Get Tommy Pham a ring.” That’s what all Mets fans were saying in April.
ALEX: That’s— that’s right.
BOBBY: “Get Tommy Pham his ring.” And now, we’re still saying it.
ALEX: Tied with— tied with Albert Pujols for most four-hit games in an MLB postseason, which is kind of insane to me.
BOBBY: Like in one postseason run?
ALEX: Correct.
BOBBY: Or— or like all the time? Lot of statistics on this episode.
ALEX: I know, yeah. We’re really in our bag.
BOBBY: For just like two— about two stats.
ALEX: No, I think in— in— in one season. Yeah.
BOBBY: In— in one whole season.
ALEX: In— in— in one October, yeah.
BOBBY: Okay. That’s a nice, little nugget. I like that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: When did Pujols do it, 2011? I pressed too far.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m sorry. Forget it. Keep going.
ALEX: I don’t— I don’t know if you saw. He was— he was pinch-hit for, right, in— in game two with— with—
BOBBY: Tommy Pham.
ALEX: Yeah, having had four hits already in the game.
BOBBY: I thought you were talking about Pujols in 2011 again.
ALEX: Things are good. We’re fine. And there was some— some uproar—
BOBBY: You don’t know if I saw? I mean, like, 12 years ago. I don’t remember that. There was some uproar, because they wanted to give them a five-hit game?
ALEX: Yeah, let’s give him a five-hit game, and Pham came out, and said, “No, actually, I asked to be pinch-hit for, so that my boy Chase— Jace Peterson can have his first World Series AB.”
BOBBY: Nice.
ALEX: Which— once again—
BOBBY: I kind of like—
ALEX: That’s the heart right there.
BOBBY: What an interesting guy.
ALEX: What a— what a strange man.
BOBBY: He seems— honestly, he seems like he carries himself with dignity, in an ironic sense. He seems like he is a very proud man of his accomplishments and a very serious man.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: When I watch him, I’m like, “That’s the guy who would not like our bits.”
ALEX: Nope. Uh-uh.
BOBBY: Some baseball players I watch, I’m like, “Yeah, they get the vibe. They could come on here.” And famously, Nathaniel Lowe last week, who I called Josh Lowe at first and then—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —realized it was Nathaniel Lowe, like, three minutes later. I think he could come on and he could— he could do our bits. I think Spencer Strider could do our bits really well. But Pham, he would just be like, “Why aren’t you guys asking me a question?”
ALEX: I—I have appreciated the— the players who have been a little more forthcoming with their frustrations that, like, not getting asked a question, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah, the Castellanos thing.
ALEX: Like the Castellanos. It was just like, “So you have a great game tonight.”
BOBBY: Right. Is there a question?
ALEX: Is there a question?
BOBBY: I, on one hand, appreciate that. And on the other hand, it just makes me worry, you know, that we’re gonna have a guest on here one time, and I’m gonna do, like, a five-part question and they’re gonna be like, “So what do you actually want me to answer?”
ALEX: Yeah. What is the quest— like, it sounds like you were answering your own question.
BOBBY: I was actually— so this is a little bit of— this is a little bit of a side quest story here, but—
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: So I was watching game one at a bar with a friend who also works in the podcast industry. And we were discussing the concept of how— like podcast conversational logic is such that even if you don’t understand what the person is asking you, or even if you don’t agree that it’s a good question, the— the decorum of it is that you kind of just have to pretend like you do understand, just to keep the conversation flowing.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So, like, it doesn’t work if you ask someone a question, and they’re just like, “No.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Or, “No, I don’t— I don’t see it that way.” To borrow a phrase from Christopher Moltisanti.
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: “I don’t see it that way.” And then you just don’t say anything else. And then you’d have to, like, kind of reformulate their question in your answer, and then start to expand on your own thoughts on the question, and then bring it back to another point in cir— the circular conversational logic of a podcast.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And as I was talking about this out loud, I was like, “This is dumb. This is a dumb thing that we do here. Why don’t”— and our show is, like, maybe the biggest culprit of it. Like, I— I’ll ask you questions, and I’m like, “That’s not a real question. That’s just like a— that’s just like a thought with— formulated in the shape of a question.”
ALEX: Right. And like you respond to.
BOBBY: Exactly. Respond to my thought.
ALEX: Well—
BOBBY: It’d never been the worst kind of way to talk to a person in real life, you know? Because you can’t ask genuine questions on a podcast.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like, if— if we started the show and I was like, “So, how are you, Alex?” And you were, like, giving me a real answer and not doing, like, a bit about how—
ALEX: Right. Eh, it’s— it’s [25:21] of a week, you know?
BOBBY: —we should be Terry Collins and Tom Hallion for Halloween, like it wouldn’t work. It just would not work. Your thoughts?
ALEX: I think we should interview Evan Carter more because—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —he’s— the, like, edges haven’t been sanded down. You know, it’s not like he just has that— and—
BOBBY: We should interview Evan Carter more. Like we, the baseball public [25:46]
ALEX: Just like— yeah. Not— not that you and me. I’m—
BOBBY: Not like you and me. We never interviewed him once.
ALEX: We should do— we should do that one first.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: No, it just— because, like, you can tell that he— he’s just having a good time— he started the year in the Minor Leagues. Like—
BOBBY: Dude, he almost finished the year in the Minor Leagues.
ALEX: I know, but he—
BOBBY: He just got called up in September, and he’s 21.
ALEX: Like, you can tell he’s just having the time of his life out there, as he— as he should be.
BOBBY: Imagine smoking a double as a 21-year-old in the World Series. Be pretty sick.
ALEX: That’s— I’d hold on to that one.
BOBBY: Do you think he got that ball back? Probably. A running bit on the Mets broadcast this year was that the MLB authenticator, so they have like a person who’s assigned to every ballpark to authenticate that the piece of memorabilia that they’re taking, to be brought to Cooperstown, or to be given back to the player or whatever, is the real thing. Like the real ball. And he, like, signs a piece of paper or something that goes along with the ball. And because the Mets were so dogshit all year, like they had nothing interesting going on in the field, so they just did a lot of, like, interviews with that guy. He became like a running character on the Mets broadcast. So, like, Steve Gelbs, the sideline reporter, would go down there and sit next to him.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And they would, like, have the whole Abbott and Costello routine.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: He would be joking about how he’s trying to do his job while Steve Gelbs is trying to ask him stuff. And I just want to say, when I saw that guy for, like, the third time in a week, I was like, “I know. It’s so over.”
ALEX: It’s so over.
BOBBY: It’s so over.
ALEX: You’re not coming back from this.
BOBBY: It’s like they have given up. White flag. Poor guy, he’s just trying to do his job. He was funny.
ALEX: That’s gotta be a good job, honestly.
BOBBY: Awesome job. You just watch stuff and you’re like, “That happens—”
ALEX: You say, “That’s— yup, that’s the ball. That’s the one he hit.”
BOBBY: Right. And it’s not like you have to, like, fly with team everywhere. He’s not— I don’t think he’s like the Mets authenticator. I think—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —he’s like Citi Field.
ALEX: He’s like the ballpark authenticator.
BOBBY: 81 [27:44] days of work a year.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Nice. How many days of the year do you think you work? Like where you’re like, “I’m— I’m— my output is good today.” Let’s just say, you know, for argument’s sake, there’s 250 workdays in a year, five days a week, 52 weeks in a year, about there, 260. How many of those days were you like, “I gave the A version of Alex today.”?
ALEX: These days, I’m trying to— I’m trying to bump that number up, you know?
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: I’d say like— like, four— my employer stopped listening to this. I’d say like four out of five days a week—
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: —I feel— I feel pretty good about.
BOBBY: I think that we should have your employer listened to that [28:31] That’s pretty good.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. There— that’s— that is pretty—
BOBBY: That’s pretty good.
ALEX: We’ll see. It’s a fresh job.
BOBBY: My employer stopped listening to this. I’m at like a two out of five right now. I’m like really, really productive for two days a week.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: I’m like a starting pitcher. And the other day is I just want to watch everyone else work.
ALEX: Right. You’re just—
BOBBY: You know, I want to watch everyone else cook them.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You guys are crushing it. I’m sore. I did a cold plunge this morning. I did some hot yoga. I’ve been thinking of getting into hot yoga. What do you think? You want to join?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Why don’t you want to do wellness with me?
ALEX: A hot yoga sounds miserable.
BOBBY: All right. Can we do normal tempo yoga?
ALEX: I’m normally hot all the time.
BOBBY: Can we do normal tempo yoga? I think that you would really like yoga. Actually, no, I don’t. I take that back.
ALEX: I— no. I don’t— I don’t think you do think that.
BOBBY: What is an exercise class that we could do together, starting as a bit, but then really get both into it? Like, we have two friends right now who are getting really into bouldering.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I frankly don’t think that either of us would have a good time bouldering.
ALEX: No, I don’t— I don’t really think we would.
BOBBY: My joints don’t really feel solid enough for the bouldering lifestyle.
ALEX: You need— I need two feet planted on the ground for whatever [29:46]
BOBBY: Well, we don’t even need to talk about how I’m afraid of heights. Like—
ALEX: Well, right.
BOBBY: —bouldering is like— it’s like a no, no, no, no, no, just right down the line.
ALEX: I’d be good at meditating.
BOBBY: But like that’s an individual practice. Do—
ALEX: Speak for yourself.
BOBBY: I don’t— Pilates, I don’t think that you’d be into.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Yoga, you’re already out on. Cycling is a hard no for you, Well, some doubt creeping across your face.
ALEX: Yeah. You know, actually, I—
BOBBY: Was scribbling notes.
ALEX: I mean, I like biking. What’s nice about it is it, like, you’re— you just got to do one thing. One—
BOBBY: Oh, so you want to cycle, like, outside? Like, you know, you wanna head up state?
ALEX: Well— well, no, but I’m— but I’m just saying, like, generally the idea of biking or cycling, I’m like— I don’t— I don’t have to think too hard about what I’m— what I’m doing, where— where my arm is gonna go in the next position.
BOBBY: So your hang up with yoga is that you just have to, like, change positions a lot? You just want to do the same thing over and over again?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: All right. Well, cycling would be great.
ALEX: Great.
BOBBY: Here’s what we’re not gonna do, run.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: No. People listening to this podcast, if you’re runners, we’re not trying to knock your style, but I am.
ALEX: Right. But, like, call in and tell us why. 785-422-5881.
BOBBY: That’s actually a great point. You know, I got an email the other day and someone has since— called since then, but I got an email the other day from Google and they’re like, “You haven’t used your voicemail in a while. We’re gonna give your number away soon if you don’t use it.”
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: So someone called after that, so I think that we’re okay.
ALEX: Okay. All right.
BOBBY: But just to be safe, if you’re listening to this right now and you enjoy running, please call 785-422-5881 and share one thought about the World Series and one thought about why you like to run. And, you know, maybe also share if you think that Alex should do yoga with me. Yes or no. That can be a Patreon content.
ALEX: Livestream us doing yoga?
BOBBY: Yeah. Let’s just live in our practice, you know?
ALEX: Can you— can you edit the poll? Can you add a fourth option in there?
BOBBY: Edit the poll. I can just put a new—
ALEX: Like skew the results a little bit.
BOBBY: I can put a new poll up.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yoga, cycling. Those are the only two that were really identified as options.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m just trying to get— you know, I’m trying to get you to be all in line, mind, body, spirit. I think mind and spirit are cooking for you right now, so body, we got to catch it up.
ALEX: I— I can’t believe two games of the World Series have happened.
BOBBY: We were talking about Evan Carter. I don’t remember why. Oh, because he had a double.
ALEX: He had a double and he’s just— he’s just having the time of his life out there.
BOBBY: After these first two games, it’s— it’s amazing that the Rangers— or it’s amazing for the Diamondbacks that they split. They looked super convincing in game one. But here’s how I know that I’m just— I mean, I’ve known this for— for basically my whole life that I’m too mentally weak to be a professional athlete. If I lost game one in that fashion, I’d be like, “Let’s just give them the rings now.” I’d be like, “Well, why even play? We gave it away. We should be up— we should be up one nothing.” And then they came back the next day and they played even better. And Merrill Kelly dominated, no runs, nine strikeouts, seven innings. He looked mad at himself when he gave up fly balls, like, close to the warning track.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And I’m like, “This man is locked in.” And even after they won game two, my thought process would still be, “I still should have get— won game one and I should be up 2-0.” And I would still be kicking myself for that. So I am not built for it, but I guess the Diamondbacks are. Now, the series heads back to Arizona, where we have a fascinating game three matchup of the youngest person in the world versus the oldest person in the world, Max Scherzer versus Brandon Pfaadt. And then in game four, we’re gonna get the vaunted pitching matchup of TBD versus TBD. I— it’s really interesting that Scherzer will be— I feel like it hasn’t been talked about much, but pitching against the team that drafted and developed him.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I’m fascinated to see that, going back to Arizona as like a 40-year-old man, 39-year-old man pitching against a rookie in Pfaadt who they— it was like their top pitching prospect. And when they called him up, it was like, “We hope that this is the guy who can anchor our rotation along with Gallen.” And obviously, Merrill Kelly had a fantastic year, and he’s reiterated that in the postseason, but the Diamondbacks have kind of gone as Pfaadt has gone in the postseason, you know? Or at least they did in the NLCS, like those two starts from— those two good starts from him, and really one great start and one solid start are— if you boil it down, the reason that they beat the Phillies. So as we— as we approach game three, one day from when we record this, what do you think is going to happen? Predict the exact score, the exact line for each pitcher.
ALEX: Right. All right. Pull out your FanDuel sportsbook apps, folks. We got to parlay incoming.
BOBBY: four more hits for Tommy Pham.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. I don’t know. I think it’s gonna be messy. Like it’s—
BOBBY: Yeah, I think so too.
ALEX: Like— and I think it’s going to be— we’re going to be better for that. I think it’s going to be enjoyable. Scherzer, I think, performed about as most people would have expected him to against the Astros, which was—
BOBBY: Bad.
ALEX: —not great. Like— like not awful, not a blowout, but it— it almost felt like he was going out and, like, eating innings, which is maybe not what you want from— from Max Scherzer. And he also didn’t eat very many innings as it— as it is, you know? It seemed like he was—
BOBBY: No, no, no. If he was eating—
ALEX: —being challenged.
BOBBY: If he was eating inning, they would— they would have treated them like Lance Lynn against the Diamondbacks in round one and let them— let them [35:35]
ALEX: And just— right.
BOBBY: Just give up four home runs in one inning and you guys are good.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: No one else to go to.
ALEX: Yeah. I don’t know. We— we’ve seen— the Diamondbacks have been jumping out in front in these first two games. Getting on Rangers pitchers early and occasionally very late, as we saw in game two. I— I have an inkling that that trend may continue into game three.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: I probably believe in— in Pfaadt more. But again, I think once both teams turn things over to the bullpen, it’s kind of anyone’s game at that point.
BOBBY: I am gonna go the other way.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I think Scherzer is going to give them four and change of good start.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I think he’s going to keep the Diamondbacks under three runs. I’m trying to get really micro. I’m really [36:27] in here.
ALEX: You really are.
BOBBY: And I think Pfaadt is gonna get bashed around by this lineup.
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: I just— so I like Pfaadt. I think he’s a good pitcher. His sweeper is tremendous. And you know what? I got myself in a little bit of— a little bit of hot water in the Tipping Pitches Slack for saying the sweepers aren’t real earlier this year.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m talking about the rotation of the ball.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: A lot of just, like— a lot of technical stuff that I— I know and I believe in. I’m just saying like from a qualitative announcer perspective, like do we need to just be explaining what sweepers are 100% of the time? Like probably not. Both things can be true. But Pfaadt’s sweeper is one of the— one of— it’s truly like his— like an— like an authentic put out pitch from like as— you know, [37:16] stuff plus perspective. And I just think that the Rangers lineup— and maybe I’m just like overvaluing this because this is true of Corey Seager. He just doesn’t chase. It’s just like you can’t get him to bite on the sort of, like, pitch profile that Pfaadt needs to get swing— to induce swing and miss. So like his fastball is like— it’s fine, it’s good when it’s working really well. He throws like a two-seamer and a sinker, and a four-seamer if he needs to. So like the— the pitchers who throw those different kinds of fast balls and need to entice you into weak contact or, like, to chasing just outside the zone. I just don’t think that those pitchers match up very well against the Rangers lineup that, like, takes their pitches, sees the ball really well, does not have anybody who’s an easy out to chase the sweeper outside of the zone the way that the Phillies lineup does. And so what you saw in Pfaadt starts against the Phillies was when Trea Turner would come up, it’s just like, “All right. Here’s five sweepers that are all going to sweep outside the— and make you chase on all of them.” And you might foul off two of them, but you are going to strike out. And he just kept going to that formula. Did the exact same thing to Castellanos. And then when Harper was up, it was like, “All right. I’m just gonna hope that you don’t tee off on the fastball”. And Harper just missed it a couple times, but like he shouldn’t have, you know? Like Bryce Harper in the previous round might have hit that for three-run home run. So I just think it’s a tough matchup for him. I think there’s like— I think there’s like four guys, four or five guys in that lineup who I just do not want him to face even the second time.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Like Seeger, Carter, I mean, even Garcia, who’s just incredibly hot right now, but that’s at least righty on righty. Nathaniel Lowe, like these are tough hitters for him to get out. And so I don’t know, maybe I’ll look bad. Like, maybe he’ll have a great start, but I think that— weirdly as down as I’ve been on Max Scherzer and as— as, like, mediocre as he’s looked because of his injury, and how rocky it’s been for him this season, I think that he— I— I just think that he’s going to match up better against the Diamondbacks lineup and vice versa.
ALEX: Right. I mean, I do think like these— Pfaadt’s remarkable performance in these playoffs have overshadowed the fact that he had like a 6 ERA this year.
BOBBY: Yeah. And like he’s a rookie and he’s coming into his own and like—
ALEX: Oh, oh, of course. And like he’s still highly-regarded and is still figuring things out.
BOBBY: And, like— talk about backbone to go into Philadelphia in— in game—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —six like that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Game seven, rather. He pitched game seven, not game six in Philly. Tall task.
Anyway, sorry, you were saying, that he was bad during regular season?
ALEX: Oh, no. I mean, I— I— he was very homer prone during the regular season.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like— like very Homer prone, and the Rangers are definitely the kind of team that can exploit that sort of thing as you were alluding to.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So, yeah, I don’t know, man. I— it’s— it’s not like we are— want to make statistically backed predictions and analysis—
BOBBY: No, no, no, we just—
ALEX: —on this— on this pod.
BOBBY: —we just think so much. Now, we don’t have to talk about real baseball for, like, months.
ALEX: I know. That’s great. Do you want to go back to hot yoga?
BOBBY: I actually would like to go back to hot yoga. Name every yoga pose that you can think of right now. Go.
ALEX: Lotus.
BOBBY: Okay. Can you demonstrate that for me?
ALEX: Yeah, I’m doing it right now. Downward Dog.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Upward dog.
BOBBY: Yeah. Very similar to cobra. Snakes alive. [40:51]
ALEX: Uh-huh. Balance on one foot with your leg up?
BOBBY: That’s called tree pose.
ALEX: Hmm. Right. Well, not in my yoga studio.
BOBBY: In my yoga studio where I lie down on the couch.
ALEX: Right. I do a lot of planking in yoga.
BOBBY: This is riveting content.
ALEX: This is riveting content.
BOBBY: I’m a— I’m a pigeon pose guy. Very good for hip opening. Very good.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: You should try that one out. It’ll do wonders for you.
ALEX: What is the— can you demonstrate it for me?
BOBBY: I mean, it would take a little bit right now.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: There’s also not a ton of space in the studio.
ALEX: [41:31] like this.
BOBBY: I would like to have a studio one of these days where we actually do have space to move around. Just a dream of mine, you know? Just a— just a soft goal that I have for us. The pigeon pose is like where you’re— you’re kind of like leaning forward, and you put your hip underneath you, and you like bend— bend your foot to the side.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: And— and then you like sit on top of it. And ideally, you should be able to, like, bend all the way forward and lean— lean forward, but, you know, there’s levels.
ALEX: Right. There’s levels. You got to work up to that.
BOBBY: Right. Just like Avicii said—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: “—There’s levels.”
ALEX: I— in the— in the— in the pandemic, I— for about a week, myself and my friend committed to learning how to do the splits. And we—
BOBBY: Your friend?
ALEX: —we did not make it very far. You had to, like, do stretches every day and I was like, I’m out. I’m out.”
BOBBY: No, it’s like— it takes a lot of prep—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —is what I’ve heard.
ALEX: Yup.
BOBBY: And not what I’ve learned, because I’m not willing to try that. It’s a mental hurdle for me, but I’m really happy for everybody who does. Just keep— keep— keep on keeping on, I guess, is my advice.
ALEX: I just— I don’t know how base— how first baseman do that.
BOBBY: That’s extremely true.
ALEX: Like I— having not— once again, I know they like stretch before the game and, like, they’re in—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —good physical condition, but the ability to be able to put your body in that position in a split—
BOBBY: On a dime— in—
ALEX: —second like that—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —is unreal. Shout-out, Ji-man Choi.
BOBBY: I mean, he’s the best to ever do it.
ALEX: He really— he really is.
BOBBY: Like he— he splits at first base.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I think that we would have had a great time talking about Keith Hernandez if we were doing this pod in the ’80s because he was doing—
ALEX: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —crazy shit like that and then he was also like, you know, doing Keith Hernandez stuff, popping greenies in the dugout.
ALEX: How— how—
BOBBY: Growing an amazing moustache.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s true.
BOBBY: God. What an icon.
ALEX: How have you felt about the— the broadcast in this World Series?
BOBBY: I have not listened to it for one second—
ALEX: You haven’t— okay.
BOBBY: —of either game. I think the broadcast— the Fox broadcast of the ALCS side of the bracket was god-awful—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —for most of this October. And I say that as someone who is a Joe Davis fan.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I think— so this might seem like an obvious thing to say, but I think that Joe Davis sounds like an announcer.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Right. He’s got the kind of gravitas to his voice.
BOBBY: Yeah, yeah. And, like, you can’t really teach that in most cases. You can perfect it if you have the kind of voice and the kind of delivery. But he— there’s a difference between affecting a non-announcer voice and just kind of like doing it. And I think it’s some people think that Joe Davis is affecting it a little bit and that— and that bothers that— about them. But I honestly think that it comes— sounds pretty natural. And I think if you watch the Dodgers broadcasts on sn— SportsNet LA, it feels like even more natural, and I attribute most of that to the fact that his partner on the Fox broadcasts is John Smoltz, who is like— remember when I went on that whole tirade about like podcasts logic? John Smoltz is like the complete opposite. He just like starts thoughts and doesn’t finish them and I’m— so I’m like, “If you’re the play-by-play guy, what are you supposed to do? Like you can’t do color— you can’t do play-by-play and fill in on the color that the other guy is not offering.”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: The dynamic is like—
ALEX: Smoltz— Smoltz is like mostly just doing additional play-by-play work.
BOBBY: But like he’s— that’s true, and also— then he’s doing random like extremely esoteric bits of color that he doesn’t then generalize. Like that he doesn’t make digestible for the person who’s listening to them.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So he’ll do like 30 seconds of very in-depth conversation about, like, pitch tunneling and I’m like, “Oh, my God. This is getting really interesting. Now, like, bring it home, like, explain to me why that’s relevant.” And then he just doesn’t do—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —the second part of that.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And I’m like, “So you’re just like— you’re not a color guy. You’re just like a guy who watches the game.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “And just happens to be the person talking.” And I’m like—
ALEX: Right. I—
BOBBY: “—I could find 30 guys like that.” You know? Like, obviously, they’re not John Smoltz’s Hall of Fame career. They— no one— I’m not saying that I know more about baseball than John Smoltz, but like—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —that’s not the job. The job is not knowing about baseball. The job is not having played baseball. The job is, like, making it interesting for people to watch the game, and he’s really bad at it. He’s like— he’s just phenomenally bad at it.
ALEX: No, he has managed to really stick to his guns of not improving as a broadcaster. Like he’s been doing this—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —for years at this point, and there’s a bit of an expectation I would say that like, “All right. First couple years on the job, if you want to be a curmudgeon, you’re gonna piss everyone off. But, like, you’re still learning the ropes.” And I don’t know, it feels like we’re kind of past that honeymoon period where you can get away with being not engaging. Like, you are the guy that Fox is going to turn to every World Series. You have to be able to meet the moment at this point.
BOBBY: So, like, when— I think when we first started doing this pod and we were doing our normal John Smoltz hate like everybody else who has a podcast, it was like more so from the perspective of what you’re talking about, like he’s a curmudgeon. He’s like, “Y’all— nobody knows how to hit it the other way anymore and nobody—”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: “—nobody wants to stay in the game anymore.” And all of these boring things like we’ve heard time and time again. But I almost, like, don’t even care what your perspective on the game is now. If you’re interesting, like, I will watch people be curmudgeons and find it entertaining. Keith Fernandez—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —is exactly like that. Like, they view the game the exact same way, but because Gary, Keith and Ron are effective facilitators of a baseball game—
ALEX: They’re, like, engaging.
BOBBY: Yeah. Like, it’s— it’s fine. It’s fine when he has a retrograde opinion, and then they clown him on it— they clown on him for a little bit about it, and then, like, we keep it moving, and he’s funny. But, like, now at this point, it’s just— it’s both curmudgeonly and, like, weirdly, like, inconsistent, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Buck and McCarver— McCarver was like as much of a curmudgeon as anybody, and I thought that he was like— like boring and kind of like stentorian, but like, at least he sounded like a broadcaster. And at least—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —there was like a back and forth between them.
ALEX: Right. There was actual chemistry there.
BOBBY: It worked really well. I’m just like, “This just is not working for me.” I mean—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t know if it’s been better or worse during the World Series. Like, you would know better than me. I watched the first game in a bar with no sound. I watched the second game, as is tradition for Halloween, on my phone with no sound while we were doing other things. So dressed up in ridiculous costumes.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So I don’t really know if it’s been better or worse during the World Series, but it’s— he just— it’s— never doesn’t feel like it’s forced for him.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It just seems like an inconvenience for him that he has to be talking about this baseball game and I’m like, “You can just retire. Like, you’re rich. Like, it’s fine.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So I don’t know. What— has there been something during the World Series that you’ve noticed that’s, like, different from what I’m describing from watching the ALCS side of the bracket or, like, more tolerable, or is it still pretty bad?
ALEX: No, I— I think it’s kind of par for the course for this sort of broadcast. There have been moments of kind of the standard, “Well, this could go one of two ways. You know, this pitcher could find a lot of success against this lineup, or this lineup could exploit the weaknesses and it’s all going to come down to which one of those things happens.” Which— as someone who does a bad job of just vamping to fill air. I— I really value takes like that. Something that has stood out to me about the— the broader postseason broadcasts, not about Smoltz or— or Joe Davis. It’s the kind of the real lack of awareness when it comes to talking about, like, Latin American baseball players—
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: —and, like, specifically as it relates to like very real international relations— I don’t know. We had— a— a couple of weeks ago, I think this is during the Atlanta-Philadelphia series. We had, like, Matt Weiner talking about— Jose Alvarado was— was pitching and— and Weiner talks about how, you know, it’s actually kind of sad because Alvarado’s family really wants to see him here to pitch, but— but they—
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: —can’t because they are in— in Venezuela and can’t get visas, and so he’s pitching with a heavy heart. And Brian Anderson is like, “Wow, great stuff, Matt. Like, that’s— thanks for that story.” Which is just like— and then— and then, like, move right along, right? We’re very—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —uncritically talk about why this player’s family cannot come to see him pitch and, like, the role that, say, a country like the United States might play in that sort of thing. Not that I’m expecting them to, like, really get into that.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But it just felt— it really sort of took me out of it of, like, you’re acknowledging the larger context in which these games are being played and— but refusing to actually engage with them, like, from a critical perspective. And then the— the thing that— that I saw a lot of folks talking about after game one, after the Cuban, Adolis Garcia homered off of Miguel Castro, right, Kevin Burkhart came out and said, “Oh, wow, like, how poetic is that? You know, the— the Cuban homering off Castro.”
BOBBY: Did he really?
ALEX: Yeah, he did. And not only that, the social media manager heard that and was like, “That’s a bar. I’m gonna tweet that out.”
BOBBY: Damn. I’m so glad you told me about this.
ALEX: But it’s just, like, such a lack of—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —self-awareness.
BOBBY: Yeah. Announcers being normal challenge, impossible—
ALEX: Like what— Like, what are you going for there?
BOBBY: I think he just wants everybody to know his feelings on communism. Like he saw Vin do it that one time.
ALEX: I mean— yeah.
BOBBY: And he was like, “I’m trying to do that, trying to get like that.”
ALEX: Just grasping at, like, relevance there.
BOBBY: Yeah. I mean, it’s— it’s like this very defined set of, like, morals that you are allowed to express on a broadcast.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And they have to fit, like, within this very small box. And anything that even, like, presses up on the outside of that box, you just have to snap it back into place really quickly. So that reminds me of how, like, during the NFL Draft for the NBA Draft, or whatever, it’s always, like, they have these— like personality pieces, or like human pieces on the struggle of like an athlete growing up, like if they didn’t have a great childhood, or, you know, they didn’t have enough money to go to college, but they got offered a scholarship, and now they’re getting drafted, and this is the best time of their life. And look— oh, look, there’s their mom or there’s their dad or whatever, there’s their sister, look how happy they are. And it always has to end in that exact same way. Like these stories about how, basically, like failed our society is and they always—
ALEX: Right, yeah.
BOBBY: —have to just land the plane in the exact same spot. And that’s even more magnified when you’re doing it on like a World Series broadcast, like you’re talking about— or you know, an LDS broadcast, because you just have less time. Like, there’s a pitch coming, so you have to—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —talk about that pitch, and so I’m— almost like, don’t even do it at all.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Or just be— be bold enough to say like, “That’s pretty bad. Someone should have done something about that.”
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: But then anytime anyone does come out and challenge that assumption, people are shocked. People are taken aback. Did you see this thing with Charles Barkley last week and Adam Silver—
ALEX: Where— where he addressed Adam Silver about the— yeah.
BOBBY: So he asked Adam Silver during an Inside the NBA interview on their set, like, “Why are we having such a problem seemingly with domestic violence in this league?” And I mean, I— I don’t think it’s a— I don’t think it’ll come as a shock to everybody, but like, most of the time when you have a commissioner on your show and your league partner, those questions are pre-approved.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And—
ALEX: Right. They were about to cut to commercial and—
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: —Barkley was basically like, “I don’t— I don’t care. We need to talk about this.”
BOBBY: Yeah. And that question that Barkley asked was not pre-approved, and you could tell in Silver’s response that he was like a little bit taken off guard that he asked him this question. And he answered it in like his very diplomatic way and, like, he talked about, I don’t know, like programs that they’re trying to employ and how to like—
ALEX: Right. He was very [54:01]
BOBBY: —how like the NBA— the NB— the National Basketball Players Association has been a good partner and trying to, like, work through these things, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I— I saw a lot of people praising Barkley rightly so, but it strikes me as such a inherent condemnation of how bad our discourse is— or how, like, lacking our discourse is that a question that is, like, not even that much of a poke at the commissioner.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It feels like a revelatory thing for someone to ask.
ALEX: Yeah..
BOBBY: He was basically just like, “Domestic violence is bad. What are we doing to make this better?” Like, what are we— how are we helping that in our league? And that is not like— that’s not like— “You’re a complicit in the domestic violence problem in the NBA, Mr. Commissioner. What are you going to do to fix it?” Or, like, the ownership structure or the incentive structure of sports, or, like, masculinity in society and everything that money contributes to that feeling, and, you know, sexism in male sport— in— in sports that men play, like, this isn’t an inherent thing that we’ve capitalized on for decades. Like, he didn’t say all of that stuff.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: He was just like, “What are we going to do to make this better?”
ALEX: Right. He could’ve— but like—
BOBBY: He could have— and somewhat argued that like, “It would have been better if you did.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But the fact that that feels like such a step, like an overstep, is the reason that, like, things that you’re describing where, like, you bring up a thing that is, like, systematically wrong with a league, or systematically wrong with a country on a broadcast, and immediately, you just have to, like, take an awkward step back and then there’s just like a silence or like a— like a tension, because you even named it to begin with.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Because there’s never going to be like a resolution or like a discussion of the problem that makes you feel like you understand it better and makes it feel like there’s actually something that we can equip ourselves with to fix the problem.
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t know. It just really took me out of it. Like why can’t—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Why can’t we have broadcasters who are just like a little—
BOBBY: Critical thinkers?
ALEX: Right. A little more in tune with, like, what’s actually happening on the ground.
BOBBY: Yeah. Is it now the part where we talk about how the broadcast randomly cut to a drone shot of the crowd?
ALEX: I guess so. So— so many choices were made.
BOBBY: So game one— I mean, a lot of people pointed this out, but game one Corey Seager hits a two-run home run to tie it in the bottom of the ninth with one out and— off Paul Sewald. Unfortunately, it was time for Paul Sewald to pitch and it did not go well. I wish nothing but the best for Paul.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: He’ll bounce back. He’s got— he’s got a couple of saves in them in the series. I know it, I know it. And then, you know, three innings later, Adolis Garcia—
ALEX: A couple of saves in this series.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So the Diamondbacks are winning?
BOBBY: He’s got one save—
ALEX: Pushing to seven?
BOBBY: He’s got one—one save— I would like it to go seven, actually.
ALEX: Yeah, that’d be fun.
BOBBY: It’d be a lot better for our recording schedule for one time [56:47] at home.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Adolis— Adolis Garcia walk-off home run in the 12th, and he’s rounding the bases, and then randomly, the broadcast cuts to like a one and— 1.7 second really aggressive, like Michael Bay style drone shot of the crowd and then cuts back to the actual action.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And it’s like— stuff like this happens. You know, stuff like this happens in sports—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —where, like, you cut to the wrong camera and that camera operator was, like, pivoting— or like, you know, swiveling to focus on a different player or whatever, and then you immediately cut away from it because you took the wrong shot. This stuff happens every once in a while. It happens way less, like, during the regular season when this is the broadcast crew that’s doing this every night and a night out. But to— to do this just like in the middle of the— essentially, the home run trot celebration—
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: —like that’s— that’s pretty bad.
ALEX: It was—
BOBBY: Pretty bad.
ALEX: It was— well, also, like the shot just didn’t even look very good. Like, conceptually—
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: —you want a crowd shot where you’ve sort of taken the— the— just the— the breadth of the spectacle, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And so, like, I— I— I don’t hate the idea of it, but I don’t know, can we get 1080p quality video maybe or like—
BOBBY: This was like a—
ALEX: —make it not look like herky-jerky.
BOBBY: It was like a drone shot that was like going too fast.
ALEX: Right. Exactly. It looked like sped up. I— I saw Jarrett Seidler from— from Baseball Prospectus compare it to like— like a Thai fighter shot from Star Wars, you know?
BOBBY: It was almost like— it was like you were getting the perspective of the wave.
ALEX: Right. Exactly.
BOBBY: Like— or the concept of the wave moving through the crowd.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Oh, unbelievable stuff. Okay. I— so we talked about game three, we talked a little bit about game four being TBD versus TBD. It’ll be some combination of, like, a bullpen game for the Diamondbacks, and the Dane Dunning, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney—
ALEX: Masterclass?
BOBBY: —triumvirate for the Rangers. And then game five, we’ll go back to the game one pitching matchup of Eovaldi versus Gallen. So we have some good games coming up. Game five is the game that we are going to do our watch-along for this series. That is Wednesday, November 1st at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. As a reminder, you know, to be part of the watch-along, it is for Patreon members, that is patreon.com/tippingpitches. If you are a patron already, you know, check the Patreon posts in your app. Or if you’re in the Slack, we’ll be dropping the links and stuff in the Slack for how you can join that watch-along. So, yeah, we’ll be— we’ll be broadcasting alongside our friends, Joe Davis and John Smoltz will be filling in some of those gaps. Yet to determine— actually, wait, I did say what I wanted to talk about, which was that the Pool Kids, Paramore crossover event of the century from [59:50]
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Yes.
BOBBY: So I’ll be talking about that. Any topics that you want to promise to cover? Are you an open book? Should we do an AMA style watch-along? Like, ask Alex anything about his childhood?
ALEX: Right. Specific— specifically non-baseball content?
BOBBY: Yeah. Well, I don’t think we have a problem.
ALEX: No, I don’t— have questions about hot yoga. No, I—
BOBBY: For one whole inning, Alex is going to name— Alex is going to do hot yoga. And I think if people thought we were being serious, we get, like, 50 people to sign up for the Patreon right now.
ALEX: Well, then, stop implying that we’re not. No, I just—
BOBBY: We’re gonna treat inning four as [60:37] the mindfulness inning.
ALEX: [60:40] it. That’s a real seventh inning stretch right there.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly.
ALEX: No, I only want to talk about ratings. Can we just talk about like—
BOBBY: Hmm, TV ratings.
ALEX: —what— what, like, this matchup means for the future of the sport?
BOBBY: Right. Like advertising CPM?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like CPM [60:54]
ALEX: Because, like, that’s really kind of what matters to me is like—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —how does this affect like, you know, stock payouts at the end of the year?
BOBBY: Hmm. Well, you’re a big buybacks guy.
ALEX: I’m a big buybacks guy, yeah.
BOBBY: Like everybody’s mad at the airlines for doing their stock buybacks, but you’re just like— I mean, the CEO earned that.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You’re the guy that thinks billionaires got the right idea.
ALEX: Famously. Maybe billionaires got the right idea.
BOBBY: Okay. Well, patreon.com/tippingpitches. The phone number to call in, 785-422-5881. You can also write us an email, tippingpitchespod@gmail.com, with suggestions of what you want Alex’s one topic to be.
ALEX: Yeah. You can also write us snail mail.
BOBBY: Can you? What’s the address of MLB’s office? Send a letter to Rob Manfred.
ALEX: Right. Right, your representative.
BOBBY: But Rob’s not a representative. You’re our representative in the fans union.
ALEX: That is actually—
BOBBY: So give out your address.
ALEX: We have a PO Box.
BOBBY: Yeah, but we never— we never see that.
ALEX: No, we never see that. That’s where all the like— your taxes are late mail comes.
BOBBY: Don’t say that. Our taxes are up to date.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: That’s where all the your taxes are late mail would come if our taxes were late, which they’re no.
ALEX: Which they’re not anymore.
BOBBY: They’re not. Thank you everybody, for listening. We will be back— actually— so as a note, we will be back whenever the World Series ends. So if that is later this week, we’ll figure out some way to do some type of World Series reaction pod. If it’s like at the end of the week, or like Friday, or Saturday, we’ll probably just put out another episode next Sunday, like we typically do. And we have some exciting stuff coming up in this offseason, too. So even if the World Series is well on its way to being over and this— this baseball season is coming to a close, we have great stuff on the horizon, Dumbest Things of 2023 with batting around, which we— which we love to do, our favorite episode every year. Hopefully, some guests talk—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —about how owners are bad.
ALEX: We’ve had— we’ve had a lot of “Come on, Tipping Pitches” replies lately.
BOBBY: We’re just hearing it more and more.
ALEX: We really are.
BOBBY: So—
ALEX: And— and of course, Alex Rodriguez is kind of waiting in the [1:03:14]
BOBBY: Well, he has to do promo for his pod.
ALEX: You know—
BOBBY: Where better to promote it than here?
ALEX: All right. I’m going to email that note to ourselves so we’re— don’t forget.
BOBBY: Great idea. So we will be back later this week or next week, sometime soon to talk to you about the World Series champion—
ALEX: Ray Davis.
BOBBY: —Texas Rangers. The Cy, bro. The Cy.
ALEX: The Cy.
BOBBY: 6 [1:03:38]
ALEX: RD.
SPEAKER 3: Yeah, I like it that way. Any man of mine better walk the line. Better show me a teasin’, squeezin’—
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello, everybody. I’m Alex Rodriguez. Tipping Pitches. Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most. Tipping Pitches. So, we’ll see you next week. See ya!
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