Bobby and Alex banter about a World Series between the most likable teams, then discuss the bubbling age fraud story in the Dominican Republic and its fallout, run through a grab bag of listener topics, and float an idea for how to raise the stakes of the Hall of Fame selections.
Links:
Age fraud in the Dominican Republic
Adrian Beltre gets the call to the Hall
Join the Tipping Pitches Patreon
Tipping Pitches merchandise
Songs featured in this episode:
Jess Williamson — “Hunter” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Transcript
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and be able to relay that message to Cora when you watch Kimbrel pitch and kind of help out so he wasn’t typical pitches. So tipping pitches we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand what tipping pitches all about? That’s amazing. That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, I thought we’d start this week by talking about the National Football League. Is that okay with you?
ALEX: The who?
BOBBY: Do you know who’s playing today? Are you familiar with the NFC and AFC Championship matchups?
ALEX: Is that— these are two separate matchups that are going on or are the winners have already played?
BOBBY: No, no, no. These are two separate matchups.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: If they had already happened, we’d have the Super Bowl.
ALEX: Okay. I—
BOBBY: It’s like the AL and the NL. You’ve—
ALEX: I’ve heard of this.
BOBBY: Okay. There’s one team from your hometown.
ALEX: Baltimore?
BOBBY: The— what? Are you from Baltimore?
ALEX: Wha— what is it— what’s the football team from my hometown? The Raiders?
BOBBY: No. I mean, it’s not literally from around the corner from you, but it is from the area in your hometown. The only team left there.
ALEX: The 49ers.
BOBBY: Correct. Yes, they are playing the Detroit—
ALEX: [01:22]
BOBBY: —Lions—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: —in the NFC Championship game. And in the AFC Championship game, of course, you know this matchup. We talked about it earlier.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: A matchup of two quarterbacks still— two of the five football players that you can name.
ALEX: Chief-Ravens. This is the matchup I’ve been waiting for all year.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. You and everybody else.
ALEX: I’m locked in.
BOBBY: I would say that 90% of the football watching public—
ALEX: Did you get a new desk?
BOBBY: Yeah. Standing desk.
ALEX: Sick, bro. Why aren’t you standing right now?
BOBBY: You know what? I will stand.
ALEX: I don’t mean— I don’t mean to derail your cold open.
BOBBY: Yeah, I am standing now. Now, I’m standing, okay?
ALEX: You can— and you can hear it in your voice, you know?
BOBBY: I’m like [1:57] I’m standing while doing the show for some reason.
ALEX: You’ve opened the diaphragm. I don’t know why you don’t have a shirt on, either. That’s— but sure.
BOBBY: This feels really upsetting to be standing, so if— if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna sit back down. I’ve never potted while standing. Part of the reason that I— I don’t think I could ever do a live show is that I just can’t get comfortable while doing a podcast.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Which as you know, I’m like always moving around, shifting.
ALEX: Shifting around. You got the swivel chair.
BOBBY: Yeah. That’s the reason I can’t do a live show. It has nothing to do with crippling anxiety of being in front of people.
ALEX: God, no.
BOBBY: I don’t have that at all.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: You don’t have that, either.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Nobody here has that.
ALEX: Not [2:32]
BOBBY: [2:32] Stevie left at that joke.
ALEX: Yeah. It was like—
BOBBY: She’s like, “Got a little too close to home.”
ALEX: —”You guys are getting a little dark for me.”
BOBBY: Yeah, Chiefs-Ravens. Yes. I would say that 90% of the football watching public, who is not a fan of the 49ers or the chiefs, so like the unbiased observer— or not a fan of the four teams that are playing, so the unbiased folks. Like %9— 90% of them want the Super Bowl matchup to be the Lions-Ravens.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Because the Chiefs have been there so many times. We now hate the Chiefs because Taylor Swift and whatnot. And wokeness.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And the 49ers, you know, like they’re the successful historical franchise who has had a lot of success— success over the years. And the Lions are like the fun underdog story, 0-16 team famously, haven’t been to the playoffs much, haven’t had a lot of success.
ALEX: Well, not— not recently, right?
BOBBY: What do you mean?
ALEX: 0-16?
BOBBY: That was like six— six years ago, seven years ago. Recently enough.
ALEX: All right. Sure.
BOBBY: Stop nitpicking. You don’t know anything— name a player on the Lions and then you can nitpick. Name just one guy on the Lions and I’ll allow you to nitpick. I wanted to talk to you— not about this, we can move on from the NFL. But this inspired me to think if you had to pick a baseball— like a World Series matchup for 2024 that would get the biggest approval rating from neutral fans, who do you think the two teams would be? Meaning, like, everybody would be like, “Thank God.” You know? Either way—
ALEX: Like the matchup we’ve been waiting for.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. Either way, we’re happy with this outcome. Because for the last, like, five years, the match— the World Series matchup has been just evil versus slightly less evil.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: So I’m just trying to put some good energy out into the world, much like the NFL fans are. And I’m trying to say, who are the two teams that we can will into the World Series and say, “No matter what happens, good year.”? As unbiased as you can be.
ALEX: I mean, there is this, like, widening gap, right, as like fewer and fewer teams try to compete. You’re like either uninteresting, or actively malicious. So you’ve ruled out like half the league right there.
BOBBY: Put that on the fucking MLB commercials, uninteresting or actively malicious.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Major League Baseball.
ALEX: Or the teams who like everybody has a reflexive reaction to, right, which is like—
BOBBY: The Yankees—
ALEX: —the Yankees—
BOBBY: —the Red Sox—
ALEX: — the— the Red Sox, the Mets—
BOBBY: —the [4:56]
ALEX: —where it’s like—
BOBBY: [4:56] the Dodgers, yeah.
ALEX: Yeah. So, like, who is left?
BOBBY: I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.
ALEX: The San Francisco Giants?
BOBBY: No, no, no, no, no. They won three times. I don’t think people will be happy for them because they’ve won so much recently. I think it has to be two teams that have not won in a long time or ever, but are not, like you said, actively evil.
ALEX: Like I— the Mariners are a candidate.
BOBBY: I agree. I think the Mariners are the AL representative. Goddamn. Can you imagine Dipoto with the little World Series ring? A little juice to him?
ALEX: Yeah, we— we really—
BOBBY: You know, 54%—
ALEX: Yeah, we really do not need that.
BOBBY: 54% of my fingers have rings on them. Let’s go.
ALEX: I— but like do— do you need a— sort of a villainous character in there to give people something to, like, root against?
BOBBY: No, I— I mean, more so like—
ALEX: Like if— if you have two, like, underdogs or two like plucky [5:51] of teams.
BOBBY: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t mean what would be the best matchup in the World Series. I’m talking more like what would be the matchup with the highest blanket approval rating for both teams, for the neutral fan. I mean, Mariners-Dodgers would be, like, an amazing story to watch.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’d be like Yankees-Diamondbacks in 2001, where most of the nation, because of 9/11, was rooting for the Yankees and the true patriots were like, “Diamondbacks, bring it home.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And they did. Who’s the NL representative?
ALEX: Who’s in the NL?
BOBBY: This is the problem. This is too long without baseball. You can’t even name teams. It’s not the Dodgers. It’s not the Braves. It’s not anybody who’s won or been successful in the last— been overly successful in the last five years. It’s not the Mets. I don’t think it’s the Phillies, even though I think that we’re getting closer—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —to a higher approval rating. They’ve also won recently and— and they have enough direct rivals that a lot of people would be rooting against them.
ALEX: Yeah. It’s not the Braves.
BOBBY: [6:50] who is like inoffensive but likable in the National League?
ALEX: This is like the— the Padres—
BOBBY: Yeah. Maybe.
ALEX: Like, can— like, can they ride off the sort of goodwill they built up over the last few years?
BOBBY: Can I submit to you the Brewers?
ALEX: I was thinking that, but like—
BOBBY: You think they’re not competitive enough?
ALEX: I—
BOBBY: To be well liked at the baseball—
ALEX: What did— I just— I don’t— what— what did they do to me? I don’t dislike them.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Mark Attanasio, like that’s our dude obviously, right? Actually— sorry. That’s Jake and Jordan’s dude.
BOBBY: They’re always just, like, one step forward, one step back.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know? They’re just in the exact same spot that they were.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You know, like, the phrase is one step forward, two steps back.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But they’re like, “Nah.”
ALEX: But see, this is where I come and where— where, like, if you have two teams who are like fine, and relatively unoffensive, like, do you feel anything? Like, if you don’t feel strongly one way or another? But these— I like these teams relatively enough.
BOBBY: I think seeing Luis Castillo and Julio on one side, I would feel something.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So who is that on the other side? What about the Reds? You know? Elly De La Cruz, but they just got—
ALEX: Kind of like broad baseball appeal to— to like folks like us, maybe?
BOBBY: Yeah, but like it’s the Lions and the Ravens, you know? Do they have broad NFL superstar appeal?
ALEX: I literally don’t know. Do they? Can you tell me?
BOBBY: I mean, the Ravens have Lamar Jackson, who’s a superstar. Do you know who the quarterback for the Lions is? This is your— this is one of your guys. Legitimately, I’m not even fucking with you. He’s— it’s actually one of your guys.
ALEX: I have guys?
BOBBY: Very few, but yes.
ALEX: Matthew Stafford.
BOBBY: No, not anymore. He was traded for Matthew Stafford.
ALEX: Oh, Jared Goff. There we go.
BOBBY: Yeah,
ALEX: Yes. That’s right.
BOBBY: We fucking did it, you know? Name some Cal quarterbacks hour.
ALEX: Oh, my God.
BOBBY: Let’s do it. Remember we got—
ALEX: What’s up, Nate Longshore?
BOBBY: Remember when we got in like a deathmatch over who was going to be a better NFL prospect, Jared Goff or Christian Hackenberg?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I lost that one.
ALEX: Yeah, I won that one.
BOBBY: Yeah, unfortunately.
ALEX: I didn’t even—I didn’t even— I didn’t even know I did win that one.
BOBBY: That was your last football victory. I— I— I think we still need to do better than the Reds or the Brewers. That’s close, though.
ALEX: But like—
BOBBY: Pirates.
ALEX: —highest approval rating— no. Are you serious? Is that a joke?
BOBBY: Nutting sells the team and then the Pirates make the World Series.
ALEX: Yeah, sure.
BOBBY: Marlins?
ALEX: No. The— I, like, genuinely think a team like the Dodgers would provide for the most, like, engaging viewership.
BOBBY: But nobody would— no— the neutral fans, nobody would root for the Dodgers, because the Dodgers are the villains now.
ALEX: Yeah, right.
BOBBY: You’re answering a different question than the one I’m asking. You’re answering like, what’s the best matchup? It’s like— which is fine. That’s an interesting talking point, too. I’m saying, like, maybe this stems from the fact that you don’t know anything about the Lions or the Ravens.
ALEX: Right. Like, I don’t—I don’t know what the comparison is [9:44]
BOBBY: I really set us up for failure here. It’s just like— it’s obvious everybody wants those two teams to be in, because neither of those teams are disliked right now, in their current iteration. So we need both teams, in this hypothetical World Series matchup, to be well liked.
ALEX: To be really well liked.
BOBBY: The Dodgers are not that. People who are not Dodgers fans or not named Bobby Wagner, host of the Tipping Business Podcast do not like the Dodgers.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: They are enemy number one, so they are not the answer to this question. It’s tricky because I feel like more of the well liked teams nationally are in the American League. Like people—
ALEX: I was gonna say that, like the Orioles.
BOBBY: No. Let’s not go crazy here. I think the Orioles are a decent candidate, too. They’re definitely in, like, the top five. The— I feel like the Blue Jays are pretty well liked nationally.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Tipster likes the team from Canada.
ALEX: Sure.
BOBBY: You know? Rogers Communications, big monopoly guy myself. I know what you’re doing right now, which is you’re just looking at a list of the 30 baseball teams.
ALEX: Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
BOBBY: I see you looking at the computer screen.
ALEX: But like this is why I said the Padres who I feel like maybe have the most national attention. Like, I— do you think that half of Major League Baseball fans, like, know who’s playing centerfield for the Brewers?
BOBBY: I don’t know who’s playing centerfield for the Brewers.
ALEX: Exactly. No disrespect to—
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: —that man’s—
BOBBY: Yeah. Okay, Padres. Fine.
ALEX: I— what is your— what is your answer?
BOBBY: Padres-Mariners.
ALEX: What’s your answer?
BOBBY: Chalk it up. Yeah, it’s tough. Maybe it’s Rockies-Mariners.
ALEX: Jesus Christ.
BOBBY: The Rockies are kind of like the Lions of Major League Baseball.
ALEX: Say more.
BOBBY: Hilariously inept, you know, passionate fan base still, for some reason, have put up with a lot of shit, kind of weird color schemes for both of them, the light blue and silver versus— the Rockies kind of have like— like a little bit of silver and black and purple—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —in their uniforms. I don’t know. Spiritually, they feel kind of closely linked.
ALEX: It would be the— would be good color schemes, I will say.
BOBBY: Like I’m— I’m sticking to this, Rockies-Mariners. Write it down, 2024, bet on it. Draft Kings, FanDuel.
ALEX: Who is— who is on the Rockies right now?
BOBBY: Kris Bryant.
ALEX: Is he?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Are you certain?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: You’re certain that he actually plays baseball for the Colorado Rockies?
BOBBY: Are you asking me like if he’s currently on the IL? You have a— he is receiving a paycheck from the Colorado Rockies.
ALEX: I— yeah.
BOBBY: I promise you that. Yes, he is on the active roster, 40 men. Yes, he cannot be drafted in the Rule 5 Draft by another team.
ALEX: That is true. You’re right.
BOBBY: Nolan Jones, famously, I played Little League Baseball with his older brother.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So that’s two guys. German Marquez. How long do you want me to go? Jon Gray.
ALEX: No— no. No.
BOBBY: No? Is he in the Rangers now?
ALEX: Yeah, I think so.
BOBBY: Fuck. Fuck. He was on the Rockies.
ALEX: He was on the Rockies.
BOBBY: Charlie Blackmon’s still on the Rockies.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. Franchise loves—
ALEX: He’s never getting out.
BOBBY: I always mix up— there’s like a couple middle infielders with power that they have and I never remember their names. They’re both like homerun threats.
ALEX: Brendan Rodgers?
BOBBY: Yeah. Well, he’s one of them, and then there’s like the other guy who was hurt last year. It’s okay. We don’t need to name—
ALEX: This is really enjoyable [13:02]
BOBBY: I have to say, I did better on the Rockies than you did on the Lions.
ALEX: That’s true.
BOBBY: So what does that say?
ALEX: I’m like, “Hey, is Calvin— Calvin Johnson— he’s still catching—
BOBBY: What a fucking legend. What a lord.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: The amount of touchdowns I had with him in Madden ’08.
ALEX: Oh, my God.
BOBBY: Get the fuck out of here.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Come on. Franchise records.
ALEX: He’s— he’s doing numbers for my fantasy football team.
BOBBY: Just Stafford to Calvin Johnson all day long?
ALEX: Oh, money.
BOBBY: Get out of here. [13:29] you with a Fantasy Football team is so funny to me. We should do a— we should do a bit where we start a Tipping Pitches Fantasy Football League. It’s just a bunch of people who know nothing about football.
ALEX: That would be good. I feel like I’d probably fair roughly similarly to how I would in a Fantasy Baseball League.
BOBBY: No, you’re— you’re good at Fantasy Baseball. You’re just a ringer. You just pretend like you don’t know what you’re doing in Fantasy Baseball.
ALEX: Right, exactly. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: But you’re really on those waiver wires.
ALEX: Yeah. Hey, you want to bet on it, bro?
BOBBY: How’s— how’s planning—
ALEX: I don’t know what I’m doing over here.
BOBBY: —going for your 2024 season with the League of Randos that you don’t know any of them who, like, have bunch of kids—
ALEX: I— I haven’t— I haven’t checked into that one yet.
BOBBY: If anyone one of them is listening right now, we’re sorry. Alex hasn’t responded. What? Is it on Yahoo? Is it on [14:14]
ALEX: Uh-hmm. On Yahoo.
BOBBY: Yahoo? Okay. Can— can I get in that league?
ALEX: I’m sure you can. We’re always like— there’s always just people like— who, like, don’t respond to messages .
BOBBY: What if we just slowly took over this league that you came in as a stranger, and then we owned it over time? But we didn’t let them know that we [14:30]
ALEX: That we, like, know each other? So they’re like, “Why are they making trades every other week?”
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. That’d be a really fun experiment for the podcast. But then I would have to play Fantasy Baseball, which I have genuinely zero interest in doing.
ALEX: But you have no interest—
BOBBY: I was— I’ve played three years of Fantasy Baseball in my life. Two of them were in high school with my high school friends who convinced me into doing a Fantasy League where we did every sport for the whole year. So, like, we did football, we did basketball, we did baseball. No hockey, though. No Fantasy Hockey. Can you play Fantasy Hockey? I’m sure you can.
ALEX: Sure. You can do fantasy anything.
BOBBY: Well, now you can. And then the third year of Fantasy Baseball that I played was I got conscripted into joining Bill Simmons’ AL only two catcher Fantasy League for a year while working at The Ringer. That’s it, the whole story.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s—
BOBBY: Nothing else to add. Put together— re— we were in a rebuilding year. It was a Dynasty League. Dynasty AL only two catchers. The list of rules for this league was, like, longer than my employment contract.
ALEX: I just— like, what’s the point at that point? Like, what do you— like, what are you doing?
BOBBY: You are redirecting energy that you have nowhere to put else—
ALEX: I guess.
BOBBY: —nowhere else to put in your life.
ALEX: You’re like, “Oh, you know, if you— if you really squint, Devin Mesoraco’s year was pretty good last year.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I think I could— I think [15:52]
BOBBY: It’d be like if Devin Mesoraco got cut by the Mets and picked up by an AL team, that was—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —huge news.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Huge news. Nice fold, Devin Mesoraco. Who’s the catcher for the Rockies?
Alex Elias Diaz? Maybe not anymore.
BOBBY: No, I think that’s right.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: That feels right.
ALEX: Hey. Hey.
BOBBY: We fucking did it. Montfort’s gonna bring a chip home to Denver. Denver is title town.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: First Jokic.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Now Elias De— Elias Diaz, Elias Diaz.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Who’s next? Name another Denver team. Broncos, Peyton Manning, already did it. The—
ALEX: If you— if you say so.
BOBBY: Incredibly unhinged start to this podcast. Okay. We have a couple of actual Tipping Pitches topics to get to this week. You look like you want to say something. Do you need to add something in this cold open here?
ALEX: No, I don’t.
BOBBY: You don’t have anything more to add about—
ALEX: No, I don’t— Royals, maybe. Royals are, I feel, like not unlike candidate circling back to your question.
BOBBY: So you are now finally answering the question. As soon as I’m ready to move on, you have an answer for me.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: No, fuck the Royals. They already won.
ALEX: [16:56] 15 more.
BOBBY: They already won, 2015. They already won, and it was nonsense.
ALEX: I— sure, but like—
BOBBY: They don’t need— no, they don’t need another one.
ALEX: All right. But see, now you’re avoiding your own question. It’s— it’s not about like whether or not they won recently. Like, I don’t think the— the tide has turned against them in baseball. I don’t think they’re disliked.
BOBBY: I think they are. I think they are.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: By me.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: It— they’re a fine— they’re a fine candidate, but I don’t think that they are a better candidate than the Mariners. Everybody— the Mariners are everybody’s second or third favorite team.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: So that’s— that’s the answer to this question.
ALEX: Oh, my fucking God, bro.
BOBBY: Okay. We have actual stuffs to— actual Tipping Pitches topics to talk about. Some news about an investigation into several teams/player contracts regarding the age of the players themselves, which we want to dig into a little bit. Some grab bag topics that we received from listeners, as well as Alex told me that he wants to share just about the hottest take he could ever come up with about the Hall of Fame. That’ll be at the end of the episode. But before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I’m Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
BOBBY: Thank you to this week’s new patrons. Those patrons are Aiden, Steve, Asher, and Jacob. Big week for the Patreon. As a reminder, it’s been a while since we’ve done a plug at the beginning of the episode, Tipping Pitches Patreon, that is patreon.com/tippingpitches. You can find a myriad of interesting baseball content, interesting cinematic content, some watch-along, commentary tracks, some newsletters, and various other things for— in exchange for your United States Dollars. Although on Patreon, you can— whatever form of payment you’d like to give. I believe in Patreon, you can pay in Euros, perhaps some— what are some other— Canadian Dollars.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Pesos.
BOBBY: Pesos. That’s right. Saw the pesos— pesos washed over your eyes and I just was like, “Yup, pesos.” Really any form of currency.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Bitcoin.
BOBBY: Bitcoin, I don’t think you can pay in Bitcoin on Patreon.
ALEX: You can— you can Venmo it to us. You can— you can—
BOBBY: Can you— you can Venmo Bitcoin? Yeah, you can.
ALEX: I act— can you?
BOBBY: No, I think you can because Bitcoin— or— because Venmo is owned by PayPal—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —which is owned by Elon Musk. So I think that there is like a crypto market on [19:40]
ALEX: is it— is it still owned— I don’t think it is still owned by Elon?
BOBBY: Venmo?
ALEX: No, PayPal.
BOBBY: No, I think PayPal is still owned.
ALEX: I know it was founded by him, but he wanted to turn it into x.com and make it the everything platform like 20 years ago.
BOBBY: I think it is still owned by him.
ALEX: You want to bet on it?
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: What’s the money line?
BOBBY: You know what it is underrated? Is that Jack Dorsey who obviously found at Twitter, @jack. When he sold—
ALEX: [20:08] for chopping his handle in case I want to see what he’s up to.
BOBBY: Yeah. See what he’s— see what he’s [20:12] about. When he sold Twitter— went— I mean, obviously, Twitter went public, whatever. But when he was no longer running Twitter, no longer in charge, no longer had any say in it, to Elon Musk, everybody was like, “Yeah, Jack’s gonna be out of our lives, you know? Like, what’s he going to do next? This is gonna free up so much time for him.” He’s still just own Square—
ALEX: Uh-hmm
BOBBY: —which is like the biggest payment company— digital payment company in the entire world and he’s, like, so deeply involved in so much of your life that you don’t even know about. Like, if you go to a coffee shop, and you just tap your card, there’s Jack.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: There’s Jack again.
ALEX: I have to say—
BOBBY: If you check out on, like, Shopify, there’s Jack.
ALEX: Yup. It is pretty funny that he has already done, like, two of the key things that Elon Musk wants to, like, define his legacy.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Which is like create a Townsquare social media platform and create a seamless payments integration into—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —every aspect of your life.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like, Jack already did both of those.
BOBBY: Jack goated? Should Jack buy the A’s?
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: How’s your power ranking of— oh, this is— this would have been a great idea for us to do in this week when we had nothing else to talk about. Remember when we said we were going to do— we were going to go through the Forbes 100 Richest People and choose— power rank them on who we would want to buy the A’s?
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: That would have been a great episode to do this week.
ALEX: That would have been a great episode.
BOBBY: Too bad we just didn’t think to do it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Next week, do you wanna do—
ALEX: Start over. Wait, wait, wait, cut. Hang on.
BOBBY: Do you wanna do that next week?
ALEX: Yeah, ready to— send us an email. You— you send ourselves an email.
BOBBY: I’m putting it into the spreadsheet.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I promise.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: We’re doing that next week. You heard it here first.
ALEX: Book it.
BOBBY: Power ranking the Forbes billionaires.
ALEX: All right. I gotta get to work, then.
BOBBY: You do. Yeah, ’cause you can’t just read whatever they put on Forbes. Like, you got to read, at— at bare minimum, all these people’s Wikipedia pages.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: How much time are you spending on Wikipedia these days? Because I find myself spend— spending more and more time there—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —by the week.
ALEX: Likewise.
BOBBY: I’s a really useful tool.
ALEX: Yeah, it’s just— just a fascinating rabbit hole to go down.
BOBBY: I like to reread Wikipedia pages for things that I’ve already read or know about.
ALEX: Oh, 100%. I’m— I will go back to the same well.
BOBBY: Especially when I’m like late night editing a pod, I’m like, “All right. Time to fire up Joseph Stalin’s Wikipedia page.” That one’s good, because it’s like there’s— there’s just a lot of different opinions on it, you know?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You— I’m not going to take sides either way, but you go on there, and there’s a lot of like critical thinkers from the west say this. Critical thinkers from Russia and historians say this. And you’re just like, “This is what I come to Wikipedia for. You know, right down the middle, just blanket information.” That’s a good one. French Revolution is a great Wikipedia page. And building off of that, Marie Antoinette. The production for There Will Be Blood is a great Wikipedia page.
ALEX: Oh, that’s a fun one.
BOBBY: Yeah. Lot of interesting tidbits on there about how they built those towns.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know, how they got the oil derricks to catch on fire. Very fascinating.
ALEX: I’m just— I’m try— I’m trying to see what Wikipedia pages I have opened on my phone.
BOBBY: Like actively?
ALEX: Like actively, because I usually— because I have like—
BOBBY: That’s a really good Patreon content.
ALEX: Because I have like— it’s a good thing this isn’t going on the Patreon.
BOBBY: No, I’m just saying for the future. This, I will send us in an email.
ALEX: Got it. Okay.
BOBBY: I have always dreamed— here’s— and I’m gonna say this right here on this podcast, because I assume that anybody who’s listening after that terrible cold open that we did is not someone who’s going to try to backstab us and steal an idea that I share 30 minutes into this episode. I have always wanted to do a podcast where you— you know, like the Wikipedia game that you would play in—
ALEX: Yes. Yeah.
BOBBY: —elementary school? I’ve always wanted to do that as a podcast. I don’t know exactly how it would work, and I’ve never really like put my finger on it. But some form of, “Okay, we have to get from here to here and we’re just going to click through the Wikipedia pages.” Maybe it’s like a video situation too, so you can like see the screen as we’re going through it. And you just talk about what you find.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That shit was so fun. I’m trying to get back there. That was like the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. It’d be like you’d have to get from Jesus to Levi’s Jeans. These are the two things that stick in a— a guy’s head.
ALEX: [24:21]
BOBBY: Modern male masculinity. Modern masculinity, Jesus and Levi’s jeans. You could do that pretty fast.
ALEX: Yeah, that one would be pretty easy.
BOBBY: And also Jesus to Martin Scorsese, but that’s too [24:32]
ALEX: That— are they— are they different pages? Here’s what I have opened. I have—
BOBBY: Okay. Great.
ALEX: —foreign hostages in Iran, Nixon White House tapes, Chilean mining accident, Jelena Ostapenko, the tennis player.
BOBBY: I’m not over— why is the first one hostages? Nixon White House Tapes is a great one, though. That’s— that’s a Mount Rushmore one.
ALEX: It is— it is a great deep dive. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Yeah, that’s a really good one. I’m watch— I’m finally digging in on For All Mankind. I watched the pilot episode multiple times before I was like, “Okay, I’m actually gonna power through and keep watching it.” A lot of great Nixon White House tape content.
ALEX: It is. That—
BOBBY: A lot of fictional [25:19]
ALEX: That show bangs.
BOBBY: It takes— it’s a re— very slow burn for the first six episodes, and each episode is legitimately over an hour.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m like, “Yeah, we could have cut 30 minutes out of this, but it’s okay.” What else? Anything else? We should do Patreon episodes where you just read all the tabs that you have opened.
ALEX: Yeah, there’s like 70. J.A. Bayona.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: The Spanish film director.
BOBBY: Nice. I don’t have any Wikipedia pages opened on my phone. Lot of IMDb pages, though.
ALEX: All right. Well—
BOBBY: Oh, wait, I have the Wikipedia page for Bluetooth opened.
ALEX: I love— my favorite deep dives are the one where it’s just like, how does this thing work? What is this thing mean?
BOBBY: Among other tabs I have opened the master streaming. I have the Metrograph. The theater in New York. I have the Count Metrograph calendar opened about six different tabs. Anatomy of a fall. How much protein do you need a blog post?
ALEX: Bulking season, bro.
BOBBY: I have the— a page— the tab opened for Lombardi’s pizza because we were going to eat there the other night. We chose not to.
ALEX: That’s right. Yeah.
BOBBY: And Everybody Wants Some!!
ALEX: Hmm. Heard of it.
BOBBY: Yeah. Where were— what were we talking about?
ALEX: I actually don’t know how we got here.
BOBBY: I don’t, either.
ALEX: I— we’ve—
BOBBY: Amazing. This is the first that I truly lost the thread. It just threw me so hard when you were like, ” I have— I have the hostage page, Chilean mine incident.” Like what’s going on?
ALEX: I don’t know. Well, I was like— that one, I was like watching Society of the Snow.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: And so— and then like, you know, from there went to, like, other, like—
BOBBY: [27:06] other fake incidents.
ALEX: —the things that happened—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —that, like, captured the attention—
BOBBY: Of the— yeah. Of the global West.
ALEX: I be— I— I love just like— like— you know, like en— like engineering, you know? Like—
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: I mean, not actually. I don’t love engineering.
BOBBY: Well, I do.
ALEX: I just— I don’t dislike it or whatever.
BOBBY: I do.
ALEX: But I like reading about like feats of engineering. That was a feat of engineering.
BOBBY: Getting the— getting those people out?
ALEX: Getting the— getting the— getting the Chilean miners out of the mine.
BOBBY: I agree. You know, science. Just like Oppenheimer.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Another feat of engineering.
ALEX: Yeah, technology.
BOBBY: Did you see Oppenheimer?
ALEX: I did, yes.
BOBBY: I keep forgetting whether or not [27:44]
ALEX: We— you— we’ve talked about it last week.
BOBBY: It took you a really long time to see all of the big movies this year, and so I— I just forgot if you ever watched some of them.
ALEX: Oppenheimer was one of the— one of the only ones that I was like— like, you know, a couple weeks after it was out.
BOBBY: Because you didn’t want to be spoiled?
ALEX: Right. I was like, “What happens at the end?”
BOBBY: At the end, they— they tried to set it off and the bomb doesn’t go.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Can you imagine if they like— if Nolan— like Quentin Tarantino did and he was like, “Well, I’m doing an alternate history at the last minute with the bomb.”
ALEX: That’d be— or like cliffhanger.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: You know? Where it’s like—
BOBBY: I don’t think that would have been as effective.
ALEX: No, maybe not.
BOBBY: What a— what a film. Did you see on IMAX? I saw an IMAX and it changed— it changed [28:27]
ALEX: I saw it on IMAX, not the like 70 millimeter—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —IMAX, but I did see an IMAX, and it was like—
BOBBY: Gripping.
ALEX: —unreal.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like I was levitating.
BOBBY: God, Chris Nolan. He did it.
ALEX: He really did.
BOBBY: He fucking did it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know what he didn’t do it on? Interstellar, the movie stinks.
ALEX: Weird movie. I liked it.
BOBBY: I don’t.
ALEX: I liked it.
BOBBY: I don’t. People— that’s the number one movie that people will get mad at you for saying that you didn’t like, because it is a lot of people’s favorite movie.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And then everybody else is like, “Man, it’s like amazing achievement.” And then there’s some people who are like, “It doesn’t make any sense at all.” And I’m one of those people.
ALEX: That’s how I feel about Inception.
BOBBY: That’s fine. I think that’s a pretty widely accepted opinion about In— Inception. It doesn’t really hold together if you— if you press on any part of it too hard—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —it kind of— like a house of cards comes falling down. But damn, it’s so entertaining.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What a score. Young Hans [29:19] on the beat.
ALEX: They were all in their bag then.
BOBBY: What a lord. Can we talk about baseball?
ALEX: We— there were some stories we’ve had to get to in theory.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: We’re definitely not riffing just to like—
BOBBY: Just to fill time.
ALEX: Fill time.
BOBBY: Oh, I just remembered how we got down this rabbit hole.
ALEX: Hey. This is— see, this is why we do it.
BOBBY: Oh, God. We got down this rabbit hole because I said next week we were going to talk about the Forbes 100 list.
ALEX: Oh, yeah, you gotta go— it’s like Wikipedias [29:42]
BOBBY: And I was like, “I’m gonna open the Wikipedia pages to find out more.” And then we started talking about Wikipedia and then we started talking about—
ALEX: Oh, my God.
BOBBY: —Wikipedia pages. Come on, this is fucking—
ALEX: Stevie, look, we did it. We’re back, baby.
BOBBY: This is just— this is just podcasting. You know, this is what it’s all about. Yes, we actually do have a— a real story to talk about. Slow week. You know, slow week in baseball. However, there was this— Evan Drellich did write a story at The Athletic talking about how the league has opened investigations into the signings of multiple players from the Dominican Republic with regards to falsification of their ages, as well as looking into the circumstances— circumstances with which teams have handshake deals with players who are below the age of 16, which is the cutoff age to be able to sign international amateur free agents. Some of this is like— I— I would say that some of this is stuff that we’ve already covered on the show in terms of the bad acting in the international market. These handshake deals that we’ve discussed, that, at this point in time are just normalized— normalized human trafficking via baseball in a lot of cases, in some of the shady or cases. But the— but the reason that this was news and the reason that it came out this week as an article that needed to be written was because there is now like an open investigation into, I believe, like, signings from teams, like the Mets, and the Astros, and the Red Sox about how they might have signed players who are older than they claimed that they were, and that that would have effects on nullifying these contracts, essentially, for team— for prospects that are in these teams respective systems. The prospects are not named, obviously, because this is an active investigation that hasn’t been ruled on yet at this point.
ALEX: And also, a lot of these kids are actual minors.
BOBBY: Yeah, like still— they’re still— even if they claimed that they were older— or claimed that they were younger, they’re— they are still, you know, very young prospects as well. But I don’t know. It felt— it— this feels in tune with a lot of the things that we’ve talked about in the international free agent market in the past, in that MLB’s seems content to leave it as, from the outside, it seems like utter chaos, because to them, chaos is something that they can exploit. And then when that chaos then turns out to be something that is not suitable to them, then of course, now it turns into an investigation. You know, now it turns into this sort of thing where like— you know, in the Red Sox case, they thought that they were signing a player who was 16, it turns out that he might be 21. And that obviously would have affected how much money they would have offered him based on the age that he was at. And it just strikes me as something where it’s like, “Oh, it was fine when the shady dealings and borderline debauchery suited us. But now that it’s like going in the other direction, it’s time to open up an investigation to figure out what’s going on here.”
ALEX: This comes against the backdrop of this sort of issue kind of being really prevalent 15, 20 years ago, and Major League Baseball, set up in theory, guardrails and levels of vetting that the league does on players to make sure that—
BOBBY: They are the age they say they are.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But the way the International Amateur system is set up encourages players and their trainers and teams to get started younger and younger. You can’t actually— you can’t actually agree to a deal with the team until you’re 16 years old. But the clock still starts ticking before that. You need to be in— you need to be in a position where you’re going to be appealing attractive to— to teams the day you turn 16. And so the trainers are gon— are start working with kids when they’re like 10, 11, 12. And it’s not like teams don’t take notice of that either. They are actively conversing with trainers and with kids who are too young to be signed, but you want to get that foot in the door, right? So it’s like a system that is set up to encourage this kind of rule breaking. And— and the interesting part of it to me is that the onus it seems like is on the players in this case, right? Like, the article mentions that suspensions are likely to, you know, be handed down, or contracts might be nullified. And there was very little in the way of what, if any, punishment will be doled out to the teams who were on the other side of these contracts. Now, some of them may have had a level of awareness of what was going on and others may not have. But I don’t know, turning to the— the kids who are facing a level of desperation and are doing their damnedest to try and, like, break into the league, and then penalizing them, because they, I don’t know, tried to take advantage of a system that encourages rule breaking, just like doesn’t really track with me. There’s a really also an interesting thread in there about like international scouts who are a part of this transaction, who may say, “Hey, we’ll give you this deal. You know, you’re 13, 14 years old, but like, we got you. When the time comes, we’re gonna sign you.” You know? And in exchange, maybe you’ll kick back a little bit too, right? So, like, we were joking before the podcast started recording about, like, rent seekers in baseball, and this feels like enough—
BOBBY: Top five rent seekers episode coming soon to the Patreon near you.
ALEX: Right, exact— and, like, the International scouting community is one that maybe doesn’t come to the forefront of your mind, but— I mean, I— maybe— maybe it does, right? The— the— the trainers who are facilitating a lot of these transactions are certainly squarely in the middle of that conversation. But—
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: —I feel like it obscures the larger institutional forces that are encouraging this sort of behavior. And then part of the reason that we’re back in this situation, is that MLB wasn’t looking too closely in recent years. They were kind of taking players and— and their trainers at their word.
BOBBY: Yeah. To me, this is the sort of situation that, in some regards, is unavoidable when the incentive structure is what it is. And that incentive structure being the younger you are, the more money you’re going to get. The younger you are, the more appealing you are to a Major League team to sign you because you’re more moldable, more projectable, more— you can sell this idea of hope more when the player is 16, even though they’re doing this when players are like 12, 13, 14,15, also, illegally. And when that is the—when that is the currency of this market, meaning that it’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good and how young you are, so that they can train you to be a certain thing once you get into their organization. Then, of course, there are going to be instances where people lie about their age to get their deal. You know, it— it reminds me— so when we talked— when we watched The Last Out and we talked to the filmmakers of The Last Out. It’s a documentary that follows three Cuban baseball players who are trying to defect and come to America, and get offered a contract by a Major League Baseball team. Now, these players are— I believe all of them are like 18, 19, or 20, which seems ridiculous to say, but that’s the end of the line. And so if the end of the line is when you’re 18, or 19, or 20, to get looked at by an MLB team, then it suits you to either be younger and try earlier, which comes with a whole complication of issues because you’re a 13-year-old kid, or to just to lie, to lie about your age. And if you lying gets you offered a contract, then it— then that was the deal that you had to make, you know? Or that was the— the gamble that you had to make, or that was the compromise that you had to make in order to actually get this offer. And there’s no other option because it’s not— it’s not a healthy world. It’s not a healthy world where like you can get a shot at 19, and then come over, and still be good. It’s like team— MLB teams are just like, “You’re 19, you’re done. You’re dead to me. I don’t know what happened to your arm, in the last five years. You come with a whole new set of risks, because you’re already older, and we don’t know if we’re gonna be able to develop these skills for these players.” And so it’s— it’s both. It’s like— it’s the— it’s the handshake deals that are happening before players are turning 16, which is putting the pressure on players who are older to then say, “Okay. Now, I need to lie and say that I’m younger.” And the culpability for it, I think, is split among a lot of groups of people. But none of the— none— almost none of it lands in the players who actually have to lie about their age. Like this is a— this is a— these players are between a rock and a hard place. And it’s not even that you’re— it’s not even saving that as a player, you weren’t good enough to get the offer when you were 16. You might just— might— nobody might have found you at 16. This might have been your first chance to get offered. Like, you might have just been wrong place wrong time or— and then the— the scout comes around and you’re 20 now and you’re like, “Well, I actually am good enough to get this contract offer because this scout likes me and thinks that I’m good. But they will only actually validate that opinion if they think that I’m 16, not 21.” And these are the types of outcomes you’re gonna get if you treat an entire international market of free agents who, by the way, are human beings. As the Wild West, you’re going to get inconsistencies that are procedurally and aesthetically, like, really ugly to an American baseball public who consumes the sport.
ALEX: Yeah. And— and that’s not to mention all the other unsavory practices that— that go into the system, right? The handshake deals that never get agreed to, right? The kids who have a team come and say, “Hey, you know what? When the window opens, we’re going to give you that million dollar signing bonus.” And then the window comes around, and the team says, “We actually don’t have any money in our budget anymore.” And all of a sudden, that— there went your hope for playing professional Major League Baseball, right? So, like, as you mentioned, the system is— is set up to fail these— these young kids, and there’s a lot of discussion about an international draft, and how that would supposedly level the playing field a little bit, and remove the ability for some of the manipulation and exploitation that— that goes on in this system. I mean, it’s at a really interesting point, obviously, when the CBA was agreed on back at the start of the 2022 season. They’ve given themselves this window to discuss the possibility for an international draft. And then it didn’t come to fruition. They couldn’t agree on anything. And so they, you know, kind of kick the can down the road. And it’s at an interesting point where Major League Baseball is really pushing for an international draft and kind of has been for— for years—
BOBBY: Of course, they are.
ALEX: —at this point.
BOBBY: The draft is the most management-friendly concept in sports.
ALEX: Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it’s like you are taking away the bargaining power of a labor pool. But also, it’s an interesting question of, like, what the alternative is, right? Like— and— like, I think the— like the amateur draft should probably be abolished. Like, I had— the drafts are— and— and as you mentioned, just an inherently like management-friendly thing. Players can’t choose where they’re taking their labor, they can’t negotiate.
BOBBY: I think that, in the spirit of compromise—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I’m in a compromising mood, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m working on my own collective bargaining agreement.
ALEX: You are— they’re—
BOBBY: I’m just trying to—
ALEX: —good people on both sides.
BOBBY: Exactly. Trying to make just fair compromises for all parties involved. Because they’re not going to abolish the draft. They’re not gonna abolish the draft in any sport. Obviously, they should, but we should just abolish ownership to begin with. And every sports league should be a worker coop. Blanket statement for the entire history and future— the entire history and present and future of the Tipping Pitches Podcast. But that being said, I think that like a more reasonable outcome for this would be if you are going to have an International Free Agent Draft, and maintain the Amateur Draft, given that you are taking away flexibility, or you took away in the past, in the case of the Amateur Draft, flexibility to actually choose where you land. I think that that should come with less restrictive team control on players. It is the definition of team control that the team controls who they take in the draft.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Like you don’t have any control of your— of your— the first six years of your career.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Or, actually, technically, it could be the first 13 years of your career, because there are seven years of Minor League team control that we don’t often talk about.
ALEX: Fascinating that there’s— there’s no more reserve clause anymore, except for when you start your career.
BOBBY: Yeah. It’s like— reserve clause applies to— to younger players who need it more.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know, need the financial, like, leverage more, because they haven’t had as long to make even the league minimum, which is still a lot of money for a normal human being.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But I think that that should be a top priority for the Players Association, is limiting the amount of team control. And of course, it’s like— it’s easy for us to say that on the podcast. Like the towners are never going to go for that. But this needs to be the sort of thing where like, we need to think about these issues in conjunction, you know? We talk a lot about like the idea of things that maybe don’t seem like numbers still being economic issues. And the idea of team control is an economic issue. It’s present— preventing a lot of people from ever even trying to enter this player pool, to enter this market, because they— they can’t afford to be under team control in the Minors for seven years. And this— I mean, this happens to a lot of, like, relievers. We talked about this last week, or two weeks ago, or whatever, where it’s like they get held down, they have Tommy John. They wait until they develop another pitch. And then by the time they’ve spent five years in the Minors, they’re getting called up, they get burned out in two years in the Majors, they never hit free agency. Like this is— these are problems that are inherent because of team control. And if you’re going to— it seems like we’re going the way of adding an International Draft, it seems like it’s coming. Whether everybody agrees that it’s what we need or not, I don’t think we’re ever going to get to a point where people fully agree on this topic. If that’s going to be the case, I think there needs to be a concerted effort to just lower the amount of team control early in careers for younger players, because then, you know, like, you can stomach an International Draft a little bit more. You can stomach the Amateur Draft a little bit more, because though it is very restrictive from the very beginning, teams can’t fuck with you as much if they know that they can’t keep you around forever. They have to actually, like, invest in you, think more deeply about how they’re going to develop you as a player and get you called up. And that idea of controllable value is somewhat less controllable if you have a— a shorter window of time to actually control it. And that is more than just like raising the minimum salary, which is— would also be helpful to certain player pools at the Major League level. That’s the type of thing that would help literally every single— like— it’s like an equitable boosts to every type of player who enters this market, is if there’s less team control.
ALEX: I wonder how many teams would almost move in the other direction and say, “Oh, we’re not going to have you in our franchise for as long. Why dedicate the resources to developing you if we think you might walk in a couple years?” You know, like—
BOBBY: Yeah, but then you will just— so you just never develop any players? Then you only ever—
ALEX: I mean—
BOBBY: —get players from free agency, which is more expensive than even putting the resources into a team controlled player.
ALEX: I mean, that’s— that’s the hope, right? Just get rid of the— that development pipeline completely.
BOBBY: Well, that’s the only way to do it, you know, is to chip away at it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Just gotta knock off one year pre-arb. You know, that’s what they went into the last— that’s what they went into the lockout trying to do, and it seemed like that came off the table really quickly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, too quickly.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: But that’s— that’s like a— that’s like a 20-year plan. You know, that’s like a 10-year plan. That’s hard. It’s hard to get behind that.
ALEX: What do you think the Players Association’s opposition is to a draft? Because, like, they—
BOBBY: To the International Draft?
ALEX: To the International Draft. Yeah. I mean—
BOBBY: It’s philosophical.
ALEX: Right. Sure. You’re taking— you are actively chipping away at the, like, labor power of this group of people. But I also— it feels like maybe a philosophical shift—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —as well that can be read sort of in the broader context of like, how they’ve approached Minor League unionization, you know? Where it’s like, “Hey, maybe we do have a responsibility to these folks who are not in our— who are not our responsibility at this point.” You know, I— I— like in the past, when have we seen the Players Association take that sort of stand? I don’t know. Do you understand what I’m saying?
BOBBY: I do understand what you’re saying. I think that the opposition is— is that the Players Association believes baseball should be a free market. That is how they’ve conceived of their approach to every question, and it has allowed that to be their guiding light for what they think should be the formulation of the answer to any labor-related question. It should be a free market where people can dictate how much money they make. And any restriction on that free market historically has been bad for us. The reserve clause, bad for us. Team control, bad for us. You know, antitrust exemption, bad for us. These things are not the constitution of a free market. You can tell in how they negotiate the Major League CBA that they want to keep it as a free market for those top free agents who are going to negotiate contracts that are way more than anybody who’s ever going to play Major League Baseball ever has a chance in getting. They want to preserve the ability to do that, because they think that that gives them the best shot to make the most of the total amount of money coming into baseball, is to like negotiate for it themselves. That’s like why arbitration exists. I think that that bumps up against the idea of international free agency, because that’s never been and it’s never going to be a truly free market.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It bumps up the— against the idea of Amateur— the Amateur Draft, too. But I think that they would say, “I wish we could get rid of the Amateur Draft,” but that would be totally unprecedented in American sports to not have a draft. And it would take away all— it would— it would introduce all these questions of competitive balance, too, because we’ve always, for some reason, conceived of the draft as being a thing that makes it easier for teams who are bad to get good again. Even though it’s kind of not really like empirically true. Though, every once in a while there are teams who do get better through the draft exclusively. But there are more teams who just remain bad, and just keep picking at the top, and just can’t develop players.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Like it’s a whole different question. I think that, like, when— when— when this issue came up in the last round of collective bargaining, I think there were some people who were like, “Yeah, we should just allow this to happen and we should straighten out this market and all of these problems going on. And we should really codify and formalize this process to— to prevent some of the bad acting that’s going on here.
ALEX: Right. I mean, they were willing to come to the table with it and negotiate.
BOBBY: Yeah, because they were like— the— it’s so bad. But again, this is an example of MLB creating a problem and then coming in from the top rope with this solution that suits them—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —to solve that problem.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But I think for other international free agents, or for other people who are invested in the international market, it would limit the upside potential of some of the guys who signed. They would be— they would make less money, because there’s just less— there would be a defined smaller amount of money that would go around, then for these players to be able to negotiate their international signing themselves. But, like, there already is a limited pool of international money, so we’re already, like, one foot in, one foot out—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —on the idea of capping, and defining, and limiting, boxing in the international market. So it’s already not a free market. So I don’t know. It’s clearly a very thorny issue that, like, I am not— that almost no one who is not an expert in should really definitively say, “I think this is what should happen.”
ALEX: Right, which is why we just talked about for 20— 20 minutes.
BOBBY: Right. But, like, I don’t actually really know what the answer is.
ALEX: No, I know. I— same.
BOBBY: I— I— I think a decent compromise is like an International Draft, and less team control on these players. Or maybe less team control just for the International Draft players, because like, those players often are coming from less defined circumstances, coming from— they— they might be older, or they might be younger, or— it’s tricky, because they’re just gonna want to make it the same as the Amateur Draft.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So—
ALEX: Which, like I said, sucks. Like I— day one as commissioner, no more draft. I would— I would stake my reputation on it.
BOBBY: Yeah. Every top prospects since the Dodgers?
ALEX: Yeah, that’s fuckin’ sick, dude. Are you kidding me? Other teams have to start folding, because no one wants to come play for them. Sounds like you should make your team better.
BOBBY: Yeah. Don’t like it, play better.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Do you want to do a couple of the topics that people submitted—
ALEX: I do.
BOBBY: —via Twitter?
ALEX: I do.
BOBBY: Thanks everybody who submitted their good— their bits, you know? I really appreciate all the good bit work and the replies to Tipping Pitches Podcast. Joan [52:27] thinks we should talk about the blockbuster David Robertson signing. You know who’s good?
ALEX: David Robertson?
BOBBY: Yeah, but you know who sucked last year after they traded him?
ALEX: David Robertson.
BOBBY: Yeah. So I don’t really know.
ALEX: David Robertson.
BOBBY: Old relievers, usually not where you want to be putting your capital.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: But he’s been very good for a very long time and has defied the— the cliff that most people fall off for a while, so maybe he’ll be great.
ALEX: Also, sick socks, bro.
BOBBY: He’s a nut.
ALEX: Yeah, he is.
BOBBY: Real baseball guy. Baseball guy’s baseball guy.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: D-Rob.
ALEX: He’s a cutie, too.
BOBBY: Yeah. Oscar snubs Sad man wants us to talk about Oscar snubs. I don’t want to talk about that.
ALEX: But— okay. Here’s the thing about Barbie, bro.
BOBBY: Let me hear it. Did you see Barbie?
ALEX: I did.
BOBBY: What Oscar— what movie is nominated for Best Picture have you seen? Oppenheimer?
ALEX: Oppenheimer.
BOBBY: Barbie.
ALEX: Barbie. Holdovers.
BOBBY: Holdovers.
ALEX: As— as— as of 16 hours ago.
BOBBY: I saw you liked Holdovers.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Interesting.
ALEX: It was fun. it was small, it was sweet.
BOBBY: Okay. I can support that.
ALEX: It was— it— it didn’t have to blow my mind.
BOBBY: To me, a well—
ALEX: It’s a nice, like, cold weather movie.
BOBBY: —a well-crafted movie that could have been slightly more ambitious in the things that it poked at, but it seemed like it was just— it seems like it— it only took place in a very defined a bubble.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And was not interested in poking out of that bubble.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: What was particularly egregious at some points, because it acknowledge the bubble that it was in.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And then never really punched outside of it.
ALEX: Sure. I just like Paul Giamatti.
BOBBY: He’s so funny.
ALEX: He’s— he’s hilarious. Perfect— perfect role for him.
BOBBY: The Marcus— the Marcus Aurelius bit.
ALEX: I know, I know.
BOBBY: So many coaches love Marcus Aurelius.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know, that’s their guy.
ALEX: I just like— they should have just shot it on film. Like, if that was the aesthetic they were going for.
BOBBY: They did shoot it on film.
ALEX: Did they? I read they didn’t, but—
BOBBY: I stand corrected. It was shot digitally. That was probably a budget thing.
ALEX: I don’t fucking care.
BOBBY: I agree.
ALEX: That’s not my problem.
BOBBY: I agree. But it’s like the type of thing where like, if you want the money to get Paul Giamatti in your movie—
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: —you got to make some cuts. But did you think Dominic Sessa was good?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: I kind of agree.
ALEX: I’m kind of out on—
BOBBY: Everybody was really like, “He was so great.” And I was like— I was like, “Was he?” I— I reserve the right to change my opinion if the next thing he does actually is like a variation off of just him playing, you know, like himself.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Or like him playing something that he knows how to do because he was literally doing it a year ago. So just like be a boarding school student.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I’m like, “I don’t know— it’s hard to tell if the movie was like well-made around him and he was— didn’t— wasn’t asked to do that much, but I could be wrong.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. [55:19] risks, bro. No risks. [55:20]
BOBBY: He kind of does, though, IRL. Have you seen him on all these red carpets with his sunglasses and his little— with his little suits, like he’s in the Smiths.
ALEX: Yeah, I have. I don’t know.
BOBBY: Oh, You’re out.
ALEX: I’m— I’m out. I’m sorry.
BOBBY: You’re all the way— oh, man. You’re, like, out on him as a person too. Tough— tough beat too. Tough— tough bit. Dominic Sessa, sorry. What if he listens to the bad? Are you back in?
ALEX: Yeah. I’m easily convinced.
BOBBY: Here’s a question.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Who do you think is the most famous person who listens to this pod?
ALEX: Like, who listens regularly?
BOBBY: Both, who has ever listened to a single second or who listens regularly.
ALEX: Neither of those answers are gonna be very interesting.
BOBBY: I agree. Just some curious
ALEX: From people follow on Twitter.
BOBBY: [56:00]
ALEX: I don’t know— I don’t know if we can— we can put that listener on blast like that.
BOBBY: I re— I— I— I would like to refresh my question of, do you think Rob Manfred has ever heard a single second of this pod?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Still no?
ALEX: Still no.
BOBBY: Okay. What would we have to do to get him to? Like, we have to do something that breaks containment, right?
ALEX: Right. Break a story about age fraud in the Dominican Republic probably.
BOBBY: Nah, I don’t want to— I don’t want to break in a story. I want an exclusive—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —with someone. Do you think if we got Tony Clark on the pod, Rob would listen to it, just to hear what Tony has to say?
ALEX: I think someone would— like it would be included in his morning roundup of, like, media you know?
BOBBY: Do you think he gets that, like the president?
ALEX: Like, “Here you go, sir. Here’s all the stories that came out.”
BOBBY: Here’s what MLB NSA has to say to you today. The joint— the joint chiefs of staff put together this report. Tony Clark went on Tipping Pitches and talked about knocking off a year in team control.
ALEX: Yes, I think that would make its way up to him.
BOBBY: Okay. Well— so you still didn’t answer the question, who’s the most famous person that ever listened to an episode of this?
ALEX: Tony Clark? Like he’s more likely to have heard a second or two of this podcast.
BOBBY: I think the answer is Sean Doolittle.
ALEX: Do you think he has listened?
BOBBY: I think he might have fired up an episode here or there.
ALEX: Just to be like, “Let me see what I’m getting myself into.”?
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Yeah. Next listener submitted topic, if each major European city had a baseball team, which one would you root for and what would the team name be?
ALEX: Jesus.
BOBBY: I would like to reiterate the idea from the 300th Episode Mailbag of the Mets move to London, and I would work for them, because one, I would like to live in London and two, I’d like my team to be in the same general time zone as me. Move the Royals to London, you know? Get a little pun work going.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: How about that? But if we were going to add a new team, I would like to add a baseball team to Italy.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I think that that would be really funny, just watching all of the Italian baseball fans come out. Like, do you think it’s bad the way that Yankees fans react to what goes on, on the field at Yankee Stadium? It would be 100 times more theatrical the way that true Italian baseball fans would respond to like pitching changes—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —for the Rome— what would be the team name?
ALEX: The Roman—
BOBBY: Gladiators? Cut— cut straight to the chase. Straight to the chase. We did it. Have you watched that movie?
ALEX: Gladiator? No.
BOBBY: Yeah. You should watch that, and then we should watch Gladiator 2 together.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: Who do you think would play you in a movie right now?
ALEX: Jesus.
BOBBY: Have we talked about this before?
ALEX: Dominic Sessa.
BOBBY: I guess you always say Gyllenhaal.
ALEX: I don’t say that. That’s what everyone else says.
BOBBY: I think that’s pretty good.
ALEX: I don’t— I don’t know.
BOBBY: The reason I asked because I think that, right now, the answer for me is Paul Mescal. I saw a picture of him, like a paparazzi photo of him with, like, some really short messy shorts, a green hoodie, and a Mets hat on, and I was like—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —”That is fucking me.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm. He’s always wearing like a— like a chain link bracelet, or necklace—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —or something like that. Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Exactly. Exactly. Also, you know, he’s Irish, the Irish, the Italians, they’re closely linked.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: In my mind. At least in the American historical experience.
ALEX: Yeah. Sure.
BOBBY: He could do it. So European city, baseball team, what would they— what would they be named? That’s the question. Who would you root for? What European city?
ALEX: I— I wouldn’t root for a European baseball team. Sorry. America first, baby. I don’t know what to tell you.
BOBBY: Would— would you like to use now as the time where you announced that you’re— you would be the vice-president on the Nikki Haley ticket if she got the nomination? Or do you want to wait until later?
ALEX: We never poured one out for Ron, man.
BOBBY: They did him dirty.
ALEX: They really did.
BOBBY: They didn’t want to hear him— hear him out. Hear his ideas, you know? They saw his boots—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —and they’re like, “Nah.” I think the boots look good. That was such a cop out of an answer. I don’t think I would put a baseball team in Rome, though, if I was gonna choose a— choose a city in Italy.
ALEX: Where would it be, Florence?
BOBBY: Like Rome already— Rome already has enough.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Is— is basically my take.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: They have enough reasons to be there, to go see things.
ALEX: Milan?
BOBBY: Well, no, because Milan already has enough, too. Like, financially speaking. Like they are— they are sort of the, like, modern industrial capital of Italy. I’d like to—
ALEX: That’s why they need a baseball team, bro.
BOBBY: No, I’d like to put one in the south.
ALEX: Bring them into the 21st century.
BOBBY: South of Italy. Can you imagine you’re just hitting bombs into the Mediterranean Sea?
ALEX: Oh, yeah. That’s a splash hit, brother.
BOBBY: We put a baseball team in Napoli, come on. That’d be sick.
ALEX: That would be cool.
BOBBY: The— the FC Napoli fans or Napoli FC. I don’t know which goes first. I’m kind of exposing myself as a fraud. They— they’re a powerful bunch, is what I’ll say. They have strong feelings about the team and their performance.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And if you put like 5% of that energy towards baseball, it would be enough to make it intriguing to me.
ALEX: Moscow? Is that— is that in Europe?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Right?
BOBBY: I guess technically—
ALEX: It’s like— it’s like half and half, right? That’s how I always learned it. I’ve watched that team, though. That would— I mean, that would be like Murderer’s Row, like 1920 style teams of just dudes downing a fifth of vodka and stepping up to the plate.
BOBBY: Just some real generalizations going on about the people of Moscow.
ALEX: Absolutely.
BOBBY: I think that would present some—
ALEX: What, socio-political issues?
BOBBY: Yeah. It’s just some travel problems. As you know, hard to fly in and out of Moscow.
ALEX: Not for me.
BOBBY: No, it was hard for you. That’s famously why we’re still talking about it six years later. Seven years later.
ALEX: Wow. Yeah.
BOBBY: Coming up with a seven-year—
ALEX: I’m [1:02:17]
BOBBY: —anniversary of your time—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —in the Moscow airport. Ashley would like us to talk about how Nike scammed us out of the best uniforms in baseball.
ALEX: It’s true.
BOBBY: The Mets Cherry Blossoms
ALEX: The replacements are pretty— pretty bleak.
BOBBY: Giants Number One Fan Dog [1:02:36] would like us to talk about Jack Peterson’s cyber truck. Did you see this?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: First MLB player to get a cyber truck.
ALEX: Do we know that? Is that confirmed?
BOBBY: First MLB player to public— publicly come out as the cyber truck guy.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I’m sure there actually are other MLB players who have a cyber truck.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What percentage of MLB players do you think drive Teslas? Under 10, right?
ALEX: Under 10 [1:02:58] for sure.
BOBBY: Under five?
ALEX: Yeah, because like they’re not— they’re not practical.
BOBBY: More practical or functional?
ALEX: Like—
BOBBY: Did you see that Elon Musk and— I think SpaceX— no, I think it is Tesla, are suing the Department of Labor as calling it unconstitutional.
ALEX: Just calling the Department of Labor unconstitutional?
BOBBY: Well, like, the— the Department of Labor is— and Trader Joe’s is getting behind this lawsuit and supporting it.
ALEX: That’s cool.
BOBBY: The Department of Labor is currently investigating or prosecuting Tesla and Trader Joe’s for union busting.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And—
ALEX: And they’re like, “Don’t tread on my [1:03:52]”
BOBBY: Yeah, they’re saying that it’s unconstitutional the way that they’re going about prosecuting them.
ALEX: Fascinating. Let’s see how it works out for them.
BOBBY: That’s me giving you that information based on the headline and the three bullet points of the Bloomberg article because I don’t have a Bloomberg subscription. So there could be some details in there that are a little hazy.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Honestly, but Trader Joe’s, cool place, cool vibe, great corporate structure, really appreciate what they’re doing for the world.
ALEX: Absolutely.
BOBBY: All good stuff. You know, all of that hunky dory family-oriented messaging that they’re doing is really reaping— sowing good result.
ALEX: Well, again, you don’t need a union if— if the company just treats you well. That’s the whole— that’s the whole point.
BOBBY: Exactly. I’ve always said this. I’ve always said this.
ALEX: Like a pizza party?
BOBBY: I believe that’s it for topics that we got— actually, sorry. No disrespect— I don’t want to disrespect these last two topics that we received— last three, actually. Someone would like to talk about Jason Kelce. Do you have any thoughts on Jason Kelce? Congrats on the retirement.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Looks like he’s having a good time.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Nick wants us to share our top 10 prospects. Just not going to do that. Not going to do it. Jackson Holiday.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: There’s one. Jackson Chourio. There’s two.
ALEX: There’s two.
BOBBY: Got another Jackson for me?
ALEX: Hmm. No, but I know they’re coming.
BOBBY: And Jackson—
ALEX: One— one spelled with, like, X’s and Y’s, you know? J-A-X-X-Y-N-N.
BOBBY: Best moment from the Moneyball watch-along pod was when I told you guys that— that Jacob deGrom had a son named Jackson and you said, “Where are the X’s?” And then the final question we received is from Colin, how— talk about how the Orioles are a money laundering operation. I feel like this is well tread ground—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —on the Tipping Pitches podcast and we don’t need to talk about it right now.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What we do need to do is we need to bring back Taking All The Way here to close out this pod.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: We got about five minutes before it’s actually fully dark in this room.
ALEX: It’s getting really dark in there.
BOBBY: Sitting in the dark, we’re podcasting.
ALEX: Refusal to turn the lights on.
BOBBY: So— well, should I— should I turn the LED sign on for the Taking All The Way?
ALEX: You should. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Okay. I’m going to turn the LED sign on and you’re going to tell me your thoughts about the Hall of Fame.
ALEX: All right, let’s do it.
BOBBY: I’m listening.
ALEX: Oh, I start— I— I was going to wait so that you were not interrupt— but I can just power through. That’s fine.
BOBBY: So you’re just vamping? You just— you don’t want to vamp? Let’s go. People want to hear it.
ALEX: Oh, my God. Jesus Christ.
BOBBY: Why does it— like, there’s like a hum that comes on when I turn it on?
ALEX: I don’t really know how I’m gonna proceed with this, but we’re going to try.
BOBBY: Proceed with what, the light?
ALEX: Just with, like, formulating thoughts. I feel like it’s like bleeding into my brain.
BOBBY: It’s definitely going to pick up on the recording. I can’t wait for people to hear it.
ALEX: Yeah. Hall of Fame, big Hall of Fame guy. I know you are, too. In fact, before we started recording, you said, “I— I want to touch on the Hall of Fame, who made it in, who got snubbed.”
BOBBY: Yeah, I did.
ALEX: Because this is your favorite time of the year.
BOBBY: Yes. I would say that I definitely know who made it into the Hall of Fame.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I would describe myself as knowing who’s in the Hall of Fame.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: From this year’s class.
ALEX: I know you run— through every offseason, you run through. You’re like, “Let me see if I can name every person who’s in the Hall of Fame right now.”
BOBBY: Yeah. Yeah.
ALEX: So you’re good to go?
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: I just— I just wanted to say before we— before we close out here.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: This week’s episode of Tipping Pitches.
BOBBY: Oh, I have another— I have my own taking all the way.
ALEX: Oh. Oh, you’re ready. Okay.
BOBBY: Yeah, I am. It has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame, which I’m very knowledgeable about. Don’t need to think about it when I already know everything.
ALEX: I love— I love the tradition that MLB Network does— well, it’s like not limited to the Hall of Fame. It’s award shows as well, right, where they do the thing, where they’re like, “We’re going to train the camera on you and your family while you, like, get the call.”
BOBBY: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh.
ALEX: Really fascinating, because then these players have to, like, get into character and be like, “I, like— I have no idea why you roll the camera into my living room and set it up. Oh, I wonder who that is, who’s calling.”
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And so I watched the— the video of Adrián Beltré, like, getting the call, you know? And it’s clear that he’s like—
BOBBY: Who I knew made it in.
ALEX: Who you knew made it in.
BOBBY: Really big shouts to Adrián Beltré.
ALEX: That’s right.
BOBBY: I forget—
ALEX: Very deserving. He, like, tease—
BOBBY: Did he have a steroid scandal?
ALEX: I don’t— no, I don’t think so.
BOBBY: Okay, great.
ALEX: Does it matter?
BOBBY: No, no. It just— it would have been surprising to me if he had made it in with the steroid scandal.
ALEX: Well, yeah, that’s the rub, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: He— he sees the call come in—
BOBBY: [1:08:45]
ALEX: He sees the call come in and, like, lets it ring a couple times. Like, his family is like [1:08:52] to it.
BOBBY: [1:08:52]
ALEX: And they’re like—
BOBBY: See if this had been me—
ALEX: They’re like, “What Cooperstown?”
BOBBY: If this had been me, it would have went straight to voicemail because my phone would have been on Do Not Disturb.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: They would have been so mad at me.
ALEX: And so he, like, picks it up.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: And the guy’s like, “Hello. This is, you know, whatever the president of—”
BOBBY: “This is Rob Manfred.”
ALEX: “This is Rob Manfred. This is the president of the Hall of Fame. I’m calling from Cooperstown, now, your second home.” You know? And he’s like, you know, “You— you made it in.”
BOBBY: [1:09:22] two homes.
ALEX: The guy is like, “You made it in.” And then Adrián’s like, “Okay. Well, I— I guess it’s official now.” And then hangs up.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: And then everyone cheers, and he just kind of smiles, and— and looks around. And I feel like we can do a better job of eventizing this a little bit more.
BOBBY: So you want us to be in charge?
ALEX: Well, yes, of— I mean, of everything.
BOBBY: Consulting firm, Tipping Pitches Media.
ALEX: But, like, I want to see the cameras trained on the folks who didn’t make it in, too. Like Oscars style. Have everyone up in a little box on the screen.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Gary Sheffield sitting there. None of the votes are made public ahead of time, so Gary Sheffield has no clue if he’s getting in or not.
BOBBY: It’s just Curt Schilling with a bunch of SS uniforms behind him?
ALEX: Exactly. I’ll do— I’ll do you one better. They should vote on one night, and on one side of the room, all the players who are up for eligibility, so on one side.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And on the other side are all the writers.
BOBBY: Oh.
ALEX: And so that you go— it’s like— it’s almost like how they vote on bills in the Congress, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah, yeah.
ALEX: Because then you get the infighting, right, like, “Oh, you don’t want to vote Gary Sheffield into the Hall of Fame. Tell him why. He’s sitting right there.”
BOBBY: I like it. I support it.
ALEX: Three hours, right? Give or take.
BOBBY: Honestly, though, this really opens us up to them just putting in people who they’re afraid they’re gonna run across the room and punch them.
ALEX: Yeah, sure. It’s already a joke anyway.
BOBBY: No, it isn’t. I believe in the process.
ALEX: Yes. You— you believe in the sanctity. [1:10:54]
BOBBY: I’m really a— a small haul guy, you know?
ALEX: [1:10:59] final democratic institution.
BOBBY: A lot of people come out to— a lot of people like to come out and say, “I’m a big haul guy. Let more people in.” Nope, not me. I’m a small haul guy.
ALEX: Small, yeah.
BOBBY: It’s all about the small haul.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That’s why those two words rhyme because they’re meant to be put together. Fewer people in the Hall of Fame, okay?
ALEX: In fact, we should—
BOBBY: [1:11:16] the participation—
ALEX: —players from the Hall of Fame. Sorry.
BOBBY: It’s not the Hall of participation. It’s the Hall of Fame.
ALEX: Yeah.
Bobbby: So once again, why isn’t Alex Rodriguez the— the second most famous baseball person in the world in the Hall of Fame? Is Derek Jeter in the Hall of Fame? Oh, he is. I remember. It was like part of the documentary, his whole speech and everything. I didn’t know if he was eligible yet. Obviously, he’s gonna— he was gonna make it.
ALEX: Yeah. Not deservingly, though.
BOBBY: He’s kind of like, —yeah, I’m not gonna share a take about Derek Jeter here. I don’t need to do it. Here’s my take. You know, we opened this podcast by talking about how we had very little to talk about. Of course, that was 90 minutes ago.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: This is what we do. It’s just a lot about Wikipedia, talked a lot about the Hall of Fame, had one actual will segment in the middle here. Okay, we did our darndest. We talked about cinema on this pod.
ALEX: We did.
BOBBY: I— here’s my take, baseball media is not doing enough. They are not driving enough storylines this offseason. They need to work harder. You— during the NBA offseason, there is not a second that goes by without somebody pretending like something is important and making a news cycle out of it. We got to start doing that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know? It’s— all— all I’m getting right now is the occasional Jeff Passan tweet about a two-and-a-half million dollar extension for a player who hasn’t debuted yet. Okay. That’s not news. Congratulations to that guy. I’m glad he came to an agreement and he’s gonna make it to the Majors. I don’t know his name, though. I don’t know his name. I’m not sure who it is. Okay? We need— Ken Rosenthal just constantly just retweeting Fair Territory videos—
ALEX: Oh, my God.
BOBBY: —where the— it’s just like the— the most boring guys—
ALEX: I need to turn— I’m gonna turn those notifications off right now, actually.
BOBBY: —-in the world sharing the most boring thoughts about baseball in the most boring format imaginable. Can we do better? Baseball media elite, do more to create more new cycles to give us something to talk about to give us something to critique, to give us something to make ancillary content off of, auxiliary content off of. That is what we’re here for. We’re not here to start the news cycles. Okay?
ALEX: We’re here to end it.
BOBBY: We’re here—
ALEX: The final word.
BOBBY: That sounds like a threat. Okay? Maybe— but maybe we have to, you know? Over the years, sometimes we fast— we’ve fashioned ourselves as like the baseball writers favorite baseball podcast, because they’re so sick of hearing about actual baseball that they come to us and hear about stuff that has nothing to do with the sport. Maybe we need to just be planting storylines. We need to just be planting news cycles. You know, like you need to come out here and share a take that we then clip out and put on Twitter. That’s like, “Is this the year Walker Buehler finally learns to be a man on the mound?” And then just like for five days, it’s just a bunch of people being like, “Well, Walker Buehler is a dog.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And then this other people are being like, “Well, why are his pants so tight?”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And then this other people are being like, “Well, where was he last year when the Dodgers needed him the most and got bounced in the first round? He’s not tough enough to deal with it or come back earlier from his Tommy John?” You know, me— do we need to be doing that? Because I don’t really want to debase myself. Okay? That’s what the rest— that’s what they pay the big bucks for. All right? That’s what MLB Network should be for, but instead they’re doing fucking arguments about whether or not Adrián Beltré should have got three more percent for his Hall of Fame induction. Okay? It’s so stupid. He’s—
ALEX: You always got one in the chamber, man. Makes me so happy every time.
BOBBY: They are so boring. They’re boring. They’re always mad that the players are boring. No, no. The media is boring. Do better. I know that the media world has been totally decimated, and there’s no one who’s getting paid to get— do interesting stuff anymore, for the most part. Okay? But I have nowhere to go to figure out what the fuck we’re supposed to talk about in January and February. I need help. We need help. We can’t do it on our own. Okay? We’re reading off Alex’s Wikipedia tabs. Do better, baseball media, do better.
ALEX: That’s right. That’s accountability.
BOBBY: I’m like out of breath.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Okay? What— should we start a different news cycle? What news cycle should we start this week?
ALEX: Here’s why Blooper is the truest representation of the human condition.
BOBBY: Two icons [1:15:36] two— I need it to be like about players. Like, here— here, I got one for you. I got one for you.
ALEX: Javier Báez, underpaid, underrated.
BOBBY: Zack Wheeler or Gerrit Cole. You know, just— you need to start like normal arguments.
ALEX: Is that— is that what you’re dying to talk about on— on this podcast?
BOBBY: For one year only [1:15:57] Zack Wheeler or Gerrit Cole. Not necessarily. I don’t even need to talk about Zack Wheeler versus Gerrit Cole, but I just need more people to be doing stuff that’s like starting news cycles, you know? And then it’s— now— then— a week from then, we can talk about how the starting—
ALEX: Because then you can— you don’t have to— you don’t have to participate in the conversation.
BOBBY: Yeah, the starting pitcher is dead and—
ALEX: You can talk about the news cycle itself.
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Exactly. Exactly. Spencer Strider, overrated. That was a great one. Started right here on this podcast. Great one. It did not break out of this podcast.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: But it still could. It still could. No, instead we’re getting like little stories about how fucking Joey Votto is weird. Like, we’ve been doing this for seven years, all right? We need to do better.
Everybody’s powered down too soon for the offseason. Power it back up.
ALEX: It’s almost February, bro. Like, baseball is almost back.
BOBBY: What’s Nightingale doing right now? Was he writing about? Was he tweeting about?
ALEX: I don’t know. I don’t know.
BOBBY: The Hall of Fame sucks up too much energy, too much time—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —for the goats. All right? We need to stop.
ALEX: I mean, but it is also like baseball writers one time a year. You know? Like it’s kind of—
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: It’s their time. It’s their own victory lap.
BOBBY: No, it’s not.
ALEX: It’s— it is for me.
BOBBY: You’re not a baseball writer.
ALEX: No, but I can celebrate it. You know, I’m like, “Hey, good— pour it out for them. You know, you deserve it.”
BOBBY: I just need more things to share opinions about. Like, should—
ALEX: I don’t think you do, actually.
BOBBY: All right. Next week on the show, running down the Forbes 100 richest people list and talking about who should buy the Oakland Athletics. That is my solemn promise to you. We will start a news cycle from that podcast. We will imply that someone is interested in buying the A’s and keeping them in Oakland, because everybody wants to believe that. So much so that for the better part of a decade, people have been suckering themselves into believing that the guy who owns the Warriors is gonna buy the A’s. Okay, that’s not happening. But we’re going to discuss it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That and other things, next week on the Tipping Pitches Podcast. Thank you for listening and we will be back in one week’s time.
SPEAKER 4: I been known to move a little fast. I’m a hunter for the real thing.
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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