Bobby and Alex open up the mailbag to take your questions on college sports, broadcasting “icks,” Mets vs. Yankees fandom, when it’s okay to hate your team, and more. Plus, they end the episode with their patented (and still unnamed) ranking segment.
Links:
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Songs featured in this episode:
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 tipping his pitches. So tipping pitches we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand what tipping pitches all about? That’s amazing. That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, I have a— a baseball fun fact to share with you that I learned in the 11th inning of the Mets game that I was at, and left during a weather delay, and came home, and then watched on television. That’s how long the weather delay was, so that— I made it all the way home. Got to listen to Gary and Keith call extra innings for the game that I had watched the first nine innings of in person.
ALEX: I got so sad when I looked at the score, because I was looking at the weather, and then looking back at the Mets game, and then looking out my window at the sky, and then back at the Mets game. And I was like, “Are they gonna make it?” I feel like they will. But I looked, and it was the bottom of the ninth inning, and the score was 4-4, and there, they sat. And I kind of assumed you probably were— were not still there hours— hours on.
BOBBY: Well, I would have stayed. I did stay for a little while because there was a— a chance that it was only going to rain for, like, 15 minutes and then they were going to start again.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That didn’t end up being the case. The rain delay was like two and a— two and a half hours.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So I— I would have stayed, however, that’s a pretty long weather delay and we have a podcast to do. And also I had a dog to come home and take out, so all the usual suspects really bringing me back, Stevie, the pod, you, dear listener. But I didn’t even share my fun fact with you yet.
ALEX: No, you didn’t.
BOBBY: The Giants game. The Giants won today, 10-4. They hit—
ALEX: Oh, you— you have a fun fact from a game that you didn’t attend?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: But they shared the ballpark?
BOBBY: But I learned that— I’ll— no, they didn’t share it at the ballpark. They shared it on the broadcast, which I made it back for.
ALEX: Oh. Oh, I see.
BOBBY: The extra innings broadcast. The Giants beat the Dodgers, the official baseball team of the Tipping Pitches Podcast.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: 10-4 today. And in that— in that game, contributing to those 10 runs, the Giants hit 10 doubles, 10 doubles. That’s the most doubles the Giants have had since April 11th, 1912. I don’t share this for any other reason than to say that’s— that’s in perfectly in the sweet spot of fun fact that is actually interesting to me, but ultimately is not that consequential towards the baseball game.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: 10-4 for while— while a blowout. You know, while 10 runs is a lot. It’s certainly not unheard of. But doing it via 10 doubles is weirdly somehow way more interesting than just winning 10-4.
ALEX: So what you’re saying is that Alex Rodriguez is vindicated?
BOBBY: Kinda—
ALEX: That home runs are rally killers.
BOBBY: Do you think that—
ALEX: And the double is the— the bastion of this great game, what this country was built upon.
BOBBY: Would— would you be more impressed by 15 doubles in the game, 10 home runs in the game, or eight triples in the game?
ALEX: I mean, eight triples in a game is pretty crazy. Doubles, in my opinion, are the least interesting. Like in that—
BOBBY: So out of those options, you think that like if they— if a team hit 15 doubles in one single game, you just be like, “Fine.”?
ALEX: Whoa. No. All of those are crazy, to be very clear. But doubles are— you don’t have to hit it out of the park. It doesn’t have to take a weird bounce. Triples are amazing. I mean, triples are one of the best, I think, plays in baseball, right? Because the sequence of events that has to happen in order for you to be able to make it to third base, standing up or sliding, is rare, right?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: Like—
BOBBY: Less rare at Oracle Park, but yes.
ALEX: Right, exactly. Depending on the dimensions of the field. And again, double— doubles are cool, but also it just takes a poorly positioned outfielder.
BOBBY: Or a gapper.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: How many doubles would it have to be, to be more impressive than eight triples? 20, 20 doubles?
ALEX: I think— can I be equally impressed for different reasons at both of those?
BOBBY: No. No. No. That’s such a cop out.
ALEX: All right, fine. No, that’s not impressive to me still.
BOBBY: 10 triples or 30 doubles?
ALEX: 30 doubles is a lot. We are—
BOBBY: All right, 10—
ALEX: —we are reaching the rubicon.
BOBBY: I’m just trying to barter, you know? I’m trying to set a— set a market here.
ALEX: That’s three doubles an inning and change?
BOBBY: More. Yeah, more. Three doubles an inning and an extra inning.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: The other team is matching you. They hit the 10 triples. I’m pretty impressed by 10 doubles, I gotta say.
ALEX: I— it is an impressive thing to do.
BOBBY: It’s just so easy for any of those to just— centerfielder ranges over, cuts it off, boom, single, it’s over. 10 doubles is a lot of doubles.
ALEX: It has to be well placed.
BOBBY: Even at Oracle Park, which is a sham of a ballpark.
ALEX: Sham.
BOBBY: It’s beautiful and it’s— it’s a great ballpark. Great place to see a game. It’s not actually a sham the way Yankee Stadium is a sham, or the way Camden Yards is a sham now.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But it is like about as far towards the pitcher end of the pitcher friendly scale that you could possibly be without me being like, “You guys are doing some shenanigans here. “
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: It’s where hitters go to die, but also they hit 10 doubles, so—
ALEX: I guess. They had 10 doubles, also tell the person we crowned as the greatest living ball player that— a week ago, one Barry Bonds. I don’t know.
BOBBY: Well—
ALEX: He did okay.
BOBBY: —he doesn’t really count it. Yeah, he did fine. He did fine.
ALEX: Sounds like you should hit the ball farther, if your balls keep getting caught.
BOBBY: Well, that’s why they hit 10 doubles. Sounds like a warning track power.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: They’re they did the— at Citi Field, they do the— t he home run challenge for the kids hitting off the wiffle ball off the tee.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You’re well aware of this, right? Correct?
ALEX: I am.
BOBBY: And then on Friday, we saw the kid and he just kept hitting them just to the warning track. Warning track power for a wiffle ball off the tee, tough. Same thing happened to the kid today. I’m starting a conspiracy theory about how the Mets don’t want to give away whatever the prize is for that, and they keep finding kids who only have warning track power. They’re scouting them. Like, how—
ALEX: We—
BOBBY: —they— they hired Kiley McDaniel as a scout to— to find the kids who can’t hit home runs.
ALEX: We found our juiced ball scandal. We just didn’t realize it was happening on the wiffle ball field at Citi Field.
BOBBY: The wiffle ball is devious.
ALEX: Their— do you— you’ve seen the wiffle balls?
BOBBY: They’re moving the fences back a centimeter every day so that no one notices, but it’s like, “Wow. It’s pretty deep out there.” It’s like the Oracle Park of wiffle ball promo fields.
ALEX: Right. Fake.
BOBBY: Brought it home.
ALEX: It was good.
BOBBY: Brought it home. We have a fun pod queued up for you all today. We will be doing an all-mailbag episode. And of course, we will be closing out with our ranking segment. Got some good questions. We got a lot of voicemails. Before we do 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 patron, WZ. Alex, you have anything to get off your chest before we start this mailbag? This AMA, this ask me anything mailbag segment brought to you by the fine folks at Tipping Pitches who didn’t have anything better to talk about this week, and so we came to you hat in hand? listener, asking please, please, help us with our segment this week. Help us with our content. Do you have anything to get off your chest first?
ALEX: Well, I mean, it does feel up our alley to do 30 minutes or so on the debate. I— I just feel—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —like democracy is in crisis [8:55] as— as—
BOBBY: It is, and it’s such a good candidate that there’s nobody who could possibly run against him. Democracy is in crisis. This is basically on top of [9:00]
ALEX: Well, my— right. My— my biggest concern is, how am I not going to vote for him four years from now, you know? Once his—
BOBBY: Right, exactly.
ALEX: —once his eight years are up, do we have to do some constitutional shenanigans to get them back in there for one more go round?
BOBBY: I imagine this is— this must have been how people felt when FDR was closed now term two.
ALEX: Really—
BOBBY: They’re like, “We gotta get this guy back in the new deal.”
ALEX: —in— incredible moment in our country’s history. We just said—
BOBBY: Well—
ALEX: “—I know the rules say otherwise, but— really, they didn’t say otherwise at that point.”
BOBBY: No. I think technically they didn’t say otherwise yet. It was more of a norm.
ALEX: Right. We know all about those.
BOBBY: Which is wild we set norms that people followed. It was an unwritten rule. It was like not stealing when your team’s up seven.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Which I think we’ve determined is the line, seven?
ALEX: No. What—
BOBBY: What’s the line?
ALEX: Is the line— what do you mean, “What is the line?” There—
BOBBY: For when you— you shouldn’t steal.
ALEX: The line is— is make it through the ninth inning. Sorry, you don’t want players stealing on you? Don’t— don’t let them get to first base.
BOBBY: I’m not asking what you think. I’m asking what they think.
ALEX: Oh, what— the generally accepted like Major League Baseball line is?
BOBBY: Yes. Yes, I agree with you that you should be able to steal if you’re up 40. I don’t really care.
ALEX: That— well, that’s not as interesting, though. I want— I want you to— I want you to think that— that someone who does— does that should be taken to the farm upstate. Like, we need a little more [10:32]
BOBBY: I actually do feel that way about bunting. Don’t bunt when your team’s up a lot. But only because that’s not entertaining.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You’re not trying to manufacture a run here. I want you to be swinging away. Bat to ball. Let’s go. Come on. Try to double. One of the 30. We’re almost there.
ALEX: Clock second.
BOBBY: Shut it in one of those 10 triples, brother.
ALEX: I don’t know how we got here.
BOBBY: We were talking about FDR.
ALEX: Right. I should have guessed.
BOBBY: When everybody was just like, “I just love this guy so much that we need to have him back again.” Wartime president, New Deal. Fireside chats. Maybe that’s what Biden was missing, fireside chats.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: He had an opportunity to come on this podcast and convince America in a fireside chat type environment, which we like to cultivate here and he passed.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Did we ask him? You were in charge of sending that email. Did you send that?
ALEX: I— what is an email?
BOBBY: Like, philosophically or like, you don’t know?
ALEX: Right. I mean, what— I have no idea. We put it out there.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: They’ve got people listening. It’s like the Biden Administration and Jeff Passan. They’re reading all of your tweets, whether you tagged them or not.
BOBBY: Good one. We’ve got a Kiley McDaniel— a McDee and a [12:00] in the first 15 minutes. Man, I’m feeling good, feeling loose.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Feeling warmed up and ready.
ALEX: I do— you can share thoughts on the election if you want. I know you think it’s the most important one of our lifetimes. That’s what you— because you say this to me every day.
BOBBY: I mean, how could I not with all the emails I’m receiving? I— actually, honestly, I don’t receive that many emails about the election.
ALEX: I don’t, but I receive so many texts.
BOBBY: I don’t. I don’t receive any texts. Which is weird because I have a Pennsylvania cell phone number and that’s like a huge swing state. Perhaps some might argue it’s the swing state.
ALEX: Right. I actually received an ungodly amount. I need to get off these lists. “Honest opinion, how would you grade Biden’s debate performance? Are you serious? Time is running out. So top dems unlocked a 9— a 900% match to smash Trump for good.” Oh, this— ooh, I got one from Jill. Oh, fuck. I forgot to respond to her.
BOBBY: Jill Biden? Jill Stein? Jill Stein.
ALEX: Yes. Yeah. “Hi, friend. It’s Jill. Joe is face”— she calls him Joe to me.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: “We’re facing off against— the in the debate against Donald Trump right now.” You know, this is hope over—”
BOBBY: Can I play—
ALEX: —this is hope over fear, right? You know, that’s what this debate was.
BOBBY: Can I play a video for you?
ALEX: Okay.
JILL: Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.
[cheering]
JILL: And let me ask the crowd, what did Trump do? Lie.
BOBBY: That’—s that’s how I talked to you after every episode of the podcast. I’m like, “Alex, you did such a good job.”
ALEX: Yes. “You answered every question.”
BOBBY: “You answered every question. And what did Bob do? Lie.”
ALEX: Cry.
BOBBY: Final note on the debate from Thursday.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Which— which took place while we were recording our Patreon episode. I was just wondering what the guys over at Pod Save America, since I know that you’re an avid listener of all of their shows. I was wondering how they’re taking this past five days.
ALEX: Well, have you— have you seen any of the— like, what’s going on with them? Because they came out somewhat critically with the debate.
BOBBY: [14:40]
ALEX: And then they got rebuked, subtweeted in a Biden campaign fundraising email, who said, “You may be getting a lot of questions from very important podcasters.” And then they came out today. They made a statement that—
BOBBY: That’s actually kind of one of the funnier and—
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: —most vicious burns that the Biden campaign has made, because it’s like there’s no such thing as a very important podcaster.
ALEX: I’m on board with Dark Biden now— dark Brandon. Dammit.
BOBBY: You fucked it up.
ALEX: Sorry, Jill.
BOBBY: I have no idea how to pivot out of this into our questions from listeners.
ALEX: You know, who’s also going to struggle to make it through 90 minutes of questions? You and I.
BOBBY: That’s exactly it. You found it. Where’s the Democratic convention this year? Chicago? It is, Chicago.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: August 19th through 22nd. Should we do a Tipping Pitches meetup there?
ALEX: Well, you know, Bobby, we— we might be in the area around that time of the month.
BOBBY: We might be in the Chicago area?
ALEX: In the Chicagoland area. The Greater— the Greater Chicago Metro— Metropolitan area.
BOBBY: Okay. Well, we’re not quite ready to make that specific announcement.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: But Tipping Pitches 2024 meetup— meetups, plural.
ALEX: Plural.
BOBBY: Alex, plural, meetups. Some of you will remember the last year, we did a meetup at a Brooklyn Cyclones game at the end of July. It was a ton of fun. I had a great time. Did you have a great time?
ALEX: An amazing time.
BOBBY: Well, I had such a great time that we’re going to do it again at the end of July once more. The date for Tipping Pitches meetup part one, Saturday July 27th 6:00 PM Eastern time against the Rome Emperors, the high a— affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Stakes are high. Rivalry game. If you are interested in coming to this, there’ll be a link to purchase tickets that will get you tickets in the same section as us and the rest of the folks who will be coming to the Tipping Pitches Brooklyn meetup. I’m really emphasizing the Brooklyn and the part one a lot here because we are— we are going to be doing a second meetup at a Major League game in the Midwest in August, but we are still nailing down the details and we will follow up about the specifics of that possibly next week. For— for the first meetup in Brooklyn, end of— end of July, we will have a link. The link is not live yet, so you cannot purchase these tickets yet. But rest assured, dear listener, when you can, if you’re a patron you will see it in the Slack or in the Patreon messenger. And you’ll also see it in the link to next week’s episode. But we wanted to put it on people’s radars because, obviously, that’s coming up in a little bit less than a month. So if you, you know, are planning your travel or making plans or whatever, that’s the date that we have circled.
ALEX: Yeah. And— and rest assured, we’ve been playing this for weeks— nay— nay, months, I would say, which is why we have the link ready to go and everything. We’ve been thinking about this for a really long time.
BOBBY: Summer snuck up on us. Saturday, July 27th, the Tipping Pitches meetup in Brooklyn at the Cyclones game against the Rome Emperors.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: 6:00 PM. I’m excited.
ALEX: Yeah. Midwest in August, let’s do it. And then—
BOBBY: And then you’re going to introduce Biden at the Democratic Convention right after.
ALEX: No, I’m going with him to welcome the world champion Texas Rangers to the White House to see if he has any gaffe. I’m gonna bring my printed bingo card.
BOBBY: Is he gonna live that long? We’ll see. Do you want to answer some questions?
ALEX: Let’s do it.
BOBBY: If you have any questions about the meetup, specifically, and they weren’t answered in that incredibly detailed announcement, of course, as always, feel free to reach out, tipping_pitches on Twitter, tipping pitchespod@gmail.com. This probably is not an example of where you should call the voicemail. I probably won’t answer your question about the meetup if you do it via voicemail, but any other ways, you might—
ALEX: You might get on the mailbag episode a couple of months from now, though.
BOBBY: Okay. Let’s go to our listener questions for this week, Alex. First question comes from the Slack. It comes from Christina. “What would cause someone to wear a Guillermo Heredia Mets jersey to a Twins at Mariners game? I’m trying to develop the backstory behind seeing this in the wild.”
ALEX: I feel like Guillermo Heredia Mets jersey. Like, that’s a weird place to start. Like—
BOBBY: Yes. Seeing as he had 18 played appearances for the Mets.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: In a seven-year career. The craziest thing, Alex, is that it’s a Mets jersey, but he played 300 games for the Mariners, and it was at a Mariners game.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Right.
BOBBY: So I think what would possess the person to wear it is Guillermo Heredia would most closely be associated with the Mariners. And so I guess there could, in theory, be a Mariners fan who liked Heredia, but for some reason owns a Mets jersey. Honestly, there’s a nonzero chance that the person who was wearing this jersey is listening to this right now. And if they are, that would be our greatest stroke of luck in investigative journalism in the history of the show. More likely they listen to Baseball Bar-B-Cast, though.
ALEX: Right. Look, you don’t choose who you love. Okay?
BOBBY: Whether it’s two weeks of Guillermo Heredia in Queens.
ALEX: Or a lifetime of John Fisher, you know? See, I— I respect the approach. I think that, honestly, you generate far more conversation around a jersey like that than you would wearing another Julio Rodriguez jersey.
BOBBY: Yeah, especially since Julio Rodriguez is bad now.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Are you aware of his OPS?
ALEX: No. What is it? Like .580?
BOBBY: It’s not bad. He’s not Jeff McNeil. Jesus.
ALEX: Well, I— I— I saw the other day that Mariners fans are doing the Trea Turner thing, where they’re like, having a cheer night for— you know, like, “Oh, when he gets to the plate during this at-bat, we’re gonna all stand up and give him an ovation, and show him how much we love him.”
BOBBY: So you thought it was really in the tank? .635, Alex. That’s not good. That’s good for an .87 OPS plus. This guy’s the future of baseball here.
ALEX: What is he like 23?
BOBBY: Yeah, if that— no. 21.
ALEX: What? No.
BOBBY: No, that’s when his debut was. Sorry, he’s 23.
ALEX: Hmm. Yeah, so like, I mean, that’s a very nice gesture.
BOBBY: He was born on December 29th, 2000. Yeah, he was wearing diapers during 9/11, but so were you.
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: Got ’em.
ALEX: Okay. Do you have any more— do you have any—
BOBBY: And so is Joe Biden.
ALEX: Do you have any more questions? Are we gonna end the pod here?
BOBBY: I have more questions. Next question—
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: —comes from Chris. Serious question. “Is there a sport or league where you feel like they actually have the economics right? Where everyone’s getting a fair shake or as close as possible in the league is thriving as a result?” And then Chris also offers a silly question. “Uncle Steve offers to buy tipping pitches on the condition that negative discussion about the Mets is now banned. What’s your price?” I’ll let you choose your own adventure as to which question we start with, the serious or the silly.
ALEX: I’m— I’m kind of curious about question two, frankly, which I— I feel like I might have to turn to you, because—
BOBBY: I’ve been thinking all day about this.
ALEX: Okay. Well, the time has come.
BOBBY: The condition is that the Met— negative discussion about the Mets is— is banned, but not— he has no other editorial control over the pod.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Otherwise, Chris would have specified.
ALEX: Okay, yeah.
BOBBY: The price is pretty low, honestly. I could easily do this podcast without talking negatively about the Mets.
ALEX: Yeah?
BOBBY: Yeah. What’s the— I don’t know. Like $500,000?
ALEX: I guess it’s partially a question too of— of how it’s policed, right? Are they going to— they’re just gonna have someone listening to every episode once it comes out?
BOBBY: Well, they already do.
ALEX: Okay, fair.
BOBBY: Each owner has a designated emissary who has to listen to every Tipping Pitches episode within 24 hours of when it comes out.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Just to make sure that we haven’t dunked on them too hard.
ALEX: You know, you joked.
BOBBY: Well, we haven’t been sued yet, so that leads me to believe that no one from anywhere important is listening to this show.
ALEX: Okay. $500,000 to never talk negatively about the New York Mets on the podcast, Tipping Pitches.
BOBBY: Well, so it’s kind of unclear to me, like he offers to buy Tipping Pitches.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Does that mean that any of the profit from Tipping Pitches then goes to him?
ALEX: Right. What is the contract construction here?
BOBBY: Like, do I also have to price in— yeah, exactly. As you know—
ALEX: To own intellectual property?
BOBBY: —the devil is in details. Do we still own the IP? Can we still monetize it however we want to? Do we have to start selling ads for SNY and calling them the best booth in baseball because as you know, we can’t let that fly.
ALEX: Do you— let’s start with this question. Steve Cohen wants to buy Tipping Pitches, do you enter negotiations with him? Are you like—yeah. He’s— he wants to buy Tipping Pitches and says, “I will let you keep doing your thing and bankroll it.” Are we— are we in?
BOBBY: See, I almost feel like we have been so obvious about our stances that it’s like kind of impossible to sell out to the owners.
ALEX: Right. It’s their way of, like, cordoning us off almost, you know? “Hey, we’ll fund you. I’ll let you do your thing. Keep things positive, keep things light.”
BOBBY: I mean, of course, there’s a number.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But the important caveat here being that you don’t have to talk positively about the Mets or Steve Cohen. You just can’t talk negatively about them. So we just could— I mean, some would argue that we should just have this rule anyway. You could bend this—
ALEX: Some would argue we may have tried.
BOBBY: You could ban this next year.
ALEX: Do you— you’re right.
BOBBY: There’s no— there’s no rules about what you can or can’t ban.
ALEX: That’s— interesting.
BOBBY: I mean, there’s common sense things, like don’t ban things that will make it impossible for us to have a show.
ALEX: I worry about—
BOBBY: Frankly, the fact that we banned the jersey, the discussion of the City Connect jerseys, was one of the greatest things we’ve ever done.
ALEX: Thank you. Yeah. Not needed. You know what they’ve been? [bleep] I’m sorry if I’m breaking our ban right now.
BOBBY: You are. What are you doing? I have to bleep that.
ALEX: Okay, that’s fine. The listeners can wonder whether I said they were anything at all. Do I worry that banning the Mets on the podcast would actually do irreparable— irreparable damage to our friendship outside of the podcast?
BOBBY: Why? Because I wouldn’t shut up about them?
ALEX: I just— I worry that would be your outlet, which I— which is fine. But hey, I’m— I’m here for you.
BOBBY: But the— our friendship was formed when that was the case. We didn’t have a podcast when we became friends. You opted into this. And if anything, I’ve gotten more mellow about the Mets over the years. You— you can’t deny that. Come on.
ALEX: It scares me a little bit, but you’re— you’re not wrong.
BOBBY: Again, I reiterate, the royal we, the world, is thankful that Tipping Pitches did not exist in— for the 2015 playoff run.
ALEX: Yeah. You got that right. Was there another question? I— I seem to recall.
BOBBY: Yes. Is— well, you didn’t answer? What’s your price? I said 500,000.
ALEX: I mean, it’s— it feels like pretty easy from—for me. My answer is however much money he wants to— I already don’t do that. So whatever you want to give to me, it’s just extra money lining my pockets. Oh, you don’t want me to talk negatively about the Mets? Okay.
BOBBY: The number for the A’s is higher.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: To not talk negatively about the A’s, John Fisher would have to spend— it would be in the millions.
ALEX: That’s really [27:31] but, like—
BOBBY: I just have so many more questions, like do we have to go around advertising they were owned by Steve Cohen? Does he get to own the intellectual property? Like, these are things that change the price.
ALEX: Right. Like, are we advertising on the Michael K. show on ESPN, discussing how we are the best booth in baseball?
BOBBY: Owned by Steve Cohen.
ALEX: Owned Steve Cohen, exactly.
BOBBY: Okay. Next question— or Chris’ first question, his real question.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: “Is there a sport or a league where you feel like they actually have the economics right? Where everyone’s getting a fair shake or as close as possible, and the league is thriving as a result?” I don’t really think so. I think the closest we probably have right now is the NBA, only because it’s ascending and popular in their media rights deals are really high at the moment and there are fewer players on their roster. So therefore, there are fewer people splitting up the player side of the pie, so that’s— NBA salaries are actually the highest in sports right now. I know that the total contracts in baseball end up being higher, because of the length of the contracts. But year over year, it’s like the NBA max extension, which is not a concept that exists in baseball, but in basketball it does because it’s a salary cap league. I mean, those players are making like— they’re gonna be making, like, in the 60s. That’s like double what baseball players make. That’s a double what Mike Trout makes. So that’s probably the one that’s the closest at the moment, and the NBA also is a league that gets like role players paid, because it’s pretty easy to prove— it’s easy to understand but harder to— to prove against, like harder to suppress the value of a role player in basketball than it is in baseball. But outside of that, I mean, I don’t know that much about the economics of hockey. I just know that they don’t really have long careers and therefore, they aren’t really able to command as much high salary, and they have less money— less revenue coming into the pool to begin with. And football is a disaster.
ALEX: Yeah. Non-guaranteed contracts.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Not great. I think I’d agree with you, the NBA having probably the strongest revenue sharing split helps things immensely. And that’s also the league where the players— the individual players probably have the most power, for better for worse.
BOBBY: Right. Until Barack Obama calls them and tells them not to do their [30:17]
ALEX: Exactly. Ouch.
BOBBY: Open change, Alex.
ALEX: There goes my [30:25] vote.
BOBBY: Next question, we’re gonna go to the voicemail for.
SHINER: Hey, fellas, it’s me again. Forget to leave my name last time, it’s Shiner. And I am a Phillis fan. All I’m saying here, it’s just, you know, Alex, pick a side. That’s all, man. You can’t be a Mets fan and a fake Phillies. You can be one or the other. But Mets and Phillies, as Bobby knows, no bueno. No good at all. No good. Just pick a side, man. It’s all good.
BOBBY: What do you have to say to Shiner?
ALEX: Why— what— what do you mean? Why can’t I do both? I’m confused.
BOBBY: I like when he says, “You can’t be a Mets fan and a fake Phillies fan. You can be one or the other.” That’s really funny. That’s a funny call.
ALEX: Like, I can’t even pretend to also be a Phillies fan.
BOBBY: You can be a Mets fan, you could be a fake Phillies fan, but you can’t be both.
ALEX: Yeah. And to be clear—
BOBBY: And which have you choose—
ALEX: —I will never be a real Phillies fan because that was never in the picture.
BOBBY: Obviously not. I think there is a certain amount of time that you can put in, where you can be— what do— naturalized into Phillies fandom, but you’re nowhere near— nowhere near it.
ALEX: Right. Assimilated—
BOBBY: You haven’t had really enough [31:48] in the four hundreds at Citizens Bank Park. You did put—
ALEX: No, one—
BOBBY: —on quite a performance at XFINITY Live though, but not enough fights broke out.
ALEX: Right. Yeah, one quiz on 10,000 losses, does not a Phillies fan make me—
BOBBY: Right, exactly.
ALEX: —unfortunately. But by the way, quick update, I— I don’t know if you knew this. This is absolutely massive, 900% match unlocked until midnight to crush Trump once and for all. Just— just—
BOBBY: Another 900% [32:18]
ALEX: Alert just— just came in. They up— they up it by 100% each time.
BOBBY: All right. Well, I’ll be donating all my life savings, then. I mean, it’s a 900% match. You can’t afford not to.
ALEX: No. In fact, we here at Tipping— I was going to announce our own match, but we’ll wait until next— next week.
BOBBY: Well, I was gonna say it’s economically viable. In fact, it’s economically advisable for me to donate my entire life savings to Biden, so that when he wins, he can forgive student loans and I don’t have to pay those off, right? He’s gonna do that.
ALEX: Well—
BOBBY: If he wins.
ALEX: Yes, exactly. Well, what I’m doing is I’m— I’m giving mine in— in crypto, so that not only can you hold the assets, but the assets are going to rise in time.
BOBBY: Face value, yeah. How much crypto do you currently have? What’s your portfolio look like? Take us through your— take us through, line by line, through your financial portfolio.
ALEX: Yeah, I think I have— I mean, I’ve got, you know, a dozen or so Bitcoin.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Some— some Ethereum as well.
BOBBY: Uh-huh. What’s your ne— what’s your net worth?
ALEX: I have a bunch of— I have a bunch of Terracoin that I don’t really know what to do with, frankly, and the Nationals are not returning my calls.
BOBBY: Standing outside Nats Park being like—
ALEX: “Help, excuse me, I have a bag of Terracoin here.” You say, what’s my net worth?
BOBBY: I saw a guy— yeah. Is it in the positives, the negatives? I saw a guy on the 7 Train, unclear if he was going to the Mets game. He was wearing a Bathing Ape T-shirt.
ALEX: Sick.
BOBBY: You have some Bathing Ape—
ALEX: Was— was that it? That was the story. It was just you saw a guy in a Bathing Ape shirt.
BOBBY: That’s also— what do you want me to do, walk up and talk to him? Would you go— go up and talk to the guy in the Bating Ape shirt?
ALEX: Wait, but— but to be clear, that is not the crypto thing. That’s just like a—
BOBBY: It’s not?
ALEX: It’s like a fashion brand. No.
BOBBY: Oh. Well, if it’s not the same, that’s fine.
ALEX: Tha— that’s not the same as like— that’s not—
BOBBY: I see now, why you were asking me if that was the whole story.
ALEX: I was like— that’s like telling me you saw a guy in a Uniqlo shirt. I’m like, “Damn. Did you tell him he got a good deal?”
BOBBY: That’s not my apes gone guy. That’s not what that is.
ALEX: No, I don’t think so.
BOBBY: Was that a boomer moment for me? Like is Bathing Ape like a young people thing?
ALEX: I don’t— it’s like a Hypebeast thing.
BOBBY: All right. Well, then, I feel proud that I didn’t know.
ALEX: Yes, that was good on you.
BOBBY: So what’s the name of the Ape’s—
ALEX: That’s some real virtue signaling on your part.
BOBBY: What’s the name of the Ape’s guy? What’s the name of the Ape’s brand?
ALEX: Bored Ape.
BOBBY: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: Not Bathing Ape, Bored Ape.
BOBBY: You can see how I would mix that up.
ALEX: Bored Ape Yacht Club. Yeah.
BOBBY: Right. That Twitter thread when the guy got his ape stolen was the best— the best day of my life. I woke up today and all my apes are gone.
ALEX: Anyway, all my apes are gone, because I gave them to Joe.
BOBBY: Well, now he’s gonna get elected. Okay. Next question comes from Brandon. “If you had the power to make one person the best baseball player in the league, what would be the best, worst, funniest player to choose?” Well, you do have this power. You just don’t give it away for free and no one’s paid you in apes yet.
ALEX: Or offered to buy by podcast. I could do it, I could do it to Jeff McNeil, Steve. There’s— we’ve just un— we’ve just uncovered the condition.
BOBBY: That’s an unholy power.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: If it has the power to make Jeff McNeil the best baseball player in the league.
ALEX: What— so the— the question was best, worst, funniest?
BOBBY: Correct.
ALEX: I feel like all of those definitions are a little bit malleable.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Nick Castellanos. I think he might actually be the worst player in baseball right now.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: I don’t know if that would be good.
BOBBY: It’d be the worst for famous people.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: There’s a whole slew of players that it’d be funny just because they’re random. You know, like, it’d be pretty funny if I could just make Luis Torrens the best player in baseball.
ALEX: Right. But—
BOBBY: But I don’t think that’s funniest.
ALEX: Right. Well, the— the problem with what is funniest is that oftentimes what makes players entertaining or funny is that they are not the best player in baseball.
BOBBY: Correct.
ALEX: And yet, they’re doing whatever they’re doing on the field. So if you just turned Luis Torrens into the best player in baseball, then he would just be the best player in baseball. And then we would all say, “I wish I drafted him on my fantasy team.”
BOBBY: I could turn Jose Iglesias into the best player in baseball.
ALEX: There you go.
BOBBY: Now, that would be funny.
ALEX: Now, we’re cooking with fire.
BOBBY: Because he’s already— he’s already kind of halfway there.
ALEX: The best player in baseball, yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. Harrison Bader. I’m already in actually my new policy of not talking negatively about the Mets.
ALEX: Yeah, I’m a fan.
BOBBY: The real answer is I would make Mike Trout the best player in baseball again.
ALEX: Hmm. Aw. That’s really sad, actually. I know— I mean, if I had the power, I would revive— like, are we limiting this to active players?
BOBBY: Yeah, I think so.
ALEX: Can I make Robinson Cano the best player in baseball again? He can take whatever he needs to get there.
BOBBY: Sure, he’s— was he ever the best player in baseball?
ALEX: No. Did I say again?
BOBBY: You did.
ALEX: Sorry.
BOBBY: Hot take, number one—
ALEX: Late—
BOBBY: —he signed a 10-year $240 million contract and everybody was like, “We— the world may never recover.”
ALEX: And honestly, it never did. I’m still thinking about it.
BOBBY: I think it would be a worthy use to make Triston Casas the best player in baseball, because it would make a lot of people insane.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And I think that would be pretty funny. Namely, because Triston Casas is kind of a weird guy.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Not in like an exceptional way. Honestly, he’s just like your garden variety weird but for whatever reason, because he like goes out into the field barefoot to touch the grass to feel connected to the Earth before games, that makes a lot of people feel really traumatized. I think it’d be funny if that made him the best player in baseball, and then people would have to just by nature be like, “I don’t know what to do with that.”
ALEX: Right. You’d have Red Sox fans showing up in bare feet, being like, “I’m just like him, for real.”
BOBBY: Wait, actually, no, I can’t do that, then. Do you think—
ALEX: Javier Baez?
BOBBY: Oh. Ooh. do you think that if you turned the worst player in baseball into the best player in baseball, it would be an interesting enough story to, like, grab national attention/
ALEX: I mean— okay. I— I think maybe the timing of it matters a little bit, too. Is it just— the date is June 30th and Martin Maldonado is— is toiling away on the White Sox. And then the calendar flips to July and he’s the best player. Maybe because I tend to think that would make waves a little bit. This journeyman, you know, backup catcher, all of a sudden, is— is—
BOBBY: Maldonado would definitely make waves.
ALEX: —is outpacing, you know, Aaron Judge on the year.
BOBBY: A better ans— a better question, honestly, and this is a good question. Thank you— thank you, Brandon. A better question, honestly, is if you had the power to make one player the worst baseball player in the league, who would you choose?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Who can you not stand they’re good?
ALEX: I think Aaron Judge.
BOBBY: I think that’s the right answer, yeah. That’s why— that’s why I thought of it.
ALEX: Yeah. Disarm every argument.
BOBBY: It would be the player— that would be the player that would upset the most people.
ALEX: Right. Like if tomorrow, Aaron Judge woke up and couldn’t hit water if he fell off a boat.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: That’d be sad.
BOBBY: Honestly, I might use that power on Marcel Ozuna, too.
ALEX: Well, yeah.
BOBBY: That’s for different reasons. There’s gotta be guys we’re forgetting.
ALEX: Are we on the making a bad player good or a good player bad?
BOBBY: No— a bad player good. Maybe big Eduardo Escobar, the best player in baseball. I love that guy.
ALEX: Yeah. He deserves nice things.
BOBBY: That’s my answer. I’d make Eduardo Escobar the best player in baseball. Previously, I would have made Sean Doolittle the best player in baseball. Imagine if Doolittle was like Ohtani.
ALEX: Do you think we would still have gotten him on?
BOBBY: I mean, he started as a hitter, so it’s not that very far-fetched.
ALEX: It’s true. Not a bad one.
BOBBY: He started as a hitter and it didn’t work out. And then they’re like, “You’re a reliever now.” And he was like, “Cool, but I’ll only throw one pitch.” And they were like, “That’ll work.” Do I think he still would have come on if he was the best player in baseball? Well, the more interesting question is, what if he came on when he came on and then we made him the best player in baseball after that? Would he have come on again?
ALEX: Right. Do you press your luck?
BOBBY: Like, what if the power is anyone who comes on the pod becomes the best player in baseball? And we grant a new player the way that Susan Sarandon’s character in Bull Durham grants a new player by sleeping with them, but we invite them on the pod.
ALEX: But it’s just with players. Like, it’s not like—
BOBBY: We could not turn John Smoltz into the best broadcaster in baseball, no. No one has that power, not even God.
ALEX: That’s good to know, just for the booking for the next six months or so.
BOBBY: All right, next question. Let’s go back to the voicemail.
JAMES: Hi, this is a James calling in current college baseball player, actually new— relatively new listener to the pod. I— I was wondering if you guys have been paying attention to some of the recent movements in the college baseball world, specifically the— the Jim Schlossnagle moved from Texas A&M to Texas, and sort of immediate discourse around that. And the—that combined with the, you know, the end of— the end of season, every— end of season press conference from college coaches railing on players for lack of loyalty and the trends report on how it’s ruining the integrity of the game and college sports. And it seems to me like there’s some sort of double standard that coaches expect players to adhere to, but don’t expect themselves to adhere to. Especially— which I think is especially damaging when you’re dealing with 18-year-old kids and 20-year-old kids, et cetera who’ve, you know, possibly never even lived away from home before. So, you know, I was just calling to see if you guys had been paying attention to that, what are your guys’ thoughts were on that as it pertains to labor or— I guess as a— I guess, quote-unquote, “labor” given that it’s the NCAA and nobody’s getting paid, really. And yeah, I’ll hang up now on and listen to your answer.
BOBBY: What a phenomenal question. Active college baseball player, do you think this makes James our the Tipping Pitches community’s best based— current— best current baseball player?
ALEX: Yeah. I’m not counting the active players listening.
BOBBY: Do you think there are active players listening?
ALEX: Oh, I guess Sean’s not active anymore. Okay.
BOBBY: And neither is Trevor. See, he was more like we’re a curse of death for coming on the pod and you’re just done after that.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: What about Collin McHugh, too, he’s— is he done, too?
ALEX: Dallas Keuchel? No, he didn’t come on.
BOBBY: Dallas Keuchel was on the pod?
ALEX: I don’t know why [44:15] I just have always confused Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh.
BOBBY: That’s insane.
ALEX: No reason why.
BOBBY: Just polar opposite vibes, different handed pitchers.
ALEX: Different handed pitchers.
BOBBY: One has a ginormous beard and by the way, won the Cy Young. And the other is Collin McHugh, whom I love.
ALEX: But both played for the Astros and have a C and an H next to each other in their names. Dallas, Colin, loosely the same. If you get rid of most of the beginning and end letters.
BOBBY: What do you think about this question from James? I think James has the belt until someone challenges him as the baseball player in the Tipping Pitches community.
ALEX: James is right. It’s an interesting way that I think the dynamics of college sports, especially with regards to labor and coaches and players are— it’s kind of laid out in full view for everyone to see the story, right? For those who aren’t aware, is that the Texas A&M Aggies were coached to the college baseball World Series, by their head coach, Jim Schlossnagle. And he came out and basically said, “I’m in it for the long run.” Right. He gave this big press conference after they lost in the World Series and says, you know, “I’m”— something to the effect of, “I’m here to stay. Right. “I’m not— I’m not going anywhere else. I took this job to make sure that it was the last one—”
BOBBY: Quote, “I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again.”
ALEX: Exactly. Exactly. And then days later, not only goes to coach the Texas Longhorns, but takes his coaching staff as well. It’s kind of a sick move.
BOBBY: ESPN put together a list of all the coaches who said that they would not leave and then immediately left. Like Brian Kelly, who was the coach at Notre Dame, the football coach at Notre Dame, quote, “Unless that fairy godmother comes by with that $250 million check, I’m not gonna leave.” And then he left for 95 million. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but that’s really funny.
ALEX: No, no, that’s— I— an important context, I think. That— this is— this comes in a lineage of these sorts of shenanigans, right? And as pointed out by James, right, college athletes often get a lot of flack for transferring between seasons, so that they can, you know, maybe get an— a better opportunity, playing in a better team. Whatever it is, it does reveal a certain double standard, and— and frankly, I think it reveals a lot about— I think it is interesting to view in the context of control over your own labor, and the idea that a coach should probably be able to work wherever he wants to work, for whatever he’s able to negotiate that. It’s an interesting question of like, what role loyalty plays in sports generally? And whether a coach, or a player, or whoever owes you or a team, a degree of loyalty. But ultimately, at the end of the day, a lot of these people are making choices for themselves and their family. And that’s probably a fine thing to do.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: And it’s probably fine and even good when college players get to do that when they oftentimes have the most leverage.
BOBBY: I think that we’re in a historic period of, honestly, just whining in the college ranks from the coaches side. It seems as though they are, for the first time, not— a college coach, right, college coaches have as close to total control and power over how they run their operation as you get in sports. Because college sports are like a big money thing, so they have a ton of resources. College sports at the high division one level are a big money thing because they— so they get lots of— they get a lot of resources, and winning is a priority to a lot of universities and college sports, particularly in football, but in all sports, basketball, baseball included, soccer. But because it’s college and because you’re perceived for a long time, because the NCAA did a lot of work to keep athletes perceived as students as kids. The coach is perceived as running a program and the athletes, the players have to fit in to that program, and the coach has total control over their role in that. And how much they play, and what position they play, and all these different things. So when you get to the professional level, it’s like, “We all understand that the coach is not always in total control here. I mean, they are in control of certain clerical things. They’re in control of certain managerial responsibilities, but they are not the most important person and they are certainly not the least replaceable.” In fact, in a lot of cases, they are the most replaceable, and that’s how we think of value in these weird closed- loop economies that we’ve created in sports. It’s like replaceability, that’s your value. If you’re— you’re irreplaceable, you usually get paid more. If you’re irreplaceable, you usually have a level of freedom and flexibility over how you operate. And for whatever reason, college athletic directors like to give that level of control to coaches, I think, mainly because they have a chance to stay there for longer. At most, the only— the longest you’re ever going to have a college athlete is four years, and you can’t build $100 million program on four years of one 18-year-old, you know? And so they don’t respect the players that much, as much as they would respect LeBron, or Steph Curry, or Gerrit Cole, or Jacob deGrom, you know? And so, I think that there are some of those residual factors at play here as to why coaches feel the confidence to operate this way, because they’ve been told that they’re the most valuable. They get paid the most. They get recruited into the cushiest opportunities. In many cases, a lot of these coaches are like the highest paid public officials in their state, because they work for a public university, which is insane. I think it’s an incredible double standard and we’re in like a historic moment for coaches whining about this, because for the first time, because of the Supreme Court ruling about name, image and likeness, which we’ve talked about on the show before, for the first time, players have some of this— an actual ability to wrestle back some of that control, and coaches are now seeing what it’s like to not completely win the power imbalance, which they have gotten to do for the last 85 years of college sports. A lot of them seem— honestly, they just sound like old man yelling at cloud. You know, like, “Ba— back in my day, players didn’t question what I told them. They did what I said.” And now players not only have the ability to question that, the— they have some weight behind it, they have the ability to leave if they don’t like the answer to the question that they’re asking. I think, like you said, the answer should just be to allow players that flexibility to move as much as they feel they want or need, to be in control of their own destiny. I don’t necessarily think the answer is to take coach’s ability away to leave.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: You know, but like to say that there’s some sort of non—enforceable non-compete. At the end of the day, I think that the rules in place should allow people to have the flexibility to do things like choose the opportunity that is best for them. But I also think the Jim Schloss— Schlossnagle thing is a good example of how rules and regulations don’t always capture the whole story. Like, these are commitments that players made to come play for a person and he’s abandoning them. And granted, some of those people can probably transfer and go play for him at Texas if they want to, but they didn’t make that choice. They went to— they chose to go to Texas A&M. And not everybody will have that ability or— or will want to leave that program and go play somewhere else, go live in Austin.
ALEX: In fact, that entire pitching staff might instead post on— post subtle Instagram posts about loyalty, about Bible verses.
BOBBY: At that point, it’s less about the rules and regulations governing how a coach operate, and it’s more about person-to-person. It’s more about humanity, which I think seems like a naive thing to say. But in college sports isn’t, because you still have to recruit people. You still have to prove that you’re somebody that these athletes want to be around, want to entrust their development to you. And sure, you could say that people make their decision now based on who’s going to cut them the biggest check, the biggest name, image and likeness check. But I don’t think everybody makes their choice based on that. And at some— at some point, it’s kind of close enough, like you’re going to be able to— especially with the way that, like, online marketing works, your— your NIL deal, you should— between top programs, that shouldn’t be that drastically different. And that— that humanity, that person-to-person element of being able to go in there and honestly, spout things like hard work, and loyalty, and trust. You’re just undercutting yourself at that point. Which I think is where Schlossnagle probably nets out at with the way this situation unfolded. And I also— if I’m not mistaken, I think he did this with his previous job, too. Prior to Texas A&M.
ALEX: Right. Which I think was TCU.
BOBBY: He’s gonna coach at every baseball school in Texas. Rice next?
ALEX: Right. And— and— and this doesn’t happen in a vacuum, right? I mean, he came out and has said— talked since about kind of more of his rationale around leaving some of the shakeups that happened within the university’s athletic department, partially of the athletic director. He’s also been advocating for renovations to the team’s park, which have been like delayed, right? So it’s like there’s all these things that are going on behind the scenes, but I— I think your point about it being about person-to-person relationship is, like, important, because the best-case scenario is the— the person leading your various athletic programs, the coaches and the athletic directors, whoever, are like teachers, right? They are— they are there—
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: —for the duration of your experience on the team. And they’re drawing on years of experience that they had with the kids before you and the kids that are come aft— gonna come after you, and you— and they’re building relationships with the people around the team. And that’s not to say that it’s incumbent upon every coach to do that, to just give themselves over to a school for life or whatever.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: But when you are paying the lip service to saying you want to build something, and then walking away from it, like I think people are gonna feel hurt by that. It’s only human.
BOBBY: It kind of reminds me, like, how we’ve talked about some of the ways that front office’s work at the Major League level, where it’s like, if all you’re doing is ruthlessly chasing efficiency at all costs, you’re gonna get a reputation for people not wanting to try that hard for your organization, or just not trusting that the trap door is not going to fall, and they’re going to— you’re going to be out of the organization. And there’s actually a little bit of an— weirdly now, a little bit of an inefficiency and just treating people well, whether that be at the Minor League development level, or whether that be just like signing people who are fun to be around, also good, obviously, but— but are maybe not what like the model would say is the best option all the time, but you’re willing to do that out of some archaic notion of chemistry perhaps, or just vibes, whatever you want to call it. Like, the Phillies call it vibes. The Rangers last year called it chemistry. Either way, they’re run by GMs, who are really smart guys, but are not running their team like the Rays. And the vibes in Tampa, not so hot at present.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: That was kind of a really long answer, but I thought a really interesting question about something that we talked about a lot.
ALEX: Yeah. Thank you, James, for bringing it up.
BOBBY: Next question.
[57:57]: “Hi, Bobby and Alex. This is [57:58] Trey, a longtime listener, second time caller. I have an interesting baseball predicament that I’d like your guys’ two cents on. So I have a friend who I met in college, who recently immigrated to the United States and as such as developing completely new sports standards in this country. So he’s now living in New York City and has been trying to decide what his baseball team should be. I find this extremely fascinating because I’m a Mets fan and a Giants fan, and both of those are due to my parents being from Brooklyn and this has been handed down, this has been intuitive as such. So the idea of this developing, you know, your own sports fandom, and deciding which teamwork fits your identity rather than just having it being handed down has been really fascinated fascinating to me. You know, since he’s in New York, he keeps oscillating between the Yankees and the Mets, which is an athame I know, but— and I’ve told him he’s just got to pick one. Rooting for the Yankees seems like a— sold this endeavor to me, but at the same time, I never encouraged someone to willingly sign up for the Mets. But he’s enjoying the Mets right now, the— the fan base at least during the Grimace Era and, you know, there’s a lot of cool people on Twitter to follow. He’s found comparatively less cool people on the Yankees Twitter, which I think is somewhat indicative. But regardless of that, he’s also new to the country, but— so he— you know, as a kid, he knew of the New York Yankees just because of the worldwide branding and he likes that iconic brand. He likes being associated with Ruth, to Gehrig, and DiMaggio and all that. But I don’t know. It’s— I— I’ve been trying to help him go through that. I’ve never seen someone tried to develop their own sports fandom in real time and be in genuine crisis from the conflict, so I thought you guys might find this interesting. Especially, Alex, I know you went through this a bit yourself, even if you’re a Phillies fandom is a bit of a hoax. But if you guys have any words of wisdom, or any thoughts, or any reflections on the whole fandom picking process, I’d like to know. Thanks. Let’s go Mets. Bye.
BOBBY: Let’s go Mets is right. Thank you for calling. What do you think? This is a conundrum. Someone who wants the prestige of Yankees fandom but finds the vibes to be horrendous. I don’t know—
ALEX: That’s kind of a rob, isn’t it?
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. I don’t know if I’ve ever really talked about this on the podcast, but like— so I was raised a Mets fan. I was— it was not like a Montagues and Capulets kind of situation. Like— like, we didn’t burn Yankees flags in my house growing up. There was like— because my grandparents had lived in New York since prior to the Mets existing, and so it wasn’t like— like they were New York Giants fans, they left. They did not follow them to San Francisco. And so— but they didn’t hate the Yankees in the time period where there was no second team. And so the— I think that I grew up in a little bit of a softer on the Yankees household and I— I understand, and I can appreciate what— it’s not Yankees fandom because I was never a Yankees fan. Like, Yankees understanding teaches you about the history of the game, like what this caller is talking about, when you have a thread of history from, you know, Ruth to Gehrig, to DiMaggio. Tough period there for a little while. To the ’90s dynasties, you know? It’s like you can at least track the thread of baseball history through the history of the Yankees in a way that is compelling. All that being said, you don’t need to be a fan to do that, and so I don’t find that—
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: —to be that compelling of a case as to why you should become a Yankees fan. And I do think not only does it feel soulless to become a Yankees fan, because that’s not true. People are really passionate about— people are passionate about the Yankees, and they mean it, you know? Like, people really do live and die with this team. It’s not a joke, it’s not a bit, even if it’s annoying.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I think the thing—
ALEX: I like my fandom.
BOBBY: I think the thing that feels the worst about it is that they’re never pleased. They’re never pleased. It’s like so annoying how they treat like, “Oh, just get into the playoffs and being great every year. That’s just the standard, so we would never accept anything less than that, and that doesn’t make us happy.” They can’t, like, appreciate the joy day-to-day, the way that other fan bases, who have been a little bit more hard on [1:02:25] So that’s why I would say, that’s why I would make the case. That’s how I would make the case for being a Mets fan over a Yankees fan. It’s still probably not wise and you should probably just become a Dodgers fan, frankly.
ALEX: Yeah. Well, I do think with— with a lot of these teams, it is a question of like, how much are you willing to sort of compartmentalize? How much of your fandom is going to be online is going to be interfacing with these narratives these dialogues every day? Because if you’re happy tuning into 160 Yankees games, and then turning the TV off after the game is over, and go into bed, win or lose. Great. Then go with the team that’s going to make you feel fulfilled in your fandom and make you feel like you’re engaging with the game in a historically apt light. I think that’s hard for most people these days.
BOBBY: Yeah. I just don’t know who’s happy with that. And that’s like, you’re losing so much of the picture of fandom. I’m not saying that, like Twitter is what makes people enjoy being a fan, but like—
ALEX: I don’t know what that is.
BOBBY: Sorry. I’m not saying that the only way to be a fan is to make posts on X, the everything platform. But I’m saying that, like, being in tune with what other fans are feeling, listening to podcasts, listening to radio shows, watching the postgame, listening to the broadcasters, having the dialogue, that should— makes a richer fan experience.
ALEX: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think— and I don’t think this was mentioned in the question, but like, going to a game is a really underrated way of vibing out who you can hang with.
BOBBY: I have bad news about Yankee Stadium, then.
ALEX: Is that— what? It’s a really good place to watch a baseball game?
BOBBY: No, it’s a shitty place to watch a baseball game.
ALEX: Here’s the thing is— I disagree. It is a— from an experience beyond that baseball is playing on the field perspective, it’s not great. Food options are not great.
BOBBY: And that’s what I mean.
ALEX: The stadium is not great. Watching a baseball game in the bleachers of Yankee Stadium for nine innings is an objectively amazing experience.
BOBBY: But, like, isn’t that true about most stadiums?
ALEX: I don’t know if that’s the case. Like it’s a little fun— it’s a little bit fun to be out there with all the folks, with [1:04:57]
BOBBY: With the bleacher creatures.
ALEX: —around you— with the bleacher creatures who have their shirts off. And you don’t know if this man’s jersey that he’s swinging around in the air is gonna hit you in the face.
BOBBY: One thing that bothers me about Yankees fans is that—
ALEX: Yeah, tell me the one thing.
BOBBY: —they all buy the jerseys that have the players’ names on the back, but the actual jerseys don’t have the names on the backs of why they sell those?
ALEX: I— true. But I— also, I think that’s on the league and not the— you know. It’s—
BOBBY: I mean— yes. I agree, I agree. The— but it’s just like— I wouldn’t buy a Mets jersey that didn’t have the name.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I don’t know. I’m a little lost in the sauce. I think that you could have an equally fun experience at Citi Field in the bleachers. The 7 Line could be equally as tastefully as annoying as the bleacher creatures.
ALEX: Sure. Yes. So this is your argument in favor of the 7 Line?
BOBBY: The only time you’ll get it.
ALEX: I don’t— I mean, honestly, like going to the game is like— that’s what’s gonna matter at the end of the day, right? Is whether you like the hotdog they’re selling.
BOBBY: Yeah, you’ll know. You’ll know. Yeah. You’ll know which one it is.
ALEX: It’s whether— it’s whether you’re getting razzed when you go there, is who is saying this is the year to you as you walk by. Only one stadium is gonna offer you that.
BOBBY: We have time for about two more questions and then we’ll save the rest for a future episode. Next question comes from Nick. “How far into the season is it acceptable”— this is a funny question. “Is it acceptable to start rooting against your team because you hate them? I’m definitely there with this Cubs team. How do expectations impact the timeline? Did White Sox fans have a pass to hate the team on opening day?” I think that expectations play the largest role.
ALEX: Huge role.
BOBBY: You can start hating your team if they just cut payroll all offseason. You can hate them before the season starts.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And you can root against them.
ALEX: Right. If you’re coming into the season and they have already indicated they’re trying to lose, or actively not trying to win, you can hate them at opening day, I think.
BOBBY: I— see, I pretty much, like, never actively root against my own team, but then again, I’m in a sort of unique circumstance, because it’s not really often in the last few years that the Mets are, like, tanking the team on purpose, not investing in the team, because Cohen is a madman. But it’s almost like— it’s almost tough to say because when the— when they’re cutting payroll, do you want to root against them? Because you’re giving them the result that they want. They want the team to be bad. So is it almost like I would li— I’d rather than be sneaky good in this circumstance. But when the team is unlikable and they just can’t get it together, and that feeling of being like, “Whatever. I hope they lose. They don’t deserve to win.” I think you have to make that call based on, like, the players, on the team, because you don’t want— like, if you still like the guys on the team, but the—
ALEX: I know, exactly.
BOBBY: —front office is just—
ALEX: Well, this is my thing with the A’s right now, right? Because I’m like, I don’t want to reward, Dave Kaval and John Fisher, but I also want the best for Zack Gelof, like— you know? For Abraham Toro.
BOBBY: But would it be rewarding John Fisher if they were winning?
ALEX: No. I don’t know— no, no, because he wants them to lose.
BOBBY: Exactly. So it’s like— there’s a lot of factors at play here. I think it is acceptable essentially the moment that you no longer like the vibe of the players in the team. Like, you no longer like— or the— or the— the manager or whatever it is, like you no longer enjoy it when they’re doing well, because if you want the players to still have this success, then you shouldn’t really root against your own team, I don’t think. But if you’re kind of like, “Whatever. Fuck this. This team— the sauce is not right. The ingredients are off. Too much Jeff McNeil. Not enough Jose Iglesias.” You can be like, “Fuck this team. I hope they lose.” I was there with the Mets in May. I’m obviously back in.
ALEX: Yeah. I think there’s— you have to be able to hold two thoughts in your head at once, too. You know, you can say, “I want bad things for the Oakland Athletics Baseball Corporation.”
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: “But I— I do want good things for Joe Boyle.”
BOBBY: I don’t know who that is.
ALEX: “Tyler Soderstrom.” Okay.
BOBBY: I do know who that is.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I know Soderstrom. It’s essentially— to put more succinctly, honestly, it’s essentially the moment where you would rather spend your time doing something else than watching the team, because then you can start rooting against them. Because if they’re losing all the time, you can justify it to yourself, “I’d rather watch two movies than watch the Mets.” At that point, you can start rooting against the team.
ALEX: I don’t— I don’t think that’s rooting against them, either. I think that’s self-preservation. That’s recognizing where they are.
BOBBY: But you’re kind of rooting against them, because if they were winning all the time, then you would have to watch it.
ALEX: What, you feel bad about it? Yeah.
BOBBY: Well, you should watch them, then. If your team’s like—— if your team wins 100 games, whether or not you dislike them, doesn’t really matter. You should probably watch them.
ALEX: So you’re just saying, at that point, you can feel justified in your own actions to—
BOBBY: Yes. You— you can—
ALEX: —say, “Well, I’m glad they’re losing because I’m choosing to watch the Fa— The Fast and the Furious.
BOBBY: Yes, exactly.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Although I would never— I would never. At least give me Mission Impossible, dude.
ALEX: Yes, I know. I know.
BOBBY: Okay. One final voicemail.
FRANCESCA: Hi, guys, this is Francesca. My question for you is, what your biggest sports journalism/sports broadcasting ick is? For me, it’s when broadcasters describe a team having gone through adversity, when literally they were just, like, down a couple runs in the ninth that they were losing, which is not the same thing as adversity. Sometimes athletes actually do have to go through something that is big and traumatic, and actually something that normal people would describe as adversity in their lives. But very rarely does that happen, like, on the actual field of play while teams or athletes individually are competing. But so often that phrase is used just to mean you were losing and then you pulled it out, and you won. So that’s mine, and I want to hear what your guys’ is. Okay. Bye.
BOBBY: What’s your biggest ick?
ALEX: Are we— we’re ruling out John Smoltz from this?
BOBBY: Just like his presence at all?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I think this is more—
ALEX: Like he is the red flag.
BOBBY: This is like more, like, a broader thing, I think, that Francesca was talking about.
ALEX: I mean— I mean, I— I think a lot of the— this is maybe really obvious, but a lot of the back in my day, kind of like— you know, the game used to be like this when I grew up. It’s like a very down the middle, like useless thing for everyone—
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: —sort of ick. Not that I think that reminiscing on past elements of the sport where your own nostalgia is like a bad thing, but I think it’s often wielded in a way that does not lend credence to like where the sport is now, right? It’s often used as a kind of binary like, “Well, things used to be like this and now they’re like this. And I think that doesn’t serve most fans who are watching the current game, not the past game. I don’t think it serves their overall knowledge of the game. So, like, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. I think you could go down a list of cliches, although I— I tend to think some of the cliches are— are fun, however meaningless they are.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I don’t know. Do you have one that jumps out?
BOBBY: I hate when broadcasters, like, make fun of another team’s player just because they’re on the other team. Like, something that you would never do if the guy was on your own team. Like, if they’re having a bad season and a broadcaster makes light of that, because they’re on the pirates and not— not the Mets. Although Gary Keith and Ron would never do that. This is something that way more booths do than I realized.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Because on— it’s only been over the last few years that I’ve started listening to, like, a lot of different teams, announcers, their local announcers. And even now, I don’t do that— much of that, because most often when I’m watching a game, it’s on mute. Unless it’s the Mets, because I just don’t have the time to watch that many different teams that actively with the game on and the audio on, because also my job involves me editing audio. So, like, right now, while we’ve been recording this podcast, I have been watching the Rangers and Orioles game the entire time on mute. Thankfully, because it’s the ESPN game, and also I don’t know if you know this, but the Orioles are getting smoked.
ALEX: I didn’t— I didn’t know that.
BOBBY: That really bothers me.
ALEX: Yeah, I mean, I guess kind of along those lines, but I think a lot of broadcasters play too fast and loose with, like, calling out fans, or like—
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: —going in on—
BOBBY: The brave one.
ALEX: —someone who’s watching the game, you know?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: “Well, this guy fell asleep in his seat. We’re going to turn the camera on him for a minute. Oh, this person is rambling on to the person they’re sitting next to. Oh, this person is on their phone and the play is taking place.”
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: “Okay. Sounds good. They paid money to be there.” Doesn’t— doesn’t impact my enjoyment of the game. Does it impact yours? Like, I don’t know. That’s not what people are signing up for.
BOBBY: I agree. I think Francesca is also asking more of like— more broadly like sports journalism tropes as well, broadcasting too, but also like— like the one that she said was talking about acting as if team went through adversity by being down in the game. That’s a good one. I— where I thought she was going was saying, like, pretending like a player went through adversity when they, like, got suspended.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That is an ick that I feel, like, is still somehow happening.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like, we’re still pretending like Marcel Ozuna, quote-unquote, “went through adversity.”
ALEX: Yeah. How’d he get there?
BOBBY: Exactly. Who caused the—
ALEX: Where’d that adversity come from?
BOBBY: Who caused the adversity? Right. I don’t like when— I’ll say— I — I won’t say blank I don’t like it when, but it’s a finer line than I think a lot of journalists or broadcasters give credit— a finer line than they respect it, I guess, when you try to, like, tap into the particular— the particularities of a fan base. It kind of rubs me the wrong way. When you, like, try to pretend, like, you’re like sort of parachuting in an understanding what that fan base cares about, bothers me. Like, unless you’re— because not you need to—
ALEX: Sure. Like, you’re watching ESPN Sunday Night Baseball?
BOBBY: Well, yes, honestly. I think that this is a particular annoyance of mine, because everybody tries to do with Mets fans, because Mets fans are crazy. And everyone tries to be like, “Well, we understand that Mets fans are crazy and that— the Mets organization just like— it’s just circus after circus, after circus. Haha. We’re in on the joke. LOL.” It’s like Deadpool. “We’re in on the joke with you guys, right? ” You know? And I’m like, “Actually, you’re not. You actually don’t live this every day.” And it’s— not only is it disrespectful to the fans, but it’s disrespectful to the beat reporters who actually have to develop a relationship with this fan base, because that’s their only readership. So, like, I think a lot of national journalists, national broadcasters do that extremely poorly with individual fan bases that, quote-unquote, “gives me the ick.”
ALEX: Yeah, I agree. You don’t know me.
BOBBY: Exactly. It’s like when someone tries to listen to your favorite band. Like, “Oh, I like that one song.” I’m like, “Get the fuck out of here.”
ALEX: What are you telling me you like All the Small Things? I hate the— I hate the statement game narrative.
BOBBY: Hmm. Yeah.
ALEX: Especially— especially around, like, contracts, you know? Where it’s like, “Oh, he’s singing for a supper tonight. Oh, man. He’s really— there’s a lot riding on this.” Like, any sports executive is probably smart enough to realize that this game tonight from Juan Soto is not the one that’s going to move the needle on whether or not you should sign him, but it makes for a—
BOBBY: Unless it is.
ALEX: —it makes for a good narrative. Unless it is.
BOBBY: Okay. We’re approaching two hours on this pod, because for some reason, we started with, like, 30 minutes of Biden chat. So I think that takes our—
ALEX: This is what happens when we say we have nothing to talk about.
BOBBY: —our ranking segment. At the end of the—
ALEX: Oh, fuck.
BOBBY: By the way, we got— we got some other good questions here that I want to let people know I did not forget them. I’m just rolling them into next week’s episode. Cool. Cool.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’d like you to power rank the months of the baseball season. I’m going above five this time. So it’s April, May, June, July, August, September. October doesn’t count, because it’s like different. And obviously, that would— that would be a clear number one. So the six— I mean, maybe it wouldn’t be a clear number one for you, because the A’s, not a lot of success a lot in that month. The six months of the baseball season, power rank them, from six to one. Done. [1:19:03]
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And keep in mind, people had to listen to 35 minutes of Biden chat at the beginning of this pod, so—
ALEX: Right. So whoever’s hanging in here—
BOBBY: Right. Let’s be snappy with this.
ALEX: —real [1:19:12] all right, snappy with it. I’m gonna go June sixth.
BOBBY: This is anti-Mets shit right here.
ALEX: Oh, my God. Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m kidding. The Mets are usually terrible in June.
ALEX: Everything is about you.
BOBBY: It is.
ALEX: Sound the universe, Flushing, Queens.
BOBBY: That’s right.
ALEX: I tend to think of it as a bit of a bridge to, like, meaningful baseball, the bridge to the All-Star game. Well, I won’t spoil the other months, but I’m gonna put June last. I think we’ll go August next.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Very similar vibes to June. I’ve always thought that June and August are kindred spirits. Feels like the transition to fall, which you could argue, maybe it even is by the book.
BOBBY: By the stars.
ALEX: By the stars, by the Gregorian calendar. August is fun, but if you—
BOBBY: Are you a big Gregorian guy?
ALEX: Yeah. That’s why I keep it hanging on my wall at all times. I have it tattooed on my forehead. It’s very expensive to get [1:20:16]
BOBBY: I like—
ALEX: —have it every year, but—
BOBBY: I like the Julian calendar better where you’re just like, “Let’s— let’s make this shit about me.”
ALEX: I don’t— I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of the Julian calendar. Can you tell me, off dome ?
BOBBY: The Julian calendar—
ALEX: This is Edward Julian, right?
BOBBY: Yes. Is the solar calendar of 365 days and every year with an additional leap day every fourth year. That sounds familiar. It’s the reform of the Roman calendar, which is large— largely a lunar solar one. It seems basically the same as the Gregorian calendar.
ALEX: Okay, good.
BOBBY: Gregory made a small change to it to make it a 365.2425 days, whereas Julian and Julius Caesar had 365.25. So he cut off .0025 off the calendar. 0005 off the calendar.
ALEX: What—
BOBBY: This—
ALEX: So the Gregorian came second?
BOBBY: Yes, it was— it— the Gregorian calendar was a modification off the Julian calendar.
ALEX: So how mad are you as the person who made the Julian calendar, being like, “What do you mean he shaved off .0—”
BOBBY: I— you keep saying it the person who made the Julian calendar.
ALEX: No, Julius.
BOBBY: That person is Julius Caesar. So I don’t think you— you figured—
ALEX: You really— you think he, himself sat down and was like, “Here’s how the days go.” But that’s even worse.
BOBBY: I think that—
ALEX: But even worse. Then you’re like, “Who is this Gregory guy who came on shaved off .001 off my calendar? And now everyone fucking loves Gregory.”
BOBBY: It was Pope Gregory. He was a fucking Pope. Everybody used to just take credit for shit back then, you know? It should be like if someone invented something now and Biden was like, “I invented that.”
ALEX: Yeah, that’d be sick. And then I’d vote for him, at least.
BOBBY: Okay, we need to get back to the ranking.
ALEX: Okay. We need to get back to it, because we need to end this pod. I ranked June last, I’m going to rank August slightly ahead of it, because at least you have the kind of fallout of the trade deadline. You get to sort of see how things shake out. The league looks a little bit different.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Next on the list—
BOBBY: The A’s don’t— the A’s get to lose on your birthday?
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: Isn’t that a thing? Don’t they always lose on your birthday or do they always win on your birthday?
ALEX: Well, as I was— when I was growing up—
BOBBY: Oh, they never played on your birthday.
ALEX: —they were never— they were never in town on my birthday.
BOBBY: I’m sorry, that was mean.
ALEX: But these days, it’s all one and the same. I think next I’ll go September.
BOBBY: Okay. Playoff races, though.
ALEX: True. I think this could waffle back and forth with the next position on the list. Playoff races can be fun. It’s also the point at which, like, half the league is already out of it, right? So are the— are the—
BOBBY: They really out of it.
ALEX: Are— are the races interesting? Maybe. It’s possible. You also have— and now this is the case less so nowadays, right? You would have September call-ups and it was a fun glimpse at maybe the future of your team. Now, we don’t really have the extended rosters— expanded rosters we— we used to. One more thing Rob Manfred has taken away from us. Next, I’ll go July. I think July is a good baseball month.
BOBBY: Hot take.
ALEX: Maybe.
BOBBY: I’m kidding. It’s not a hot take.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: It was the best month. It— it’s right smack in the middle. It’s the— this is the—
ALEX: It’s right smack in the— it— it perks you back up I think is what it does.
BOBBY: This is the July sport.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Baseball owns July, nothing else is going on. No basketball, no football. Nothing. This year, we got the Olympics in fascist France, but other than that—
ALEX: Yeah, July, sick. You have the all-star game and the surrounding festivities. You have the trade deadline, which I think is the more exciting milestone of the two. But the trade deadline, if done right, can give you—
BOBBY: Right. Not if Mike Elias has anything to say about it.
ALEX: Yeah, right. Exactly. Can give you the boost you need to get to the end of the season. Like, it can reinvigorate you.
BOBBY: I’ll never forget where I was on the day the Cespedes trade.
ALEX: Me neither, man.
BOBBY: You were the person that broke it to me.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Legendary.
ALEX: I’ll never forget where I was on the day of the Eric Hosmer trade, or lack thereof.
BOBBY: I was right about to get on a plane when that happened. Now, we just got Eric Hosmer tweeting about how cool Trevor Bauer is.
ALEX: Yeah, Bleak times. All right, so I’m up to two, right? Second favorite baseball month.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: My second favorite baseball month is May. I think May is a beautiful time to watch a baseball game. Especially in New York, it happens to be one of the two good months out of the year. So I’d like to try and take advantage of it.
BOBBY: What’s the other one?
ALEX: September.
BOBBY: Yeah, I think that’s right.
ALEX: Okay. Just making sure.
BOBBY: I think may second is crazy. Crazy overvalue.
ALEX: I guess, but—
BOBBY: It’s a lot of meaningless baseball. It’s a lot of teams being like, “Yeah, we’re not really trying yet.”
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, I guess it’s kind of what perspective are you coming at it from. Are you coming from it, like, you can turn in— you can tune into any baseball game and have it be somewhat interesting. Positional battles are starting to shake out, no one is quite out of it yet. If you’re an Oakland A’s fans—
BOBBY: That’s true. Yeah.
ALEX: —you may be sitting there, squinting, and saying, “We’re hovering around the 500 line. There may be hope for us yet.”
BOBBY: “Mason Miller, a whole week of news.”
ALEX: Exactly. So— so, yes, from— maybe from, like, overall excitement about the league as a whole, maybe it’s a little mid, but I think it’s one of the more fun times of the year to go and watch a baseball game. Especially— I— I don’t know, if you live in a climate that’s trying to melt you. But you want to know what my favorite month of the season is, Bobby? That’s April, because that’s the fucking month the baseball returns. I’m sorry if that makes me a sap. Sorry, if I’m not picking September, because the positional— because the divisional races are coming down to it, whatever. There is truly nothing that reinvigorates my love for baseball, like the return of it. And maybe I—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —just have object permanence issues. It’s possible that when baseball goes away, I’m like, “I didn’t need it that much anyway.” And then when it comes back, I’m like, “This may as well be water.” But there really is just nothing that makes my heart leap. Like having gone four months without baseball and then having it back on my screen.
BOBBY: This is a — where would you put October if I allowed you to have it? Would that be number one?
ALEX: Would be—
BOBBY: I’m just asking for Rob Manfred’s sake because as it stands now, it looks pretty bleak, because it looks like he’s really excited at the beginning, and then as you get more of the product, he gets less excited.”
ALEX: It gets— less and less excited. Yeah. Low-key. Is it blasphemous to put at second?
BOBBY: No. I don’t think so.
ALEX: I think I— I think I’d probably go one, but I don’t know. Do I get more excited when baseball returns or when it’s reached its pinnacle of the year? Like it depends on what—
BOBBY: It’s when the baseball happens, but it’s like a— basically a different game.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Especially now, when it’s just like, “Okay, here’s six relievers every day.”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: That kind of [1:27:56] to it.
ALEX: Well, and you’ve also had six months of this sport too, right? Sort of distill all your ideas. There’s something nice about being fresh in the spring, you know? I’m like, “There’s— I’ve not a single preconceived notion to bring to the table.”
BOBBY: Right. Like, this could be the year for Jurickson Profar. And as it turns out, it actually is.
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: Okay. Thank you, everybody, for listening.
ALEX: Hope springs eternal, baby.
BOBBY: This has been another episode of Tipping Pitches. If you like what you heard, please consider signing up for our Patreon, patreon.com/tippingpitches. If you would like to be one of those voicemails that you heard played, the number is 785-422-5881. As you will recall way back when at the beginning of this podcast, I mentioned Tipping Pitches meetup July 27th in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Cyclos game— Cyclones game, 6:00 PM. There is no links to purchase those tickets yet. However, there will be the next time we have an episode. And if you’re a patron, you get that link sent directly to you. We will also be doing a meetup later this summer in August, targeting— targeting August 17th at a Midwest Major League team, undecided so far, but we will let people know. If you have more questions about the meetup, as I said, please feel free to reach out to us, tipping pitchespod@gmail.com. That’s just about enough of us for the week. I just gotta say because we’ve done—
ALEX: I’ll say.
BOBBY: —we’ve done a lot of talking. Thank you, everybody, for doing some listening to that talking. And hopefully, next week, you’ll be willing to do the same.
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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